II. ARKANSAS POST AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

C. Captain Colbert Intervenes

1. Enter Capt. James Logan Colbert

Bethune failed to back up his threat, and there were no reprisals until April 1782. A man now stepped forward to throw down the gauntlet to the Dons and champion the rebels’ cause. He was James Logan Colbert. James Adair, a contemporary, described him as “Capt. J. C-l-b-rt, who has lived among the Chikkasah from his childhood, and speaks their language even with more propriety than the English.”[30]

Colbert was a Scot, having been born in Scotland about 1720. According to tradition, he landed in Savannah, Georgia, in January 1736 from the ship Prince of Wales commanded by Capt. George Dunbar. Like many other Highlanders, he had migrated to the American colonies to escape reprisals against suspected Jacobites. Colbert soon made his way inland, and, adopting the ways of the Indians, settled among the Chickasaws, who in the long struggle for control of the Mississippi Valley were faithful allies of the British.

Colbert married into the tribe. His first two wives were full-blooded Chickasaws, while his third was a half-breed. By his first wife he had one daughter, whose name is unknown. His second wife bore him five sons--William, George, Levi, Samuel, and Joseph--all of whom became influential in tribal affairs. His third wife bore him a son, James, and a daughter, Susan.[31]

Colbert, like several of his fellow Scots, advanced to a position of influence in Chickasaw tribal councils. For a number of years the British cultivated his friendship, although the governor of West Florida in 1765 ordered him to leave. Colbert, however, refused to heed this order.

The Chickasaws, during the early years of the American Revolution, kept the peace with the frontiersmen. But after Spain entered the conflict in 1779, the Chickasaws became increasingly involved.[32]

The Spanish took official notice of Colbert in late autumn of 1779, following their capture of the British posts on the lower Mississippi. Commandant de la Villebeuvre, when informing Governor Gálvez of the measures he had taken to strengthen the defenses of Fort Panmure, warned that he had intercepted letters, one of them signed by General Campbell, urging James Colbert to organize “a Company of white men . . ., and some Indians, and march to Mobile,” where they would place themselves under the general’s orders. De la Villebeuvre’s informant cautioned that two officers were supposed to enter the Natchez District to steal horses, “and Colbert is making 1,000 promises to the Indians to spark a plot against us.”

Colbert was said to be telling the Indians that any “who died did so because of the poisoned drink” the Spanish gave them. When a chief answered that “many had died who had no drink” from the Spanish, Colbert replied, “the breath of the former caused the death of others.” Before turning to another subject, de la Villebeuvre cautioned, “This Colbert is harmful by the influence he has on the tribes, mostly the Chicachas. I don’t know yet the importance of his recruitment . . . but it can’t be much yet.”[33]

Colbert in 1780 led a force of whites and Indians to assist in the defense of Pensacola and Mobile against the Spanish. While on the Gulf Coast, Colbert prepared for the future by sending musket balls and powder to be stockpiled in the Chickasaw Nation.[34]

Colbert was influenced to employ force to secure the release of Captain Blommart and the other Natchez prisoners by capturing and holding for ransom Spanish shipping plying the Mississippi River. Indian Agent Bethune was in a position to bring pressure on Colbert to strike. In addition to official encouragement given by Bethune, there were in the Chickasaw Nation a number of British fugitives from Natchez, as well as from Georgia and the Carolinas. Many of these people were Colbert’s personal friends.[35]

Rumors that Colbert was preparing to strike reached the Spanish posts, but were discounted. In 1781 the Chickasaws and their white allies moved against Fort Jefferson, the post established by Col. George Rogers Clark on the east side of the Mississippi, several miles below the mouth of the Ohio. Colbert and his Chickasaws destroyed the fields and cabins near the fort, and invested it for six days. At a critical moment for the garrison of 100 Virginians, Colbert was wounded in the arm and the Indians withdrew. Faced with starvation, and not knowing when the Chickasaws and their white allies might return, the garrison burned and evacuated the fort.[36]