Chickasaw Campaign of 1739

Part of the Chickasaw Wars

Date

March 1740

Location

Near present day , USA

Result

Strategic Chickasaw victory

Negotiated peace

Belligerents

Chickasaw nation

French

Commanders and leaders

Unknown

Sieur de Bienville

Strength

Perhaps 500 men well fortified

1200 French regulars and militia, 2400 Indian warriors, few of whom were engaged

Casualties and losses

Negligible

At least 500 due to sickness

Strategic Chickasaw victory

The Chickasaw Campaign of 1739 was a continuation of the Chickasaw Wars pursued by the French in Louisiana. In 1739 the French prepared extensively, but failed to engage the Chickasaw beyond some half-hearted skirmishing, and finally accepted a negotiated peace.

After the 1736 disasters of Ogoula Tchetoka and Ackia, Upper and Lower Louisiana were still separated by the obstinate Chickasaw. The Choctaw applied relentless pressure by ambushing hunting parties and traffic on the trading path to South Carolina. Alternately, the Choctaw devastated croplands and livestock after using superior numbers to force the Chickasaw into their forts. Under orders, Bienville immediately began to prepare a second grand expedition. Determined to remedy the lack of siege weapons and of coordination that had ruined his first, he obtained artillery, engineers and miners, and more soldiers. He planned for horses, meat on the hoof, forts for staging of men and supplies, and roads to carry the army and its accouterments.

Bienville selected a route up the Mississippi River this time, after receiving assurance from an engineering survey that artillery could be transported overland from there to the Chickasaw villages. A supply depot was built on the western bank of the Mississippi River at the mouth of the St. Francis River. Fort de l'Assumption was built across the Mississippi on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, at the Margot (present day Wolf) River, to receive men from throughout New France.

Three detachments reached the rendezvous in August, 1739: de Noyau with a vanguard from New Orleans, de la Buissioniere from Fort de Chartres with militia and two hundred Illinois, and Céloron with a 'considerable number of Northern Indians' and a company of cadets from Canada. As in 1736 the southern force was slow. Bienville finally arrived in November and reviewed the force which numbered 1200 Europeans and 2400 Indians, roughly twice the men available in 1736.

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Wikipedia