Defender of St Louis
"...a little-known part of the history of the American Revolution..."
"Mangez plomb, cochons!"
"Eat Lead, You Pigs!"
Francois Valle first made his mark in the region as founder of French Colonial
Valles Mines after arriving from Quebec in 1748. In later years he moved to Ste Genevieve,
ultimately serving as Commandante of the Fort there. But 32 years after Valles
Mines he made history a second time by risking everything to help a Spanish fort named
Fort San Carlos 60 miles to the North, a
vulnerable settlement caught in a battle for the New World, a place today we today
call...Saint Louis,
Missouri.
"...In his early 70's and commandante of Ste. Genevieve, he sent his two sons and
all the Ste. Genevieve militia he could spare to the Spanish settlement at St. Louis in May
1780 to defend against the coming British-Indians' attack. " [With the attack on its way
St. Louis had still not been fortified].
"In two weeks the garrison of 350 defenders withstood 1000 attackers. May 26th, outnumbered
3 to 1, the garrison still prevailed after a desperate struggle...
It does not seem excessive to claim that the men from Ste. Genevieve added the weight that tipped the
scale of battle in favor of the defenders... *
...by royal decree on April 1, 1782 King Carlos III of Spain conferred upon Francois I the rank of
lieutenant in the regular Spanish army. Francois Valle, French Canadian habitant thus became a Spanish don...
"...At the same time that the Franco-Spanish garrison repelled the Anglo-Indian attack on St Louis,
Colonel John Montgomery and General George Rogers Clark fended off a secondary British thrust at
Cahokia across the Mississippi. These British setbacks in the western theater of action are a
little-known part of the history of the American Revolution. Nonetheless, they prevented Great
Britain from seizing control of the lucrative fur trade of the lower Mississippi River,...."
* Valle gave the defenders a major tactical advantage in two ways, first by
supplying genuine lead musket and cannon balls. Secondly, he supplied his own Ste. Genevieve militia, trained and equipped.
Note: Riflemen in those days knew the best way to armor themselves came from pouring their own projectiles [see
Mel Gibson in "The Patriot" for an accurate depiction] from lead, not pebbles. At 100 feet getting hit with a pebble
or stone did not compare to the damage and knockdown power of a 52 caliber lead rifle ball at that distance, used
for medium game from 50 to 300 lbs.
[lead=0.409 lbs/cu.in, dolomite=0.0266 lbs/cu.in. or about 15 times heavier.]
The Battle of Fort San Carlos has been called the westernmost battle of the Revolutionary War.
When did the Revolutionary War end?
Possible answer #1
HistoryPlace.com
"August 27, 1782 - The last fighting of the Revolutionary War between Americans and British occurs with a skirmish in South Carolina along
the Combahee River. November 10, 1782 - The final battle of the Revolutionary War occurs as Americans
retaliate against Loyalist and Indian forces by attacking a Shawnee Indian village in the Ohio territory."
Possible answer #2 from
state.nj.us/dca/njht/resources/w3rreport.html
"Yorktown was the last major engagement of the war however there are documented cases of skirmishes
occurring up til late 1783. One of the last occured in New Jersey near Tuckerton on April 3, 1783."