Fort St. Pierre was a colonial French fortified outpost on the Yazoo River in what is now Warren County, Mississippi.

Also known as Fort St. Claude and the Yazoo Post, it was established in 1719 and served as the northernmost outpost of French Louisiana.

Its location, north of Vicksburg on the east bank of the river, was discovered by archaeologists in the 1970s, and was given the Smithsonian trinomial 23-M-5.

The French established Fort St. Pierre in 1719 as a northern outpost between these peoples, as a means to blunt English trading influence and further their own.

It was destroyed in a surprise attack on December 11, 1729, by a band of Natchez, whose leadership had become hostile to French incursions on their territory upon the death of a French-friendly chief.

[3] The land around Fort St. Pierre in Vicksburg Mississippi was home to three different native groups, Yazoo, Koroa, Ofogoula, before the French arrived.

After the fall of the fort, the Yazoo and Koroa left but continued hostilities towards the French and any indigenous tribe that happened to be fighting with them.

Given that these indigenous groups were active on the landscape before and during the French occupation of Fort St. Pierre there is much archaeological evidence pertaining to the Yazoo, Koroa, and Ofogoula.

Life at the fort was relatively simple yet boring, which left little to do save keep watch, farm, and tend the land.

Other forms of leisure activities would include drawing, writing, reading, or spending time with their comrades.

In addition, beads were traded and shipped to France, which were passed on to explorers, who brought them to the Americas in the early 16th century.

Extra room had to be left between the musketball and the inside of the gun barrel to allow for fouling, or the build-up of black powder after each shot.

Soldiers therefore had to estimate which size shot would work in their barrels, and they sometimes used knives or their own teeth to correct ill-fitting balls.

Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, a French explorer and founder of the colony La Louisiane, understood the importance of maintaining good relations with Indians.

As soon as he reached American shores, he attempted to make preliminary contact with the indigenous population in order to facilitate land reconnaissance.

[13] When he first made contact, he left the natives with two axes, four knives, and some vermilion to show his good intentions toward two Indians who had been observing them since their arrival.

The first known European artifact given to an Indian in Louisiana was a knife presented to a chief of the Natchez by Henri Tonti on March 26, 1682.

[15] One of the most common artifacts found in the French colonial site of Fort St. Pierre are hand wrought nails.

These include keeping articles of clothing sturdy, tightening straps and harnesses (on both weapons and their rucksacks), and they were used as fashionable accessories on their uniforms.

Since the fort is a soldier base most of the buckles are plain with minimum designs engraved on them because their usefulness was more valued than their beauty.

While the soldiers were likely the only ones who carried firearms in the fort, similar weaponry was in common use in colonial North America in the 18th century.

For example, a smoothbore, flintlock musket hunting gun, called the Fusil de chasse was produced in Tulle, France.

[25][26][27][28][29] Among the artifacts found in the excavation were jetons, a coin typically made of copper or other less valuable material of the time.

These jetons, though heavily deteriorated, were able to give insight into the possible daily lives of the soldiers stationed at the fort while it was controlled by the French.

Jetons often had little to no monetary value outside of French colonial holdings; largely used as a gaming piece or for betting—similar to a modern poker chip.

However, the land did see use again after it was utilized for a Civil War camp for an 18-month stretch between 1862 and 1863, though it is possible that some of the artifacts found during the excavation of the site were from this period.