Spain seals Gibraltar's land gates; Eliott holds the Rock with 5,382 men

Britain was already stretched thin across the Atlantic when Spain declared war on June 16, 1779, and sealed the land approaches to Gibraltar — the limestone fortress that had flown the British flag since 1704. General George Eliott commanded a garrison of roughly 5,382 soldiers against a Spanish force that would eventually swell, with French reinforcements, to some 60,000 attackers supported by 49 ships of the line. For three years, seven months, and twelve days — the longest siege in British Armed Forces history — Eliott's men endured rationing, scurvy, and relentless bombardment. They never surrendered the Rock…