Pentagon Barracks - French, British and Spanish Fort

French, British and Spanish Fort

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville visited the area circa 1700. France retained Baton Rouge until the British took control of the city in 1763.

In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, the British erected a dirt Fort Richmond on the banks of the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, arrived at Baton Rouge on 20 September 1779 and found three hundred British troops garrisoning Fort Richmond. In the Battle of Baton Rouge (1779), engineers under Spanish Governor Gálvez quickly constructed a siege line, enabling the Spanish troops to shell Fort Richmond; the British surrendered the next day. The Spanish garrisoned the fortification and renamed it Fort San Carlos.