Augustin de La Balme received a letter of recommendation from
Benjamin Franklin and left for the
United States to assist in the American Revolution. He arrived with a group of French volunteers that included the
Marquis de Lafayette, and expressed a "love of liberty" as the motivation for his service. In 1777, he was appointed as the
Continental Army's
Inspector General of
Cavalry. Due to his performance in the 1777
Battle of Brandywine, however,
Casimir Pulaski was made a Major General over all cavalry, including La Balme, who was not at the battle. When he learned that he would no longer be in command of the United States Cavalry, La Balme resigned in October 1777.
Western Campaign In 1780, allegedly under secret orders from
General Washington, but as likely acting on his own, La Balme traveled down the Ohio River to
Kaskaskia. The success of
General Clark's capture of Fort Sackville at
Vincennes inspired La Balme to attempt a similar feat against the British at
Fort Detroit. La Balme arrived in Kaskaskia as a French officer and was "greeted as
Masiah" by the local
Canadien residents, who had been living under British rule for over a decade. He represented himself as a representative of
Louis XVI of France and gathered a list of grievances from residents living under the rule of the Virginians, which was to be delivered to the French Ambassador at
Fort Pitt. La Balme openly disdained Clark, whom he considered an uneducated woodsman. He coordinated a diversionary attack against
Fort St. Joseph, then began his journey to Detroit, recruiting militia from among the Canadian citizens of Kaskaskia,
Cahokia, and Vincennes. At Vincennes, he started up the
Wabash River with the expectation of adding to his force from the Canadian villages of
Ouiatenon (present-day
West Lafayette, Indiana) and
Kekionga (present-day
Fort Wayne). La Balme expected Canadian residents at Fort Detroit to join him once they arrived. La Balme kept the French ambassador,
Anne-César de La Luzerne, updated on his movements, and the expedition marched under a French flag. La Balme's mounted force moved so quickly that it had little opposition until reaching
Kekionga, where La Balme had planned to arrest
Charles Beaubien, the British agent. Beaubien and many of the
Miami were not there, however, so the force raised the French flag and raided British stores for two weeks while awaiting reinforcements that never arrived. Upon learning of the return of a Miami hunting party to Kekionga, Le Balme departed to raid another trading post on the
Eel River. La Balme left twenty French soldiers to guard the captured stores at Kekionga and marched his force out over the Eel River trail. The Miami Indians, learning of the intrusion, destroyed the small group of men left at Kekionga. The group of twenty French soldiers left at Kekionga were slaughtered to a man. Chief
Little Turtle, who lived in a village along the Eel River, received permission from the Kekionga Miami to lead an attack. He gathered available warriors and attacked La Balme in camp at dawn on 5 November before he reached the Eel River trading post and just 3 miles from Little Turtle's village. La Balme and his men fortified themselves on the banks of the river but were only able to fire one volley before being overwhelmed. The ensuing battle was entirely one-sided; only a few survivors managed to escape. Augustin de La Balme died in the battle known as
La Balme's Defeat.
Legacy Although La Balme's expedition failed, it did cause considerable concern for the British. Major de Peyster subsequently deployed a detachment of British Rangers to protect Kekionga. Fort Detroit would remain under British control until the
Jay Treaty was ratified in 1796. (Detroit was again surrendered to the British in the
War of 1812, but was returned after the war.) The British commander at Detroit, Major
Arent DePeyster, thought La Balme had survived and recorded a log entry dated 13 November: • The Spanish Governor at St. Louis,
Francisco Cruzat, wrote ==References==