Historical sources for the 1730 battle at the Grand Village of the Natchez

The French siege that took place at the Grand Village of the Natchez in 1730 was an important battle that resulted in the expulsion of the Natchez people from their homeland. Here I describe the ten detailed narratives of this battle and the three contemporaneous maps of the battlefield that have survived. I also consider the relationships of the various authors to the events they chronicled. The narratives are largely consistent with each other, although their structures vary according to each author’s perspective and sources of information. The maps provide the spatial context for understanding the narratives, as well as crucial information on how the French and Native combatants were deployed. This review lays the groundwork for the two articles that follow in this issue: a translation of the Delaye narrative (Sayre 2026) and an archaeological investigation of the battlefield (Boudreaux et al. 2026).