[Illustration: 9393] |
FTER the destruction of the power of the Natchez Indians, by the French,
in 1731, the remnant of that nation took refuge among the powerful
and ferocious tribe of Chickasaws, who were the determined and
uncompromising enemies of the colonists of Louisiana. The united nations
could bring a large and efficient force into the field; and besides,
they had five strong palisaded forts, and many fortified villages.
Bienville, governor of Louisiana, could only command about three hundred
Frenchmen at the commencement of the war; but the Choctaws were his
allies, and although not the best and bravest of warriors, their aid was
valuable. A desultory warfare was carried on until early in 1736, when
the French government sent additional troops to Bienville, and ordered
him to undertake an expedition against the Chickasaws.
In obedience to these instructions, Bienville had sent word to the
younger D’Arta-guette, the commander of the Illinois district, to
collect all the French and Indian forces he could control, and to meet
him on the 31st of March, 1736, at the Chickasaw villages. In the month
of January of that year, Bienville drew from Natchez, Natchitoches,
and the Balize all the officers and soldiers he could muster, without
weakening too much the garrisons stationed at those places. He formed a
company of volunteers, composed of traders and transient persons then in
New Orleans, and another company of unmarried men belonging to the city,
and which was called the “company of bachelors.” A depot of ammunition,
provisions, and all that was necessary for the intended campaign was
established on the Tombigbee, at the distance of two hundred and seventy
miles from Mobile, where the several detachments of the army were sent,
through the Lakes, as fast as conveyances could be procured. Several
large vessels containing provisions and utensils of every sort were
despatched down the Mississippi to Mobile, and on the 4th of March,
Bienville departed from New Orleans, leaving behind him only four
companies of regulars under Noyan, which were to follow him as soon as
they could be transported. The boats having to struggle against adverse
winds, the whole of the French forces did not reach Mobile before the
22d, and it was only on the 28th, that the last of the vessels carrying
provisions entered the harbor, when it was discovered that her cargo had
been much damaged by the sea. On the 1st of April, the expedition left
Mobile, and it was only on the 23d that the army reached the Tombigbee
depot, after having had to contend against currents, freshets, storms,
and constant rains.
While waiting for the arrival of the Choctaws, Bienville reviewed his
troops, and found them to consist of five hundred and forty-four white
men, excluding the officers, forty-five negroes, and a body of Indians.
At length six hundred Choctaw warriors arrived, and the army resumed its
march. On the 22d of May, it encamped about twenty-seven miles from the
Chickasaw villages. On the 23d, Bienville ordered fortifications to be
constructed for the protection of his boats, and placed twenty men under
Captain Vanderck in them. The next day, the army with provisions for
twelve days, marched six miles further, and encamped on account of a
tempest. On the 25th, within the space of twelve miles, the army had to
cross three deep ravines running through a thick cane-brake, and had
to wade through water rising up to the waist. It then emerged on a
beautiful open prairie, on the edge of which they encamped, at the
distance of six miles from the Chickasaw villages.
The intention of Bienville was to turn round those villages of the
Chickasaws to march upon the village of the Natchez, which was in the
rear, and to attack first those whom he considered as the instigators of
the Chickasaw war. But the Choctaws insisted with such pertinacity upon
attacking the Villages which were nearer, and which, they said contained
more provisions than that of the Natchez, and they represented with
such warmth, that, in the needy condition in which they were, it was
absolutely necessary they should take possession of these provisions,
that Bienville yielded to their importunities. The prairie, in which
these villages were situated, covered a space of about six miles. The
villages were small, and built in the shape of a triangle, on a hillock
sloping down to a brook which was almost dry; further off was the main
body of the Chickasaw villages, and the smaller ones seemed to be a sort
of vanguard. The Choctaws having informed Bienville that he would find
water no where else, he ordered the army to file off close to the wood
which enclosed the prairie, in order to reach another hillock that was
in sight. There the troops halted to rest and take nourishment. It was
past twelve o’clock.
The Indian scouts whom Bienville had sent in every direction to look for
tidings of D’Artaguette, whom he had expected to operate his junction
with him on this spot, had come back and brought no information. It was
evident, therefore, that he could no longer hope for the co-operation on
which he had relied, and that he had to trust only to his own resources.
It was impossible to wait; and immediate action was insisted upon by
the Choctaws and the French officers, who thought that the three small
villages, which have been described, and which were the nearest to
them, were not capable of much resistance. Bienville yielded to the
solicitations of his allies and of his troops, and at two in the
afternoon, ordered his nephew Noyan, to begin the attack, and to put
himself at the head of a column composed of a company of grenadiers, of
detachments of fifteen men taken from each one of the eight companies
of the French regulars, of sixty-five men of the Swiss troops, and
forty-five volunteers.
The French had approached within carbine shot of the forts, and at that
distance, could plainly distinguish Englishmen, who appeared to be very
active in assisting the Chickasaws in preparing their defence, and who
had hoisted up their flag on one of the forts. Bienville recommended
that they should not be assailed, if they thought proper to retire, and
in order to give them time, should they feel so disposed, he ordered to
confine the attack to the village, named Ackia, which flag was the most
remote from the one under the English flag.
The order of the attack being given, the division commanded by Noyan
moved briskly on, and under the protection of mantelets carried by the
company of negroes, arrived safely at the foot of the hill on which the
villages stood. But there, one of the negroes being killed, and another
wounded, the rest flung down the mantelets, and took to their heels. The
French pushed on, and penetrated into the village, with the company
of grenadiers at their head. But being no longer under cover, and much
exposed to the fire of the enemy, their losses were very heavy. The
noble and brilliant Chevalier de Contre Coeur, a favorite in the army,
was killed, and a number of soldiers shared his fate, or were disabled.
However, three of the principal fortified cabins were carried by the
impetuosity of the French, with several smaller ones which were burned.
But as a pretty considerable intervening space remained to be gone over,
to assail the chief fort and the other fortified cabins, when it became
necessary to complete the success obtained, Noyan, who had headed the
column of attack, turning round, saw that he had with him only the
officers belonging to the head of the column, some grenadiers, and
a dozen of volunteers. The troops had been dismayed by the death of
Captain De Lusser, of one of the sergeants of the grenadiers, and of
some of the soldiers of this company who had fallen, when they had
attempted to cross the space separating the last cabin taken from the
next to be taken; seeking for shelter against the galling fire of the
enemy, they had clustered behind the cabins of which they had already
taken possession, and it was impossible for the officers who commanded
the tail of the column, to drive them away, either by threats, promises,
or words of exhortation, from their secure position. Pitting themselves
at the head of a few of their best soldiers, in order to encourage the
rest, the officers resolved to make a desperate attempt to storm the
fortified block-house they had in front of them. But in an instant,
their commander, the Chevalier de Noyan, D’Hauterive, the captain of the
grenadiers, Grondel, lieutenant of the Swiss, De Yelles, Montbrun, and
many other officers were disabled. Still keeping his ground, De Noyan
sent his aid-de-camp, De Juzan, to encourage and bring up to him the
wavering soldiers, who had slunk behind the cabins. But, in making this
effort, this officer was killed, and his death increased the panic of
the troops.
Grondel, who had fallen near the walls of the enemy, had been abandoned,
and a party of Indians was preparing to sally out to scalp him, when
a sergeant of grenadiers, ashamed of the cowardice which had left an
officer in this perilous and defenceless position, took with him four of
his men, and rushed to the rescue of Grondel, without being intimidated
by bullets as thick as hail. These five intrepid men reached in safety
the spot where Grondel lay, and they were in the act of lifting him up
to carry him away, when a general discharge from the fort prostrated
every one of them dead by the side of him they had come to save. But
this noble deed was not lost upon the army; the electrical stroke had
been given, and was responded to by the flashing out of another bright
spark of heroism. A grenadier, named Regnisse, rather inflamed than
dastardized by the fate of his companions, dashed out of the ranks of
his company, ran headlong to the place where Grondel lay weltering
in his blood, from the five wounds he had received, took him on his
athletic shoulders, and carried him away in triumph, amid the general
acclamations and enthusiastic bravos of those who witnesses the feat. To
the astonishment of all, he had the good luck to pass unscathed through
the fire which was poured upon him by the enemy, but the inanimate
body of Grondel which he was transporting received a sixth wound.
So generously saved from the Indian tomahawk, this officer slowly
recovered, and when subsequently raised to a high rank in the French
army.
Noyan, seeing at last that he was exposing himself and his brave
companions in vain and fainting from the effects of his wounds, ordered
a retreat from the open field, and taking shelter in one of the cabins,
sent word to Bienville, that he had lost about seventy men, and that
if prompt relief was not sent the detachment would be annihilated. On
hearing this report, Bienville sent Beauchamp with a reserve of eighty
men, to support the troops engaged, and to bring off the wounded and
dead. Beauchamp reached the spot where the little band of Frenchmen
was concentrated, and where the strife had been hottest. Seeing that no
headway could be made he covered the retreat of the band, and brought
off to the French camp most of the wounded and dead. The Choctaws, who
had left the French to shift for themselves, seeing them retreat, wished
to show their spirit, and made a movement, as if to storm the village.
But a general discharge from the enemy, killing twenty-two of their men
caused them to make a retrogade movement, much to the amusement of the
French. The battle had lasted during three hours, and when evening came,
the scene was as quiet as if the blast of war had never scared the birds
from the trees or the cattle from the plain.
After the severe repulse which the French had met, nothing remained but
for them to retreat. Bienville saw that he could not depend upon the
Choctaws, and the fortifications of the Chickasaws were too strong to be
carried without cannon and mortars. On the 22d of May, the day following
that of the battle of Ackia, Bienville had litters made to transport the
wounded; and at one in the afternoon, the army formed itself into two
columns, which had been the order of marching in coming, it began its
retrogade movement. The troops were much worn out with the fatigue they
had undergone, and the labor of transporting the baggage and wounded
was difficult. Slow marching disgusted the Choctaws, and one portion of
them, headed by the chief Red Shoe, wished to abandon the French. But
the more numerous part, aided by the eloquence of Bienville, succeeded
in inducing them to remain.
On the 29th, the French reached the place where they had left their
boats. They found the river falling fast, and they hastened to embark
the same day. After a laborious passage, they arrived at Tombigbee on
the 2d of June, and from, thence returned to New Orleans. The expedition
had been well planned, and vigorously executed, but unforseen
circumstances defeated it. The Chickasaws had proven much better
warriors than they had been thought to be, and had defended themselves
with an obstinacy as unexpected as it was successful. The English
supported that tribe in their war with the French, and they were thus
enabled to main-themselves against all the expeditions sent against
them.
[Illustration: 0406]