San Juan Expedition (Hégémonie Occidentale)

San Juan Expedition
Part of Anglo-Spanish War [1779–1783]
Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, site of the First and Second battles for the Río San Juan de Nicaragua
Date 17 March – 28 August 1780 Location San Juan River, present-day Nicaragua Result Stalemate
Belligerents
Spain	Great Britain Mosquito Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Matías de Gálvez Juan de Ayssa	John Polson † Captain Richard Bulkeley Horatio Nelson Major James Macdonald (WIA) Major James Lawrie
Strength
160 regulars & militia (Fort San Juan) 500 militia (Granada's outskirts) 47 Miskito Tawira Indian auxiliary allies	3.000 regulars, militia, & sailors 1 frigate 2 brigs 3 sloops 1 tender 1 transport
Casualties and losses
unknown killed or wounded 47 Miskito Tawira Indians killed 45 captured	~1.850 killed or died of disease 1 ship grounded

The San Juan Expedition took place between March and November 1780 during the American War of Independence when a British force under the command of John Polson and Captain Horatio Nelson landed on the coast of the present-day Nicaragua, with the aim of sailing up the San Juan River to capture the strategically crucial towns of Granada and León, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Nicaragua.

The expedition was beset by infighting over leadership and despite their initial success in the capture of the Fort of San Juan, Capt. Nelson's force never reached Lake Nicaragua and, decimated by yellow fever, was eventually forced to return to Jamaica. The campaign ended in almost total failure, other than managing to retain the Fort of San Juan and costed the lives of more than 1.800 men, making it one of the costliest British disasters of the entire war, if not the costliest disaster.

Background

Because it represented a potential route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as the possibility of expanding their colonization of Central America beyond the Mosquito Coast, Nicaragua was a major target of attacks by the British during the 18th century. In 1762, during the Anglo-Spanish War (1762–63), the British governor and commander-in-chief of Jamaica, William Lyttelton, proposed a naval expedition to Nicaragua. The goal was to sail up the San Juan River to Lake Nicaragua and capture the town of Granada, which would effectively cut Spanish America in half as well as provide potential access to the Pacific Ocean.

The proposed naval expedition materialized, as a force 2000 men strong, under Colonel William Seethal, was dispatched to Nicaragua with the primary objective of capturing the town of Granada. The expedition's advance was completely halted when they failed to capture Fort San Juan during the Battle for the Río San Juan de Nicaragua, substaining high casualties in the process, although they possessed an overwhelming numerical advantage, outnumbering the Spanish defenders in a 20 to 1 ratio. The Fort of San Juan only managed to endure the siege due to the heroic efforts of Rafaela de Herrera y Torreynosa, previously having swore a solemn oath to her father, the recently appointed commander of the Fort of San Juan, as he lay on his deathbed, that she would defend the fortress at the cost of her life if necessary.

After the Spanish Empire entered the American Revolutionary War in 1779, Major-General John Dalling, the new British governor of Jamaica, proposed a military expedition against the Spanish province of Nicaragua, belonging then to the Captaincy General of Guatemala, a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The main objective of the expedition was to capture the town of Granada, effectively cutting Spanish America in half and giving Great Britain access to the Pacific Ocean.

"The colours of England, were, in their imagination, already in the walls of Lima."

Expedition

The expedition, consisting of the transport Penelope, two brigs, three sloops, and a tender, the Royal George, sailed from Jamaica on 3 February 1780, escorted by the 21-year-old Captain Horatio Nelson in the 28-gun Hinchinbrook. Nelson was the highest-ranking officer present, but his authority was limited to naval operations. The overall commander was Captain (local rank of major) John Polson, who had at his disposal about 3,000 men, including 100 regulars of the 60th Royal American Regiment under himself, 140 of the 79th Liverpool Blues under Captain Richard Bulkeley, 240 Royal Jamaica Volunteers under Major James Macdonald, 250 members of the Jamaica Legion, and 125 of the Royal Batteaux Corps, plus an unspecified number of black volunteers.

Within the first two days, while the expedition anchored off the coast of San Juan del Norte, awaiting the arrival of several Miskito Indian bowmen under Major James Lawrie, a detachment of the 100 regulars of the 60th Royal American Regiment, personally led by Captain John Polson, pushed further inland, felling prey to harassment tactics by unseen enemies hidden in the edges of the forest path they just entered. Under intense fire by blowguns, the signal was given by an injured Captain John Polson for retreat, but as the irregulars steered away from the forest path and back to the expedition, dragging their injured Captain that was at this point unable to walk on his own, they finally realized to their dismay that in the midst of the chaos of the conflict, they were dragging a corpse with them, as Capt. John Polson laid dead, shot by a poisonous dart, falling unconscious within the first 5 minutes, until finally he passed away from life 5 minutes after he fell unconscious. Later after counting their casualties, they realized that an additional 13 regulars of the 60th Royal American Regiment perished in this engagement, other than their Captain, most of which their bodies had been lost in the chaos.

Now the expedition stand leaderless, it was up to Captain Richard Bulkeley to fill the void, a man with a very indecisive and cautious personality, generally uneager to commit his forces to further offensives, terrified at the prospect of even further casualties after just having witnessed his superior officer's demise. This in line with his personality, he choose to relocate to Bluefields, the only close-by "civilized" friendly settlement in the area, unless he can reassess the situation.

Once again Captain Horatio Nelson's escort fleet ferried the expedition forces in their entirety to the town of Bluefields within 5 days time. There after Captain Richard Bulkeley stalled for an awfully protracted time, 10 days in total, a Miskito Sambu Indians scout detachment claimed to know the whereabouts of Major James Lawrie and the Miskito Indian bowmen detachment under his command, from some of them that had managed to escape from their captivity at the hands of the Spanish aligned Miskito Tawira Indians, relaying the news that their commander remained in captivity of the Spanish allies, along with many of their own men.

Apparently these Miskito Tawira Indians had been conscripted by Major James Lawrie, along with Miskito Sambu Indians, however the Miskito Tawira Indians were enticed by the promise of bountiful rewards by the Spanish Empire to turn on their own unsuspected commander, capturing him as a hostage in their subsequent mutiny.

Once again Captain Richard Bulkeley displayed total indecisiveness, pondering for the next 3 days what his next course of action should be. In fact his indecisiveness started to fracture the expedition, as in the meanwhile Captain Horatio Nelson with a small escort of 20 irregulars under his command and Major James Macdonald with 240 Royal Jamaica Volunteers under his command disobeyed their orders to stay put, setting out to find and free Major James Lawrie and his loyal Miskito Sambu Indians bowmen from captivity, finding the notion of leaving them to their fate completely dishonourable. Each of these forces went on their own separate paths to cover more distance. The 47 Miskito Tawira Indians had feasted last night, completely unsuspected of the nearby British forces in the region, experiencing a hangover, so Major James Macdonald's forces made short work of them, slaughtering them to the very last man, managing to free the 39 captive Miskito Sambu Indian bowmen and their commander. Returning back to their base of operations in the Bluefields settlement, reprimanded two officers for disobeying his orders, as well as the recently commander from falling to captivity, however both three (nominally) subordinate officers rebuffed with the harshest of exclamations, accusing him of incompetence for the several delays he inflicted upon the expedition and his abysmal decisions.

Back in Jamaica, Governor John Dalling, appalled by the latest string of delays and total derailing of the expedition in general, blaming Captain Richard Bulkeley for relocating the base of operations to the Bluefields settlement, instead of pushing onwards further upriver towards Fort San Juan from the coast of San Juan del Norte, decided that he had enough with quirks and sent the order to relieve him of his command, recalling him back to Jamaica. In fact he was so outraged that he relief Captain Richard Bulkeley days before a replacement could arrive, temporarily appointing Captain Horatio Nelson as the overall leader of the expedition, in a most unconventional act, because although he was the highest-ranking officer present, his authority was limited to naval operations alone.

Soon after Captain Richard Bulkeley packed up and left for Jamaica and the expedition's forces were once again ferried back to the coast of San Juan del Norte within 4 days time, to proceed towards their next target, Fort San Juan, disagreements again arose over their course of actions, as Major James Macdonald and Major James Lawrie held two polar opposite opinions. The first was eager and overconfident to advance further upsteam the course of the San Juan River, towards the Fort San Juan, having little knowledge of the region if any at all, the second was rather cautious to advance onwards, basing his concerns on his knowledge of the region, stating how their supply lines would be greatly strained and this whole affair would be extremely costly in terms of lives and resources even if successful at all, his opponent accused him of cowardice in response, to back up his arguement to advance further. Captain Horatio Nelson maintained a fine line between his two subordinate officers, encouraging them to put their disagreements aside for the good of the expedition.

On 15 April, the expedition was anchored off San Juan del Norte, taking an additional three days for all of Captain Horatio Nelson's troops were assembled aboard boats and advanced upriver divided in two contingents. After the tropical rains started on 20 April, men began to sicken and die, probably of malaria and dysentery, and maybe of typhoid fever, Major James Macdonald was one of the first to become ill, and he was shipped downriver on 28 April. On 3 May, Nelson, in the first hand-to-hand combat of his career, led an assault which captured a small Spanish battery on Bartola Island.

Five miles (8 km) upstream was Fort San Juan, with about 160 armed defenders of whom only 60 were soldiers, which was besieged beginning on 7 May. Although there was an adequate planning and a tight grip on supplies, due to Captain Horatio Nelson's organizational abilities, the British soon began to run low on ammunition for the cannons as well as rations for the men. However thanks to Major James Lawrie's familiarity of the region's landescape and ability to utilize his Miskito Sambu Indians to harassment the enemy forces, and his good coordination with Captain Horatio Nelson, the Spanish forces under commander Juan de Ayssa, devoid of ammunition, food and water, surrendered the fort in 19 May.

At that point it became clear to Capt. Horatio Nelson that his forces could not advance any further upriver, despite the arrival of 450 British reinforcements on 15 May, who contacted the Admiralty, urgently recommending the abandonment of this futile campaign, before the force under his command is depleted any further, stressing that any further advance upsteam was suicidal at best, as "our troops perish like flies from the harsh environment, before long we won't have enough soldiers to man the vessels, let alone conduct any offensive operations", given that Viceroy Matías de Gálvez had managed to fortify the mouth of Lake Nicaragua in the meanwhile and the Spanish gained in strength, thanks to assistance from San Miguel, Choluteca and other adjoining provinces, while sickness continued to take a heavy toll among the British troops. Captain Nelson proposed instead a defensive strategy, that would have the British maintaining the newly captured Fort San Juan with the only forces in his disposal that can adapt to this harsh enviroment, Major James Lawrie's Miskito Sambu Indians bowmen, proposing the construction of two small self-sufficent settlements, one in Fort San Juan and another in the mouth of the river, by expanding and fortifying the small coastal village of San Juan de Nicaragua, rechristening it to Jamestown. These two settlements would serve to supply each other, with the newly captured strategic location of Bartola Island serving as a outpost to resupply in between. His forces in their entirety would be utilized to construct these settlements, as well as additional solid fortifications to protect them from Spanish sponsored incursions. In turn Captain Horatio Nelson would coordinate his fleet to transport the families of the predominantly Miskito Sambu Indians residents to these new settlements as well as any other settlers willing to populate them. In essense the British would have to fortify their positions and restructure their supply lines, to ensure that their position would be substainable at all.

Alas the Admiralty approved Nelson's recommendation, much to the dismay of Governor John Dalling, who expected nothing less than the success of this whole campaign, lustfully coveting the wealth that a Pacific based port would provide him after the war's end.

Earning the ire of Governor John Dalling, who employed his year old contacts amongst the Admiralty to punish Capt. Nelson, eventually relieving him of his post, but not before he was able to carry through with his proposed defensive project, being relieved of his post by the Admiralty in 24 July, one day after his project was complete.

Aftermath

Governor John Dalling didn't stopped his efforts to punish Capt. Nelson, he additionally made sure that he would not be posted in the Caribbean Sea for the reminder of the war, depriving him of the ability to privateer enemy vessels and collect lucrative prizes. Moreover, fighting in Europe would be a great boon to his career, so John Dalling did everything in his capacity to ensure that Capt. Nelson would be dispatched in the most dangerous and desperate front, North American coast, where the British and Loyalist forces had been massively overwhelmed by combined US, French and Spanish forces.

The Spanish forces simply lacked the ability to recapture the vastly expanded and well supplied Fort San Juan, while simultaneously the fortified the mouth of Lake Nicaragua proved to be impenetrable to the British, as every subsequent effort they made to advance further upriver and overwhelm these fortifications was repulsed by the Spaniards with great ease, although these efforts were of much lesser intensity than the initial one, taking into consideration the diminished state of the expedition, the British forces eventually gave up entirely on their efforts to advance further upsteam the San Juan River in less than a month after Capt. Nelson's departure.

Overall a stalemate ensued, albeit a very costly one for the British Empire, although the British managed to hold onto the Fort San Juan and Bartola Island, thus preserving their control over San Juan River, something that enabled them to consolidate their supply lines to both of these remote outposts for the remainder of the war. Having surrendered the fortress and unable to recover it, Don Juan de Ayssa was demoted to Captain, as was recorded in the Royal Order of 12 June 1781: although he had alerted the other garrisons in the area, bravely defended the fort, suffered hardships as a prisoner of war, and contributed somewhat to creating difficulties for the British operations to the best of his capabilities, his performance was simply determined to be not adequate for the circumstances. Although his rank was reinstated shortly thereafter, once this humiliation had been forgiven by the Spanish Crown, as most of the local inhabitants of Nicaragua held a positive opinion of him. Taken prisoner to Jamaica, he was freed at the end of the war and returned to his family.

The clear victor of this engagement was the Mosquito Coast, this expedition assisted them to hold the advances of the Spanish forces for the remainder of the war, remaining a British protectorate after the war.