At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Congress of Philadelphia sent out four emissaries into the world: Benjamin Franklin to France, John Adams to Holland, and Arthur Lee and John Jay to Spain. The French soon made their contribution, while the Spanish secretly supported independence by sending Spanish dollars and delivering the first foreign arms Americans would receive for their liberation, to Marblehead, Massachusetts. The Count of Aranda, Spanish ambassador in Paris, made a secret shipment of cannons, mortars, rifles and bullets for George Washington's army that made possible the first victory of the rebels, the Battle of Saratoga. Soon after, as you know, both the French and the Spanish decided to join the party against England.
Bernardo de Gálvez was then governor of La Luisiana, and he helped support the American rebels with supplies. This made the English extremely angry—back then it was easier to anger an Englishman—and they planned the invasion of La Luisiana. However, it never happened, because Gálvez, a great strategist, decided to go ahead and attack the English positions in Baton Rouge, knowing that the dominion of the Mississippi would be a key in the war. Thus, in 1780 a water highway was opened, ideal for the supplying of the rebels.
Gálvez was ambitious and wanted more, though. He decided to recover La Florida for Spain. The enterprise was a bit too big for him. In fact, from the time he planned it until he achieved it, several extra months passed because Spanish commanders in Havana, who were to accompany him, considered it sheer madness to cross Pensacola, where England had a crossfire line that would leave the Spanish fleet like the Titanic in less than a quarter of an hour. Even after Gálvez convinced his own people, chief of the Spanish naval forces Calvo de Irazábal dispatched an order to abort the assault after his flagship ran aground in a slew of English gunfire.
But Gálvez, playing the typical Spaniard, far from surrendering, decided to board the ship Galveztown—a gift from the Americans—and hurl himself against Pensacola on his own. First though, a little humor: he sent a messenger with an English cannonball to Calvo with a note that read: "This is like the ones that are handed out by the fort at the entrance. Anyone with honor and courage, follow me. I’ll lead the way with the Galveztown to take away your fear.” Galvez managed to cross the barrier of fire without damage, trailed by the rest of the fleet, causing the surrender of the English and the fall of all Florida. It was May 9, 1781. Great news for the United States: the American rebels saw their combat front reduced and the English were plunged into a deep melancholy.