Fort Tombecbee
National Register of Historic Places

Fort Tombecbee

Epes, Sumter County, Alabama
Listed
October 1, 1973
Type
Site
Period
Colonial
Ref No.
73000373

About this property

Fort Tombecbe (Fort de Tombecbé), also spelled Tombecbee and Tombeché, was a stockade fort located on the Tombigbee River near the border of French Louisiana, in what is now Sumter County, Alabama. It was constructed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville in 1736–1737 as trading post about 270 miles (430 km) upriver from Mobile, on an 80-foot (24 m) limestone bluff. Fort Tombecbe was built in Choctaw lands and would play a major role in colonial France's efforts to stop British intrusions into the area. Bienville claimed that the new fort was to protect the Choctaw from the Chickasaw. In May of 1736, Bienville, along with a force of 600 soldiers combined with a force of 600 Choctaw warriors, set out from Fort Tombecbe and attacked the Chickasaw near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi at the Battle of Ackia. Tombecbe was a major French outpost and trade depot among the Choctaw, the largest Native American group in the colony. Control passed to the British in 1763, who renamed it Fort York. In 1793 Spain acquired the site—by then the fort had been abandoned—from the Choctaw via the Treaty of Boukfouka and built a new fort, which was named Fort Confederación. It is also known as Fort Confederation. After the United States took possession, via the 1802 Treaty of Fort Confederation, it continued to be used as a trading post with the Choctaws until its eventual abandonment in the 19th century. The Fort Tombecbe site is currently owned by the University of West Alabama and the Archaeological Conservancy, and operated by the staff of the Black Belt Museum.

Location

Epes, Sumter County, Alabama

Categories

HISTORIC - NON-ABORIGINALMILITARY
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Questions about this property

When was Fort Tombecbee listed on the National Register?

Fort Tombecbee was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1973.

What type of historic resource is Fort Tombecbee?

Fort Tombecbee is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Fort Tombecbee?

The period of significance for Fort Tombecbee is recorded as the colonial era, specifically around 1736.

Can I research the history near Fort Tombecbee?

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