José de Barboza

Biography

José de Barboza was one of the young officers sent to the Great Siege of Gibraltar. Though abandoned by his men, Barboza fought on and attacked the British column head-on and was mortally wounded by a gunshot wound to the chest. He refused aid by the British Governor of Gibraltar, George Augustus Elliott, earning the respect of the British. His last moments are romanticised in John Trumbull's famous painting, The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789.