Fort Nogales
In 1790 the Spanish commandant at Natchez made a treaty with the
Choctaws by which the British district line was confirmed, and it seems that
additional land was granted for the building of fortifications on the Walnut
hills, which in Spanish were the Nogales hills. This point was then 25 miles
above the upper settlements in the Natchez district. The construction was in
progress in May, 1791, when David Smith was there, and he reported to Gov.
Blount, in Tennessee, that the works were extensive. He described the site as a
mile and a half below the mouth of the Yazoo, on a high bluff. There were then
two blockhouses and large barracks completed. Besides other laborers "about 30
United States deserters" were engaged in the work. A galley and Spanish gunboat
were lying in the river close at hand.
Gen. Victor Collot, (q. v.) visiting the country as a military spy in 1796,
said, "The post of Nogales, called by way of irony the Gibraltar of Louisiana,
is situated on the left of the river, near a deep creek, and on the summit of
different eminences connected with each other and running northeast." The main
work, on the south side of the creek, called the fort of the great battery, was
an enclosure made on the river side by a wall of masonry twelve feet high and
four feet thick, and on the land side a ditch four feet wide and three deep, and
palisades twelve feet high. Twelve cannon were mounted in the river battery, and
a blockhouse with four howitzers was placed on an eminence in the rear, included
in the quadrangle, within which, also, were a powder magazine, the commander's
house and barracks for two hundred men. On a hill, across the creek, was a
blockhouse with four cannon, called Fort Sugarloaf. About a thousand yards
behind these works, on a chain of small heights, was built Fort Mount Vigie, a
square earthwork, with ditch and palisades, blockhouse and four cannon, and four
hundred yards to the right and left two small blockhouses called Fort Gayoso and
Fort Ignatius. The garrison of 80 men did not suffice to keep the works from
decay.
Says the author of "In and About Vicksburg," (1890) "Old Fort Nogales stood on
the high eminence about a mile and a quarter due north from the present
courthouse, that is still locally known as Fort Hill. There was a graveyard near
the river in front of the fort and nearly in front of the present National
cemetery." * Andrew Ellicott and his party stopped at the fort February 19-20,
1797. Ellicott wrote that the Spaniards "have erected some considerable works.
The post is a very important one, and capable of being made very strong." On the
20th at noon, Ellicott "took the sun's meridional altitude at the curtain of the
lower battery, after which we dined with the commandant and his officers." This
commandant was a French Creole, Capt. Elias Beauregard. Francis Daily, coming
down in 1797, described the fort as "an irregular fortification, occupying a
great part of the hill on which it stands, which is very high and steep." Baily,
being an Englishman, perversely determined not to stop and show his passports,
because he thought the Spaniards had no right there after the treaty, "though
perhaps their right was better than the American before the treaty." A gun was
fired at his boat, but the rapidity of the stream carried him by in safety.
Fort Nogales was evacuated by Capt. Beauregard in March, 1798, after giving four
days notice to Capt. Minor at Natchez, who informed Guion. The latter took no
steps to occupy the works, because his orders were that Maj. Kersey should
arrive with re-enforcements for that purpose. Consequently the fort was for a
time vacant. When Beauregard left, Guion's courier was there, " and besides
sixteen or seventeen inhabitants, particularly one Mr. Glass, that for their own
interest would not suffer the Indians to make depredations." A false report that
the buildings of the fort were burned, was circulated by a river trader. (Letter
of Gayoso, Claiborne's Miss.)
After its evacuation by the Spaniards, the name of the fort was changed to Fort
McHenry, in honor of the then secretary of war. But its occupation was short,
and it was finally abandoned about the close of the 18th century.
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Mississippi Forts
Back to: Mississippi History
Source: Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, by Dunbar Rowland.
