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Great Siege of Gibraltar

Great Siege of Gibraltar
Part of the American Revolutionary War

The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, John Trumbull
Date24 June 1779 – 7 February 1783
(3 years, 7 months and 2 weeks)
Location
Gibraltar
36°08′23″N 5°21′18″W / 36.1397°N 5.3551°W / 36.1397; -5.3551
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain
Hanover		 Spain
 France
Commanders and leaders
George Eliott
Roger Curtis[1]
August de la Motte		 Louis de Crillon
Martín Sotomayor[2]
Luis de Córdova
Antonio Barceló[1]
Strength
7,500[3][4][5]
12 gunboats[6]		 65,000[7][8][9][10]
47 ships of the line[11]
10 floating batteries
7 xebecs
40 gunboats[7]
Casualties and losses
333 killed[12][13]
1,010 wounded[13]
536[14]–1,034[13] sick and dead from disease		 6,000 killed, wounded, captured and missing[15]
Unknown sick and dead from disease[13]
1 ship of the line captured
10 floating batteries destroyed[16]
196 civilians killed
800 civilians dead from disease[13]


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The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the American Revolutionary War.[17] It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants.[18]

On 16 June 1779, Spain entered the war on the side of France and as co-belligerents of the revolutionary United Colonies—the British base at Gibraltar was Spain's primary war aim.[19] The vulnerable Gibraltar garrison under George Augustus Eliott was blockaded from June 1779 to February 1783,[20] initially by the Spanish alone, led by Martín Álvarez de Sotomayor. The blockade proved to be a failure because two relief convoys entered unmolested—the first under Admiral George Rodney in 1780 and the second under Admiral George Darby in 1781—despite the presence of the Spanish fleets. The same year, a major assault was planned by the Spanish, but the Gibraltar garrison sortied in November and destroyed much of the forward batteries.

After the Spanish consistently failed to either defeat the garrison or prevent the arrival of relief efforts, the besiegers were reinforced by French forces under de Crillon, who took over command in early 1782. After a lull in the siege, during which the Franco-Spanish besiegers gathered more guns, ships and troops, a "Grand Assault" was launched on 13 September 1782. This involved huge numbers—60,000 men, 49 ships of the line and 10 specially designed, newly invented floating batteries—against the 5,000 defenders. The assault proved to be a disastrous and humiliating failure, resulting in heavy losses for the Bourbon attackers. This was the largest action fought during the war in terms of numbers.

The final sign of defeat for the allies came when a crucial British relief convoy under Admiral Richard Howe slipped through the blockading fleet and arrived at the garrison in October 1782. The siege was finally lifted on 7 February 1783 and resulted in a decisive victory for the British. The siege was a factor in ending the American Revolutionary War[21][22][23][24]—the Peace of Paris negotiations were reliant on news from the siege, particularly at its climax.[25][26]

At three years, seven months and twelve days, it is the longest siege endured by the British Armed Forces.[27][28]

  1. ^ a b Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, pp. 18–22.
  2. ^ Norwich 2006, p. 394.
  3. ^ Montero 1860, p. 339.
  4. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 63: 'Of 7,500 men in the Gibraltar garrison in September (including 400 in hospital), some 3,430 were always on duty'
  5. ^ Monti 1852, p. 133.
  6. ^ Falkner 2009, p. 156.
  7. ^ a b Montero 1860, p. 338.
  8. ^ Montero 1860, p. 356.
  9. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 79 'some 30,000 sailors in the combined fleet'.
  10. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 49.
  11. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 79.
  12. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 89.
  13. ^ a b c d e Clodfelter 2017, p. 132.
  14. ^ Drinkwater 1905, p. 169.
  15. ^ Montero 1860, p. 373.
  16. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, pp. 81–81.
  17. ^ Eggenberger 2012, p. 172.
  18. ^ Adkins, Lesley and Roy (2017). Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History. Viking. ISBN 978-1408708675.
  19. ^ Stockley 2001, p. 19.
  20. ^ Drinkwater 1905, p. 161.
  21. ^ Allison & Ferreiro 2018, p. 220: critical event in the war outside America was a contemporaneous European siege that was bigger, lasted longer, and ultimately was as critical to establishing peace as the Yorktown victory
  22. ^ Botta, Charles (1850). History of the United States of America: War of independence, Volume 2. National Library of the Netherlands: Fullarton & Company. p. 552.
  23. ^ Bemis 2012, p. 77: That tremendous citadel thus became a vital factor in the diplomacy of the American Revolution
  24. ^ Mackesy 1992, pp. 506–507.
  25. ^ Falkner 2009, p. xix.
  26. ^ Chartrand & Courcelle 2006.
  27. ^ Adkins & Adkins 2017, p. 21.
  28. ^ Dupuy, Hammerman & Hayes 1977, p. 130.
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