The Battle of San Fernando de Omoa was a short siege and battle between British and Spanish forces fought not long after Spain entered the American Revolutionary War on the American side. On the 16 October 1779, following a brief attempt at siege, a force of 150 British soldiers and seamen assaulted and captured the fortifications at San Fernando de Omoa in the Captaincy General of Guatemala (now Honduras) on the Gulf of Honduras.

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Battle of San Fernando de Omoa
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Exterior view of the fort at San Fernando de Omoa. Photo taken in 2006
Date 16 October–29 November 1779 Location San Fernando de Omoa, Captaincy General of Guatemala, present-day Honduras Result British victory Subsequent withdrawal on the 29 November.[1][2][3][4] The fortress was later reoccupied by Spain.[5]
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
William Dalrymple John Luttrell	Matías de Gálvez Simón Desnaux Juan Dastiex
Strength
885 regulars, marines, militia, & natives[6] 12 ships	365 regulars & militia 2 ships
Casualties and losses
6 killed 14 wounded additional casualties to disease[7] 1 frigate damaged	2 wounded 360 captured 2 ships captured[4]

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The British forces managed to overwhelm and capture the Spanish garrison, consisting of 365 men. The British only held the fort until November 1779. They then withdrew the garrison, which tropical diseases had reduced, and which was under threat of a Spanish counter-attack.

When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, both Great Britain and Spain had been planning for the possibility of hostilities for some time. King Carlos III set the defence of the Captaincy General of Guatemala as one of his highest priorities in the Americas, after the conquest of British West Florida.^[8] His forces seized the initiative in North America, where they rapidly captured the British outpost at Baton Rouge in September 1779, before the British were able to marshal any kind of significant defensive force in the area.^[9] The British sought to gain control over Spanish colonies in Central America, and their first target was San Fernando de Omoa, a fortress that Matías de Gálvez, the Captain General of Guatemala, called "the key and outer wall of the kingdom".^[8]

However, the Spanish struck first. In September the capture of Cayo Cocina gave them possession of the British settlement at St. George's Caye (off the coast near present-day Belize City).

Then, anticipating a British attack against the nearby port of Santo Tomás de Castilla, Gálvez withdrew the garrison there to Omoa.^[10] The Spanish had started building San Fernando de Omoa, principally with African slave labour, in the 1740s during the War of Jenkins' Ear. It became of the largest defensive fortifications in Central America, and one of the Guatemalan Captaincy General's principal Caribbean ports.^[11]

The British established some batteries to fire on the fort, and supported them with fire from three ships. Simón Desnaux, the fort's commander, returned fire. He succeeded in damaging HMS Lowestoffe, which ran aground but was eventually refloated. Although Desnaux was badly outnumbered, he refused an offer for surrender in the hope that Gálvez would be able to send reinforcements.^[10]

On the night of the 20 October, a small number of British attackers climbed into the fort and opened one of the gates. After a brief exchange of small arms fire, Desnaux surrendered.^[10] Among the spoils the British won when they gained control of Omoa were two Spanish ships, anchored in the harbour, that held more than three million Spanish dollars of silver.^[12]

The British continued to make attacks on the Central American coast but were never successful in their goal of dividing the Spanish colonies and gaining access to the Pacific Ocean. Equally, the Spanish were unsuccessful in driving out the British settlements in Central America, most of which the British had recaptured by the war's end.