Chickasaw Wars

Choctaw Attacks

In 1721, Louisiana governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville incited the Choctaw to raid Chickasaw villages and ambush pack trains on the Trader's Path to Charleston. The Chickasaw responded by consolidating their villages, strengthening ties with British gun suppliers, and establishing a settlement at Savannah Town, South Carolina, in 1723. They also occupied Chickasaw Bluff to block French river traffic and negotiated peace with the Choctaw.

Bienville was recalled to France in 1724. Over subsequent years, the French reignited conflict, and the Choctaw used hit-and-run tactics—ambushing hunting parties, killing horses, destroying crops, and killing peace emissaries—with occasional help from Illini and Iroquois. This attrition wore down the Chickasaw, reaching a crisis in the late 1730s and early 1740s.

After a lapse due to Choctaw internal strife, harassment resumed in the 1750s. The Chickasaw clung more closely to the British. Bienville returned in 1734 and launched European-style campaigns.

Campaign of 1736

Bienville led a force from Mobile up the Tombigbee River, intending to join a northern force under Pierre D'Artaguiette coming from Fort de Chartres. On March 25, 1736, the northern force—French with Illini allies led by Chief Chicagou—was crushed attacking the village of Ogoula Tchetoka near present-day northwest Tupelo, Mississippi; D'Artaguiette was killed. He returned to Mobile and New Orleans in disgrace.

Campaign of 1739

Bienville got new orders to make another attempt. He secured heavy siege weapons and gathered his troops at Fort de l'Assumption, located on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which is now Memphis, Tennessee, about 120 miles west of the Chickasaw towns.

Canada sent soldiers and Native allies led by Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil and Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville. Sickness weakened the army, and Bienville could not move his cannons through the rough terrain. After many months of waiting, he reached a settlement without any fighting.

Supposed Campaign of 1752

Vaudreuil eventually argued for another grand effort to end the Chickasaw threat. Many sources describe such an expedition in 1752 but give no further details beyond calling it an exact repetition of 1736. Dawson A. Phelps determined that the grand effort never took place, though a strong Choctaw attack—one of many—was instigated and supported by the French.

Did You Know?

• Enmity between the Illini and the Chickasaw continued long after the war.
• The Chickasaw maintained themselves in remote, heavily fortified villages despite great loss to population and way of life.