Francisco de Miranda - in The United States

In The United States

Miranda, who had bought himself a commission as a Captain of the Spanish Army around 1771 (something not unusual in the European armies at the time), became interested in the American Revolutionary War, while serving as Captain of the Aragon Regiment and aide-de-camp to General Juan Manuel de Cajigal y Monserrat, (1739–1811).

Under Cajigal, Miranda participated in the 1781 Battle of Pensacola, which saw British West Florida fall into Spanish hands, and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

He participated in the Capture of The Bahamas and carried news of the island's fall to his superior Bernado de Galvez. Galvez was angry that the Bahamas expedition had gone ahead without his permission and he imprisoned Cajigal and had Miranda arrested. Miranda was later released, but this experience of Spanish officialdom may have been a factor in his subsequent conversion to the idea of independence for Spain's American colonies.

He later returned to the United States in 1783, where he met, among others, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Thomas Jefferson, embarking from Boston for England on December 15, 1784.