French Colonization of the Ouachita
From Sicily Island: A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith:
Around 1718, the French undertook some colonization of the Ouachita. On the Sicily Island side of the river, there was the settlement of Sieur de Villemont situated about opposite the town of Harrisonburg. A larger settlement on the same side of the river at the mouth of Boeuf River was the habitation of the "Marquisde Mezieres & Desmarches". The largest settlement was on Lake Louis, at Ferry Plantation, now owned by Mrs. W. S. Peck, Sr.
Writes Mr. Fred Williamson in his 1937 book, A History of Northeast Louisiana:
In all the area of northeast Louisiana, there apparently had been no settlement of considerable importance, except perhaps one established by the French on the shores of Lake Louis, within the tract of country now known as Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish, where French axes and other tools, cannon balls and even millstones, all evidently of French origin, have been discovered at various times in the last century. The settlement was apparently abandoned at the time of the Natchez massacre.
The Natchez Massacre
The Natchez engaged in three wars with the French, in
1716, 1722, and 1729. The last, which proved fatal to their nation, was
caused by the attempt of the French governor, Chopart, to occupy the site
of their principal village as a plantation, and it opened with a general
massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie, established in 1716. The French,
in retaliation, attacked the Natchez villages with a strong force of
Choctaw allies, and in 1730 the Natchez abandoned their villages, into
three bodies. A small section remained not far from their former home, and
a second body fled to Sicily island.
Link: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/natchez/natchezhist.htm
Battleground Plantation
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| Battleground Plantation, 2011 |
Located 4 miles north of Sicily Island, Battleground Plantation is the site of the last major battle between
the Natchez Indians and the French. The battle occurred in January 1731.
The land was
purchased in 1808 by William M. Smith from John Lovelace, Sr. In December 1828, William Smith's daughter Laminda Smith married Dr. Henry J. Peck. Dr. Peck built the Battleground home in 1829-1830. It is believed that the house was substantially altered to the present Greek Revival structure around 1850.
De Bow's Review, vol. 12 - Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick visited the battleground site in 1851 and writes about his findings:
"the remains of a gunlock, some gun flints, a number of ounce balls, all more or less flattened and battered, a piece of iron rod, a copper arrow-barb having a socket to fit on a large arrow, with many of the ordinary Indian flint arrow-points. Many gun and pistol barrels, fragments of bomb shells and some cannon balls have been picked up on the same ground. Pigs of lead, two feet long were found there in digging a ditch, and several bars of iron, which were subsequently used by Edward Lovelace in building the first gin erected on Sicily Island. The musket balls were coated with a thick oxide, and were so plentiful that the early hunters used to resort there for a supply of lead. A spherical ball was found, having a loop for a handle, and a rattle inside. Its tone was very clear. Some gentleman passing there, who had a taste for such curiosities, took it with him. A part of a steel corn mill was also found, and part of a chain with a hook on it. One day while fishing, Mr. Peck found the barrel of a pistol sticking in the bank on the border of this lake. He also found some cannon balls, about eight pounders. The Indians there in 1802-03, said there were two cannons sunk in the same lake. The generation of Indians here at this time said they were told by their fathers that the whites and Indians had a battle there more than a hundred years before."
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