Arkansas Post (1783)

Captain John Colbert, leading a mixed force of approximately eighty-one men, including eleven of mixed ethnicity, five African-Americans, a Frenchmen, and sixty-four British and Loyalist Americans, conducted an attack on the Spanish stockade Fort Carlos III around 2:00 am April 17, 1783.  After several hours, the British were unable to take the fort and retreated. Seven days later, the one hundred twenty-member Quapaw/Spanish force overtook Colbert’s camp freeing the prisoners previously taken at Arkansas Post. 

The Battle of Arkansas Post was one of only two engagements west of the Mississippi during the Revolutionary War, potentially influencing the belligerent nations' hold on that sector of the continent. However, the battle occurred after initial agreements for ending the war had been made making the battle the last land-based engagement of the conflict.