In 1739, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville led an army of 1,200 Frenchmen into the area of what is modern day Shelby County, Tennessee to eradicate the native Chickasaw Indians in order to secure and prepare the land for settlement by the French. As a base for the operation he chose the fourth Chickasaw Bluff and ordered the construction of a fortification on top of the bluff. On August 15, 1739, the day of the Feast of the Assumption, the fort was finished and named Fort Assumption in commemoration of the holy day. The French stronghold consisted of three bastions facing the land and two bastions fronting the Mississippi River. On the slope from the river to the top of the Bluff seven wide terraces protected from attacks. During the winter of 1739/40, the garrison was plagued by