II. ARKANSAS POST AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

D. Captain Colbert Raids Arkansas Post

4. The April 17, 1783, Raid

c) The Partisans Invest the Fort

At the first gunfire, Captain Dubreuil turned out the 40-man garrison. The troops, as the long roll was beaten, manned their battle stations within the Fort Carlos III stockade. Colbert’s partisans, after occupying the village and mopping up the habitant coast, moved upon the fort. Because of its unsatisfactory location, the raiders were able to make a covered approach to within “pistol shot” of the stockade. Taking cover in a ravine, they blazed away. From 3 to 9 A.M., they peppered the stockade with small-arms fire. The defenders remained under cover, and the lead balls thudded harmlessly into the “evergreen oak of which the palisades were made.”

To discourage the foe from rushing the fort, the Spaniards employed their four 4-pounder cannons, discharging them through the embrasures. As the besiegers had taken cover in a nearby gully, the more than 300 projectiles fired at them caused no casualties, but kept them from carrying off booty they had removed from the homes of the habitants.

Fearful that the raiders might have artillery with which to breach the stockade, Captain Dubreuil by mid-morning determined to rout them from the ground they held near the fort. He alerted Sergeant Pastor, nine privates of the Louisiana Regiment, and four Quapaws to make a sortie. When the gate was opened, they were to give a war whoop and dash toward the enemy.

Just as the Spaniards and their Indian allies were bracing themselves for the charge, Commandant Dubreuil sighted one of Colbert’s officers approaching, carrying a flag of truce. He was accompanied by Doña Marie Luisa de Villars. They advanced by the road opposite the one down which the sortie was to be made. Captain Dubreuil called, “Cease Fire!”

Taking fright, the officer fled, leaving the lady to deliver the message.

When the commandant received Doña Marie, she handed him a message from Captain Colbert, written in French. It read:

M. Le Capitane Colbert is sent by his superiors to take the post of the Arkansas and by this power Sir, he demands that you capitulate. It is his plan to take it with all his forces, having already taken all the inhabitants, together with the Lieut. Luis de Villars and his family.[106]

d) A Sortie Routs the Partisans

Captain Dubreuil ignored Colbert’s demand for surrender of the post. As soon as Doña Marie Luisa had retraced her steps, he launched his sortie. The gate opened. Sergeant Pastor, the nine soldiers, and four Quapaws dashed out of the stockade and toward the foe. Taken by surprise, Colbert’s people panicked and fled toward the ravine in which they had collected their prisoners. No one stepped forward to rally them, and they continued their flight, crying in despair, “Let’s go! Let’s go! The Indians are upon us.”

Hounded by the soldiers and Quapaws, with the terrible war whoops beating in their ears, the partisans retreated toward the landing. Captain Dubreuil now sighted some of the foe off to his left, and, fearing the newcomers might try to get between the fort and Sergeant Pastor’s combat patrol, he called for them to proceed with caution. Taking cover behind fallen timber, they continued to shout and shoot. The foe, thoroughly cowed, did not pause but hurried on to Red Bluff, where their boats were moored. During the skirmishing and the retreat, one of Colbert’s men was killed and a Chickasaw wounded.

After embarking his prisoners, Colbert sent a message to Captain Dubreuil by some of the women and children whom he released. It read:

You can form an idea of my forces, at 12 today 500 Chickasaws are due to arrive and also two bateaux loaded with men, armed with four swivels and a cannon and if the Commandant of the fort does not surrender before the said hour and I am victorious, as I have no doubt I shall be, I do not know whether I can hold my people or not, and if the . . . [Quapaw] are used against us I myself will order the prisoners killed.[107]

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