St. Louis (San Luis De Ylinoises)

On May 26, 1780, forces of Indians allied with the British clashed with the defenders of St. Louis, Louisiana, a Franco-Spanish settlement now part of the U.S. state of Missouri, in an engagement remembered as the Battle of St. Louis, sometimes called the Attack on St. Louis or the Battle of Fort San Carlos. This clash formed part of the wider American Revolutionary War. Guarding the village stood a mixed force of regular soldiers and militia under the command of Captain Fernando de Leyba, who served as Upper Louisiana's lieutenant governor, and this garrison sustained only a handful of casualties.

Having strengthened St. Louis's defenses to the extent circumstances allowed, de Leyba managed to hold off the assault. At roughly the same moment, across the Mississippi River, the American settlement of Cahokia faced its own attack from the same force and likewise drove off the attackers. As the Indians withdrew, they ravaged the surrounding fields and seized residents who lived beyond the fortified zone. Because the British were unable to hold their own side of the river, their hopes of seizing command of the Mississippi during the war came to nothing.

Background

Once Spain joined the American Revolutionary War in 1779, military strategists in London began working to protect the Mississippi River corridor from Spanish and Patriot forces alike. Their strategy called for launching expeditions out of West Florida to seize New Orleans along with other Spanish holdings, and separately, for pushing into Upper Louisiana to capture positions there, among them the modest settlement of St. Louis. The West Florida operation, however, never materialized, since Bernardo de Gálvez, governing Spanish Louisiana at the time, acted swiftly to seize Britain's outposts along the Lower Mississippi, putting Mobile and Pensacola, the key British strongholds in West Florida, under direct threat.

Battle

On May 25, Hesse dispatched scouts to assess conditions around St. Louis, but the presence of laborers, women, and children working the outlying fields kept them from approaching the settlement closely. The following day brought a two-pronged plan: Jean-Marie Ducharme led 300 Indians across the river toward Cahokia, while the main body reached the outskirts of St. Louis by roughly one in the afternoon. As they came into sight, a shot rang out as a warning from the tower.

The advancing force moved with the Sioux and Winnebagoes in front, trailed by the Sauk and Meskwaki, with fur traders and Hesse bringing up the rear. From his position in the tower, Leyba organized the town's resistance, ordering fire from both the trenches and the tower once the attackers drew within range. That initial volley sent most of the Sauk and Meskwaki retreating, seemingly reluctant to engage further, a reaction that stirred distrust among their fellow combatants and sparked accusations of "treachery" against them.

For hours afterward, Wapasha and his Sioux warriors tried repeatedly to lure the defenders out into the open, going so far as to slaughter several captives seized earlier from the fields in brutal fashion. This act stirred outrage among some residents, yet Leyba held firm and would not allow the militia to venture out and fight. Eventually the attacking force pulled back and moved northward, laying waste to crops, animals, and structures in their path.

Meanwhile, across the river, Ducharme's assault on Cahokia met swift failure. George Rogers Clark arrived just in time to take charge of the town's defense, and his standing as a formidable frontier fighter left the Indian attackers unwilling to press their assault further.