| 1680 February 24 |
Bienville, sometimes called "the Father of Louisiana," is
born at Montreal, Canada, son of Charles and Catherine (Primot) Le Moyne,
and one of a family of fourteen children: Charles, Jr. Sieur de Longueil;
Jacques, Sieur de Ste. Helene; Pierre, Sieur d'Iberville; Paul, Sieur de
Maricourt; François, Sieur de Bienville I; Joseph, Sieur de Serigny; Louis,
Sieur de Chateauguay; Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville II; Antoine, Sieur
de Chateaugue
(Chateauguay) II; François Marie, Sieur de Sauvolle; Catherine Jeanne, Marie
Anne, Gabriel and a child that died in infancy. The father, Sieur de Longueil, Sr. is one of the French pioneers in Canada and lives for some time among the Huron Indians. His sons all grew up on the frontier, and all in later life take important positions in the French army or navy. Jean Baptiste (Bienville) enters the French Navy while still a young boy, and while serving on the ship Pelican he is severely wounded in action off the coast of New England. He is taken to France by his brother Pierre (Iberville, who is 19 years older), and when Iberville is chosen to command the expedition to establish a colony in Louisiana, Bienville accompanied him. |
| 1699 |
The explorers make preliminary explorations along
the river. When Iberville
returns to France in May, 1699, Bienville is appointed "king's Lieutenant"
and made second in command to Sauvolle,
who was left in charge of the colony. In this capacity Bienville conducts excursions to various tribes of Indians and explores the streams in the vicinity of Biloxi, where the colony had been established, as well as around Lake Pontchartrain and along the lower Mississippi delta. It was while returning from one of these expeditions that he met and turned back a company of Englishmen who were seeking to establish a settlement on the Mississippi River. To this day the area was called "English Turn." |
| 1700 January |
In 1700 Bienville and Iberville establish the first fortification in present-day Plaquemines Parish near Phoenix and call it Fort Mississippi (or Fort De La Boulaye, Ft. Maurepas, Fort Iberville). Bienville is placed in command of this fort. |
| 1700 March 22 |
Bienville and St. Denis in the Spring of 1700 visit a Taensa village (Natchezan group) near Lake St. Joseph. On March 28 they reach a Ouachita village (Caddoan group) where Monroe is today. |
| 1702 January |
Bienville establishes another a settlement at Mobile, leaving
20 soldiers under Boisbriant
at Biloxi. At Mobile he meets his brothers, Serigny and Chateaugue
and Nicolas de LaSalle, who is to serve as intendant or commissaire of the
new colony. |
| 1703 |
Iberville is serving in the Navy, Without much support from France, because Bienville has great difficulty providing subsistence to the colonists and in keeping down dissension by LaSalle, the Intendant, and de la Vente, the vicar-general, who are plotting intrigues against Bienville and his brothers. Bienville complains to the French ministry. |
| 1706 |
Iberville
dies fron Yellow Fever on his return trip to the colony.He dies under the
cloud of scandal. Indictments allege that Iberville and his family have received considerable fortunes as a result of fraud. Bienville and Chateauguay, still in Louisiana are held suspect. The investigations into the Affaire d'Iberville will last until 1735. The king's minister Jerome Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain, while believing in Bienville's knowledge of the colony, cannot fully trust him with full authority and creates a bipolar form of government, military and civil. Bienville will hang in this limbo through 1717 even after Antoine Crozat, Marquis de Chatel takes over from Pontchartrain as proprietor of Louisiana. |
| 1708 |
Early in February 1708, news arrives that Bienville has been removed as governor and De Muys appointed to succeed him. But De Muys dies in Havana while en route to Mobile. Diron d Artaguette, who had been appointed to succeed LaSalle as Intendant, arrives on Feb. 10, 1708 with instructions to investigate the charges against Bienville, and also has a warrant for his arrest in case he is found guilty. Bienville wants to go to France to face the charges, but the captain of the Renommee would not take him, as he is still governor. After a thorough investigation, d Artaguette submits a report completely exonerating Bienville. |
| 1712 September 14 |
When the grant to Crozat is made, Bienville is named as
"commander of the Mississippi and its tributaries," or Lt.-Governor, and
is second in command to Antoine
de la Mothe Cadillac, the governor of Louisiana appointed by Crozat.
Cadillac soon grows jealous of Bienville's popularity and sends him on an expedition against the Natchez Indians, who had murdered some Frenchmen near their village (now Natchez , Miss.) Bienville builds Fort Rosalie, leaves an officer named Pailloux in charge, and returns to Mobile to find that Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac had been removed and l’Epinay appointed to succeed him. The new governor has not arrived, however, and by virtue of his rank of lieutenant-governor Bienville assumes control of affairs, which causes great rejoicing among the people. |
| 1717 March 9 |
l’Epinay
arrives with three ships bearing three companies of infantry and 50 colonists.
The new governor brings with him the cross of St. Louis, which the king
bestowed upon Bienville as a special reward for his long and efficient services
establishing and protecting the colony on the Mississippi. L'Epinay also brings to Bienville a grant of title to Horn Island, but Bienville had expected more. While he appreciates the honor of the Cross of St. Louis, he wants to be governor of the colony he had labored so hard to establish. The other settlers were also disappointed, and L'Epinay found himself confronted every where by insubordination. |
| 1717 August |
Crozat surrenders his charter, l’Epinay returns to France and again Bienville is left in control. Crozat's charter is succeeded by John Law's Company of the West. |
| 1718 Feb. 9 |
Three ships sent out by the Western Company arrive at Mobile with troops, supplies, and Bienville's commission as commandant-general, or governor. About the time that Crozat gives up his grant a hurricane chokes up the harbor at Mobile with sand, making it a difficult for vessels to land. The capital of the colony is moved back to Biloxi. One of the first official acts of Bienville upon becoming governor again is to establish a colony on the Mississippi River with the view to making it the seat of government. He selects the site where the city of New Orleans now stands, puts 50 men to work clearing the ground, and prepares to move, but the Superior Council in Biloxi objects and New Orleans remains a minor outpost for a few more years. |
| 1719 April 19 |
Bienville's brother Serigny arrives with a French man-of-war, bringing the news that war has been declared between France and Spain. He also brings an order for Bienville to go at once and capture the Spanish post at Pensacola Bay with three war vessels and a sloop carrying 230 men. The Spanish surrender without resistance but Pensacola is later recaptured by the Spanish, and again re-taken by Bienville. He also sends detachments to guard the frontier of upper Louisiana from an invasion via Mexico. |
| 1721 April |
Bienville, still wanting to move the capital of Louisiana, calls attention to the disadvantages of "New" Biloxi. Ships have to unload at Ship Island, which makes it necessary to rehandle all freight, whereas, at New Orleans, ships could come directly up the river to the landing without having to transfer their cargoes. The council now consents to Bienville s plan. |
| 1722 August |
Bienville takes up his official residence in New Oreans. |
| 1724 January |
As a result of a another conspiracy against him, Bienville is ordered to France to answer accusations, and Boisbriant is sent down from Fort Chartres to administer the affairs of the colony until the arrival of Gov. Etienne Perier, who assumes the duties of the office in October, 1726. |
| 1733 |
In 1733 Bienville is reinstated as governor of Louisiana after spending years trying to clear himself of the charges against him. During this time he is active in prosecuting wars against the Indians and in promoting the peace and prosperity in the colony. |
| 1743 |
Bienville, who is now 68 years old, is unsuccessful in an expedition against the Chicasaws and is replaced by the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Bienville leaves Louisiana, never to return. |
| 1765 |
Ulloa has arrived at the colony and Jean Milhet appears in Paris to plead to the court for Louisiana's continued ownership by France. He asks Bienville, now nearly 85 years old, to help him. In his last public service connected to Louisiana before the Duke of Choiseul, Bienville urges an arrangement that would not separate the colonists from the government of France. When he is informed that it is impossible to grant the petition, it is said that Bienville burst into tears, fell upon his knees to piteously beg the duke for a reconsideration of the decree against the colony. But all his pleas are in vain for the changes in the political map of North America and the drain of the colony on the French treasury are too much. |
| 1767 March 7 |
Bienville dies in Paris still mystified by the crown's abandonment of the colony to which he had devoted most of his life. The old adventurer, who was injured so badly in his first battle as a youth, has out-lived all of his contemporaries. He is buried with full military honors in the cemetery of Montmartre. |