As Spanish Governor of the Louisiana Territories, Bernardo de Gálvez was an important friend of the American colonists. When Spain became an ally of the American Revolutionaries in 1779, he led a multinational force of troops from New Orleans that took back territories from Great Britain at English forts along the Gulf Coast in Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile. On March 18, 1781, as commanding general of Spain's Army and Naval Forces in the New World, he led the naval charge into the well-defended Pensacola Bay, a feat of daring that earned him a royal patent adding the words "Yo Solo" (I Alone) to his coat of arms. His forces landed near Bayou Chico and advanced on the city's British defenses, including Fort George on nearby Gage Hill and two smaller forts. After weeks of siege, on May 8, 1781, a Spanish mortar detonated the powder magazine at the Queen's Redoubt. Gálvez accepted the British surrender and claimed West Florida for Spain, stripping Britain of a key foothold on the Gulf Coast and benefiting the American colonists in their quest for independence. He was named a "Great Floridian" in 2012, and in 2015 Congress unanimously awarded him a posthumous "Honorary Citizen of the United States of America" for his heroic efforts during the American Revolution.