ation from the West Indian islands.

While Andrew Jackson was still a child, Louisiana had a deliverer from the
British in the person of this brave Gov. Galvez. The strategical importance
of the Mississippi River and of New Orleans was at once apparent to the
British commanders, and Louisiana, being neutral territory, offered a most
fascinating field of operation. Galvez, in July, 1777, had secured
declaration of neutrality from the 25,000 or more Creeks, Choctaws and
Chickasaws, but even this did not seem to satisfy the combatants. New
Orleans was at the mercy of first the American troops and then the British.
The mediation of Spain between France and England having been rejected in
the courts of Europe, Spain decided to join France in the struggle against
Great Britain. So on May 8, 1779, Spain formally declared war against Great
Britain, and on July 8 authorized all Spanish subjects in America to take
their share in the hostilities against the English. No news could be more
welcome to the dashing young Galvez, to whom a policy of neutrality was
decidedly distasteful. He decided to forestall the attack on New Orleans,
which he had learned was to be made by the British, by attacking first, and
on August 26 gathered his little army together. From New Orleans, as
Gayarre tells, were 170 veteran soldiers, 330 recruits, 20 carabiniers, 60
militiamen, and 80 free blacks and mulattoes. On the way up the river, they
were reinforced by 600 men from the coast of "every condition and color,"
besides 160 Indians.[34]

On the march, the colored men and Indians were ordered to keep ahead of the
main body of troops, at a distance of about three quarters of a mile, and
closely to reconnoitre the woods. In capturing the two forts of Baton Rouge
and Natchez, which were held by the British, Galvez found a considerable
number of Negro slaves who had been armed by the British. Many of these
he set free. In his dispatch to his government at Madrid, Galvez reports
that the companies of free blacks and mulattoes, who had been employed in
all the false attacks, and who, as scouts and skirmishers, had proved
exceedingly useful, behaved on all occasions with as much valor and
generosity as the white soldiers.[35] But not alone were the exploits of
Galvez's little army celebrated in history. Poetry added her laurel
wreath to its crown. Julien Poydras de Lalande, known to all Louisianians
as Poydras, celebrated the victory in a poem, "The God of t