The Gonzales massacre occurred in the summer of 1786 when the Cherokee war chief Ishtakhaba attacked and annihilated a small Spanish Army force in Spanish Louisiana amid the Spanish-Cherokee wars of the 1780s.
The Cherokee and Spanish had been at war since before 1783, and the Cherokee launched raids into the Panhandle region of Spanish Florida, while a Spanish expedition into Kentucky was annihilated at the Vonore massacre in 1784. In 1786, a Cherokee war party led by Ishtakhaba invaded Spanish Louisiana after the Cherokee scout Barboncito spotted an isolated Spanish Army detachment led by Diogo Cuevas moving out of New Orleans. In the summer of 1786, the Cherokee war party attacked the smaller Spanish force near present-day Gonzales. The Spanish cannon blasted the advancing Cherokee warriors, but the quick Cherokee warriors soon came upon the Spanish artillery, cavalry, and infantry. The 1st Regiment of Militia, 3rd Regiment of Artillery, and 4th Regiment of Horse were wiped out in the ensuing battle, and the Cherokee war party proceeded to press on to New Orleans. Macario Rodriquez's 120-strong garrison surrendered without a fight, enabling the Cherokee to raze the Spanish barracks there. In 1787, unrest from among the European settlers led to the deaths of 1,038 residents of Lower Louisiana, and, in the winter of 1787, the settlers rebelled against the Cherokee, who abandoned the region back to the Europeans after a brief interruption.
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