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.The British sailors,an equally portly Suffren inhowever, reacted quickly and the cannonade redoubled between mostly1782-83.An experienced andthe French ships Héros and Annibal against the British ships in harborskillful sailor, although neveroutstanding, he was perhapswhile Portuguese shore batteries also opened up on the French ships.lucky thanks to the conservatismFor Suffren, the damage had been done and he took his squadron outof some of Suffren's captains,of La Praya.Johnstone would be delayed by repairs while the Frenchbeing several times repulsedreached Cape Town on June 21.Suffren then sailed on into the Indianbut never destroyed.TheseOcean meeting Adm.d'Orves, the French senior naval commander,inconclusive battles were notgreeted with satisfaction in there.On December 6, the combined squadrons, totaling 11 ships-of-Britain and he had no furtherthe-line, sailed towards India, but d'Ovres became ill and on February 9,commands.He is shown in the1782, command was passed to Suffren.To protect India, the British hadRoyal Navy's 1783-87 admiral'sa sizeable fleet under the command of Adm.Sir Edward Hughes.Overfull dress uniform.Print afterthe next months, Suffren and Hughes fought each other in five furiouslySir Joshua Reynolds.(NationalArchives of Canada, C8561) contested if mostly inconclusive engagements.Suffren's tactics ques-tioned rigid line formation for a naval battle, to the horror of his moreconservative officers.They disobeyed his instructions several times thuscompromising the fleet's efficiency in battle.In June 1782, Suffren sentfour captains back to France and more followed.Contested by some ofhis officers, he also had the loyalty of others and the utter admirationof the fleet's sailors who trusted his leadership in battle.In all his battles,the temperamental Suffren displayed an ice-cold calm and would slowlywalk back and forth on deck amidst the worst dangers.The tacticalinnovations brought about by Suffren, eventually gave the French fleetthe upper hand.The ability of Suffren's fleet to keep the British at bay,albeit with much difficulty as Hughes was a worthy opponent, allowedthe French to land troops in India in 1782-83 and to capture the52 important naval base of Trincomale (in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka).AtCuddelore in mid-1783, Suffren forced Hughes' British ships towithdraw confirming the French fleet's dominance of the Indian Ocean.However, shortly thereafter, a ship arrived from Europe with newsthat the war had ended, and British India was thus saved.Back in France, Suffren was greeted with wide acclaim.Having left amere captain, he now returned a vice-admiral, only three years later.Suffren died in Paris on December 8, 1788, having given the Frenchnavy some of its most glorious hours.SPAINMaj.Gen.Bernardo de Galvez (1746-86)Born on July 23, 1746, Bernardo de Galvez was from a family at itsEsteban Miro, colonel of thepolitical height in the 1770s and 1780s.Several of its members hadSpanish colonial Fijo de Luisianaassumed influential positions, notably Bernardo's uncle, Don Jose deRegiment from February 1781,and governor of Louisiana and Galvez (1720-87), who was the Minister of the Indies at the time of theFlorida following the departureAmerican War of Independence.Bernardo was the son of Don Matiasof de Galvez in 1782.Althoughde Galvez who was president and captain-general of Guatemala, aovershadowed by Galvez, Miroterritory then covering Central America from Mexico to Panama, andwas an experienced soldierlater became viceroy of New Spain.His uncle Don Miguel de Galvezand a talented administratorwho ably secured the gains was a councilor in the kingdom's War Council.made from the British on theAs a young lieutenant, he took part in the Portuguese campaigneast shore of the Mississippiof 1762-63 and then was sent to northern Mexico and campaignedand the Gulf of Mexico.Heagainst the Apaches in 1769.Returning to Europe in 1770, he spentremained governor until 1792.time in the French army to further his military education.In 1775, he(Print after a c.1783 portraitattributed to J.Salazar)served in North Africa under Gen.O'Reilly, a former governor ofLouisiana.This sparked an interest in that partof America and Galvez was promoted tolieutenant-colonel commanding the Fijo deLuisiana Regiment (the colony's regular garrisoninfantry unit): he arrived at New Orleans in 1776.On January 1, 1777, he was named actinggovernor of Louisiana and was later confirmed inthe post with his army rank rising to brigadier: inFebruary 1781, he was promoted to major-general(Mariscal de Campo).In late July 1779 news reached Galvez that warhad been declared with Great Britain.In lateAugust, he led an expedition of some 1,400 men(mostly militia) north to Fort Bute at Manchac.The fort was taken on September 6 withoutloss, and then Baton Rouge was besieged fromSeptember 12-21, when it surrendered.Withinbarely a month, Galvez had taken all the Britishposts on the lower Mississippi.It seemed soincredible to Maj.Gen.John Campbell, theBritish commander of West Florida, that herefused to believe it.Galvez meanwhile wasalready attacking Mobile and on March 14, 1780,its 300-strong British garrison surrendered.53 The next target for Galvez was Pensacola, the capital and remainingstronghold of British West Florida.It was defended by three forts built onhills.At the harbor's entrance was Fort Red Cliffs (or Barracas Coloradas)with heavy ordnance to prevent enemy ships from coming in
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