Fort Bute (1766-1779) was a colonial fort built by the British in 1766 to protect the confluence of

Bayou Manchac Bayou Manchac is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southeast Louisiana, USA. First called the Iberville River ("rivière d'Iberville") by its Fren ...

with the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, ...

and was named in honor of the Earl of Bute. Fort Bute was located on Bayou Manchac, about 115 miles (185 km) up the Mississippi River from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, on the far western border of British West Florida. It was one of the three outposts maintained by the British in the lower Mississippi along with Fort Panmure and the Baton Rouge outpost.

Passage to Mobile

On October 20, 1763, Major Robert Farmar of the Thirty-fourth Regiment and Commander of His Britannic Majesty's troops declared that all of the inhabitants of West Florida were subjects of England. The British led by Colonel Taylor began clearing out the

Iberville River Bayou Manchac is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southeast Louisiana, USA. First called the Iberville River ("rivière d'Iberville") by its Frenc ...

and building a path from British West Florida to the "14th British colony" of Mobile. Captain James Campbell along with 50 African slaves cleared a channel to the

. It was during this time that Major Robert Farmar planned to build Fort Bute for protecting the workers and local settlers.

Fort construction

In the year 1765 construction materials and an engineer named Archibald Robertson from

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

arrived in Bayou Manchac. Archibald Robertson supervised the planning and construction of Fort Bute. The fort consisted of a single

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stron ...

surrounded by a stockade. The fort was designed to hold up to 200 men with a single officers quarters.

Capture of Fort Bute

On September 3, 1779 Colonel Alexander Dickson removed nearly all the troops from the fort leaving only 23 soldiers at the fort. The troops were ordered to march to the Baton Rouge outpost.

Bernardo de Gálvez Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid, 1st Count of Gálvez (23 July 1746 – 30 November 1786) was a Spanish military leader and government official who served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Sp ...

, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana and Commander of the troops of the Catholic Majesty gathered 1,427 militiamen consisting of 600 multinational settlers and 160 Native Americans and 667 Spanish infantrymen. Gálvez slowly marched his troops towards Bayou Manchac through the muddy swamp at nine miles each day. The Spanish arrived at Fort Bute 11 days after beginning the march. At dawn on September 7, 1779 the Spanish captured Fort Bute with no casualties. One British Captain, one Lieutenant and eighteen soldiers were taken as prisoners. Three British soldiers ran away from the battle and fled towards Baton Rouge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Bute Louisiana in the American Revolution Fort Bute Fort Bute Fort Bute 1779 in the United States Conflicts in 1779 East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Colonial forts in Louisiana New Richmond British-American culture in Louisiana Pre-statehood history of Louisiana Military installations established in 1766 1766 establishments in the British Empire Military installations closed in 1779 1779 disestablishments in the Spanish Empire