Chickasaw Campaign of 1736 Introduction . The Chickasaw Campaign of 1736 consisted of two pitched battles by the French and allies against Chickasaw fortified villages in present day Northeast Mississippi . Under the overall direction of the governor of Louisiana , Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville , a force from Upper Louisiana attacked Ogoula Tchetoka on March 25 , 1736 . A second force from Lower Louisiana attacked Ackia on May 26 , 1736 . Both attacks were bloodily repulsed ( see Atkinson , 2004 ) . Strategic Situation . The French empire of New France extended from New Orleans in the south to Canada in the north . Its unity was disrupted only by the presence of hostile Natchez and Chickasaw tribes in the lower Mississippi River valley . The French effort to reduce these hostile tribes and gain free passage along the Mississippi culminated in the Chickasaw Wars . Since 1716 , the French and Choctaw had united against the Natchez in an overt campaign of destruction . By 1736 the Natchez were killed or scattered , with many of them taking refuge among the Chickasaw . Bienville wanted to destroy these Natchez remnants , and reduce the Chickasaw : ' It is absolutely necessary that some bold and remarkable blow be struck , to impress the Indians with a proper sense of respect and duty toward us . ' He planned coordinated operations by two forces : one under Pierre d ' Artaguette , commander of the Illinois District of Louisiana , from the North ; and a larger army under himself from the South . These forces were to meet ' at the Chickasaw villages ' on March 31 , 1736 . Battle of Ogoula Tchetoka . D ' Artaguette at Fort de Chartres collected detachments throughout the Illinois Country and proceeded with great expedition to Chickasaw Bluff at present day Memphis . Despite failing to meet promised detachments under de Monchervaux and de Grandpré , he resumed his march with Chicagou and de Vincennes to the Chickasaw lands , only to be advised by courier that the southern army was late and that he should act according to his own judgement . Unable or unwilling to wait any longer , d ' Artaguette arrived before a seemingly isolated village at Ogoula Tchetoka ( part of Chuckalissa , or Old Town in present day northwest Tupelo , Mississippi ) with 130 French regulars and militia and 366 Iroquois , Arkansas , Miami , and Illinois warriors . The day was ' Palm Sunday ' , March 25 . Leaving 30 French behind to guard supplies , d ' Artaguette ' s northern force attacked with ' great vigor ' but was pinned down , routed , and furiously pursued , and its baggage train of valuable shot and powder was captured . Surviving remnants scattered back to meet the belated de Monchervaux on the return trail ; Bienville wrote that , without the firm resistance given by the Iroquois and Arkansas , not a single Frenchman would have survived . According to French reports , twenty - one of the French were captured of whom nineteen , including d ' Artaguette thrice wounded in battle , were executed by burning , some of whom were already dead when thrown into large fires . Two Frenchmen were held in hope of exchange for an imprisoned Chickasaw chief , but were eventually sent to the British in South Carolina . A contemporary memoir by Dumont de Montigny mistakenly reported this battle as taking place on May 20 , 1736 , leading to confusion in many later accounts . Battle of Ackia . Ackia ( in present day south Tupelo , Mississippi ) was attacked by the Southern force . The French contingent , including grenadiers , regulars , Swiss , and various companies of militia , assembled at Mobile throughout March , 1736 . Starting the first of April , the French proceeded by boat with little loss 270 river miles up the Tombigbee River . On April 23 , the army reached its forward depot at Fort Tombecbé ( which had been prepared at present day Jones Bluff , Sumter County , Alabama in anticipation of this campaign ) , and there mustered 544 European and 45 African men , excluding officers , before being met up - river by a 600 man Choctaw contingent . Departing Fort Tombecbé on May 4 by boat and on foot , the combined army continued upriver and reached the vicinity of present day Amory , Mississippi on May 22 . Quickly fortifying a base camp to protect the supplies and boats , essential for its return , the army departed on May 24 for the nearest Chickasaw village , located about 20 miles across the prairie to the northwest . On May 26 , the army approached three fortified hilltop villages , named Ackia , Tchoukafalaya , and Apeony , collectively called Long Town . After some debate the army advanced to attack , with the French contingent in typically European order , and the Choctaw noisily but reluctantly covering the flanks . Avoiding Apeony , where a trader ' s cabin flew a British flag , the force stormed Ackia under cover of large shields or mats called " mantelets " . The French immediately received ' a shower of balls ' from the Chickasaw fortifications , and the mantelets proved to be ineffective . The attack became pinned down on the side of the hill with steadily mounting casualties . Several outlying cabins were taken , but after several hours ' combat the French fell back ' without having been able to make the slightest breach ' in the fortress at the point of attack . During the night the Chickasaws further improved their position by razing surrounding cabins and vegetation . The French , short of ammunition and provisions , and worried that they could not carry any more wounded , and with no information from d ' Artaguette , retreated the way they came . Assessment . B . F . French stated ' The war was rashly brought and rashly conducted . Bienville entered the enemy ' s country without any means of siege , made one attack on a fort , and then , without attempting by scouts to open a communication with D ' Artaguette , whom he had ordered to meet him in the Chickasaw country on the 10th of May [ sic ] , or making any attempt to give him proper orders , without even taking one Chickasaw prisoner to get any information of D ' Artaguette ' s proceedings , he retreated , and ended the campaign disastrously . ' Atkinson described as ' stupid ' the frontal assaults against positions that were practically invincible . A Frenchman ' s relation of the observations of a Choctaw chief named Red Shoes is quoted by Atkinson : ' The French did not know at all the way to carry on war ; we had been able to take only a little village of thirty of forty men ; that on the contrary we had lost many men without being able to say that we had killed a single one ; that our troops heavily clad marched with too slow a step and so close together that it was impossible for the Chickasaws to fire without killing some of them and wounding several . ' The Chickasaw were amply equipped with English arms via a trade route from the English and small Chickasaw settlements in South Carolina and Georgia . Their rectangular palisade forts with loopholed walls were complemented by round fortified houses , also with loopholes . With this technology the Chickasaw invincibly maintained their homeland against relentless pressure from the French and Choctaw , including a repeat campaign in 1739 and numerous small attacks by Choctaws for the next 20 years . A village once thought to possess archaeological remains of Ackia battleground was made a U . S . National Monument in 1938 . The National Park Service realized only a few years after establishment of the National Monument that Ackia and the battle were not located there , and it was absorbed into the Natchez Trace Parkway in 1961 . It is now called ' Chickasaw Village . ' Research 25 years later , however , determined that the actual site of Ackia and its neighboring villages are in a developed area of south Tupelo . A subdivision called ' Lee Acres ' covers the site of the 1736 Battle of Ackia , cited by historians as a pivotal rebuff to French territorial ambitions in the Southeast .