II. ARKANSAS POST AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

D. Captain Colbert Raids Arkansas Post

4. The April 17, 1783, Raid

f) Acting-Governor Miró Corresponds with Colbert

Dubreuil’s report of Colbert’s attack on Arkansas Post reached Acting-Governor Mir6’ after Captain Blommart and his fellow Natchez rebels had been paroled. The captain of His Majesty’s ship Ajax brought with him a copy of the Jamaica Gazette which featured an article describing the preliminary treaty of peace signed January 20, 1783.

On May 16, 1783, Acting-Governor Miró wrote Captain Colbert, notifying him that despite his gross provocations, “but of love of humanity he had prepared an expedition to go under a flag of truce to inform him of the treaty of peace which stipulated that all prisoners were to be returned without ransom, and all captures made subsequent to it were to be restored.” Colbert was advised that he was accordingly expected to restore to Antonio Pino the pirogue captured from him on April 9, and all else taken after that date, including the prisoners taken in the Arkansas Post raid.

Miró enclosed with his letter a copy of the Jamaica Gazette containing the text of the treaty. The communication was forwarded to Captain Dubreuil, with instructions for him to see that they were delivered to Colbert. Two days later, on the 18th, Colonel Miró wrote Governor Gálvez, reporting what he had done, and suggesting that if Colbert continued his attacks that he be treated as “a bandit without any scruples.”[110]

g) Colbert’s Flotilla Suffers a Defeat

After his meeting with Angaska, Colbert’s flotilla started back to the Chickasaw Nation. Learning from some Indians that the Ilinuesus convoy was on its way to Arkansas Post, the partisans reentered the Mississippi by way of the cutoff and the White River to avoid meeting it. After tying up opposite Concordia for 2 days, Colbert’s vessels traveled up the Mississippi, making about 2 leagues per day, as they were delayed by the necessity to constantly stop and put men ashore to hunt for food. At one anchorage two keelboats were stopped. They were found to be American, and from them Colbert recruited three men.

Malcom Clark and a comrade left Colbert at this time, going downstream to Natchez in one of these boats. Colbert’s band at this time was encamped about 6 leagues above the mouth of the St. Francis River. The partisans seemed on the verge of disbanding. Many planned to leave as soon as they reached Chickasaw Bluffs; some spoke of going to the Chickasaw Nation; others talked of taking horses and traveling to their own countries; and a few planned to continue up the Mississippi. Colbert was heard to declare that “he was expecting soon to hear that peace was made, and that when such news reached him he would cease hostilities.”

The convoy that Colbert was seeking to avoid had in the mean time stopped at Arkansas Post. Returning to the Mississippi, it resumed its run upstream. On May 11, 1783, the convoy tied up some distance above the mouth of the St. Francis. There Joseph Vallière the commander, learned that Colbert was coming upstream. He called for 100 volunteers, with whom, along with 24 Quapaws, he embarked. Dropping downriver 1-1/2 leagues, they engaged Colbert’s flotilla-- the bateau, a keelboat, a flatboat, and three pirogues. The partisans were bested. The flatboat and pirogues were captured, and McGillivray, Colbert’s second in command, was killed. A second man drowned, and a third had his arm broken. Also released were three soldiers Colbert had captured in the Arkansas Post raid.

Stored aboard the flatboat were 400 barrels of flour. The former prisoners were sent to Arkansas Post in a pirogue with 50 barrels of the flour. After breaking up the flatboat and the two remaining pirogues, Vallière’s convoy resumed its run up the Mississippi, the crews keeping a sharp lookout for Colbert’s bateau and keelboat, which had escaped during the melee.[111]