II. ARKANSAS POST AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

A. War Comes to the Lower Mississippi Valley

4. Spain Seizes a Number of British Settlements

Captain de Villiers and his men were busy relocating the post when news that Spain had declared war on Great Britain reached New Orleans in August 1779. Governor G an able soldier and vigorous administrator, was ready. Seizing the initiative, he moved against the nearby British West Florida posts. On September 7 Gálvez, with a mixed force of regular troops, white and black militia, and a few American volunteers, attacked and stormed Fort Bute. He then advanced up the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, which was defended by a force of British regulars and militia led by Lt. Col. Alexander Dickinson. With a fourth of the garrison on sick call, Dickinson, after a brief bombardment, surrendered on September 21. By, terms of the capitulation, Dickinson was allowed to withdraw with his command to Pensacola.

On the day that Baton Rouge capitulated, Capt. Juan de la Villebeuvre reached Natchez with 50 men and accepted the surrender of that British post. As first commandant of the Natchez District, de la Villebeuvre on October 10, 1780, issued a decree covering such “matter as night hunting, Negro slaves, vagabond, and vagrancy.”[9]

In the winter of 1779-80 Governor Gálvez moved against Mobile. His first expedition, sailing from New Orleans in January, was turned back by a hurricane. After returning to New Orleans and refitting, Gálvez again sailed for Mobile, entering the bay on March 10, 1780. By the 14th the Spanish had six batteries in position and opened fire on Fort Charlotte. The works were soon breached, and as G was forming his storming parties to exploit this situation, the British commandant capitulated, surrendering Mobile and the region between the Perdido and the Pearl. Gálvez’s next objective would be Pensacola, the principal British stronghold on the Gulf Coast, and the seat of government for West Florida. Gálvez realizing that Pensacola would be defended with greater vigor than Mobile or the Mississippi River settlements, proceeded to La Habána Cuba, to secure reinforcements and to organize a siege train.[10]

The Arkansas Post garrison was delighted to learn of the capture by Governor G of Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Commandant de Villiers was uncertain whether the articles of capitulation agreed to by Colonel Dickinson at Baton Rouge transferred to Spanish authority the east bank of the Mississippi between the Natchez District and the mouth of the Ohio, To give substance to a Spanish claim to the east bank of the Mississippi opposite his district, Captain de Villiers organized an expedition.

With writing materials, a box lined with tinfoil, and a coin bearing the coat of arms of His Catholic Majesty, de Villiers, accompanied by six men, left his new fort at Arkansas Post by a pirogue in mid-November 1780. On the 22d the expedition landed at Concordia, the small British trading settlement opposite the mouth of the Arkansas. The landing was unopposed, and as his followers stood at attention, de Villiers announced that he had taken possession of the east bank of “the Mississippi opposite the Arkansas, White, and St. Francis rivers, as far as the boundary of the district of Natchez.” Henceforth this area would be administered from Arkansas Post. Before returning to Arkansas Post, the Spanish placed this document, along with His Catholic. “Majesty’s royal coat of arms in a tin box,” which they buried 50 paces fro the Mississippi at a depth of 18 inches at the foot of a copalm tree.[11] In 1775 there had been five traders and 18 cabins at Concordia.[12] The men who accompanied de Villiers to Concordia were: Anselmo Billel, a prominent Arkansas Post trader; Estevan Gooding, an interpreter; Louis Poten, a boatman; and three soldiers--Pedro Tamina, Juan Bautista Anduezaj, and Lorenzo Quino.