Don Fernando de Leyba (1734–1780)
Fernando de Leyba Vizcaigaña (1734-1780)
''elpueblodeceuta.es'', December 9, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2017. was a Spanish officer who served as the third governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of Upper Louisiana
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from 1778 until his death.
Biography
Little is known of De Leyba's life until his appointment to the position of governor on June 14, 1778. Immediately upon his appointment to the post, he was ordered by Bernardo de Galvez
Bernardo is a given name and less frequently an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish surname. Possibly from the Germanic "Bernhard".
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* Bernardo the Japanese (died 1557), early Japanese Christian convert and disciple of Saint Fran ...
to keep abreast of events occurring in the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, and to keep any correspondence with an American
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chief secret and report it at once to Galvez.
De Leyba met George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...
barely two months later, when Clark, fresh from his victory at Kaskaskia
The Kaskaskia were one of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in t ...
, visited St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
and met with the governor. Fearing an attack from Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Clark suggested that De Leyba fortify the town; upon being notified of this, Galvez responded that De Leyba would have to make do on his own, as no fortifications would be provided.
War was declared between Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
in June 1779, and attack was launched on St. Louis the next year. Given fair warning, De Leyba managed to raise 1000 piastres
The piastre or piaster () is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for "thin metal plate". The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant ...
, including 400 of his own money, for the construction of Fort Carlos
Fort Carlos III was a Spanish fort located at the ''Ecores Rouges'', '' Luisiana'' in present-day Arkansas County, Arkansas. Named for King Carlos III, it was located on the left bank of the Arkansas, about 29 miles from the mouth. This woode ...
. Already deep in debt from his gifts to the Indians, the governor could ill afford paying for the entire fort on his own. In any event, only one tower was completed, with part of a second also built. This was enough to repel the attack, which came on May 26. After their failure, the invaders laid waste to the surrounding farms as part of their retreat.
De Leyba's health was already poor, and, by June 28, he was dead. His report of the action reached Galvez only after his death, yet the general was impressed enough to promote the governor, posthumously, to the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
.
After De Leyba's death, many of the villagers from the area around St. Louis began to blame him for their troubles, writing anonymous letters to the government in detailing his supposed misbehaviors. Some people began calling him a "Spanish Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...
". In 1831, one historian Judge Wilson Primm
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wrote a lecture in which he stated that the governor had not only sold the gunpowder stores to the enemy, he had acted in a cowardly manner during the engagement and deliberately impeded the defense of the village. Supported by accounts made by survivors some fifty years after the battle, these accusations were accepted by many historians for much of the nineteenth century, and it is only recently that some have begun to reconsider the role De Leyba played in the defense of the American frontier.
References
External links
Contribution of Spanish and Latin Americans to the American Revolutionary War
Graphic/Fine Arts Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leyba, Fernando de
1780 deaths
Spanish military personnel of the American Revolutionary War
People from St. Louis
People from Ceuta
Commandants and Lieutenants of the Illinois Country
1734 births