Local veteran: Louisiana played pivotal role in Revolutionary War

American Press

2 days ago

Alfred Cochran, a member of the Mayor's Armed Forces Commission and a Vietnam War veteran, said the then-Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, led military campaigns that captured British forts during the American Revolution, diverting British resources and contributing to the ultimate American victory. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
During the American Revolution, Louisiana — which was then under Spanish rule — played a significant role in supporting the colonists against British troops.
Vietnam War veteran Alfred Cochran, 83, who is also a member of the Mayor's Armed Forces Commission, said the state's role is often overlooked — and it's time that changed.
'Louisiana, and particularly the Battle of Baton Rouge, played a big part in the colonists winning the American Revolution,' he said.
Cochran, who recently became a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, said he discovered he had two ancestors involved in the war under the leadership of Bernardo de Galvez while researching his ancestry per the membership requirement. His ancestors were Pierre Antoine Fruge and Fruge's son-in-law, Francois Nicholas Marcantel. Both were of St. Landry Parish and are related to Cochran on his mother's side of the family.
'I always wanted to be a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution helped me find not one but two ancestors and both were part of the Bernardo de Galvez expedition,' he said.
Cochran said Galvez — who was then the Spanish governor of Louisiana — lead troops through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, Ala., and then Pensacola, Fla., on a southern expedition.
'He took everything the British owned from the southern coast and made the British fight on two fronts, diverting their efforts from the colonists fighting on the East Coast,' Cochran said.
The Spanish were able to circumvent the British navy using the Mississippi River to supply the colonial rebels — and Galvez's troops were who kept that line open.
'To help the colonists, they had to get support from both Havana and Mexico,' he said. 'That's how the Spanish were resupplied. There was no way the Spanish could get resupplied themselves without Havana and Mexico.'
Cochran said Baton Rouge 'was a real, fortified position right on the Mississippi River.'
'They had to take it to keep shipping open,' he said. 'The whole Atlantic Coast was blockaded and they couldn't get supplies in so they used small paddle boats. They'd bring them all the way to the East Coast on the Mississippi.'
Cochran said Marcantel 'wasn't even old enough to pick up a musket' when he joined the war's efforts. He's estimated to have been about 17 at the war's start.
'They were part of the Acadians who were thrown out of Canada by the British so they were very happy to take revenge out on the British when asked,' Cochran said. 'They were living in Opelousas. They had traveled all the way from Canada down to New Orleans, came up the Mississippi and made their way to Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, and became farmers. Galvez came through, recruiting people and they said, 'Oh, yes, we're ready.' They volunteered right off.'
Galvez ultimately recruited more than 1,200 men comprised of 170 veteran soldiers, 330 recruits from Mexico and the Canary Islands, 60 militiaman and local citizens, 80 freed slaves, 600 from among Louisiana's German and Acadian immigrants and 160 Native Americans, according to Cochran's research from HistoryNet.
The troops marched more than 100 miles through the dense forests and swamps northwest of New Orleans to the recently constructed six-cannon British Fort Bute on the eastern shore of Mississippi, a few miles south of Baton Rouge.
Using muskets and cannons, Galvez's troops helped captured Fort Bute on Sept. 7, 1779, signaling the opening of Spanish intervention in the American Revolutionary War.
The battle was estimated to have taken place over nine days.
'It was a very short battle,' Cochran said. 'The battles during the American Revolution were not like battles we know today. There were so few people involved — a few hundred would be a big battle at that time. When we got to World War I, World War II and Vietnam we had some serious battles with so many more people involved.'
When the Battle of Fort Bute was won, Galvez released his men back to their families. Marcantel went back home to his wife, but his father-in-law marched on with Galvez and continued to fight with him through Pensacola.
Following Fort Bute, Galvez and his remaining men launched an artillery barrage on Fort New Richmond in Baton Rouge using cannons he had hauled upriver on flatbeds in a garden on the opposite side of the fort.
'They attacked Baton Rouge and they were raining cannon fire like hail in a south Louisiana thunderstorm and Lt. Col. Alexander Dickson, who was in command of this Baton Rouge fort, couldn't take it any longer and he raised the white flag and surrendered,' Cochran said. 'It must have been a fearsome fight that they put up.'
The British were overwhelmed by the wreckage this caused to the fort and proposed a truce — the terms of which included the surrender of both Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure at Natchez, Miss. The fort's capture effectively ended British military control of the lower Mississippi River.
'Galvez was of military mind and determined to win. He was not going to quit at anything,' Cochran said.
According to records, Pierre Antoine Fruge stayed with Galvez all the way to the Siege of Pensacola in 1781, which lasted a couple of months. There is no record of him or of Marcantel ever being injured.
Cochran said he came across the information while researching his members for the Sons of the American Revolution.
'The more I discovered about Galvez, the more I wanted to learn about this southern expedition,' he said. The majority of his research has come from Ancestry.com and other history books.
Cochran said his family has a 'very strong' military background. He has these two ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, three grandfathers who fought in the Civil War and he is a Vietnam War veteran.
'We're just all patriotic,' he said. 'In college when they were looking for people to go to Vietnam, I said, 'Yeah, send me.' I wasn't drafted, I volunteered. I was a member of the McNeese advanced ROTC and I graduated with a civil engineering degree and then they commissioned me in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I went in as a second lieutenant and I was discharged as a captain.'
Cochran said the victories in Louisiana helped secure the southern flank of the American colonies and contributed to the ultimate success of the American Revolution.
'Louisiana was involved in the American Revolution and I think more people need to know that.'