| Fort New Richmond | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location within Louisiana | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 30°27′15″N91°11′18″W / 30.4542°N 91.1884°W /30.4542; -91.1884 |
| Completed | 1779 |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | Earthen |
Fort New Richmond was built by theBritish in 1779 on the east bank of theMississippi River in what was later to becomeBaton Rouge, Louisiana.[1] TheSpanish took control of the fort in 1779 and renamed itFort San Carlos.[1][2]
The fort was built by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Dickson (British Army commander of the Baton Rouge area) after he discovered thatFort Bute (built in 1765) was indefensible against cannon.[3] The fort at Baton Rouge was built on the Watt's and Flower's plantations and was completed during the six weeks preceding hostilities in the area during theAmerican Revolutionary War. The fort consisted of a ditch eighteen feet wide and nine feet deep surrounding an earthen wall withpalisades in the form ofchevaux de frise.[3] It was armed with thirteen cannon, 400 British Army troops from the16th and60th Regiments of Foot, a company ofgrenadiers fromWaldeck, and roughly 150Loyalist miliitamen.[3]
The fort was captured on September 21, 1779, whenBernardo de Gálvez, thecolonial Governor ofSpanish Louisiana, aftercapturing Fort Bute led his force of approximately 1,000 men (reduced by the hardships of the march from New Orleans)[4] against Baton Rouge.[3] The surrender of Fort New Richmond eliminated the presence of British forces in theMississippi River area.
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