Global InformationBattle of Cartagena de Indias information
| Battle of Cartagena de Indias | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War of Jenkins' Ear and the War of the Austrian Succession | |||||||
 British attack on Cartagena de Indias by Luis Fernández Gordillo. Oil on canvas, Naval Museum of Madrid | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Great Britain |
 Spain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Edward Vernon Thomas Wentworth John Grant † Charles Knowles[2] |
Sebastián de Eslava Blas de Lezo Jose Polanco Campuzano Carlos Desnaux | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
27,400–30,000 military personnel:[3][4]
22 frigates[7] 71 sloops-of-war 2 hospital ships 80 troop ships 50 merchant ships[8] |
3,000–4,000 military personnel:[9]
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
9,500–11,500 dead[13][14][15] 7,500 wounded and sick 1,500 guns lost[16] 6 Royal Navy ships lost[17][18] 17 Royal Navy ships of the line heavily damaged[15][19] 4 frigates and 27 transports lost[20] |
800 dead[21] 1,200 wounded[22] 6 ships lost 5 forts 3 batteries | ||||||
  class=notpageimage| Location within Colombia | |||||||
The Battle of Cartagena de Indias (Spanish: Sitio de Cartagena de Indias, lit. 'Siege of Cartagena de Indias') took place during the 1739 to 1748 War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and Great Britain. The result of long-standing commercial tensions, the war was primarily fought in the Caribbean; the British tried to capture key Spanish ports in the region, including Porto Bello and Chagres in Panama, Havana, and Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia.
Two previous naval attacks in 1740 had failed and for the third attempt in March 1741, the British had opted for a combined naval and land attack. After a series of unsuccessful assaults in the campaign, the British were forced to retreat, having suffered over 9,500–11,500 fatalities, in great part to disease, and considerable material losses.[23] Some units suffered death rates of 80 to 90 percent. The victory demonstrated Spain's ability to defend its position and largely ended military operations in this area. Both countries shifted their focus to the wider European War of the Austrian Succession and hostilities ended with the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.[24]
- ^ Anderson, MS (1995). The War of Austrian Succession 1740–1748 (Modern Wars In Perspective). Routledge. p. 18. ISBN 978-0582059504.
- ^ "Col. John Grant, of Carron". Clan MacFarlane and associated clans genealogy. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
- ^ Beatson 1804, Vol. III, pp. 25–27.
Browning 1993, p. 60, gives a total overall strength as perhaps 30,000 men. - ^ A remarkable piece of Spanish intelligence on this expedition is found almost a year prior to the arrival of this fleet. The Governor of Spanish Florida learned from English colonists taken prisoner in the recapture of Fort Mose during the siege of St. Augustine that "they have learned of the preparation in England of a considerable expedition against Havanna, consisting of 30 ships of the line, and of a landing party of 10,000 men. I am sending this dispatch to give you this information as possibly of great importance to the service of the King." Letter from Governor Montiano, 6 July 1740, Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. (Vol. VII. – Part I) Published by Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Ga. For an in depth analysis of the intelligence and spies used by both sides. See: Rivas Ibañez 2008.
- ^ Beatson, Hart, Duncan, Lord Mahon, Hume & other historians give a total of 12,000 land forces beginning the expedition. Including 3,600 North American colonial marines—Colonel William Gooch's 43rd Regiment, commanded by the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Considered the origin of the United States Marine Corps.
- ^ Beatson 1804, Vol. III, pp. 25–26, gives Royal Navy crews total of 15,398—he does not give crew totals for the 135 transports and supply ships which likely numbered 3000 to 5000, Reed Browning's estimate of 30,000 for the total force would leave a balance of some 2600 for transport crews. Hume 1825, pp. 108–113, "The conjoined squadrons consisted of nine and twenty ships of the line...The number of seamen amounted to 15,000: that of land forces...12,000." Samuel 1923, pp. 236–242, 'Admiral Vernon, "...now reinforced by twenty-five ships of the line and 9,000 soldiers...".
- ^ Beatson 1804, Vol III, pp. 25–26. List of ships of the line under Vernon is 8 of 80 guns, 5 of 70 guns, 14 of 60 guns, 2 of 50 guns and 22 frigates. Also Hart 1922, p. 140, gives 22.
- ^ Hart 1922, p. 146.
Browning 1993, p. 60, estimates 3,000. - ^ Fernández Duro 1902, p. 247, however, gives 1,100 regulars and 400 marines.
- ^ This number is possibly underestimated in sources as the 6 Spanish ships of the line must have had crews similar to those British ships of that size had, i.e. 400–600 each, so that the total of 4,000 for garrison of Cartagena was mostly sailors.
- ^ Hart 1922, p. 146, gives 300 militia.
- ^ Geggus, David (1979). "Yellow Fever in the 1790s: The British Army in occupied Saint Domingue". Medical History. 23 (1): 50. doi:10.1017/S0025727300051012. PMC 1082398. PMID 368468., "... of the 12,000 British and Americans who laid siege to Cartagena in 1741 seventy percent perished, including seventy-seven per cent of the British." therefore: 8,400 from yellow fever alone, over 6,000 British soldiers at the siege.
Similarly, Harbron 2004, p. 108, "...yellow fever ... killed perhaps 9,000 sailors and troops in the British forces.".
Hart 1922, p. 151. "So great were the losses to the troops through disease and battle that not over one third of the land troops appear to have returned with the fleet to Jamaica." This would indicate considerably more than 8,000 dead.
Likewise, Coxe 1815, p. 24 states that Havana is attacked by "...3,000 men, the discouraged and exhausted remnant of the troops which had been repulsed at Cartagena ...". Coxe also gives the overall loss of the expedition during the campaign as 20,000 lives lost.
Beatson 1804, Vol. I, p. 111, gives the army's strength as down to 3,000 in Jamaica. - ^ Duncan, Francis (1879). History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. In two volumes – Vol. 1. London: John Murray. p. 123. Archived from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2021.,"...so reduced was this force in two years by disaster and disease, that not a tenth part returned to England...'thus ended in shame, disappointment, and loss, the most important, most expensive, and best concerted expedition that Great Britain was ever engaged in'...". So too, Fortescue 1899, p. 76. "Of the regiments that had sailed from St. Helen's under Cathcart in all the pride and confidence of strength, nine in every ten had perished.".
- ^ a b Fernández Duro 1902, p. 250.
- ^ Anon 2008. This article states 1500 British guns captured, lost or damaged, but this number needs to be taken with a grain of salt, however, the article does contain references.
- ^ Fernández Duro 1902, p. 250, "...tuvieron que incendiar seis navios y otros 17 quedaron con necesidad de grandes reparos para poder servir...".
- ^ . "...departing May 20th, five ships were burnt due to a lack of crew. Another sank on its way to Jamaica" El desastre del ataque británico a Cartagena de Indias. Archived 31 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine Revista de Historia Naval.
- ^ The Hispanic American Historical Review, Volume 2, Baltimore, 1922, p. 64, gives: "... 18 of the largest... repairing considerable damage.".
- ^ Anon 2008.
- ^ Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present, ABC-CLIO (1998). ISBN 0874368375, p. 259, gives 600 dead.
- ^ All Spanish losses from: Anon 2008.
- ^ Fortescue 1899, pp. 72–79, gives a detailed account of the rapid and devastating withering away of the land forces to disease.
- ^ Browning, Reed (1994). The War of the Austrian Succession. Sutton Publishing. p. 393. ISBN 978-0750905787.