ORDER OF BATTLE // May 9, 1781
Siege of Pensacola
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 8,700 estimated
Spain
7,400
Medium-confidence figure
Great Britain
1,300
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The siege of Pensacola, concluded on May 10, 1781, marked the culmination of Spain's Gulf Coast Campaign during the American Revolutionary War. Commanded by Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish forces numbering nearly 8,000 troops overran a British garrison of roughly 1,300, producing British casualties of 1,373 and completing Spain's conquest of West Florida. The fall of Pensacola ended meaningful British control over the Gulf Coast theater, removing a strategic base from which Britain had projected power across the region. As a direct consequence of the victory, Gálvez was appointed governor of both West Florida and Louisiana, consolidating Spanish authority over a vast stretch of territory that had shifted hands in the campaign. The siege demonstrated Spain's capacity to conduct sustained, large-scale offensive operations in the Americas while Britain was simultaneously under pressure in the northern colonies and the Caribbean.
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