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Our purposes are to be right, give compassion, be wise, be faithful, give strength, and be true
Our first historical publication is now available in glossy paperback and e-book on Amazon:
EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS '
IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED
STATES 1680 -1804
(A Time Traveller's Notebook)
by Dr. Andrew William Harrell
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................. 7
Sixteenth throughEighteenth Century European and British History................................................. 9
A Short History of the American South and Southwest before LaSalle..................... 12
The Period of French Settlement of the Mississippi River Valley along with the Spanish and Englishbeing in the Carolinas (1670-1740)................................. 38
Explorations in the Carolinas during this period..................................................................... 50
The Spanish in Florida at this time..................................................................................... 51
The later history of the Whole Lower Mississippi Valley during this period...................... 52
A Short History of the Indians in the American Southeast(16801777)........................................................................................................................ 65
Before the Revolution from Britain.......................................................................................... 65
The American Revolutionary War Period.............................................................................. 72
The Period of Influence from Spanish West Florida..................................................... 78
And American Explorations in the Southern U.S(1750-1804)........................................................................................................................ 78
Interlude: Ashort account of the life of Andrew Ellicott,
Surveyor General of the UnitedStates........... 91
Interlude: Ashort account of the life of William Dunbar,
Trustee of Jefferson College andFounder of Mississippi Science 100
Details of Ellicott's journey down the Mississippi and across the Southernboundary of the United States 105Dunbar's journey up the Red and Quachita Rivers................................ 110
IMPORTANT DATES....................................................................................................... 127
References....................................................................................................................... 192
Appendix A.......................................................................................................................... 198
ELLICOTT AND DUNBAR'S SURVEYING METHODS....................................................... 198
Ellicott's journey down the Mississippi and across the Southern boundary
of the United States........ 198
Andrew Ellicott's method of determining the time................................................................ 201
The Lunar Distance Method of Determining the Longitude................................................ 206
A short history of some of the methods of land navigation used during theperiod of this study......... 210
Hugh de Payn and the foundation of the order “Poor Knights of
Christ and the Temple of Solomon” 1114-1115
Clarevau abbey is founded by St. Bernard, who was the highest
authority in France at the time 1115
The Council of Troves 1129, presided over by the Popes legate
Cardinal d’Albano in which the Church gradually
tried to free itself from the control of temporal powers.
1131 In the year 1128 AD, Bernard
participated in the Council of
Troyes, which had been
convoked by Pope Honorius II, and was presided over by Cardinal Matthew of
Albano. The purpose of
this council was to settle certain disputes of the bishops of Paris, and regulate other matters of
the Church of France. The bishops made Bernard secretary of the council, and
charged him with drawing up the synodal statutes. After the council, the bishop of Verdun was deposed.
It was at this
council that Bernard traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar who soon became the ideal of
Christian nobility and helped them set up a new order.
Robert de Creon succeeds Hugh de Payn as Grand Master of the
Knights 1136
These two Templars became the most powerful feudal lords who
reigned over the countryside and dukedoms
along with the Kingdom of France.
The order of the Temple grows in Europe in the Anglo-Norman
Kingdom and in Spain.
In 1146 Louis VII entrusted the Royal treasure to the crusaders.
In 1147 Louis VII, the Pope Eugene III and the German Emperor
Conrad chaired the first assembly of what
Later came to be known as the Knights Templar and the
Christian Army headed for the Balkans and the Holy Land for the
second crusade.
In 1149 Robert de Craon died but the order grew in financial
properity and spread. Within a few decades it
Was to become the leading landowner in Europe and the “banker
of the West.”
Its basic structure proceeded from a series of “commanderies” or
castle headquarters. In Provence there
Were the commanderies of Richerenches [founded in 1136], Ruou
[established in 1155], Sainte-Eulalu du Larzac [established in 1140]
, and Montaunes at the foot of the Pyrenees.
These castle headquarters supervised Pilgrim routes and were
main throughfare. They, the Templars were also
Establi1146 shed in Marseilles, guarding the port.
From 1120-1291, as a result of the crusades, the Knights moved
more to the East, building a series of Templar fortresses there.
There was the siege of Damascus in July of 1148, the siege of
Ascalon in 1153, the campaign in Egypt 1163-1187
From 1189-1191 there was the third crusade.
1175-1250 Leonardo of
Pisa, Fibonacci is born, an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa. In
1202 he wrote the book Liber Abaci (Book of Numbers) which enabled us
mathematicians to do addition, subtraction, and multiplication of decimal
numbers, instead of Roman numerials. This greatly improved the simplication of
navigational calculation required to use the Greek Astrolabe and the Egyptian
Ptolomy’s method of calculating the navigational tables required for its use..
From 1228-1229 there was a sixth crusade led by the German
Emperor Frederic II.
For a fascinating look along with plenty examples of the longer
and more complicated visual and numeric way Egyptians and Babylonians did
mapping and surveying calculations see “The Temple of Man” by Schwaller de
Lubicz
And, from 1248-1254 there was a seventh crusade. The King of
France Louis IX decided to participate in this during the
Summer of 1245 at the council of Lyon. He spent four years of
his time from 1250 to 1254 in the Holy Land.
1204 “The Army of the Fourth Crusade en route to the Holy Land
to liberate Jerusalem for Rome, instead sacked Constantinople, even though it
was a Christian city. Within three days they managed to destry a centuries’
worth of the most precious art the civilized world has to offer.” Nancy
Goldstone, op. cit. below.
From 1217-1221 the Knights Templar participated in the fifth
crusade led by Jean de Brienne King of Jerusalem and
King Andrew II of Hungary. They wanted to cut Egypt off from
Palestine, hoping to force the Sultan of Egypt to exchange Jerusalem
For Damietta a city where the crusader fleet landed in May 1218.
As we begin to discuss below the torture and interrogation of
the Knights Templars in the South of France by Philip IV King of France, and
Pope Clement V it should be noted that the “Teutonic Knights”, brother
crusaders of the Knights Templar,
had a history, also authorized by Popes of the time, of
torturing their captives during the Baltic crusades.
. “The Teutonic Knights, with their limited number of men,
made a point of dividing their raiding forces into small detachments… so that
in case of defeat smaller losses would be captives out of hand, with the
exception of the peasants and laborers who were still required to cultivate the
land for their new masters.” During the period 1170 to 1198 Popes Alexander III
and Innocent III authorized crusades against the pagan populations of the
eastern Baltic. In 1226 10 1230 German Emperor Frederick and Pope Gregory
IX further authorized the Teutonic Knights to conquer western tribes in this
area. In 1291 the fall of crusader-held city of Acre in Palestine caused
the transfer of their headquarters to Venice. It was later moved to Marienburg
(now Malbork in Poland). In 1382 they seized the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
In 1429 they were sent to defend Hungary against the Ottoman Turks. “
Lindhom and Nicole op. cit.
From 1228-1229 there was a sixth crusade led by the German
Emperor Frederic II.
And, from 1248-1254 there was a seventh crusade. The King of
France Louis IX decided to participate in this during the
Summer of 1245 at the council of Lyon. He spent four years of
his time from 1250 to 1254 in the Holy Land.
1261 “The Greeks manage to recapture Constantinople
forcing the last Latin Emperor Baldwin II to flee. Baldwin strike a bargain
with Queen Joanna’s great-great-grandfather Charles of Anjou in which the
ousted crusader ceded the principality of Achaia, on the western coast of
Byzantium, to Charles in exchange for Charles’ help in his regaining his
empire.” Nancy Goldstone, op.cit. below.
In 1270 there was an eighth crusade led by Louis IX.
And, in 1271-72 another minor crusade led by Edward I of
England.
From 1286-1314 there was a rivalry between the Popes and King
Philip IV of France.
By 1291 the Templar Order had ceased to exist in the Holy Land.
Around 1292 the Vivaldi brothers of Genoa, departed to search
for the region of the Indies by way of the Atlantic. Little is known of the
voyage. However, they did not have
mathematical navigational instruments like the Astrolabe, which were
introduced by the Templars later in Portugal in the 1330s. They sailed in round
hull merchant ships intended to take advantageof the “Canary Currents.[iii]
By 1293 the Order had retreated to Cyprus where it elected
Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Temple.
1294 Charles the Lame awards the principality of Achaia
(containing the city of Durazzo on the western coast of Albania) to his son
Philip, prince of Taranto.
Philip starts planning to retake the capitol of the Latin
Empire.
In 1305 Clement V is elected Pope.
1307 The
Holy Order of the Templars is ousted from the Holy Land, but they still had
more than 100 castles and large standing armies, and the most advanced military
equipment and ships of the age, making them richer and more powerful than most
of the European rulers of the time. When they withdrew from the Holy Land at
Acre they took with them large amounts of gold and possibly sacred objects from
the Holy Temple in Jerusalem[iv].
Most of this was stored in a large castle complex in Paris France.
In
September 1307 King Phillip of France
was in need of this money and treasure
to finance his economy. He had the Knights arrested simulataneously in Paris
and with the help of other European monarches all over the European continent.
He also convinced Pope Clement V to have the charge of heresy brought against
them. Being aware of this attempt to wipe them out, the Knights evacuated
temporarily and transferred most of their treasure and sacred objects to
various castle comandaries in the Southeast of France, But, of the about 3000
members, only 600 escaped. They rest were captured, charge with heresy and
treason, and tortured severely, and the leaders burnt at the stake, by
Phillip,.
The grand master de Molay was arrested at the gates of the
Templar house in Paris by Philip IV’s Chancellor William de Nogaret.
Philip entrusted the task of interrogating de Molay and his
fellow prisoners to his confessor William of Paris.
Clement V in Paris suspended the powers of William and assured
them the protection of
himself and the administrative curia of the Church. The Knights
became pawns in a power struggle
Between the Pope and the King of France.
Two days later the first confessions took place, These
authorized confessions became in effect, the interrogation of one
hundred and thirty eight Knights Templar imprisoned in the
dungeons of Paris.
They were accused of such crimes as “repudiation of the Holy
Cross [even spitting on it]”, worship of idols and black cats,
Those who did not
Want to confess were subjected to such horrific torture that 38
of them died.
In 1309 Clement and the Papal court moved to Avignon.
In 1310 fifty four of the remaining Templars on trial for heresy
were pronounced guiltly and burnt at the stake.
In 1311 Council, with over 100 bishops from all over
Europe, was assembled in Vienne, a city on the Rhone river, 30
kilometers south of Lyon, in Southern France,
with the purpose of the abolition of the order.
Excerpts from the book: “The Popes of Avignon, a Century in
Exile” by Edwin Mullins
And “The Lady Queen by Nancy Goldstone
Popes of the Avignon period:
Clement V (1305-1314)
“Early in the thirteenth century Avignon became the victim of an
accident of feudal loyalties, The city
was on the losiing side of a bloodthirsty ideological struggle.
The surrounding area was ceded to the Counts of
Toulouse, supporters of the Cathars. who believed that the World
was not created by God alone, but by God
And the devil
John XXII(1316-1334)
1314 Out of about 3000 members left in 1307 and an
unbroken line of nine powerful commanders ruling them for about 200 years only
600 of the Knight’s Templar survived. After leaving the commanderies in
Southeast France the remander moved temporarily from their to the Hermitage
Fortress of St. Barthomew of Ucero in neighboring Northern Spain near Soria
Spain[v].
1317 Pope John XII issues a papal bull from Avignon
excommunicating “The Spirituals” [Michael Cesena, William of Ockham other
Francisian monk and others] for among other things
criticizing his right to enrich himself, be a heretic and overly
enjoy life and prosperity without setting a good example as a representative of
God’s Holy Spirit on Earth
in the way of Jesus Christ, while he lived here and is still
living here.
He also excommunicates his rival Holy Roman Emperor and
his anti-pope an Italian Nicholas V for opposing him. After this a Cisterian
monk Fournier starts a long traditional of so-called “Grand Inquisitions” of
the Cathars, which he conducted meticiously out of the Bishop’s Palace in
Pamiers, much more of which unfortunately happened later to the Church.
1319 The Order of Christ is founded in a fantastically unique
monastic castle in Tomar, Portugal. Almoval castle goes back to St. Bernard and
has many of the Templar’s famous mystic religious symbols, like the
five-pointed star believed to go back to the Temple of Solomon in the Holy
Land. The new order recreates a Knight’s
of Templar, St. Bernard type order with many identical rules of the order he
had instituted to found them in the beginning of the 12th century,
and finally built in 1160,poverty, obedience, chastity. The Pope gave
King Diemo of Omar permission to found the order. Shortly thereafter the
Porteguese Navy was greatly expanded and built up by the Order of Christ and
commissioned to explore the far reaches of the then known world.
The ancient
Greek and Egyptian navigational instrument, the Astrolabe was used for the
first time again in centures. This instrument was known and its purpose in
Europe in the 12th century. But, an understanding of the advanced
Greek mathematics required for its use was not. It enabled navigators to
calculate their latitude from the height of the Pole star and other stars and
the sun.
It is that by many that the Templars had brought it from the
monasteries of Southeast France and thence brought to Portugal. They had
brought this instrument and the knowledge of how to use it using ancient
Egyptian, Greek, and Babylonian mathematical texts such as the one written by
Ptolomy after evacuating the Holy Temple of Jerusalem in the Holy Land where
the knowledge of it and its use was known. This new ability to navigate the far
reaches of the world’s
oceans inaugurated a new
“age of discovery” in European exploration.
Benedict XII(1334-1342) is Pope.
Clement VI (1342-1352) is Pope.
1337-1433
Hundred years of religious wars including the eruption of the Great Plague in
1349
1339 Some
of the Canary Islands and the Madeira group appear for the first time on a
surviving navigational map[vi].
1378-1417
The great schism in the Christian Papacy. Jan Hus preached in 1402 in Prague,
Czechoslovakia. He was burnt at the stake in 1415.
1417-60 Henry the Navigator became the Order of Christ’s most famous grand masters
(r.1417-60), using much of their money to fund his explorations. Prince Henry
gave great impulse to the pioneering Portuguese expeditions during the Age of
Exploration. In Tomar, he ordered the construction of various cloisters and a
Gothic nave added to the round church. He also sponsored urban improvements in
the town of Tomar.
Manuel I became Grand Master of
the Order of Christ in 1484 and King of Portugal in 1492. From 1510, King
Manuel I ordered the rebuilding of Henry's Gothic nave in the style of the
time, CF URL-http://www.sacred-destinations.com
1444 Cosimo the Elder
established the first public library in Florence, Italy.
1450 (circa) The first
printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg, was in use. In 1455 Gutenberg
completed his 42-line Bible in Latin of which about 180 copies were printed.
Printing presses were set up in tens of Central and Western European towns within
a couple of decades.
1466 The birth of the
influential Dutch Humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was a Catholic priest and
monastic, social critic, teacher, theologian, and a classical scholar, who
wrote in the pure Latin style.
Erasmus studied in
Paris, lived in several European countries, and died in Basel, Swiss
Confederacy. He prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New
Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant
Reformation and Catholic counter-reformation. He disagreed with Luther, who in
a letter to Erasmus claimed, “Free will does not exist” dreading any change in
doctrine. But he agreed with Luther on religious tolerance. He also supported
the reforms in the Church suggested by Luther which he thought were badly
needed.
1452 The birth of
Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), an Italian Dominican friar and preacher who was
active in Florence, Italy. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the
destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He
prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus (like the sun) from
the north, who would reform the Church. After the French invaded Italy, the
Florentines expelled the ruling Medici, and urged by Savonarola established a
republic. Savonarola wanted to institute a civil society like Plato’s Republic
in Florence which would be more like the Venetian Government than the
individual princely municipalities in the rest of Italy. When Florence refused
to join the “Holy League” of Pope Alexander VI against the French, Savonarola
was summoned to Rome and excommunicated. With the Pope and popular opinion
turned against him he was condemned, hanged, and burned alive with two of his
supporting friars in the Piazza della Signoria, the main square of Florence.
Their bones reside to this day in the San Marco monastery east of there in the
beautiful city of Florence.
Later on, his earlier
writings were appreciated by the early Protestants, particularly by Martin
Luther in Germany, and by the Huguenots in France. Also in the Catholic Church
many defended his memory.
1469 The birth of Niccolo
Machiavelli (1469 -1527). Machiavelli lived in Florence and wrote his
influential book the Prince in 1513. He initially supported Savonarola in trying
to convert Italy into a republican style state. But, after failing to be
successful and being tortured for his failed military organizations of some of
Florence’s army units, he decided to be more pragmatic and write a playbook for
princes who wanted to control their states by whatever means necessary. To do
this in a Christian world, he used a philosophic argument going back to the Roman
Lucretius that a Natural God who rules this World by worshipping “Fortuna” did
not create it out of nothing, but with whatever was available at the time[vii]. After he died, a century later, his writings would be used
by members of the Catholic counter-reformation to justify and accomplish the
slaughter of thousands of Protestant Huguenots in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day
massacre in Northern France.
1451 Province France bequeathed to Louis XI, by Charles of
Mauve, nephew of Rene.
1483 The birth of Martin
Luther in Eisleben, Saxony (in current Germany).
1485 The birth of
Huldrych Zwingli in Wildhaus, in the Swiss Confederacy.
By the 1490s, the
trade routes used by earlier explorers had cracked open an understanding of the
Atlantic wind system. This new knowledge along with the navigational instrument
of many pilots at the Portugese school of exploration, the financing of some
voyages by the Spanish Crown rule in Seville, and Italians like the Duke of
Medina, helped set the stage for Columbus’ famous voyages[viii].
1492 On August 3
Christopher Columbus left Palos Spain with
three ships, the Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta. After 19 day on October the crew
spots shore birds flying west and followed them to make landfall.
On October 12, a
sailor aboard the Nina spots an island in what is now called San Salvador, the
Bahamas. He encountered peaceful people; the Taino or Arawak (some say they
were the Lucayan who dated back to 750AD and replaced in the Taino in the 16th
century) who were friendly.
The term Arawak
refers to a cultural group extending into South America of which the Taino were
one having migrated north along the Caribbean island chain. There were
estimates[ix] of about 350,000 Taino people by the time of the late 15th
century. They cultivated the yuca root, harvested it and baked it to produce
cassava bread. They were self sufficient growing cotton and tobacco, and ate
maize and sweet potatoes.
On 27 October
Columbus sighted the island of Cuba but did not land there. He then explored
its northeast coast and the northern coast of Hispaniola. On 15 January 1493 he
set sail for home by way of the Azores. Rerouted by a storm he arrived in
Lisbon March 4.[x]
1492 After 1492 The
Catholic Kings began the expansion of royal power in Spain, in Italy, and in
the New World. [1]
[1]
Experiencing Nature, The Spanish American Empire and the Early scientific
Revolution, Antonio Barrera-Osorio.
[i]iTimeline and excerpts from the book “The Knights Templar, from
Glory to Tragedy”.
[ii]
[iii] “Pathfinders, a Global History of
Exploration”, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto,
[iv] History Channel program, February 2018, “Buried Treasure: The Knight’s Templar”
[v][v][v] op.
cit.
Benedict XII(1334-1342)
Clement VI (1342-1352)
[vi]
Pathfiners, op. cit.
[vii][vii]
Great Courses “Books that Matter, The Prince” by William Landon.
[viii]
Pathfinders, op. cit.
[ix] www.wikipedia.com article on the history of
Cuba.
[x]
Introduction The first purpose of this book is to put into a better lightthe overall context and sequence of events that resulted in the settlement ofour American South. One way to do this is to organize it all which somepictures into a chronological sequence. Another, is to better explain some ofthe mathematical details explorers were confronted with. Who solved the problemsassociated with these details, I believe had a large effect on who was tofinally dominate control of the region.I have set out also to collect andorganize for future study and reflection by others this information from manyhistorically different sources. Hopefully, this will add some complexity tovarious viewpoints people have about what happened then, in those days. And, itmay help us all develop a better appreciation for our heritages. Those of uswho grew up and live here in the South need to be able to understands more ofour past in order to proceed forward. During some of the period that I am focusedon this region was under the control of the Spanish. Before that it was theFrench. The British also occupied it to some extent. The focus in time of theinformation considered, is from 1680. This covers the period from the voyagesof exploration of LaSalle and the period of French control of the area unto1804. The area studied does not include the colonies of Virginia and Maryland,although these states are often considered as part of the South[1].
History as a time traveller’s notebook:
Inaddition to this detailed chronology, I have tried to organize the facts intochapters for the French Explorers, for the Spanish, the British. Various American Indian tribes. And, I havetried to collect connecting historical time line information about some of themore interesting and influencial characters in the story. Appendices on some details of theorganization of the military posts and mapping problems the different country’s explorersencountered. Daniel Boone, Andrew Ellicott, Desoto, and others. But, I haven’ttried to collect everything under some philosophic theory of history (the greatman, the idealistic, effects of the environment on history0 or religious aims(eg. Protestant or Catholic worldviews.
This isbecause I believe the history of this period in the Southern US is still beingrewritten. It is tied up with thenarrative and story of the history of this region our United States ofAmerica which is much too large a topic to tackle in one book. Indeed, the Civil War, which came later, mayhave completely upset and reshaped again theories or conclusions that this thatanyone had prior to it happening.
As the historical timeline outlines there were variousattempts of permanent settlements by the Spanish as well as the English. One ofthe best earlier references to this history and time period is the book byHebert Bolton and Thomas Marshall written in 1920. But this reference is muchbroader in scope and a lot of material has become available to us that wasn’t availablethen. This is because of the tremendous influence of much more informationbeing available in our age of computers. Also, I have included footnotes andreferences for those interested in doing their own research. The timeline ofconsideration ends in 1812 after the start of the expeditions of William Dunbarand before those of Captains Lewis and Clark into the Northwest Territories. TheAmerican connections to future events in the book is that one of the maincharacters in the discussion, Andrew Ellicott, trained both Captain Lewis andCaptain Dunbar in the mathematics of surveying.
Two ofthe explorers which I have tried to focus on in this book, Andrew Ellicott andWilliam Dunbar, are both products of historically fascinating and turbulenttimes in the United States. What do they share in common? They participated inthe War of the American Revolution in some way. Hence they saw great changes inthe government and political times of the new country in which they lived. Theywere men of wide intellectual interests, interesting in exploration not justfor its own sake but for the sake of helping the society of the time. But, thestories of their lives and exploration, being so complex, have to be firstcorrectly placed in a database of past historical events to be understoodproperly.
Andrew Ellicott, a Quaker, was a religiousliberal who was also a mathematician and practical scientist. In William Dunbarwe have an agriculturalist, not necessarily religious, but who was anaccomplished empirical scientist and a surveyor. Both Ellicott and Dunbar whereformed by the philosophical and enlightened times of the eighteenth century. Ellicott was a friend of Benjamin Franklinwho studied with the influential ad famous philosopher David Hume. Dunbareducated at Kings College in Scotland at the height the most intellectuallyproductive phase in the Scottish Enlightenment period. Also, in my mind, two othermen stand out after studying this period Daniel Boone and James Adair. Ihaven’t added special treatments of their lives in this book. For, there arealready excellent biographies of Daniel Boone. And, Adair has written his own biographyalong with a monumental treatment of Indian life in the Southeastern U.S. In Daniel Boone we have a simple reflectiveman with an interest adventure and nation building. In Adair we have a moresocially oriented man of commerce interested in ancient civilizations and wherethey started and who also loved to study natural mankind in its original form.
The discussion alsoincludes some important background information with dates connected with thereligious turmoil and the military wars which preceded the colonization of theregion. The reason being for including this material is that the experiences ofthese wars helped motivate our ancestors to move to a new land across theoceans and endure countless hardships that we might inherit the benefitsthereof. I have included a mathematicalappendix going through some interesting mathematical details of the surveyingtechniques that Dunbar and Lewis and Clark used. We also touch on Americanpolitics at the time of Maj. Ellicott and Judge Dunbar's early explorations in LA,MS, and Arkansas.
Iwant to especially thank, Col. Cameron of the West Point Mathematics departmentfor suggesting in the early 1980s to me while on a sabbatical with our HQDAStudy group, The US Army Engineer Strategic Study Group, the subject of Andrew Ellicott’s explorationas an area worth doing research about. The Misssissippi Department of Archivesand History invited me to several meetings to discuss what we both knew aboutthe topics in the book. And the Jefferson College alumni committee was kind enough to invite me to speak at theiryear 2000 Reunion. Fredrick Briuer took the time to review and suggestimprovements to the work. This was a significant help to me in revising mywork. Todd and Regina Derstine of Brookhaven MS have visited with me and takentime out of their work to review the chapters on the history of Indians in theSoutheast and the appendix on Andrew Ellicott’s journeys and explorations. Dr.Morton, a retired physican in Georgia has kindly allowed me to use some of thechronological facts from his book on Andrew Ellicott to add to my table ofchronological ordered historical events in this book.
[1] See “TheOld South” by Harriet Kane for some historical information during these timesfor those areas of our country.
RELEVANT FACTS OF THE EXPLORATIONS ORDERED BY IN A CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE BY HISTORICAL DATE :
Some important information and dates connected with the prehistory of the explorations of Ellicot and Dunbar. It includes dates and information related to the early explorations in the North Americas and the names of people mentioned in their journals. Dates of explorations and settlements in the areas of the Americas from which the explorers to our region came (ie Canada, Mexico, Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, and Ireland) are included. Also, a short history of the U.S. Army during the period 1781-1802 and along with its deployments is included. And, some of the important background information and dates connected with the religious turmoil in Europe preceeding the colonizations in the U.S.(the experiences of these wars being part of the reasons which helped to motivate our ancestors to move to a New Land across the oceans and endure countless hardships that we might inherit the benefits thereof)
1698 The Frenchman Henry de Tonty (companion of LaSalle) is in command of Ft. St. Louis on the Mississsippi River (the only remains of LaSalle's earlier expedition). The Frenchman De Baugy, De la Forest and December also serve at this post. The position as head of the trading post there is referred to as Commandant of the IIlinois. Le Moyne d'Iberville is appointed Governor of French Louisiana. Three Jesuit priests (father de Montigny, LaSource, and Davion invested with powers of vicar general by the seminary in Quebec, John Francis Boisson (also known as de St. Come where he took up his residence among the Natchez until March 1700 and was killed later laboring among an Illinois tribe, the Tamarois, in 1707) , and Anthony Davion from the Seminary of Foreign Missions in Quebec[62] using the Mississippi as their highway they established Fort St. Pierre (located just north of present day Vicksburg, MS at what is now an overgrown overlook of the Yazoo River where Federal Hwy 61 viers off into State Hwy 3). They had been sent out by the Seminary of Quebec in response to an order from France as a mission to the Tunica Indians. This tribe was the largest tribe of some 2450 Indians in the area at that time. The other tribes were the Yazoos, Koroa[63], Afo[64], Tioux[65], and Chakchuma[66]. The site, along with old Fort Maurepas (Old Biloxi) and New Biloxi were the first settlements of Europeans in the State of Mississippi.[67] The Spainard Don Andres de Pes, General of the Barlovento fleet renames Pensacola Bay the Bay of Santa Maria de Galve (who is then viceroy of Mexico). And he builds a fort called Fort San Carols, with four bastions, a church, and some houses there.
1699 D’Iberville establishes Fort Maurepas (Old Biloxi) on the MS Gulf Coast.
D’Iberville sails to St. Domingo and then Pensacola by the way of the west coast of Florida with two boats and 51 men including his brother and a Recollect father Anastasius Douay. He finds there 300 Spaniards recently come from Vera Cruz sent to anticipate the settlement of the French[68]. He anchors east of present day Mobile on Dauphin Island where he found many Indians. The Indians there are called the Bayagoulas[69]. They live in 700 small cabins built in the form a dome and thirty feet in diameter and worship animals such as bears, wolves,birds, oposiums[70]..
1700 D’Iberville ascends up the Mississippi where he is treated with great cordiality by the Oumas,[71] a people of about 400 to 500 hundread who subsequently were ravaged by small pox and disappeared by 1722. He proposes to set up there a trading post. He brings Father du Ru and Donge to help the group at Fort St. Pierre in Vicksbug. (Donge later died at Mobile in 1704) He then returns down the river and establishes Fort Maurepas (Old Biloxi) on the MS Gulf Coast. On arriving he learns that towards the end of September of the preceding year an English corvette of twelve guns had entered the Misissippi. The ships were met by D’Ilberville’s breother de Bienville and forced not to proceed further. He also learns that other English from Carolina were among the Chickasaws trading for furs and slaves. Two ships of Franch Hugunot refugees from the Carolinas sail from London England to Louisiana. They are turned back by de Bienville.
1701 James Stuart the Catholic King of England dies in England. His son James Francis Edward Stuart is recognized by Louis IV of France as King of England. But, as the facts to follow will show, he will never be able to have this happen. Iberville goes ahead with a plan to settle 200-700 people around Mobile and on the lower MS. The home government directs him to "domesticate wild cattle for the sake of their wool, to search for pearl fisheries on the Gulf, and above all search to discover mines"[72]
1702 Queen Anne’s war starts and the English capture Spanish held St. Augustine FL erasing Spain from the area in present day Florida. Father Davion has to flee for his life from Ft. St. Pierre after destroying the idols in the Tunicas’ temple.[73] Bienville is appointed Governor of French Louisiania. An expedition against the British settlement at St. Augustine in East Florida was carried out by Col. Moore, Governor of Carolina. His force consisted of five hundred English troops and seven hundred Indians, with whom he beseiged the city for three months.
1702 Father Davion has to flee for his life from Ft. St. Pierre after destroying the idols in the Tunicas’ temple.[74] Bienville is appointed Governor of French Louisiania. An expedition against the British settlement at St. Augustine in East Florida was carried out by Col. Moore, Governor of Carolina. His force consisted of five hundred English troops and seven hundred Indians, with whom he beseiged the city for three months.
1703 Father Nicolas Foucault of the Seminary of Quebec is killed among the Tonicas, possibly incited by the English (Americans) through their contacts with the Chickasaws. An English force kills 600 Indian converts of the Spanish priests in Florida.[75]
1704 Nicolas de La Salle, nephew of Robert Caveller de La Salle arrives at Fort St. Louis, (Mobile AL), founds a city there, sends a letter back to Pontchartrain containing a census of Louisiania. The English, with a large body of the Alabama Indians, capture the Spanish Fort of St. Marks on the West coast of Florida.[76] The Yamasee Indians allies of the English occupy the area until they are decimated in the Yamasee War of 1715-1717.
1706 The three Recollect Catholic priests at Ft St. Pierre abandon their mission. [77]
1707 Governor John Archdale of Carolina makes, "the evangelism of the Indians in the Mississippi area" one of the main goals of his colony."Thomas Jefferson II has a son, Peter, who will be the father of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States"[78].
An English corsair ravaged the French settlements at Mobile.[79]
1706-1707 The Acts of Union, Parliamentary acts passed in 1706 and 1707 respectively by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland create a union of the parliaments between Scotland and England. The two countries had shared a King for much of the previous century, but until this time it was possible for Scotland to choose a Catholic monarch independently of England. The British monarchy is considered the oldest of the modern constitutional monarchies, and the model for this form of government in the English-speaking world.[80] In the 17th century, the Stuart dynasty’s attempt to import the doctrine of “Divine right” gradually gave way to modern social-contract philosophy. Magna Carta in 1215 is considered the first codification of the monarchy as a contract among territorial chiefs.[81]
1701-1714 The War of Spanish Succession which include Queen Anne’s War in North America was over the succession to the Spanish throne and the resulting shift in the European balance of power. In 1700 Charles II died and bequeathed all his possessions to the grandson of the French King Louis XIV who became thereby Philip V of Spain. There were two main theatres of the War in Europe: Spain and West-Central Europe(especially the low countries). In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht was concluded and Great Britian and the Netherlands ceased fighting France. Barcelona surrendered to the Bourbon army in 1714 following a long siege, ending the presence of the allies in Spain. Hostilities between France and Austria lumbered on until 1714, when the treaties of Rasttat and Baden were signed marking the end of the War.[82]
1715 Louis XIV dies at age 77.
1708 The Frenchman Diron d’Artaguette arrives in Mobile, Louisiana as Commissionaire Ordinaire.The English colonists, according to the Franch endeavor to “debauch the Indians from us”[83] It is discovered by the French (the Count de Pontachartrain is informed by D’Artgueete, acting commissioner for the French in that region) that the “Choctaws, our most faithful allies, had received presents from the Queen of Great Britian, the motive of this liberality being to obtain from these Indians a free passage over their territory for the English troops.”
1710 Lamothe-Cadillac is appointed Governor of French Louisiana. Sieur Duclos replaces d’Artaquette as Commissionair Ordinaire. The Spanish have a fort at what is now Pensacola, FL. The fort is attacked by the Alabama Indians. The Carolina colony splits into North and South Carolina due to disputes over governance.
Following in Francis Bacon and John Locke's footsteps, Bishop George Berkeley publishes his influential professional philosophic work "Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" in which he like our modern day Buddhist friends asserts and axiomatizes that something (anything) exists only by virtue of it being perceived in the present moment.
1712-1713 The Frenchman Antoine Crozat obtains a patent for the exclusive trade of Louisiania, A "few miserable families" settle at the place where New Orleans now stands. There are, in fact, about 28 French families already at Mobile and Dauphin Island. They are trading planks, bear, deer, cat-skins and other like furs, bartering what French goods they could get (sugar, tobacco,cacao) for peltries and slaves. They learned that the country would produce tobacco,indigo,cotton and silk.But, there were no hands for all these crops. [84] De Bienville lends the Spanish at Pensacola a boat to travel to Vera Cruz Mexico for supplies. Sieur de St. Denys is sent to the Natchitoches, an Indian tribe on the Red River to build a fort and start a French settlement there. Once there he selects twelve French and conducts a twenty day march to reach the Ceni Indians in present day Texas near where de La Salle was killed. The ones he finds there do not recollect any of the events. From there he travels 150 leagues[85] further to the southwest before reaching the first Spanish settlements at the Presidio del Norte. He is received there by the commandant, Don Pedro de Vilesces. They discuss under which conditions a regulated trade could be conducted between the Spanish and the French settlements. But, the officers there do not have the authority to conclude such an agreement at that timer.
1713 The Treaty of Utrecht is signed ending the War of Spanish Succesion (Queen Ann’s War). Thousands of seamen and paramilitary privateers are relieved of military duty. Britian gains the right to export slaves to the Spanish colonies[86]. This inaugurates the “Golden Age of Piracy” in the Caribbean.
1714 Ft. Rosalie is erected by the French at present day Natchez.
1715 St. Deny, having returned to Natichitoches makes the 250 league[87] journey to the capital of New Spain in Mexico, escorted by 24 horsemen..The Spanish refuse his attempts but offer to give him the hand of the daughter of Don Pedro de Vilescas if he joins them and returns to For San Juan. He refuses to accept these terms but later marries her and after six months he leaves her there with child and he and de Vilescas return to Mobile. The governor of Louisiana sends the Sieur de la Loire to the Natchez with goods to establish storehouses. There he finds Englishmen from Carolina come to induce these Indians with the Yazous and the Chickasaws to declare war on other nations (the French and the Spanish). De Vilescas was permitted by the acting command, Bienvelle in Mobile to proceed and from there went to visit the Spanish governor Don Guzman in Pensacola. On the way he runs into a band of Tomez Indians who had been incited by the Spanish against the English (Americans from Carolina) and to plunder the Choctaws. Bienville ransoms in Mobile the prisoners they took.
A census of the Indians in the area of French Louisiana is taken[88]
Choctaws about 4000 according to de Iberville's estimate
Chickasaws- about 1200-2000 families
Natchez- 800 to 900 warriors,
7000 total
Alabamas- about 400 families
Creek Tribes (Apalachicolas of the Spanish and the Conchaques of d'Iberville)
around the Coosa, Talapoosa, Chattachoochee, Flint, and Ocmulgee Rivers
Small numbers (on Pearl River)
Colapissas (near Lake Pontchartrain
Biloxis, Pascagoulas, Moctobys (on Pascagoula River)
the Mobile and the Thomes (at juncture of the two branches of the Mobile River).
1715 The first Jacobite rebellion,attempting to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of Scotland and England, the “15” occurs after the “Old Pretender”, James Stuart corresponds with the Earl of Mars. Mars captured Perth without opposition with a force of less than 2000 with the Duke of Argyll holding the Stirling Plain.Later Hanoverian forces met them at the battle of Preston and where they surrendered.
1716 Father Davion leaves the Natchez and returns to France. He lives to 1927 there.[89]
1717 Crozat's patent is relinquished to the Mississippi Co. of Scotsman John Law during the regency of the Duke of Orleans. The European population of Louisiana jumps from 700 to 5000[90]. Bienville is reappointed Governor of French Louisiana. The Spaniard Father Augustine Padron de Guzman restores their mission in Texas among the Adayes[91][92].
1718 De Bienville takes possession of St. Joseph’s Bay, 150 miles east of Dolphin Island. His brother de Chateaugue is entrusted with the mission.
1719 The French military reestablish a post at Ft. St. Pierre (north of present day Vicksburg, MS) as a buffer against the English to cut off their access to the Gulf of Mexico. Lt. Boulaye was sent with thirty men.[93]
1719 February de Serigny arrives in Louisiana with three ships and announces that war was declared with Spain. He shows orders he has to take Pensacola[94]. 150 men board the ships and enter the bay with secrecy and diligence. There are about 600 men attacking by sea and 700 by land against 160 in the Spanish fort. After about five hours of exchanging fire, a truce, and deliberations for a day, the Spanish surrender, the conditions being that they retreat to Havanna without arms nor munitions. Don Gregorio Guaso, the Spanish commander at Havana sends out a fleet under Don Alphonso Carrascosa de la Torre to expel the English (Americans) from Fort St. George in the Carolinas and with the goal of the conquest of all of that province. These ships sight those returning to Havana from Pensacola and messages are sent Vera Cruz to request help in reattacking the French. On June 29 Don Alphonso Carrascosa set sail with 850 men on twelve vessels, three frigates, and nine bilanders. He catches the French unprepared and takes repossession of Pensacola without any resistance with a detachment of 100 men. He then sends a detachment of 300 men to reduce the defenses a Dauphin Island and finds only the Philippe commanded by De Serigny, supported by four good batteries. Then he sails along the whole coast of the area under fire, estimating the total number of French and their allies at 2000. After several small engagements with French deserters and the Indians he weighs anchor and sails back to Pensacola. The French military reestablish a post at Within a few days the French Count de Champmelin arrives in the area commanding a squadron of five men of was and two the Company’s[95] ships.With this group the French retake Pensacola during about six hours of combat. Ft. St. Pierre (north of present day Vicksburg, MS) is reestablished by the French in Moblie as a buffer against the English to cut off their access to the Gulf of Mexico. Lt. Boulaye was sent with thirty men.[96]
1720 Mr. De Saint Denys is relieved and promoted from his command at Natchitoches. The administrative center of the French colony of Louisiana is moved by Bienville from Ft. Louis at Mobile to Ft. Louis at Biloxi. This is in order for protection against Indians. This settlement at ‘New Biloxi’ is the first permanent European settlement in the present day State of Mississippi. In December two French ships with 250 people aboard land on the Gulf Coast destined for Fort St. Pierre[97]. The Governor of the colony, Bienville, moved the administrative center to Ft. Louis at Biloxi from Ft. Louis at Mobile for protection against Indian attacks. In 1722 the administrative center of the colony was moved to New Orleans[98].
1721 There are 48 soldiers in residence at Ft. St. Pierre and a total of 290 people, which make it quite large by comparison with the other French settlements.
1722 The administrative center of the French colony of Louisiana is moved by Bienville from Ft. Louis at Biloxi to New Orleans. Diron D’Artaguerre who visited Ft. St. Pierre describes it as “a square installation having four bastions surrounded by a little moat six feet wide and three feet deep. Among a number of buildings within was the house of the commandant, M. DeGrave… From this fort I have seen the best disciplined troops and where duty is performed with exactitude, thanks to the commandant.” On 12 September a hurricane destroys the church hospital and thirty houses or log huts at New Orleans. It is felt as far north as Natchez. No lives are lost. The war between the French and the Chickasaws continues. The Yazoo are also hostile to them during most of this whole period discussed above and below. For the French the Chickasaws were the most feared because of their bravery and their alliance with the English (Americans)[99].
1726 Mr. Perrier. Lieutenant of the ship of the line is appointed Commandant General of Louisiana in place of Mr. Bienvelle who returned to France. Diron d’Artaguette is King’s lieutenant at Mobile.
1727 11 December. Father Souel is murdered along with his negro servant with a volley of musket balls while he is returning from a ravine to his cabin. From a visit to a chief. An attempt was also made on Father Doutreleau’s life, but he escaped at this time.
1727 The first settlements extend up as far as the present town of Natchez. Father de Beabois in New Orleans receives a new party of Father du Poisson (who went to Arkansas until 1929), Souel (Yazoo), Dumas, du Guyonne (Alabama), Tartarin, and Doutreleaus (to be sent to the Illinois).
1729 Under the Treaty of Seville the British agree not to trade with the Spanish colonies. 28 November. Every French inhabitant at Natchez is killed, in a massacre, by the Indians. 150 children, 80 women and almost as many negroes are taken. The Jesuit Father du Poisson and Mr. Du Codere, commandant of the Yazoos perish along all in the house Mr. De l Loire Chief Commissary of the India Company. The bodies were left unburied to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey. 11 December, Father Souel, a Jesuit Catholic missionary to the Yazoos is murdered at Ft. St. Pierre. Perrier dispatches a message to the Choctaws asking for their help against the Natchez. 700 warriors of them set out with a party of 150 to pass to the Yazoos to intercept all the negroes and French prisioners whom the Natchez were sending to the Chickasaw. Perrier also receives information possibly related to what caused the Natchez to attack. This information claims that 120 horses loaded with English (American) goods had been received by the Choctaw shortly before they traveled to New Orleans to meet with the French. The theory being that this may have influenced the Natchez to delude the Commandant of the French by feigned protestations of fidelity in order that an alliance with the English would bring prosperity to them. The Choctaws however refuse to accept the goods from the English (Americans) and the French decide to make an alliance with them through Mr. Diron at Mobile in order to recapture Natchez. On the 27th of December the Sieur de Merveilleux arrives at Natchez with the Choctaws in order to retake the fort. In an attack near present day St. Catherine’s creek, they killed eighty men, took sixteen women prisoners, delivered 51 French women and children, the two mechanics whome the Natchez had spared and 150 negro men and women. The lost wo men killed and some wounded.
1730 1 January. Father Doutreleau, a Jesuit missionary to the Illinois who is misiting Father Souel’s mission to the Yazoos is attacked with guns while he is celebrating the mysteries of the Holy mass. The Indians had noted that he had fired his musket at some geese shortly before and neglected to reload. The took this opportunity to catch him off guard firing three times at him almost at the point of a muzzle and shortly thereafter with a charge of duckshot in the mouth. His two attendants helped him escape in a canoe towards Natchez where they ran into another grouping of the French at the Bay of the Tunicas to attack the Indians at Natchez and recapture the fort there. The good Father promised to return and serve as their chaplain as soon as his wounds were healed. He reached New Orleans on January 8 and thereafter keep his word. [100][101] 2 February Major, the Chevalier de Loubois of New Orleans. Sent by Perrier to retake the fort marches from the Bay of the Tonicas (present day Grand Gulf) with 200 men and some field pieces to retake Ft. Rosalie. He opens the attack with seven cannon fired from 250 fathoms. After six hours they have not dislodged a single palisade. 19-20 February. The French dig a trench 280 fathoms from the fort and on the 21 the cannonade is resumed. 22 February 300 of the Natchez Indians attack in three places an outpost of 30 men of the French in their trench. One of the French is killed. Just before they were ready to seize one of the cannons the Chevalier d’Artaguette comes up with five men and helps repulse the enemy. The same day Loubois ordered 40 soldiers and as many Indians and negroes to storm the the two forts; but this was not carried out. 24 February A battery of four four pounders was planted within 180 fathons of the forts. 25 February. A Choctaw chief helping the French speaks under a flag of truce to the besieged Natchez explaining to them their determination to see the attack through even if they have to lay siege. The Natchez give the French prisoners up to the Choctaws and the French army withdraws to the bluff on the riverside. It is on this spot that the French erect a new fort.[102]
9 December An army of the French sets out from New Orleans to assemble at Natchez and reconoitre the condition of the retreating Natchez. Mr de Salvert embarks with 200 men, including three companies of marines and the rest volunteers from the Somme (in all about 150 marines and 40 sailors). On the 11 Mr Perrier sets out with a company of grenadiers, two of fusiliers, and some volunteers making up a detachment of about 200. On the 13th Captain de Benac followed with 80 with 70 more to join him on the way. ON the 20th the force unites at the Bayagoulas, a Colapissa chief arrives there with 40 warriors. There plan is to push on and ascend the Red River and then follow the trail either up the River of the Outchitas[103] or the Black River[104].
1730 Massive British settlement begins in the Georgia area. James Oglethorpe promotes the idea that the area be used to settle the worthy poor of England.
1731 20 January. The French force, after ascending the Red River and entering the Black discovers the enemy. Trenches were opened and skirmishing kept up all day and all night. The next day mortars and all things necessary for the siege were landed. 24 January the enemy (the Natchez Indians hoist a white flag). 18 negro prisoners are returned to the French by the Indians. 26 January The chief of the tribe, the Sun and those with him 40 warriors are put in a demi-gallery commanded by la Sueur. 387 women and children prisoners were distributed among the other vessels. They were sent to St. Domingo to be sold as slaves. Some warriors escaped associated with an Indian called the Flour Chief (Chief of the Farine). About 200 of the enemy were thought to not be in the besieged fort including Yazoos and Corrois (one of their chiefs had gone to the Chickasaws with 40 men and many women and another with 60 or 70 men and more than 100 women and were three days journey on a lake that 20 men and 10 women and 6 negroes were at the Ouatchitas; that 20 warriors were prowling their old village to cut off the Frenchmen). The Four Chief then leds those Indians that had escaped with him from Perrier on the Black River to Natchitoches where de Saint Denys was with but a few soldiers and besieged him at his fort. At first, being only 40 against 200 the French at Natchitoches are forced to retire an abandon their village, losing four men. Then Saint Denys, having received a reinforcement of Assinais and Attacapas, who were goined by some Spaniards attacked the Indians entrenchments and killed 82 including all their chiefs. All the survivors of the rest of the Indians took flight.
.
1732 The present day state of Georgia is organized by Col. Oglethorpe. Its charter boundary includes in addition to its current extent with Eastern boundary the Savannah River the area south of the present Tennessee line above the boundary of Spanish West Florida. The lower third of this area will be disputed until it is ceded to Spain in 1795. And, the remainder of middle third remains the territory of the Creek Indian Confederation until it will be ceded to the U.S. in 1802.
1734 Daniel Boone is born to family of Quaker immigrants in the state of Pennsylvania.
1736 The Chevalier d’Artaguette[105], along with the Sieur de Vincennes 30 other French and Father Senat are captured and burned at the stake by the Chickasaws while at war with them.
1740 A large force of Spanish is sent against Gov. Oglethorpe (Governor of Georgia) who lays seige to the City of St. Augustine. Later, Oglethorpe relinquishes his design.
1743 "Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, is born at Shadwell plantation in Goochland county, Virginia,"[106]
1743 Starting the second Jacobite rebellion, the “Young Pretender” Boonie Prince Charles, in Rome with his father James Stuart, embarks from Rome with 10,000 troops.
But, most of the fleet are shipwrecked.
1745 Charles continues the second Jacobite rebellion by raising about 1200 men from the clans of Scotland. Most of the British army is in Flanders and Germany but there is an inexperienced army of about 4000 in Scotland under Sir John Cope. On September 21 they meet the Jacobite forces near Prestonpans and are routed.
1746 The Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart are defeated at the battle of Culloden.
1748 David Hume (mentor and teacher to Benjamin Franklin who in turn was mentor and teacher to Andrew Ellicott) follows in the footsteps of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Bishop George Berkeley. He publishes his professional philosophic attempt to understand what the "concept of a concept" is.
1750 The number of slaves in the state of Georgia is about about 500. It will grow to approximately 18,000 by 1775.
1754-1763 Daniel Boone serves with the British military during the French and Indian war. He is a wagon driver in General Braddock’s attempt to drive the Indians out of Ohio country.
1755 Georgia ceases to be a trustee colony and becomes a crown colony.
1756
1763 Under the peace of 1763 all French and Spanish possessions east of the Mississippi, except the island of Orleans, were ceded to the crown of Great Britian.
March 1766, Spanish King Carlos III appoints Antonio de Ulloa (a scientist and astronomer, member of the Academie of Sciences of Paris) governor of Louisiana.
Handicapped by the inadequacy of his military retinue he is unable to take formal possession of all of the territory.
February 1767 Andrew Jackson, future president of the US, is born of Presbyterian Scot Irish immigrants in Lancaster County South Carolina. He is taken prisoner,orphaned, and becomes a veteran of the revolutionary war against the British at age 15.
July 24 1769 24 Spanish men-of-war ships pass the mouth of the Mississippi and take ownership of the lower Mississippi valley and the city of New Orleans away from France for the benefit of Spain[107]. The Spanish fleet consisted of 24 ships. It was commanded by Don Alejandro O'Reilly (an Irish Catholic, driven by persecution at home to serve under a foreign government)[108]. He brought with him 2056 men in the Spanish Army. At this time there was at most about 1800 European people in the territories which could have resisted. He sends six "resisters" back to the prison at Castillo del Morro in Havanna Cuba. Luis de y Amezaga Unzaga is brought along by O'Reilly to be governor of Louisiana. Daniel Boone is captured by the Shawnee Indians during a hunting trip to Kentucky.
1771 A Spanish census gives the population of St. Genevieve[109] (a Spanish settlement and fort about 40 miles below St. Louis as 605. That of St. Louis is listed as 497.
1775 The country on the east side of the Mississippi and north of the island of Orleans has been possessed until this time from the peace of 1763 by Great Britian. Col. Anthony Hutchins (relationship to Cpt. Thomas Hutchins in the U.S. Army unknown) administers this area for his Britannic Majesty. Daniel Boone founds the settlement of Boonesborough next to the Harrodsburg area in Kentucky.
January 1, 1777 Lieutenant Col. Don Bernardo de Galvez becomes Spanish Governor of Louisiana. A census taken at this time reveals:
Balize 42 Whites 8381
New Orleans 3202 Free Mulattoes 273
Right bank of MS River 1747 Free Negroes 263
Left bank of MS River 3206 Mulatto Slaves 545
Bayou Gentilly 411 Negro Slaves 8464
Total 8248 Total 17926
able to bear arms 1956
Other districts
German Coast 2617
Acadian Coast 1363
Iberville 437
Point Coupee 1635
Opelousas and Attakapas 1072
Natchitoches and Rapide 740
Arkansas 81
Illinois 1448
Capuchin Priests 10
Nuns 15
Hunters 80
Total 9498
Overall Total 17926
1776
June 21 Thomas Jefferson, 33 years old, sends a draft for the U.S. Declaration of Independence to Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston for editing, "Will Dr. Franklin be so good as to peruse it", he wrote. Dr. Franklin, trained by the aforementioned professional philosopher, David Hume changes Thomas's words, "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident." By self-evident Franklin and Hume meant to be more precise philosophically "analytically true". Some other self-evident truths mentioned in the document were that we all have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Grand Council of the American Colonies in Virginia (through Charles Lee writing to Galvez) buys $1850 worth of powder from the Spanish in New Orleans. It is shipped up the MS and Ohio Rivers to Fort Pitt.
1777 Rogers Clark is issued 500 lbs of black powder of which he carries over the Cumberland Gap to the settelements in Kentucky to help repel attacks on Harrodsburg.
The British Army from a base of British-Canadian fur traders in Detroit were supplying the enemy. Gov. Henry of Virginia commissions Clark as a lieutenant colonel and authorizes him to raise seven companies of men (totaling 350). In the end he could only raise 150.
January 1778 U.S. Army Col. George Rogers Clark sets out from Fort Pitt with the 150 men. He camps on Corn Island in the Ohio River. This area later becomes that of present day Louisville KY. 24 June they beach their vessels at abandoned Fort Massac near the current site of Metropolis, ILL. Then they move forward to attack the French at Kaskaskia and the British at Vicennes. Clark sends French Priest Father Pierre Gibault to the trading village of Vicennes to influence the French there and to help secure nearby Fort Sackville. He places Cpt. Helm in charge of Ft. Sackville. Oliver Pollack, an American (friend of O'Reilly) living in Spanish New Orleans sends Clark supplies and powder worth $7200. He is successful and secures control of the region north of the Ohio for the U.S.
Feb. 1778 A detachment of soldiers is sent by the Spanish and the U.S. to Natchez to arrest the British settlers Alexander McIntosh and Col. Anthony Hutchins and plunder their property. It is led by Captain James Willing of the U.S. Army and consists of the armed boat "Rattletrap" with a volunteer crew of about 30 men. He gets 100 slaves worth 140 pesos each and other plunder amounting to $25,000[110].
April 1778 Col. Anthony Hutchins breaks his parole in New Orleans and hastens to Natchez to excite the inhabitants to take up arms to resist any further American plundering.
1778 There are about 15,000 slaves in the state Georgia. Approximately 1/3 of them escape during the war between the U.S. and Britain.
January 1779 At this time there are about 500 regular Spanish soldiers and 10 artilleryman on duty in New Orleans. There are about 1478 militiamen.
LTC Clark receives word that the Canadians had retaken Ft. Sackville by Henry Hamilton for Great Britian.
6 February Clark led 172 volunteers from Fort Kaskaskia 210 miles eastward to Vicennes Hamilton surrenders and this daring winter expedition makes Clark a legend of the early American frontier[111].
1779 Pollack in New Orleans obtains a treasury loan of $74087 for the U.S. from the Spanish. Col. Dickson commander of the British forces at Baton Rouge surrenders the area on the east side the Mississippi river and north of the island of Orleans to General Bernard de Galvez, commander of the troops of his Catholic Majesty.
September 6, 1779 Col. Galvez with a fleet of gunboats bombards Fort Manchac at the Northwest end of Lake Pontchatrain for the Spanish from the British. They travel up river from there to Ft. Panmure at Natchez which has a garrison of eighty grenadiers. The English surrender the fort there. A few days later an American ship under the command of William Pickles takes possession of the area on the Northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain for the U.S. Galvez then bombards Baton Rouge and forces the British there to surrender to him. Because of the coastal batteries at Mobile he requests further reinforcements from Spain in order to be mount a landing party against the defenses.
April 1780 The forts near the city of Mobile fall to the Spanish.
March 1780 A Spanish expedition is organized in Havanna for an attack Pensacola.
October 1780 A hurricane destroys the Spanish fleet off the coast of Cuba.
February 28, 1781 Another Spanish expedition sails from Havanna to attack Pensacola.
May 10,1781 The English at Pensacola (Fort Barrancas) surrender to the entire province at West Florida to the Spanish. The fort was defended by 4 mortars, 143 cannon, 6 howitzers, 40 swivel guns, 2142 guns, 8000 flints, 298 barrels of powder, bombs, bullets, balls, cartridges, grenades, bayonets, etc.[112]This victory is Galvez's greatest military success. The Spanish casulties are 74 killed and 198 wounded.
1781 There is a brief insurrection in Natchez against the Spanish in which Col. Hutchins is a principal actor. Col. John Campbell the British commander who surrenderred at Baton Rouge along with John and Philip Alston and John Turner of Natchez instigated this through a letter to the inhabitants in Natchez. Fort Panmure was briefly captured. A Spanish contingent under the command of captain Morandiere was sent to retake Natchez.
May 1781 Simeon DeWitt and Captain Thomas Hutchins appointed to fill the position of "geographer" to the U.S. Army vacated by the death of Robert Erskine[113]. Captain Hutchins title is "geographer to the southern army"[114].
July 1781 Congress changes the title of both men to "geographer to the main army".
Oct. 17, 1781 British capitulate to American Revolutionary forces, siege of Yorktown comes to an end.
Nov. 1781 American Army redeploys for winter quarters in New Jersey and along the Hudson
December 1783 General George Washington resigns his commission and his officers bid him farewell. U.S. Army geographer positions are abolished. DeWitt becomes surveyor general of the state of New York. Hutchins stays with the Army to direct the surveys of the Northwest Territories
June 1784 Knox succeeds Washington as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army. He is ordered to disband the army until it numbers less that 700 enlisted men and a "proper proportion of officers". The task of garrisoning the frontier posts abandoned by the British (according to treaty) is begun.
April 1785 Term of service extended in army to three years. The organization of the army was a mixed regiment of 8 companies of infantry and 2 of artillery. The officers were: 1 Lieutenant Col. commandant, 2 majors, 8 captions, 10 lieutanants, 10 ensigns, 1 surgeon.
Sept. 1785 General Knox Secretary of War, Lieutanent Col. Harmer commandant. The British, Spanish, French and Indians on the frontier have little faith in the new government. They make numerous incursions until the force of the Army has to be increased: Congress authorizes 1,340 additional non-commissioned officers and privates. Lonely garrisons dot the countrie's border from Fort Pitt to Vincennes. Forts are built in stockade form
1786 Indian trader John Wood convinces the Choctaw to grant him two million acres of land which includes Walnut Hills (present-day Vicksburg, MS). He sells the grant to Georgia Speculator Thomas Washington.[115]
Dec. 1786 Shay's rebellion in a dispute over debt of 2000 men occurs in Massachusetts. Gen. Lincoln and that state raise 4000 soliders to disperse Shay's force.
1787 James Wilkerson plans and executes a project of opening trade between the western country and New Orleans[116]. For some time previously he has been trading with Isaac B. Dunn, in Kentucky. Andrew Jackson immigrates to the Tennessee territory and starts to practice law at the age of 20. He is elected its first congressman when the territory becomes a state in the 1790s. Daniel Boone is elected to the Virginia state assembly.
July 14, 1789 French Revolution started.
Sept. 1789 Wilkinson dissolves his partnership with Dunn and connects himself with Mr. Peyton Short. He visits New Orleans carrying with him a sum of about 6000 dollars in silver, accompanied by Mr. Philip Nolan and Mr. Joseph Balinger.
Nov. 1789 Three South Carolinians (Snipes, Huger, and Moultrie) form the South Carolina Yazoo Company. they petition the Georgia legislature to confirm its land speculations and commission famous Kentucky Indian fighter, John Holder, to recruit 400 families to found a settlement at Walnut Hills on the land acquired by John Wood in 1786 from the Choctaw Indians. By this time the Virginia Yazoo Company led by Patrick Henry and the Tennessee Yazoo Company organized by Zachariah Cox and John Sevier also have sought concessions. The Tennessee company also has Mr. William Blount, former Gov. of the Territory South of the River Ohio and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern District. The South Carolina Yazoo company hires Dr. James O'Fallon to replace Holder as their field agent. O'Fallon conspires with others (Moultrie and T. Washington) for an "Invasion of Lousiania from Kentucky to be based at Walnut Hills". He attempts to engage James Wilkerson in this undertaking, but fails.[117]
1790 As an outlet for her trading company, Spain establishes Fort Nogales (Spanish for walnut) overlooking the Yazoo River as it enters the Mississippi at present day Vicksburg[118].
April 1790 Strength of the U.S. Army now at 1216 enlisted men. May western settlers are marauded by the Indians. They are aided and abetted by the British. 1000 people die in Kentucky due to these problems.
July 1790 Governor Saint Clair of the Northwest Territory raises 1000 militia to fight the Indians. From this comes the creation of a second regular regiment of U.S. Infantry. His force is made up of men "purchased from prisons, wheelbarrows and brothels at $2 month". He builds Fort Hamiltion (north of Cincinnati) and Fort Jefferson (near Greenville). Gen. Washington sends Gen. Josiah Harmar into Northwestern Ohio to chastise those Indians who have been raiding frontier settlements. Harmar destroyed some Indian settlements but had to retreat precipitiously after he fell into an ambush near Ft. Wayne.
1791 Gen. St. Clair repeats Harmar's humiliation on the banks of the Wabash near the present Ohio-Indiania border.
May 1792 Congress passes a universal militia law which makes every male citizen between 18 and 45 a constructive soldier. Legionary organization formed. Militia is divided into 3 Corps: Advanced corps (18 to 20 years old), main corps (21 to 45) and reserved corps (46 to 60). 5120 spaces are authorized.
July 2 1792 Gov. of the Territory of the Southern District, William Blount signs for the United States a treaty of "perpetual peace and friendship" with the Cherokees on the bank of the Holston River. National boundaries and rights of way are granted.
1792 Kentucky becomes a State[119]
June 1792 Anthony Wayne organizes a force to suppress the rapacious tribes in the West. He claimed to have 2500 "worthy of being trusted". He moved this legion to Cincinnati. From there he marched to Greenville (named in honor of General Nathaniel Greene) and gave his soldiers intensive drill. Thus he was able to send a strong detachment to the scene of Gen. Arthur Saint Clair's[120] defeat where he repulsed 2000 Indians and rebuilt Fort Recovery. He also destroyed impressive quantities of goods belonging to British traders. His army now numbered 2643. At the junction of the Maumee and Anglaise rivers he built Fort Defiance. He won the battle of "fallen timbers', the victory was complete for the Indians lost at least twice as many as the Americans. This victory helped secure the peace for many years on the northwestern frontier.
Other troops during this period were stationed as follows:
398 at posts on the upper Ohio
73 in the Southwest Territory
146 in Georgia
369 at seacoast fortifications
There were three main weapons arsenals at Carlisle, PA, Springfield, MO and Harper's Ferry (where 764 men in addition to the ones already mentioned above in the militia legion were stationed).
1793 Washington indicates the desirability of a Military Academy in his message to Congress. Jefferson opposes his views (for a larger military would make it easier for the government to have a more forceful controlling presence in the frontiers). France declares war on England.
The U.S. Supreme Court decide the case of Chisholm vs. Georgia. The court, lead by Associate Justice James Wilson, rules that Georgia is not a "sovereign" state. The ruling leads to the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1795[121].
1794 Mr. Owens along with six Spanish sailors is sent up river from New Orleans by Daniel Clark (Consul general for the U.S. at New Orleans) with 6000 dollars to give to Wilkinson in exchange for the silver. They are robbed and murdered somewhere around New Madrid (present day Memphis). Two of those responsible are apprehended by Wilkinson delivered to be tried and condemned at New Orleans. Clark in his testimony to Congress[122] later in the Aaron Burr affair seems to suggest that Wilkinson may have had more knowledge of the details of this than he had testified to.
August 1794 There is an insurrection of 7000 men in Pennsylvania who refuse to disperse at the order of the President.
1794 Eli Whitney a Massachusetts born emigrant to Georgia invents and patents the cotton gin.
1795 The Georgia legislature passes its Yazoo land deal in which a 30 million-acre land tract (in both present day MS and Alabama, bounded on the South by the 32 parallel and the Tombigbee River and on the North by the 34 parallel) were "sold" at a price of up to a penny and a half an acre. The tracts had been purchased at $.02 a acre from the State of Georgia. Among the stockholders of the company that managed the land deal were several of Georgia's state legislators.[123] U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, appointed by President Washington in 1789, buys $25,000 worth of the land deeds.
April 3, 1795 Andrew Ellicott publishes his paper, "Of the Aberration of the Stars, Nutation of the Earth's Axis, and Semiannual Equation" in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society(APS) in Philadelphia, PA. The president of the Society and one of the mentors of Ellicott[124] is the genuinely authentic American scientist and philosopher Mr. Benjamin Franklin. One of the main contributors to the publications of the APS is Thomas Jefferson. At that time Ellicott is one of the few Surveyors in the U.S. using detailed mathematical theory to correct his observations. The paper explains how to correct surveyor's astronomical observations of stars, which are used to determine lattitude and longitude. It also discusses how to deal with the effects of errors introduced due to neglecting the proper motions of the stars in the sky.[125]
1795 Congress passes an act funding the U.S. Army legion to be complete to 4800 enlisted men (exclusive of the corps of artillerist and engineers). Then an act is passed abolishing the legion organization of the U.S. Army. It is now to consist of 4 regiments of infantry, 2 companies of light dragoons and the corps of artillerists and engineers
1795 According to Mr. John Mercer's testimony to a later Congressional inquiry about the Aaron Burr affair a secret correspondence is carried on during this time between the French Governor, Baron de Carondelet, located at Baron Rouge and someone in the Western territories (Wilkinson). The cypher was understood by means of a small English dictionary. "The number of the page and the line on which a word appeared was used to encode the word,"[126]
1795 Spain cedes its claim to that part of the western lands in the U.S. in Ms and Alabama below the 31st parallel.
1796 Tennessee becomes a State.
September 16, 1796 Andrew Ellicott takes leave of his family in Philadelphia, arrives at Pittsburg, and proceeds down the Ohio River.[127]
January 2, 1797 MAJ Andrew Ellicott arrives at confluence of Mississippi and Ohio Rivers (present day Cairo, ILL)
February 20 MAJ Andrew Ellicott arrives at Walnut Hills (present day Vicksburg).
February 23 He is at Bayou Pierre.
February 24 He arrives at Natchez "as Comissioner on behalf of the United States for ascertaining the boundaries between the territories of his Catholic Majesty, and those of the said United States".
July 26 Governor Gayoso receives his appointment of Governor General of Spanish lands in the Americas to replace Baron de Corondelet. Baron de Corondelet is promoted to the government of Quito, South America.
Aug. 1797 Hutchins comes to meet with Ellicott and requests his aid in dissolving the permanent committee now in power in Natchez and to let the principal power be lodged in his hands and that of another committee, which he would have elected.
Sept. 1797 Ellicott receives a communication from the the U.S. Secretary of State regarding the detection of Mr. Blount of Kentucky plans for conquering Louisiana and the Floridas.
Sept. 13 1797 Ellicott and a committee of "citizens" of Natchez meet and issue a "resolution" that the best form of government for the area would be a territorial form similar to the one set up for the North Western Territories. The secretary of the committee is Mr. Benoist, a frenchman. Also, on the committee is Mr. Joseph Bernard, a Frenchman.
Dec. 1797 Mr. Thomas Power (a Spanish spy) writes a letter to Gov. Manuel Gayoso. He states that he has an agreement with the Baron de Carondelet that the boundary between Spain and the U.S. must be drawn from the "mouth of the Yazoo and extend in that direction as far as the Tombigbee". This would retain present day Vicksburg[128] and Ft. Nogales there under the Spanish Flag. He states his estimate of the U.S. Forces in the whole Western Frontier as:
near 3000 men ---
including four regiments of infantry, one double regiment of artillery, and two companies of cavalry (a company being about 65 men)
the first regiment is at Fort Wayne
and the other forts toward Ft. Washington, commanded by Col. Hamtramk
the second regiment, commanded by Col. Strong is encamped at Detroit
Michilimarkimac, Niagar, Presq-Isle, Oswego, etc.
the third regiment, commanded by Col. Gathers, fortifies the forts of
Massac, Barrancas, etc. with one or two companies remaining in Georgia
the fourth is in Tennessee, commanded by Col. Butler[129],
1797 Daniel Boone moves to the Missouri territory which was then part of the Spanish territory.
April 1798 Imminent trouble with France causes the Congress to increase the corps of artillerists and engineers by 3 regiments to be enlisted for 5 years. The U.S. harbors are to be thoroughly defended. $1,150,000 voted to erect and improve fortifications and to purchase cannon, small arms, and military stores.
some towns in the West existing at this time:
St. Louis- fur-trading post of about 800 people
Natchitoches
Arkansas Post (present day Little Rock)
New Madrid (present day Memphis)
St. Charles
Carondelet (present day Baton Rouge)
Cape Girardeau[130]
New Orleans (1769 population about 3000)
towns in West Florida at this time[131]
From the Iberville River North of New Orleans to Mobile, a few scattering inhabitants.
Mobile (less than 1500 inhabitants)
Pensacola (less than 1500 inhabitants)
from the city of Mobile, up the Mobile River and the Tensaw River to the 31st parallel they may possibly be forty families. From Mobile Point to Pensacola Bay, there are no inhabitants, and not more than half a dozen farms on the Bay.
1798 Dunbar sends a report to the Spanish Government of his Services in Locating and Surveying the 31st Degree of Latitude.
May 7, 1798 President Adams appoints Winthrop Sargent Governor of the Mississippi Territory. Major Sargent was in the regular U.S. Army working as a surveyor laying the country out into townships, the same profession as Ellicott, Dunbar, Jefferson and Washington. Sargent later served under Gen. St. Clair, a Federalist, in the disasterous defeat on the Maume, in 1791. He is working for Gen. Wilkerson. This clearly pegs both Wilkerson and Sargent as "fighting Federalists" at that time. Wilkerson would later become harder to be "pegged" politically. See below.
1798 Gov. Winthrop Sargent of the Ms Territories appoints William Dunbar, Judge of Probate and Justice of the Peace of Adams Co. in the Ms Territory.
June 1798 Napolean led his French armies into Egypt in an attempt to conquer that country. The financial and military costs of this campaign and others undoubtably influences his later decision to sell the French territories in the U.S.A.
August 6, 1798 Winthrop Sargent arrives in Natchez, MS, in very poor health, to take over the job of territorial governor of MS.
July 1798 Twelve additional regiments of infantry and 6 troops of dragoons are to be enlisted for, and during, "The existing differences between the United States and the French Republic.
Nov. 15, 1798 Maj Andrew Ellicott publishes the results of his observations for determining the latitude and longitude of the town of Natchez in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. IV.
1798 William Dunbar files his report to the Spanish Government of his services in locating and surverying the 31st degree of Latitude. Ellicott recommends Dunbar for membership in the American Philosophical Society.
January 15, 1799 The Jesuit astronomer J.J. Ferrer publishes his determination of the geographical positions of various places in North America in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
February 1799 Napolean invades Syria.
March 1799 Trouble with France passes over and a "well-trained" French Army never appears. Adams dismisses Thomas Pickering as Secretary of State for opposing his Peace policy.
October 2, 1799 a committee of 15 Natchez citizens appoint Narsworthy Hunter as their agent to deliver a complaint to the US Congress against W.Sargent. It was signed by 15 citizens of the Territory.
1799 Washington dies at Mount Vernon.
1800 Louisiana is returned to France by a secret agreement of Spain with Napoleon.
May 1800 The trouble with France apparently over, all regular forces except the first 4 regiments of infantry, 2 regiments of artillery and engineers, 2 troops of light dragoons and the "general and other staff" ordered discharged.
April 18, 1800 Ellicott completes his task of laying out the boundary between the U.S. and Spain, so far as it depends on astronomical observations.
October 1801 Gen. Wilkerson signs the first treaty of the Jefferson Administration with the Chickasaw Indians permitting the US to open a road through the Mississippi Territory.
Gen. James Wilkerson then directs the preliminary survey of what will become the Natchez Trace. Andrew Jackson starts his military career and is elected a colonel in the Tennessee militia.
December 1801 Gen. Wilkerson and two other US Commissioners sign a treaty with the Choctaw Indians by which they ceded two million acres in Southwest corner of the MS territory to the United States.
May 25, 1801 President Jefferson appointed Mr. Claiborne Gov. of the Ms Territory to succeed Winthrop Sargent. Claiborne. Claiborne was a young clerk to the Congress who attracted Jefferson's attention. He helped Jefferson during Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He later moved to Knoxville, TN, then Nashville, TN. Appointed by Gov. Sever of TN a Judge of the Supreme Court of law there. In 1797 he was elected to Congress from TN.
April 1801 President Adams (a Federalist) is defeated by Thomas Jefferson (a Republican) for Presidency of the United States. Soon after Gov. Sargent leaves the MS Territory and he is replaced by Gov. Claiborne on May 25, 1801. Gen. James Wilkerson is in charge of the U.S. Army forces in the MS, LA territories. Henry Dearborn is Secretary of War.
Oct. 1801 Claiborne leaves Nashville TN to take up his position in Natchez as Gov. of the MS Territories. On his recommendation the territorial capital is moved from Natchez to Washington, MS.
February 1802 Spanish Governor De Salcedo of Louisiana writes a letter to Gov. Claiborne of the MS Territory in which he states, "for every six of seven Spanish boats which go up to the Settlements of the Illinois, there passes two hundred American Flats and Barges which come from the States and Western Settlements."
1802 A joint agreement between the State of George and the U.S.(represented by John Madison and Gallatin) is concluded in which Georgia ceded the lands which it claimed in the Yazoo land deal to the U.S.
October 1802 France and Spain swap territories and France again owns Louisiana.
1802 George Barrow, a civilian establishes a mathematical school at West Point for the few cadets then in the service. Ellicott helps establish the mathematical school at West Point.
January 1803 The U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision in the Marbury vs. Madison case. Chief Justice John Marshall writes the opinion, asserting the Court's power of judical review over laws passed by Congress.
1803 The State of Ohio is admitted into the Union.
1803 Maj Andrew Ellicott publishes the Journal of his travels on behalf of the United States and for determining the Boundary between the Unites States and the Possession of his Catholic Majesty in America. It is printed by Thomas Dobson in Philadelphia, PA. The astronomical calculations needed to determine various locations is transcribed from Ellicott's papers by cadets at West Point. Ellicott later becomes head of the Math Department at West Point for a while. However, he leaves due to unexplained differences and disagreements. He moves back to live with his family in the area south of Baltimore, MD which is now named Ellicott City, MD. One possible explanation for this is that, being a Republican, he supported Jefferson's views for a smaller standing Army in the U.S. Another is that in his journal he published information suggesting Gen Wilkerson who was head of the U.S. Army in the frontier at the time and the only General in the U.S. Army at the time as a paid Spanish agent. The U.S. Congress had passed a law prohibiting U.S. military officers from accepting salaries from foreign governments. This information was later to play a part in the Congressional Inquisition of Gen. Wilkerson when they investigated the Aaron Burr affair[132]. While travelling down the MS river Ellicott had intercepted a letter of Wilkerson to the Spanish Government. Whether this letter was a deception is unclear. However, it is true, that Ellicott himself was working with the Spanish at the time, although not in their pay. He instructed and helped train William Dunbar who was doing the surveying for the Spanish in his method of determining the latitude and longitude accurately. But, this method was not his alone. He, Ellicott, was using a method to determine the longitude[133] used by Father Jose Joaquin Ferrar, the Chief Spanish Jesuit Astronomer at the time[134].
Dec. 7 1803 The representative of the French Republic (Laussat) officially transfers the Louisiana territories to the American Commissioners and Claiborne assumes the government of the new possession. During his absence the government of the Ms territories devolves on Cato West.
1804 Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, is elected for a second term as U.S. President. Jefferson, running against South Carolina Federalist Charles Pinckney carries every state except Connecticut and Delaware. Aaron Burr is elected with Jefferson as a Republican Vice President. Pickering (Adams dismissed Secretary of State) enters into a conspiracy with Aaron Burr for a "Northern Confederacy". Burr runs for Governor of New York State. He loses, but gives encouragement to Pickering and his fellow successionists. Burr has a duel with Alexander Hamilton in New York and kills him. Deep in debt and under indictment for murder in New York Burr seeks refuge in the West. He is betrayed however by none other than Gen.James Wilkerson who at this time has been appointed Gov. of Louisiania by the Republican Jefferson. Burr's lawyers sought to exploit Jefferson's ongoing dispute with Supreme Court Justice William Marshall over the rights of the executive branch versus the judiciary. They asked Marshall to compel Jefferson to testify in the case. Jefferson, however, refused to testify and thereby establishes the U.S. legal principle of "executive privilege".
March 1804 The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches and the U.S. Senate convicts and removes from office John Pickering, a federal judge in New Hampshire for his partisan bias in Sedition Act proceedings. Also, ably persuaded by President Thomas Jefferson, the House also votes to impeach Supreme Court Justice Chase of Maryland.
1804 Gen. Wilkinson allegedly receives $10,000 from the Spanish Government in New Orleans while Wilkinson is the U.S. Commissioner for receiving the transfer of the province. It is supposed that this is for a cargo of sugar. But, Wilkinson will later be accused of taking a bribe during this transaction.
October 1804 through January 1805 William Dunbar conducts his explorations up the Red River, the Quachita River in Louisiania and Southern Arkansas
Dunbar writes an early census of the Indians of Louisiania[135]
On the eastern bank of the Mississippi about 25 leagues[136] above Orleans: the remains of the Nation of Houmas which do not exceed 60 persons.
On the west bank of the Mississippi are the remains of the Tounicas settled near Point Coupee consisting of about 50 to 60 persons.
On the lower parts of the Bayou Teche about 11 or 12 leagues from the sea, two villages of Chitimachas consisting of about 100 souls.
The Atacapas dispersed on the creek of Vermillion about 100 souls.
Wanderers of the tribes of Biliouxis and Chactos on Bayou Crocodile which empties into the teche, about 50 souls.
In the Opuousas to the NW of Atacapas, two villages of Alibamas conisisting of 100 persons.
Conchatis dispersed through the Country as far west as the river Sabinas and its neighbourhood, about 350 persons.
On the River Rouge at Avoyells, 19 leagues from the MS, a village of the Biloxis and another on the Lake of the Avoyells ,on the whole 60 souls.
At the Rapid 26 leagues from the MS is a village of Chactos of 100 souls and another of Biloxis, total 100 more.
About 8 to 9 leagues higher up the Red River is a village of about 50 souls.
About 30 leagues above the Natchitoches on the Red River is the nation of the Cadoguias, they can raise from 3 to 400 warriers and are friends of the white settlers.
Beside the foregoing, at least 4 to 500 families of Choctaws who are dispersed on the west side of the Mississippi, on the Quachita and Red River as far west as Natchitoches.
Between the Red River and the Arkansas River is the nation of Arkansas consisting of about 260 warriors.
January 1805 Judge Samual Chase of Maryland impeached from the U.S. Supreme Court for "bullying" of lawyers of Republicans during trials for "seditious libel" of President Adams.
1805 Col. Aaron Burr visits Gen. Wilkinson at St. Louis, where Wilkinson is the Governor, and is received with distinction[137].
August 19, 1806 William Dunbar publishes his paper, "On finding the longitude from the moon's meridian altitude" in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
He includes calculations for the determination of the longitude of Fort Miro (present day Monroe, LA).
July 2, 1808 President Thomas Jefferson, in a court of iniquiry, held at the City of Washington exonerates Gen. Wilkinson from wrong doing. He states the evidence demonstrates that Wilkinson, before he rejoined the U.S. Army, was involved in a trading relationship with the Spanish Gov. Miro. But, he states it has not been proved that Wilkinson has received any money from the Spanish Government for corrupt purposes, since then. Or has it been proved that he was involved, for corrupt purposes, in a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government in the region.
1810 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the validity of the Yazoo land grants in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck
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