Battle of St. Louis

Battle of St. Louis
Part of the Western theater of the American Revolutionary War
Diorama of the Battle of St. Louis in the Gateway Arch Museum, Old County Courthouse, St. Louis, Missouri.
Date May 26, 1780 Location St. Louis and Cahokia, Illinois 38°37′29.2″N 90°11′25.1″W / 38.624778°N 90.190306°W / 38.624778; -90.190306 Result American and Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain  United States	Great Britain Ho-Chunk Kickapoo Odawa Ojibwe Mascouten Menominee Potawatomi Sioux Sac and Fox [1][2]
Commanders and leaders
Fernando de Leyba François Vallé John Montgomery	Emanuel Hesse Matchekewis Wapasha I
Strength
30 regulars 168 militia[2]	24 irregulars 750–1,500 Indian warriors[2]
Casualties and losses
21–100 killed[3]	4 killed 4 wounded[4]
St. Louis class=notpageimage| Location within North America

The Battle of St. Louis, also known as the Attack on St. Louis and the Battle of Fort San Carlos, was fought on May 26, 1780, between British-allied Indians and defenders of the Franco-Spanish village of St. Louis, Louisiana (present-day U.S. state of Missouri) during the American Revolutionary War. The garrison, a motley assortment of regulars and militiamen led by Upper Louisiana's lieutenant governor, Captain Fernando de Leyba, suffered a small number of casualties.

De Leyba fortified St. Louis as best as he could and successfully withstood the attack. On the opposite bank of the Mississippi River, a simultaneous attack on the nearby American village of Cahokia was also repulsed. The retreating British-allied Indians destroyed crops and took captive inhabitants outside the protected area. The British failed to defend their side of the river and, thus, effectively ended any attempts to gain control of the Mississippi River during the Revolutionary War.