Pirates of the Mississippi – Member Project 11/04/24

Based upon the lead article of The Florissant Valley Historical Society Quarterly Volume 24 Issue 4 (October 2024) “Searching for Pirate Gold at Fort Bellefontaine” by Andrew Theissing. I had a bit of inspiration for a couple of gaming scenarios that will show up in future Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance – St. Louis game days.

The article describes a bit about Fort St. Charles (later renamed Fort Bellefontaine by the French) as being located where Coldwater Creek empties into the Missouri River as early as 1768. It was not much of a fort beyond a stockade and a couple of log buildings. With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 Fort Bellefontaine became a center of military operations for the U.S. Army in until about 1815.

While it was Fort St. Charles it became somewhat entangled with the story of some pirates that were operating near a base camp around Spanish Pond. These rascals would set upon the unsuspecting folks passing through the area robbing them of their goods and treasure by land or by sea along the Mississippi River. Not content to just rob those pesky English on the Illinois side of the river, which of course would not likely arouse much concern from authorities. Their quest for booty led them to set upon some locals and things went downhill leading them to be imprisoned and executed at Fort St.Charles by the Spanish.

The scenarios based upon this local history will be some river raiding of keelboats and what have you followed by some possible land actions and then a hunt for the buried treasure (which was described in the article by Andrew Theising).

First needed was a brown water river mat for the pirate raiding on the Big Muddy and for that I sought the help of our ace mat designer Dave Schaffner who quickly created a superb file and guided me on the process to have it done on vinyl from a banner printer to the size I wanted (in this case 4×6). You will see the mat in all the upcoming photos. I expect to add a bit of foliage on the shore lines. Who knows what might be lurking there for the players to find?

Next I needed a keelboat for the raiders to set upon and for that (knowing that gaming storage is becoming a real issue for me) I chose to convert a sailing ship from my 25mm Limeys & Slimeys group. This is a Hobby Lobby room decor John Boat that I had originally converted to gaming purposes last year, because, well, it was cheap. A bit of basswood along with a few scraps about the craft table and I was able to build up the after cabin area that I can add or remove as the gaming scenarios dictate. It is a bit larger than it probably should be, but this allows for the figs to move about more easily.

The raiding small boats are some recent acquisitions from Miniature Market and are Tiny Terrain Long Boats (#TT250) which I caught on sale. These were spray painted black and dry brushed with an odd assortment of colors for weathering.

The miniatures onboard all the vessels for this example are Old Glory 25mm Pirates that have been painted by Tim Low for me over the last year.

Plans are to get this game based upon our own local history on the table at an upcoming game day using Fistful of Lead – Horse & Musket Rules once the scenario can be fine tuned a bit.

Thanks to Dave Schaffner for his willing assistance with the artwork for this great brown water mat that was created. We can use this mat not only for this group of scenarios but also ACW Ironclads and perhaps some Vietnam era riverine games that have been discussed in the past. Thanks to Tim Low for some superbly painted miniatures and Thanks to The Florissant Valley Historical Society for this fun bit of local history upon which to base these upcoming games. “Shiver me Timbers!” You just never know where the next game scenario might come from.