Fort La Baye was a French military post at
La Baye La Baye was a small trading post established on the ''Baie des Puants'' in 1634 by Jean Nicolet. Nicolas Perrot, who was sent by Father Claude-Jean Allouez, continued the work that Nicolet had started. In 1671, the Jesuits constructed a mission. ...
(today
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...
), originally built in 1684, remodeled in 1717, and occupied until 1760.
One Commandant of the Fort was the famous Chevalier
Jacques Testard de Montigny
Jacques Testard de Montigny (1663–1737) was an officer in the French Marines in Canada. Biography
Born in Montreal into a merchant family, Montigny first saw military action as a volunteer on the expedition against Schenectady in 1690. Two yea ...
, Knight of the Order of St. Louis. By 1718, there were a number of
French Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...
families living in the area near the fort. Other families settled across the river from the fort in an area which was called ''Munnomonee,'' because of the
Menominee
The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...
native people that lived there. Most of the families had come to La Baye from the
Mackinac area.
In 1733 the
Sauks
The Sauk or Sac are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group, who lived primarily in the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, when first encountered by the French in 1667. Their autonym is oθaakiiwaki, and t ...
, allied to the
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, the ...
(Fox), attacked the French at Fort La Baye. When a French force went out after them, the sons of De Villiers and Repentigny were killed. In 1737
Claude-Antoine de Bermen de La Martinière was appointed commander of the fort. Pierre-Paul Marin became the leader of a French force against the Meskwaki and Sauks. He prevailed and in 1739 the
Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor of Canada, wrote "Sieur Marin has re-established peace and quietness".
[La Compagnie Franche de la Marine du Fort La Jonquiere]
See also
*
Fort Beauharnois
Fort Beauharnois was a French fort, serving as a fur trading post and Catholic mission, built on the shores of Lake Pepin, a wide section of the upper Mississippi River, in 1727. The location chosen was on lowlands and the fort was rebuilt in 17 ...
*
Fort Saint Antoine Fort Saint Antoine was a French fort on Lake Pepin in present-day Wisconsin founded in 1686 by explorer and fur trader Nicholas Perrot and his expedition of Canadiens. They had come to the region to begin trading with Native American tribes of the ...
*
Fort Trempealeau Fort Trempealeau was founded in 1685 by Nicholas Perrot and a groupe of Canadiens. In the fall of 1685, Perrot and his men arrived at Mont Trempealeau by canoe. The Winnebagos called this mountain, ''Hay-nee-ah-cheh'', or the mountain in the wa ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Baye, Fort
Military units and formations established in 1717
Forts in Wisconsin
Buildings and structures in Brown County, Wisconsin
French forts in the United States
1717 establishments in the French colonial empire