lowing year Bienville accomplished his most
legendary feat, establishing a new city at the
mouth of the mighty Mississippi: New Or-
leans. In time this strategic city would control
the ebb and flow of trade up and down the
Mississippi Valley, and it proved a great strate-
gic asset once acquired by the United States
in 1803. For all these efforts, Bienville re-
ceived the prestigious Order of St. Louis.
Bienville could be something of a crass,
opinionated figure himself, and his disposi-
tion occasioned several powerful enemies
among the colonial elite. In 1724, they
arranged to have him transferred back to
France for “consultation”; following his ar-
rival, he was stripped of rank. In his ab-
sence, friction with the neighboring Natchez
Indians exploded into war and necessitated
his return. Bienville was promptly rehabili-
tated in 1732 and sent back to Louisiana as
full-fledged governor of the newly restored
royal colony. Back in power, he began tack-
ling the familiar problems of administration,
disease, and war, with good effect. However,
old age had begun to take its toll on his per-
formance as a military field commander. In
the wake of a successful war against the
Natchez, the powerful Chickasaw tribe—
nominal allies of the English—refused to
surrender any fugitives. Angered by such de-
fiance, Bienville ordered a military cam-
paign against them, the conduct of which
immediately went awry. The commander of
the first French column foolishly attacked
the Chickasaw villages and was disastrously
defeated. On May 26, 1736, Bienville himself
assaulted the village of Ackia, only to like-
wise be repulsed. Angered by this expensive
setback, the French colonial ministry or-
dered Bienville to mount another attack in
1739–1740, which also proved indecisive. At
this juncture Bienville recognized that
French colonial power was unequal to the
task of subduing the Chickasaws, and he
thought it more prudent to sign a peace
treaty that demanded only minor conces-
sions from them.
After this dismal performance, Bienville
stepped down as governor in anticipation of
being recalled. His replacement, Pierre
Rigaud de Vaudreuil, finally succeeded him
in May 1743, and Bienville returned to
France. He spent the rest of his life in Paris,
where he lived and died in relative comfort.
One of his last official acts was to protest the
terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, through
which ownership of Louisiana temporarily
passed to Spain. In his long career, he
amassed the enviable reputation as one of
France’s leading agents of Gulf Coast colo-
nization, and he laid the foundation for
Louisiana’s long and successful period as a
French colony. Curiously, one of his longest-
enduring contributions was the Code Noir, a
set of laws regulating the status of Louisiana
slaves and mulattoes up through the Ameri-
can Civil War.Bibliography
Berven, Mary Lou P. “Bienville and Louisiana: A Family
Affair.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Louisiana State
University, 1996; Dawson, Joseph G., ed. The
Louisiana Governors from Iberville to Edwards.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990;
Elliot, Charles W. “Bienville’s English Turn Incident:
An Anecdotal Event in Gulf History Reconsidered
Within the Context of Colonial North America.” Un-
published master’s thesis, Southwestern Louisiana
University, 1997; Hauck, Philomena. Bienville: Fa-
ther of Louisiana.Lafayette: Center for Louisiana
Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1998;
Higginbotham, Jay. Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la
Louisiane, 1702–1771.Mobile, AL: Museum of the
City of Mobile, 1977; John, Elizabeth A.A. Storms
Brewed in Other Men’s Worlds: The Confrontation
of Indians, Spanish, and French in the Southwest,
1540–1795.College Station: Texas A&M University
Press, 1975; King, Grace E. Jean Baptiste Le Moyne,
Sieur de Bienville.New York: Dodd, Mead, 1892;
O’Neill, Charles E. “The Death of Bienville.”
Louisiana History8 (1967): 362–369; Sanders, Al-
bert G., trans. and ed. Mississippi Provincial
Archives.6 vols. Jackson: Press of the MississippiDEBIENVILLE, JEAN-BAPTISTELEMOYNE