Searching for Fort Assumption

This past weekend I had the great opportunity to attend the First Annual Heritage Festival at Meeman-Shelby State Forest just outside of Memphis, Tennessee.  My task was to interpret a short time period in local history, a French Marine during the Chickasaw Campaign of 1739.  The campaign was a continuation of 1736 effort by Governor Jean Batiste Beinville to attack the Chickasaw village of Ackia near present day Tupelo, Mississippi.  This campaign was wrought with supply shortages, typical military "hurry up and wait" in getting artillery, mines and demolition bombs to tackle the Chickasaw fortifications.  The only bright spot for the French was a peace treaty signed ending hostilities  for the time being between the French, Choctaw and Chickasaws.

The program I developed was a variation of my Fort Tombecbe marine.  The important aspects of typical French Marine life are kept such as clothing & equipment, length of service, demographics, etc but I added in information about Fort Assumption built along in the Mississippi River in Memphis which served as the staging area for the 1200 man French army and 2000 Indians to head towards Ackia.  A few of the visitors had heard of the fort, but not much else.  Upon hearing a 3000 man army with artillery, 200 horses, 80 yoke of oxen and 80 wagons were gathered in Memphis for a few months in winter 1739 and spring of 1740 it got their immediate attention.  From there I went on discuss a reproduction piece of eight coin provided through a grant received earlier this year, playing card money, musket (as always) and food stuffs.  One item I had picked up was a small yellow squash type fruit found near work.  It's scientific name is Curcubina pepo texana and it only ripens in October.  While Memphis is a little north of its range, it provided me with an opportunity to discuss with people native foodstuffs the French could eat.  When cut open the squash looks EXACTLY like a cucumber.  However it smells sweeter, almost citrus in nature.  In having the people smell the squash or ignited black powder I am finding people enjoying the program more.  While it is rudimentary knowledge for public historians, but the incorporation of more than one sensory organ gets the visitors more involved.  Touch, smell, taste, hearing or speaking all allow participants to come to the infamous "ah ha!" moment.  I will now try to use smell in all my new program development.  It has added depth, but also it makes me do more research into 18th century life-ways.

Also while in town I went on my own adventure to find the historical marker for Fort Assumption.  After a quick google search, the marker's location was revealed to be at Tom Lee Park.  After a detour to Beale Street for lunch, we hoped on the trolley and headed off.  Soon we arrived at the proper stop and walked down the steps to Tom Lee Park.  This is what I found:

Apparently the site had not been found at the time of the marker's construction.  I doubt the site will ever be found to be honest.  When I turned around to gazed at my surroundings the rather expensive homes setting up on the bluff made me draw that conclusion.  Even though the fort was rather sizable (five bastions) if anything was dug up in the building of any structure in the past it has long been forgotten.  Over the next year I want to try and find a drawing by the Chief French Engineer in Louisiana of Fort Assumption.  Next year I hope to participate in the 2nd rendition of the Heritage Festival.