Portrait of Bernado de Gálvez, Viceroy of New Spain. This copy is part of the Cabildo’s Galvez exhibit. (author’s photo)
Portrait of the First Count of Gálvez
The equestrian portrait of Bernardo de Gálvez, Viceroy of New Spain, painted by Fray Pablo de Jesús y Jerónimo in 1796 CE. Now housed at the National Museum of History in Mexico City.
Upon entering the Gálvez exhibit at the Cabildo, guests are presented with this portrait of Bernardo de Galvez. While the focus of the exhibit is on Galvez’s time in New Orleans and on campaign against the British. This portrait presents him at the pinnacle of his career, as Viceroy of New Spain.
Spain to Louisiana to Mexico City
Gálvez was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Spanish army when he accompanied O’Reilly on his expedition to Algiers, where he was seriously wounded. He recovered, and was promoted to full Colonel. When it became clear that Spain would formally support the United States of America in their rebellion, Spain ordered Gálvez to New Orleans, to replace Unzaga. (As we’ve mentioned before, this was a logical move, as Unzaga was more of a diplomat and administrator.)
After his successes against the British, the Spanish Crown ennobled him, as Conde de Gálvez. This form of raising someone to the peerage is common in any countries. For example, Arthur Wellesley became Lord (later Duke of) Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars.
So, Galvez also received promotion to Lieutenant-General. King Carlos III appointed him Captain-General of Cuba on 20-May-1783. His father, Matías de Gálvez y Gallardo, was Viceroy of New Spain at the time. Matías died in October of 1784. The king appointed Bernardo to his father’s position. He arrived in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in May of 1785, and formally assumed the position in Mexico City in June of that year.
Of course, we Americans pretty much end Gálvez’s story at the end of the American Revolution. We move on to other things. Even our exhibit at the Cabildo closes before the 250th anniversary of his governorship!
Bernardo de Galvez Cabildo exhibit takes guests through his governorship of Louisiana.
Bernado Galvez, his wife Félicité, and their daughter Mathilda.
Galvez Cabildo exhibit
Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid, his wife, and their daughter, greet guests at the Cabildo at the entrance of the exhibit, Gálvez and Louisiana in the American Revolution. The exhibit opened in March, and runs through May 15, 2027. The exhibit is part of the Louisiana State Museum’s efforts to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, along with the Lafayette exhibit, also at the Cabildo.
Galvez wears the uniform of a Colonel of the Fixed Louisiana Regiment. That was his first appointment in Louisiana. He arrived in New Orleans in December of 1776. The Spanish crown ordered him to Louisiana to succeed Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga.
Transition to wartime
When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence from the United Kingdom in 1776, Spain adopted a wait-and-see attitude. By the end of the year, they decided to readiness was the best option. Unzaga was a solid administrator and governor, but not a strong military commander. His efforts in support of the Americans paved the way for Galvez to launch the campaign that reclaimed West Florida from the British.
Unzaga relinquished the governorship to Galvez on 1-January-1777. He inherited not only a well-running colonial administration, but also Unzaga’s network of American contacts, most notably Oliver Pollack. Galvez implemented Unzaga’s plans to supply the Americans, sending gunpower up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, into Pennsylvania. He also worked with Pollack to ship supplies to Philadelphia. So, even though Spain did not formally enter the American Revolution on the side of the colonists until 1779, the clandestine efforts began almost immediately.
New Orleans society
Galvez understood the need to engage the mostly-French population of New Orleans. He courted Marie-Félicité de Saint-Maxent, a young widow. They married on 2-November-1777. Félicité gave birth to their first child, Mathilda, the following year.
Clothing
While most portraits of Galvez show him in the uniform of a Spanish General, the curators of this exhibit chose to present him in the uniform of his arrival rank. Galvez is depicted by artists wearing both this uniform and the blue and red general’s uniform during the Pensacola campaign.
Félicité wears a dress of a Creole woman of a wealthy Louisiana family. Mathilda appears to be two or three years old here.
Spanish contributions
We will discuss various parts of the exhibit in the coming weeks.
We’re making changes to NOLA History Guy Substack and Patreon
The original Church of St. Louis in New Orleans. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1788.
Changes to our Substack and Patreon
Comus costume sketch, 1909
We’ve been sharing NOLA History Guy content to other platforms for some time. Going on Patreon was a fun exercise in WordPress configuration, because there’s a plugin that connects the sites. One of the features of the plugin I particularly like is that it allows access to the “paid” portion of a post to a level it calls “any patron.” That means someone can sign up for NHG on Patreon, pay a dollar for one month, drop the payments, and still be listed as a “patron.” I just love that! It means teachers in particular can get easy access to all the content. (I’ve also said that, if you’re a teacher and you’ve ponied up a dollar or more, come buy the coffee shop and I’ll buy you a beverage.)
As for Substack, it’s always been free. I started with mirroring the weekly newsletter there. Now, we’re adding a $1/month paid tier.
With both platforms now having a paid tier, We’re going to have content exclusively for subscribers. We’ll be introducing our series on the Napoleonic-period of Lucien Rousselot this afternoon. The first post will drop on Tuesday. Additionally, we’ll have New Orleans history stuff, seriously geeky fun stuff, for subscribers.
The Podcast
Boyd Cruise painting of The Louisiana State Armory, on St. Peter Street, behind the Cabildo. It was the subject of Podcast 45.
We tried a more-exclusive podcast tier a while back, and it flopped. The re-boot will be a bit different. Instead of a higher-level tier subscription required for bonus pod episodes, we’re going to offer those eps via Patreon and Substack to subscribers at the $1 level. If you want to donate more, you can subscribe at the $5/month level. Once we get a dozen or so higher-tier subscribers, we’ll add content for those folks. The rationale here is simple. I’m pretty lazy as a rule, but if y’all are putting fifty bucks or more a month in my pocket, I’ll get off my butt.
We’ll start exclusive podcast content with deep-dives into topics from the free, long-form pods. For example, we did the August “Third Thursday” talk at the Jefferson Parish Library on the art of Boyd Cruise. There were a bunch of his paintings in the talk, which we’ll expand on in, say, 20-minute talks. We’ll also go back to the content in the books and go deeper on specific people, places, and topics that maybe only got a hundred or so words for the caption.
Let’s go!
St. Aloysius College, Barracks and Chartres, 1869
I’m confident that this model, based on $1/month, will work. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve seen what y’all pay five bucks or more a month for, and what we offer here clears that bar. If you have any questions about all this, give me a shout via email, edward@nolahistoryguy.com, or stop by when I’m staffing the Information Desk at the Cabildo.
Ad of the Week – advertising blasts from the past!
How you can help NOLA History Guy – Things you can do right now!
NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge – Exercise your imagination!
A Little History… The St. Bernard Public Market
The Circle Food Store, formerly the St. Bernard Public Market . Inforgmation photo, 2014
The St. Bernard Public Market
Established in 1854, the St. Bernard Market was the fourteenth public market licensed by the city. It’s located at 1522 St. Bernard Avenue, between Laharpe and Robertson Streets. The market began small, just a shelter, about 190 by 175 feet. The city purchased additional land to expand the market in 1931.
Public Markets
St. Bernard Public Market, 1941. Franck Studios photo.
The first public market in New Orleans was the French Market. Before the arrival of Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne and his explorers, the indigenous tribes used the market area as a trading post and meeting place they called “Bulbancha,” the “place of many tongues.” As the city grew, so did the market system, into the American Sector, Garden District, and Faubourg Treme. the St. Bernard Market opened as the Marigny Plantation was subdivided and sold as lots.
Upgrade and Expansion
St. Bernard Market, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), 1930s
The market fell into serious disrepair in the 1870s. The Daily Picayune reported on 20-August-1874 that “the corner of the public well at the St. Bernard Market is completely decayed and is dangerous. Persons are constantly passing in that vicinity and are liable to fall in.” They city authorized a contract for repairs later that year.
The city screened in the St. Bernard Market in 1914. A year later, architect Sam Stone, Jr., drew plans for the market’s expansion. The city acquired additional property to expand the market in 1931. They hired Stone’s company to supervise the work.
Conversion of the market
The city started phasing out the public markets in 1940. The city sold half of the St. Bernard Market property in 1941, and the remaining half was sold after the war. Private owners converted the market into the Circle Food Store. While the store suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the owners recovered and rebuilt. The store was sold again in 2010 and continues to operate.
We’re implementing some changes to our website and other blog postings. Starting 1-September, NOLA History Guy dot com will feature new content. We’ll be presenting a series of illustrations of the French Army during the Napoleonic period. The work of artist and uniformologist Lucien Rousselot offers historic background and writing inspiration.
Additionally, we will present more articles featuring structures in the New Orleans area that have been the subject Historic American Buildings Survey projects.
The podcast will also return next week!
Vintage Ad of the Week
Ad for the Kansas City Southern Railroad in the Times-Picayune, 27-August-1949. The “Southern Belle” route was the signature “name train” of the KCS. It operated daily from New Orleans to Kansas City. Prior to 1954, KCS trains operated out of the Louisiana and Arkansas Terminal on S. Rampart Street. After 1954, KCS joined all the other passenger service operating from Union Passenger Terminal.
How You Can Help NOLA History Guy
Things you can do RIGHT NOW to help us out!
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a Coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
In six words or less, write a story about this image. (Infrogmation photo)
Post your story to NOLAHistoryGuy.com on BlueSky, or to New Orleans Uncovered on Facebook. You can also email yours to nolasixwords@nolahistoryguy.com.
Today’s rabbit hole is an ad for a “Elliot’s Pocket Revolver.”
Elliot’s Pocket Revolver
Ad for “Elliot’s Pocket Revolver” in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 17-May-1862. This pistol also bore the name, Remington Zig-Zag Derringer. Remington manufactured this pistol in 1861 and 1862. It’s a type of pistol known as a “pepper-box.”
From the pistol’s Wikipedia entry, this photo caught my attention. The “Death To Traitors” inside the box pretty much indicates the target market of the pistol. Would it show up in New Orleans? That’s important for a story.
Rabbit holes
I presented a talk on artist Boyd Cruise last night for our “Third Thursday Lecture Series” at the Jefferson Parish Library. Cruise painted many homes and buildings in New Orleans as they appeared in the 1850s. So, I research the property at the time. The results of a basic search lead me down rabbit holes. This week, search results included a large collection of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper for 1862. Now, April and May of 1862 were exciting times in New Orleans. The Confederacy was in active rebellion against the United States, and the Union Navy sat off the Louisiana Gulf Coast, until they invaded the city at the end of April. This issue of the Newspaper includes numerous articles on how Farragut, Porter, and Butler led forces up the river to the city.
Naturally, the newspaper includes lots of advertising. My current fiction project is a story set right at this time, 1861-1862, in New Orleans. Most revolvers of the time were huge. This small pistol adds interesting dimensions to the setting.
Additional research
While a single ad starts the process, the product may not fit with the story. So, I looked up the pistol. It turns out, this particular gun may not be a good fit. From the wiki entry:
Extensive study has identified approximately 140 known examples, being that this model has quite a delicate mechanism and was replaced by the Remington-Elliot Derringer “New Repeating Pistol” even before all were assembled, the survival rate of this model is expected to be quite low.
What’s important here is that this ad became an inspiration. It confirmed that these small pistols were common. I just need to find the right model to put in a character’s pocket or waistband.
A Memorial Day update on a Purple Heart we found in the Brother Martin High School/BOSH archives.
BOSH Purple Heart Update
As part of my work in the archives at Brother Martin High School, I came across a Purple Heart decoration in its presentation box. Inside the box was the medal, ribbon, and a set of dog tags. While so many BOSH alumni served, I was surprised to find a military medal in the boxes of memorabilia and ephemera. So, I took photos and brought it down to Mr. Heine. We both agreed that we should check to see if the family would want the medal back. Sometimes when an older person passes, we box up their personal stuff, have an estate sale, etc. So many folks hate to throw out paw-paw’s high school stuff, so they bring it back to the school.
Mr. Heine checked his alumni databases, and couldn’t find the name, Richard Warr. He didn’t appear to be a Kingsman or Crusader. I wrote the post telling the story and we moved on.
This week, I received an interesting note from a member of the Ridgley family:
I was recently working on my family tree and came across this article through a Google search.
If you have never gotten to tracking it down, I can save you some time: That’s my granduncle.
Richard Chester Warr was the brother of Mary Catherine Warr, who was married to John Edward Ridgley, father of Thomas Francis and John Edward Ridgley Jr. who were both alumni of Brother Martin.
Yep, the Thomas Ridgley who’s name is on the Brother Martin Fine Arts and Athletics Building.
Not sure if Richard Warr was himself an alumnus, but he joined the Army in early 1942 and was assigned to A Co., 1st Battalion, 377th Infantry, 95th Infantry Division. He was captured during their attack on the city of Metz in early November 1944. I’ve enclosed his VA internment record as an image. The serial number should be a full match for the dog tag.
Wow! Now we know the link! The Ridgleys are what I call “BOSH Royalty,” one of the families with a long tradition of supporting the schools and the Institute. There’s a lot of ephemera and photos donated by various members of the family to the archives over the years.
Here’s my theory on how we came into the possession of Warr’s decoration. He was a Private First Class during World War II, and unfortunately died young, at the age of 46. If Warr did not marry, his possessions likely went to his sister, Mary Catherine. So, Mary Catherine Warr marries John Ridgley. Her personal stuff becomes part of the the Ridgley family stuff. Perhaps the Purple Heart ended up in a box of high school stuff.
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