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Alejandro was the second Spanish governor of Louisiana and helped reform its government, laws, and economy giving it a better chance at success.

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Born- October 24,1723
Died- March 23,1724

Governed Spanish Louisiana
1769-1770

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When Alejandro arrived in office, a rebellion was going on and he wanted to solve this problem as soon as possible. He arrived with 2,000 troops to put down the revolt and put the ringleaders on trial. Five were put to death, one died before sentencing, and the others got lesser sentences.

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Alejandro O'Reilly y McDowell (Alexander; b. 24 October 1723; d. 23 March 1794), governor of Louisiana (1769-1770) and inspector general of the Spanish Army. A native of Beltrasna, county Meath, near Dublin, Ireland, O'Reilly was schooled in Spain at the Colegio de las Escuelas Pías de Zaragoza. His military career began at the age of ten, when he became a cadet in the Hibernian Infantry Regiment. He took part in the Italian campaigns of Isabella, queen consort of Philip V, from 1734 to 1736 and again from 1740 to 1748, and was seriously wounded in the latter affair.

Following service in two European wars, O'Reilly studied Austrian, Prussian, and French military organization. As a military consultant, he introduced Prussian tactics to the Spanish army. He was promoted to brigadier and then to inspector general and field marshal of the army. In his role as inspector general he accompanied Spain's captain general of Cuba, the Conde de Ricla, to Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1763 and 1765. Reaching Havana on 30 June 1763, O'Reilly participated in the restoration of Havana to Spanish control following the Treaty of Paris (10 February 1763) in which Havana, under British occupation, was exchanged for Florida. He reformed the Cuban militia, setting up a system that endured for nearly a century. Returning to Spain, O'Reilly won favor with King Charles III when he commanded troops accompanying the king in his flight to Aranjuez during the riots of March 1766 against Esquilace.

Three years later, on 16 April 1769, while in La Coruña, he was appointed to head an expedition to put down a revolt in Louisiana, where dissident elements had expelled the Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa, in 1768. Arriving in Havana on 24 June 1769, O'Reilly commanded a force of 2,056 men and twenty-one ships. The fleet sailed on 6 July, reaching New Orleans on 18 August to take control of the colony. An immediate investigation and trial of the conspirators took place and on 24 October the ringleaders of the revolt were condemned to death.

The rapid conclusion of the trial enabled O'Reilly to devote his remaining months in the colony to a thorough reorganization of Louisiana's administration, including political, military, and fiscal reforms, the promulgation of a new legal code, the Code O'Reilly, as well as religious and commercial reforms. The most important of O'Reilly's reforms was his integration of Louisiana into the Spanish commercial system.

O'Reilly departed New Orleans in March of 1770, and in April returned to Spain, where he established a military academy at Ávila for infantry, cavalry, and engineers. On 28 January 1772 Charles III bestowed on him the title of Conde de O'Reilly y Vizconde de Cavan.

O'Reilly's later career was marked by failure. He commanded the ill-fated expedition to Algiers in 1775, which historian John Lynch has called "a model of military incompetence." Uninformed about the strength of the enemy, and following an ill-advised battle plan, some 5,000 Spanish troops were killed or wounded. When O'Reilly later blamed this defeat on the cowardice of his troops, protests took place in several cities. O'Reilly was subsequently referred to as "General Disaster."

In 1780 he was appointed captain-general of Andalusia and governor of Cádiz. With the death of Charles III in 1788, he lost much of his support, resigning his post in 1789 and retiring to Valencia. When the French National Convention declared war against Spain in 1793, he was called back to service to command the Spanish Army in the Eastern Pyrenees. He died en route at Murcia and was buried in Cádiz.
See also Louisiana Revolt of 1768; Militias: Colonial Spanish America.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

O'Reilly's role in Cuban military reform is detailed in Allan J. Kuethe, Cuba, 1753-1815: Crown, Military, and Society (1986), esp. pp. 31-51. His Louisiana career is described in John Preston Moore, Revolt in Louisiana: The Spanish Occupation, 1766-1770 (1976), and Bibiano Torres Ramírez, Alejandro O'Reilly en las Indias (1969). The disastrous Algiers campaign is described in John Lynch, Bourbon Spain, 1700-1808 (1989). Also useful is Jack D. L. Holmes, "Alexander O'Reilly," in The Louisiana Governors: From Iberville to Edwards, edited by Joseph G. Dawson III (1990), pp. 49-52.

Additional Bibliography

Ingersoll, Thomas N. Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1718-1819. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999.

Brian E. Coutts

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alejandro (1723–1794)alejandro o'reilly y mcdowell (alexander; b. 24 october 1723; d. 23 march 1794)

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governor of louisiana (1769–1770) and inspector general of the spanish army. a native of beltrasna

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o'reilly was schooled in spain at the colegio de las escuelas pías de zaragoza. his military career began at the age of ten

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when he became a cadet in the hibernian infantry regiment.

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O'Reilly y Mcdowell, Alejandro (1723-1794)

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O'Reilly y Mcdowell, Alejandro (1723-1794)Alejandro O'Reilly y McDowell (Alexander; b. 24 October 1723; d. 23 March 1794), governor of Louisiana (1769-1770) and inspector general of the Spanish Army. A native of Beltrasna, county Meath, near Dublin, Ireland, O'Reilly was schooled in Spain at the Colegio de las Escuelas Pías de Zaragoza.

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Alejandro enforced this law in order to provide protection for slaves.

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This entry provides a biographical overview of Alejandro O'Reilly, the second Spanish governor of Louisiana.

by Catherine Mizell-Nelson

Courtesy of Louisiana State Museum

Alejandro O'Reilly served as the second Spanish governor of Louisiana from 1769 to 1770, consolidating control of the colony and reforming its government, laws, and economy. His most pressing duty on arrival was to punish the ringleaders of the Insurrection of 1768, who had resisted the colony's transfer to Spain. As a result of the executions that O'Reilly promptly carried out, he was known in Louisiana as "Bloody O'Reilly."
Early Career
He was born Alexander O'Reilly to an upper-class Irish family in 1722. Many Irishmen at the time left Protestant English domination in their homeland to serve as mercenaries (known as "Wild Geese") for Catholic rulers on the mainland, and O'Reilly, following his father's lead, joined the Spanish infantry at the age of ten. He fought for Spain in Italy, and during the Seven Years' War, he served as an officer in the Austrian, French, and Spanish armies. He successfully led the Spanish invasion of Portugal, England's ally in the war, which won him a promotion to major general from Spain's King Charles III. When England relinquished Cuba in the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Charles III sent O'Reilly to reoccupy Havana and to determine the necessary steps to restore Cuba's profitability. O'Reilly performed similar services in Puerto Rico, then returned to Cuba, where he married Rosa de Las Casas, whose brother would become Cuba's governor in the 1790s. Recalled to Spain in 1764, O'Reilly founded an officer training academy based on Prussian innovations in warfare. He further demonstrated his prowess in 1766 when, as military governor of Madrid, he defended the king's palace from citizens rioting over grain prices.
Spanish Governor of Louisiana
France had ceded Louisiana to Spain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, but the French and Creole colonists did not willingly acquiesce to the new regime. In 1768, a crowd of New Orleanians dissatisfied with Spanish rule rebelled and ejected Governor Antonio de Ulloa. Charles III dispatched General O'Reilly to Havana to gather sufficient troops for restoring order, and in July of 1769, twenty ships carried an army of two thousand men under O'Reilly's command to reestablish Spanish sovereignty in Louisiana.

Within days of assuming charge in New Orleans, O'Reilly ordered thirteen of the rebels detained; one died resisting arrest, and a French official was eventually sent home. O'Reilly issued a general pardon for the rest of the populace who had taken part in the uprising, provided that they agreed to swear devotion to Charles III. After two months of legal proceedings, the insurrection's leaders were convicted of sedition and treason. Six of the men were sentenced to prison in Havana, and the other five were executed by firing squad the following day. Nearly forty years later, a street was built at the site where the rebels were shot; named "rue des Françaises" in their honor, it is still called Frenchmen Street today.

O'Reilly instituted many worthwhile reforms in Louisiana during his six-month governorship. By the time the general returned to Havana in March 1770, he had established a cabildo, the Spanish model for colonial governments, and issued the "Code O'Reilly," aligning Louisiana's legal system with that of Spain. Among his reforms was limiting the number of drinking establishments in New Orleans, which had gained a reputation for its high number of rowdy taverns. By proclamation of October 8, 1769, O'Reilly allowed twelve taverns, six billiard halls, and one limonadier (lemonade vendor) to serve alcoholic beverages. The regulation prohibited criminals, vagabonds and prostitutes from frequenting these establishments, and it forbade the use of swear words and blasphemy.

O'Reilly worked to improve relations with Native American tribes and reorganized the colony's defenses. He is also credited with stabilizing finances, establishing price controls on food staples, raising standards for medical care, and restricting trade to Spanish ships and Spanish ports. Because the colony frequently experienced food shortages, however, the Irish merchant Oliver Pollock secured the privilege to trade by supplying flour at far below the market price. A decade later, during the American Revolution, Pollock would use his resources to help the Spanish provide much-needed supplies to the Continental Army through the port of New Orleans.
Later Career
As a reward for O'Reilly's many services, Charles III bestowed upon him the title of Conde (count) in 1772 and an annual pension. In 1775, O'Reilly led an unsuccessful invasion of the African port city of Algiers, but nevertheless achieved the governorship of Cadiz, Spain, in 1780. He resigned the post eight years later, retired to Valencia, and died in 1794.
Adapted from J. Preston Moore's entry for the Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, a publication of the Louisiana Historical Association in cooperation with the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Author
Catherine Mizell-Nelson
Suggested Reading

Brasseaux, Carl A. Denis-Nicolas Foucault and the New Orleans Rebellion of 1768. Ruston, LA: Louisiana Tech University, 1987.

Powell, Lawrence N. The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Texada, David Ker. Alejandro O'Reilly and the Louisiana Rebels. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1970.

Additional Data

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This entry provides a biographical overview of Alejandro O'Reilly, the second Spanish governor of Louisiana. by Catherine Mizell-Nelson Alejandro O'Reilly served as the second Spanish governor of Louisiana from 1769 to 1770, consolidating control of the colony and reforming its government, laws, and economy.

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Was Alejandro a good example of a governor?
Alejandro was a good governor in my opinion. He maintained good relations with people, put down trade laws, put down revolts, and etc. These are things future governors could look at and think, "Maybe when I get into office I should manage this how he did but do this differently." His cons can be a future governors' pros and make the best out of his past mistakes.

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During Alejandro's time of governing Louisiana, he helped abolish Indian slavery and worked to improve Indian relations in order to keep the peace and help benefit Louisiana. He even helped reorganize the colony's defenses.