1729 — Nov 28, Fort Rosalie Massacre, French colonists by Natchez, Natchez, MS –200-300

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 2-5-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

—      300  Bunn and Williams. “A Failed Enterprise: The French Colonial Period in Mississippi.” 

—    ~200  Bragg. Historic Names…Places…Lower Miss. Riv. “Natchez, Mississippi,” 1977, 185.

—      200  Childs. A History of the United States In Chronological Order… 1886, p. 23

—    >200  Waldrip. “French-Natchez War.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. 7-11-2017 & 4-14-2018.*

–Hundreds. Elliott  “Indian-French Conflicts & Natchez Wars: 1715, 1722, 1729.” 17 Sep 2009. 

–Hundreds. Wikipedia. “Fort Rosalie.”

*Blanchard note on Waldrip. Waldrip writes that “The Natchez inflicted more than two hundred casualties and captured more than three hundred women, children and slaves.” The work “casualty” is a loose word, frequently taken to mean “fatality” when the proper word for dead is “fatality,” not “casualty,” which can mean wounded, injured, missing, etc. We can only speculate whether Waldrip meant over two hundred French deaths. Additionally, as a footnote, Waldrip noes note that some who were captured “died as slaves in “Saint-Domingue.”

Narrative Information

Bragg: “Most of the French colonists—priests included—looked on the Indians of the New World as ‘barbarous savages,’ and treated them accordingly. It was a policy hardly calculated to win the affection and esteem of the proud and intelligent Natchez tribe. For a brief time, the Natchez and the French coexisted uneasily on the bluff, but in 1829 the Indians lost their patience and rose up in revolt against their exploiters. The Natchez killed about 200 French soldiers and settlers before they fled across the river, to be pursued to their deaths shortly thereafter.” (Bragg. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. “Natchez, Mississippi,” 1977, p. 185.)

Bunn: “Establishing itself along the Mississippi River remained a priority for France throughout the early 1700s. Of particular interest was the site of Natchez, located on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi and featuring a large area of fertile soil. The French constructed Fort Rosalie there in 1716, hoping a prosperous settlement might develop nearby. Strained relations with the local Natchez Indians, however, ultimately led to the settlement’s demise. The French treated the Natchez harshly and abused their hospitality. When French officials in 1729 demanded land that included the White Apple Village, a sacred ceremonial center for the Natchez, the Indians determined to take a stand.

“On the morning of November 20, 1729, the Natchez attacked the fort, killing approximately three hundred people and taking many women, children, and black slaves captive. A smaller garrison further north near present-day Vicksburg was also attacked by Natchez allies, the Yazoo. The French quickly sent forces to retaliate against the Natchez and within two years had virtually destroyed the tribe. The French eventually repaired and re-garrisoned the fort, but the settlement at Natchez languished and did not begin to recover until decades later when it was no longer part of the French empire.” (Bunn/Williams. “A Failed Enterprise: The French Colonial Period in MS.”  Miss. History Now.) 

Elliott: “….it would be a day that would shake their society to the core. It would be a day that would require retaliatory strikes in which many more would die. To what do I refer? To the disaster of 9/11 or to the disaster of November 28, 1729? The former we all remember; the latter few know of. Yet for all of its distance in time, the earlier event was very much comparable to the more recent. In fact the ramifications of 11/28 were just as severe if not more so than those of 9/11. Word of the Natchez massacre wasn’t carried instantaneously through the air waves. It was carried by the few who managed to escape and wind their way down river to New Orleans, where the news sent shock waves through the French settlements, not only because of the event itself, but because it purported that they too — all the French settlers throughout North America, New Orleans, Mobile, Natchitoches, the Illinois — could soon be subject to similar attacks by Indians who were far superior in numbers and thus able to carry out such an attack and even conceivably a complete annihilation of French Louisiana.

“In relating the story of the massacre we have to keep in mind that the accounts we have were written by people who were not witnesses; almost all of the male French settlers were killed. The chroniclers — such as Dumont de Montigny, Le Page du Pratz, Fr. Mathurin le Petit — would probably have never lived to write the tale, if they had been present. Dumont notes that he left Natchez only the day before the massacre began, leaving his wife behind. She was captured by the Indians, later rescued, and served as one of her husband’s informants. The primary sources were of course the survivors, primarily women like Dumont’s wife, and a handful of men, and even occasionally a Natchez Indian (Le Page du Pratz interviewed the noble woman, the Tattooed Arm, after she had been made a prisoner). Even then given the violence and hysteria of the massacre and the fact that it took place over several square miles between the river and St. Catherine Creek, meant that oral accounts available to the chroniclers must have dealt with only small episodes and were often contradictory. Likewise the written accounts by the chroniclers are fragmentary and often contradictory.

“After Commandant Chépart returned to Natchez from New Orleans, he determined to found his own plantation, and he determined to do it by confiscating one of the Natchez villages, either White Apple or the Grand Village, and using the Indian fields for his own. This ruthless action set off a chain reaction that would bring French Natchez and the Natchez Indians down to destruction. Violence begets violence as injustices and perceived injustices call for retaliation and become more deadly, in the end sweeping everyone –guilty and innocent alike– into a maelstrom of chaos and blood.

“Upon being ordered to vacate the village either the Great Sun or the Sun of White Apple bought time by agreeing to pay the commandant a significant tribute in corn and chickens if they were allowed to stay until the harvest was gathered in the fall. In the time allotted to them, meetings were held to plan what action to take. The rage against the commandant coupled with anxieties over the growing French population was transformed into hysteria without temperance. They decided to perform a surprise attack that would wipe out the European settlement. If anyone attempted to argue for restraint in light of the potential consequences, their voices were drowned out by those crying for blood.

“…word of the impending massacre leaked out to the French settlers. However, those who notified the commandant was arrested to prevent their upsetting the populace.

“Meanwhile, two boats arrived from New Orleans bringing much needed supplies and to pickup the year’s harvest. On one of the boats came the Kollys, father and son, owners of the St. Catherine concession, who had traveled far to inspect their investment. Their arrival at the plantation must have certainly been an auspicious occasion for the director Martin Des Longrais and the other officers and workers. They would have certainly “rolled out the red carpet” for the Kollys….

“On the evening of November 27, Commandant Chépart accompanied by two other French officials — Picard Bailly, commissary and judge, and François Ricard, storekeeper who acted as interpreter — paid a social call on the Great Sun at the Grand Village. Ricard would be one of the very few to survive the following day. The purpose of the visit isn’t known, although it likely had something to do with the Indians’ payment of the tribute and their expected abandonment of their land so Chépart could establish his plantation on their fields. The French were outwardly welcomed, a welcome made easier by virtue of the fact that the Frenchmen brought several bottles of wine and brandy which were soon flowing profusely. After supper they asked that “the chief give them girls to spend the night with. Such were soon selected and granted forthwith. They went to bed together, and then slept, it seems.”

“Chépart’s party finally departed the Grand Village at 3 a.m. and returned to the fort. They had had a wild night and were exhausted. The commandant apparently intended to sleep late.

“Before sunup on the morning of November 28 the Indians began putting their plan into operation. Groups were designated to approach the large French settlements, namely the fort and the two concessions. Smaller groups dispersed out to the scattered farmsteads of the habitants. As Dumont de Montigny wrote: “There was not a settler, in whose house there was not an Indian under some pretext — some coming to pay what they owed, others coming to beg their friends to lend them a gun to kill a bear or deer that they had just seen by their hut; some, too, to pretend . . . to buy goods; and where there were three or four Frenchmen there were at least a dozen Indians, who had orders form the chief not to act till he gave the signal.”

“One large group led by the Great Sun headed for the fort and Chépart’s house bore with it corn, bear oil, and chickens, and was given ceremonial dignity by the calumet, the peace pipe, which they bore aloft and by banging on the “ceremonial pot.” At about 8:00 or 9:00 o’clock (sources vary) the column of Indians passed by the hill on which the fort sat “Singing and whirling the calumet before the soldiers of the garrison, who had run up to see the procession.” The fort was extremely dilapidated at the time and had been so for some years. Engineer and former commandant Ignace-François Broutin had struggled to have it renovated or rebuilt, but nothing had been done. According to him on this particular morning there weren’t even one hundred posts remaining in the palisade wall (which was perhaps something of an exaggeration) and that “it was possible to enter [the fort] on foot from all sides.”

“Then the Indians passed by the Company of the Indies’ storehouse where François Ricard resided. Despite his being out late, he was already up and about, down at the river, overseeing the loading of the galley. They finally reached the commandant’s house on the edge of the terrace, below the fort, and just above the landing. Dumont describes what happened next:

“Awakened by the noise of the man beating the pot and the cries of the Indians, [Chépart] rose en robe de chambre, and made the cortege enter. They offered him the calumet, and laid at his feet the presents required to save the great chief of the Natchez from being sent in the galley to the capital tied hand and foot. What goods displayed before the eyes of the commandant! what jars of bear oil arranged in his view! He admires these presents with complacency, laughing in his heart at the vain credulity of those who would have excited his suspicions against his Indian friends; he orders them to be set at liberty to witness with their own eyes what is going on, and see how improbable it is that men thus loading him with presents, could have formed a plot for exterminating the French. They danced and sung. . . .”

“Meanwhile other Indians moved on, some down to the landing while others went to the fort where they “entered in at the gate and breaches, [and] deprived the soldiers, without officers, or even a sergeant at their head, of the means of self defense.” Similar movements were simultaneously being made throughout the settlements, the scattered houses and the large headquarters of the concessions on St. Catherine Creek.

“Then the signal was given, the firing of the first guns. This may have occurred at the landing or near the commandant’s house — regardless several Natchez warriors aimed their guns at startled Frenchmen and fired point-blank. Upon hearing the shots other Indians then fired, and others further out, as the shots spread out in an ever expanding circle like a shock wave from a bomb, moving rapidly and inexorably toward St. Catherine’s Creek and the concessions located there.

“The massacre had begun.” (Elliott. “Dawn, Nov. 28, 1729: Gunfire Heralds Natchez Massacre”)

Elliott: “…only a few were able to escape…. a soldier, Belair, was loading firewood into an outdoor oven that was excavated into the base of the hill under the fort. When the shooting began he hid by climbing into the oven. Fortunately he wasn’t seen doing this, and there he remained until night fall when he made good his escape. He was the only soldier to survive the massacre….” (Elliott. “Massacre Escapes by River, an Oven & Darkness, Concordia Sentinel, Nov 12, 2009.”)

“The list of casualties assembled by Father Philibert indicates that 35 women and 56 children were killed. The attack was so sudden and well planned with such odds in their favor that the Indians took very few casualties. Oddly, all of their casualties were inflicted by one man and his household, that of Marc Antoine la Loire des Ursins, a prominent name in French Natchez history…. On the morning of the 28th he received word that an attack was imminent. He armed his workers and his young son who was half-Natchez, leaving them at his house, while he set out to alarm the fort. As he approached the fort the shooting began, so he turned his horse to race back home. However, Indians blocked his path and shots were exchanged. He turned again back toward the fort and encountered other Indians. By the time they shot him he had managed to kill four. Those fortified inside the house were besieged until nightfall. Although some were killed they reportedly killed another eight Indians, which — combined with the four attributed to Des Ursins — was a total of twelve. These were the only known fatalities suffered by the Indians.

“Most, if not all, of the French victims were beheaded, often after death. The heads were taken as trophies to the newly constructed tobacco warehouse which stood near the fort, overlooking the terrace and landing below. The site is approximately on the location of the current Rosalie Bicentennial Garden where a commemorative marker stands today. Blacks who escaped to New Orleans reported seeing, according to Perier, “the heads of our officers and [company] employees arranged in a row apart and those of the colonists opposite.”….

“An estimated twenty Frenchmen and six blacks escaped from Natchez that day. The first arrived in New Orleans on December 2 to break the news which would stun the colony, first because a major settlement had been destroyed, and second because of the fear that there was a wide-spread conspiracy among the tribes to destroy French Louisiana in its entirety….” (Elliott.  “Dogs, Buzzards Feasted on Headless Bodies.” Concordia Sentinel, Nov 19, 2009.) 

“At the time of the massacre there were 24 troops and three or four officers stationed at Natchez. Eight of the troops out of the 24 were stationed three miles from the fort at the Terre Blanche concession, where second lieutenant Laurent Desnoyer, served as concession director. Several of the soldiers were listed as “soldier-workers,” suggesting that they did double duty working on the plantation at Terre Blanche. The number of troops at Natchez represents a significant decrease from the 35 that had been stationed there only a couple years earlier. Of course troops were in short supply at the time; the total number for Louisiana was only about 375-400….

“At the time of the massacre the estimated civilian population was about 710 (200 men, 80 women, 150 children, and 280 African slaves). The military, as noted above, was composed of about 24 soldiers and three officers. So the total population was about 738, which was still far less than the surrounding Indian population….”  (Elliott. “Chepart’s Arrogance, Land Grab Fueled the Natchez Massacre of 1729,” Concordia Sentinel (LA), Sep 24, 2009.)

Waldrip. “French-Natchez War.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. 7-11-2017, updated 4-14-2018:

“In 1701 Sieur de Sauvole sent an expedition of four men to explore the high bluffs 150 miles upriver from New Orleans. They found the area “perfectly good and agreeable,” but the French experience there later proved otherwise. The land was named the Natchez District after the powerful tribe whose members preferred that the French stay far from the bluffs.

“Violence marred the first attempt to colonize the Natchez District in 1715. Irritated by the construction of a trading house, a band of natives murdered several frontier traders and looted the outpost, commandeering goods, horses, and slaves. Hearing news of the atrocities, Gov. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac ordered Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, to lead thirty-five soldiers to punish the tribe. Bienville somehow cowed tribal leaders into executing the guilty, returning the stolen merchandise, and constructing a fort for the future protection of the French.

“After the erection of Fort Rosalie in 1716, the Natchez District experienced incredible growth. Its population topped 300 settlers and slaves by 1723 and 750 by 1729. Many of the new arrivals began clearing land for the cultivation of tobacco, wheat, and indigo. The steady encroachment on tribal lands angered native inhabitants, and their hostility prompted Bienville, now governor of Louisiana, to send 500 troops on a 1722 “peace offensive” that destroyed two tribal villages.

“Relations worsened after Sieur de Chepart received the commission to govern the Natchez District in 1728. A notorious drunk, Chepart mistreated natives and settlers alike. His bad behavior led to his dismissal from office after the Superior Council found him guilty of abusing power. Gov. Étienne Boucher de Périer, however, pardoned Chepart and restored his commission. The commandant returned to Fort Rosalie and banished the Natchez Indians from the village of White Apple. The enraged tribal sovereign, Chief Sun, immediately began plotting an attack on the garrison and the surrounding settlements.

“On 28 November 1729 Chief Sun led what the French called the Massacre at Fort Rosalie. Disguised as peaceful visitors on a hunting expedition, the war party borrowed guns from the armory and then fired on surprised soldiers and settlers. Once the massacre commenced, Chief Sun watched the carnage from a perch near the tobacco storehouse, where he received Chepart’s severed head. The Natchez inflicted more than two hundred casualties and captured more than three hundred women, children, and slaves.

“The Natchez won the first battle but decisively lost the war. The French-Natchez War (1729–30) ultimately led to the annihilation of the Natchez as a nation, which some tribal elders had considered a French objective all along. Most died as warriors in battle; some died as slaves in Saint-Domingue, and others continued their struggle as adopted members of the Chickasaw or Yazoo.

“The Natchez inspired other native uprisings. The Yazoo killed eighteen soldiers in March 1730, and the Chickasaw launched a guerrilla war in 1731. Despite two decades of military campaigns, the French never managed to suppress the rebellious tribes.” (Waldrip, Christopher. “French-Natchez War.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. 7-11-2017, updated 4-14-2018.)

Wikipedia: “The entire French settlement was wiped out, hundreds of settlers were killed and hundreds more taken captive. Fort Rosalie was captured and occupied by the Natchez until reprisals by French and Choctaw forces in 1730 forced the Natchez to evacuate. The fort was left in ruins. By 1731 most of the Natchez had been captured, enslaved, and shipped to French plantations in the Caribbean. Some escaped and found refuge among the Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee.

“The French rebuilt Fort Rosalie in the early 1730s. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the fort passed into British control. The British renamed it Fort Panmure. From 1779 to 1798, it was under Spanish control and then, after 1798, the United States took over.

“The fort was abandoned in 1804. The city of Natchez traces its origin to the founding of Fort Rosalie in 1716. Today the site is part of Natchez National Historical Park.” (Wikipedia. “Fort Rosalie.”)

Sources

Bragg, Marion. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. Vicksburg, MS:  Mississippi River Commission, 1977. Accessed at:  http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/MRnames/MissRiverNames.htm > Also at:

http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Portals/52/docs/MRC/MRnames%28Intro-end_final2%29.pdf

Bunn, J. Michael, and Clay Williams. “A Failed Enterprise: The French Colonial Period in Mississippi.” Mississippi History Now. Accessed 11-21-2009 at:  http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/35/french-colonial-period-in-mississippi

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Elliott, Jack. “Indian-French Conflicts & Natchez Wars: 1715, 1722, 1729.” Concordia Sentinel, 9-17-2009. Accessed at:  http://www.concordiasentinel.com/news.php?id=4102

Waldrip, Christopher. “French-Natchez War.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. 7-11-2017, updated 4-14-2018. Accessed 2-5-2024 at: https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/french-natchez-war/

Wikipedia. “Fort Rosalie.” Accessed 11-21-2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Rosalie