Abercromby fails at San Juan, 1797

In April 1797 Sir Ralph Abercromby brought a British expedition against San Juan. The Napoleonic wars had a West Indies front, and Puerto Rico was still the windward lock on the American route that remained to Spain. The National Park Service places this attack at the end of the O'Daly story: Castillo San Felipe del Morro was finished in time to help protect the island when the British came with considerable resources.

This was not Drake's raid nor Cumberland's lucky overland walk. Abercromby was a professional with troops, ships, and time. He still failed. The city now had two stone faces, El Morro on the water and San Cristóbal on land, plus curtains and outer works rebuilt after the fall of Havana. Militia and regulars fought on ground their engineers had drawn. The British withdrew. San Juan stayed Spanish.

The NPS does not print a British casualty count for 1797, and this journal will not invent one. What it will say is that the system designed in 1765 did, in 1797, the job it was paid for. That matters because the next foreign fleet, in 1898, would not be sailing ships. The 1797 success can look like destiny if one stops the story there. It was a pairing of guns with walls. When the guns changed, the pairing broke.

April 17 is the date anchor of the attempt. The wider month is the campaign. Spanish memory later dressed 1797 as a popular victory, with neighbors and soldiers sharing the credit. Popular or not, the masonry was O'Daly's. A board that praised only courage would be a postcard. The walls were new, thick, and complete.

A century of Spanish pride grew on this defeat of a British general. Then Sampson's squadron put shells over the same bastions and the pride had to sit next to another fact. 1797 is the last time the old geometry won clearly. Keep it as a victory. Do not stretch it into the myth of an unconquerable island. The 1898 treaty would cede the place, not bless it.

Sources: NPS El Morro. Freeze 2026-08-22.