Fort Carlos III
Fort Carlos III was a Spanish fort located at the Écores Rouges, Luisiana within the present-day Arkansas Post National Memorial. Named for King Carlos III, it was located on the left bank of the Arkansas, about 29 miles from the mouth. This wooden palisade fort comprised a stockade, bastions, embrasures, storehouses, barracks, officers' quarters, a powder magazine, cannons, swivel guns, and ordnance stores. It served as the headquarters of Spain's district of Arkansas from 1781 until 1791 when it was destroyed by river bank erosion and replaced by Fort San Esteban (later called Fort Madison). History Fort Carlos III was completed on July 11, 1781, at the Écores Rouges, Luisiana. Discovery of the intention of British partisans to capture Arkansas Post earlier that month prompted its construction. The post's commandant, Captain Balthazer de Villiers, described the stockade as consisting of: ...red oak stakes thirteen feet high, with diameters of 10 to 15 or 16 inches, split in two and reinforced inside by similar stakes to a height of six feet and a banquette of two feet. Captain de Villiers also wrote that the stockade enclosed all necessary places, including a house 45 feet long and 15 feet wide, and a