Many young adventurers of all nationalities and from all walks of life had come into the area and found the excitement to their liking. They would align themselves with the side which offered them the most advantageous opportunities.
General Edmund P. Gaines found himself in a predicament when he received orders on Dec. 21, 1819, to establish a new command post near the border of the Sabine River. He was ordered “to establish a new post in a location that will protect our southwestern border as well as all of the inhabitants within the boundaries of the United States in your area.”
In the Southwest area he had federal troops under his command; at New Orleans, 96 men under Major Many; at Baton Rouge, 212 officers and men; at Fort Claiborne, Natchitoches, 56 men under the command of Major Coombs; and, at Camp Sabine, on the Sabine River, 105 men under the command of General Wilkinson.
On November 15, 1820, Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor and four Companies of the 7th United States Infantry had established Fort Selden on the south bank of Bayou Pierre on the highest hill in the area, one and one-half miles from the confluence of Bayou Pierre with Red River, six miles north of Natchitoches and three miles west of Grand Ecore. Taylor named the Fort, “Selden,” in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Selden, who fought in the American revolution and who was at that time stationed in the Arkansas Territory.
From the vantage point of Fort Selden on Bayou Pierre there was a one-mile view of the channel of the bayou. There was flat-boat traffic on the bayou to the town of Bayou Pierre and on northward to the Petit Caddos in the vicinity of the present day city of Shreveport. Taylor was in position to control the water traffic on the bayou.[12]
At Fort Selden Lieutenant Colonel Taylor received this message:
Special Order No. 19. Headquarters West Dept., Fort Selden, Red River, March 28, 1822.
Lieutenant Colonel Taylor with the troops under his command, will as soon as possible, occupy the position at Shields Springs, 25 miles south southwest of this place, where he will canton the troops in huts of a temporary kind. The buildings will be constructed by the troops. Supplies necessary, will be sent by the Quartermaster.
Lieutenant Colonel Taylor is charged with the south western frontier of Louisiana. To defend and protect its inhabitants, as well as those of the frontier.
Signed: Edmund P. Gaines Commanding General of The Southwest Frontier.
Order No. 20 Headquarters, West Dept. Fort Selden, Red River, March 29, 1822.
The General congratulates the Troops on the prospects of their immediate occupation of an eligible position near the National Boundary.
Signed: Edmund P. Gaines, Commanding General, Southwest Frontier.
These two orders confirmed a previous order issued to Taylor by Gaines in November of 1821 while he was in Arkansas—an order to explore the vicinity of Natchitoches and the Neutral Land and to locate a site for a cantonment of a permanent nature, which would be nearer the Louisiana and Texas boundary.
MAP of the BUILDINGS of FORT JESUP
Explanation of the Map of Fort Jesup. 1831.