Fort Jefferson (Kentucky)

Fort Jefferson (Kentucky)
Chickasaw tribal land, Kentucky territory of Virginia, present-day site one mile south of Wickliffe, Ballard County, Kentucky
Type	stockade
Site information
Controlled by	Virginia
Site history
Built	1779
In use	1779–1781
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War
Garrison information
Past commanders	George Rogers Clark, Capt. Robert George
Garrison	100

Capture of Fort Jefferson
Part of American Revolutionary War
Date June 1780 - June 1781 Location Vicinity of fort Jefferson Result Chickasaw victory, abandonment of US actions against the Chickasaws
Belligerents
Chickasaw	United States
Commanders and leaders
James Colbert Alexander Colbert	George Rogers Clark Capt. Owen
Strength
unknown	120 soldiers unknown amount of local settlers
Casualties and losses
unknown but small	unknown, but significant fort Jefferson burned down by Chickasaw forces

Return of the public stores (at Fort Jefferson), signed Martin Carney, approximately February 16, 1781

Fort Jefferson was a town on the Mississippi River, about one mile south of Wickliffe, Kentucky in southwestern Ballard County.

In 1779, George Rogers Clark built a stronghold of the same name at the intersection of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in order to consolidate his forces and to control access to the Ohio. The original fort was burned down by Chickasaw forces in 1781. The settlement was reestablished in 1858. The town itself no longer exists. The site is now home of the Phoenix Paper mill.

Planning of Fort Jefferson

The initial proposal for a fortification on the mouth of the Ohio was made by Virginia governor Patrick Henry in 1777, in a letter to the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez. He proposed a fortification to protect trade and supplies between Virginia and Spanish Louisiana from British interference. Henry would also propose this idea to George Rogers Clark, who saw it as a fortification for frontier protection and conquest of British Indian allies. Clark would later press Henry's successor, Thomas Jefferson, on the importance of a fort along both rivers, to control commerce and stop British supplies. In January 1780, Jefferson formally approved the fort with the formal stipulation that the land must be purchased from the Chickasaws, whom he erroneously identified as Cherokees. Jefferson would also write to Joseph Martin that "the ground at the mouth of the Ohio on the south side belonging to the Cherokee, we would not meddle in without their leave". George Rogers Clark would go on to ignore this provision, as he would not buy the land from the Chickasaws or gain their consent to build the fortifications. Many historians point to Clark's disregard of the Chickasaw as the point at which the fortification and settlement project was doomed to failure.

Aftermath

In 1782, four Chickasaw chiefs sent a letter to American military post commanders in the West to initiate peace negotiations, stating, "What damage occurred because you established a fort in our hunting grounds without our permission, and at that location, you suffered most from us." The Chickasaw would eventually sign a peace treaty with the Spanish (representing the American alliance) that respected Chickasaw territorial integrity, but kept them at war with the Kickapoo.