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The Cherokee were a people trapped in a conflict between France and England in the mid-1700s. Through early treaties South Carolina owned the exclusive rights to send English traders among the Cherokee, but French courier de bas traders were coming into Cherokee lands from the Mississippi, Tennessee and Hiwassee rivers, trading and exerting their influence.
In 1753, the British built Fort Prince George as a headquarters for dealing with the Cherokee, but the Cherokee also pushed for a second fort in the Overhill settlements to help protect them from raiding Catawba Indians. In response Fort Louden was constructed. The cannon and other supplies were brought by horse train over Indian Path through Cherokee County and the Unicoi Gap.
During the French and Indian War in 1760, Cherokee had an altercation with frontiersmen in Virginia over horses, with several causalities. Shortly thereafter mismanagement and incompetence on the part of South Carolina politicians resulted in a siege of Fort Prince George, Cherokee hostages taken, extreme demands from the inexperienced South Carolina governor leading a Charles Town-based army to relieve Fort Prince George, which he did. When a smallpox epidemic threat scattered the governor’s army, the commander of Fort Prince George was ambushed, the Cherokee hostages killed, and in February of 1760 another siege of Fort Prince George and Fort Louden commenced. It was war.
White settlements that had pushed closer to Cherokee lands in North Carolina, along the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, were attacked by Cherokee bands. In June, Col. Archibald Montgomery arrived with a revenge army to Fort Prince George. He started by burning Keowee, capital of the Lower Cherokee. Montgomery ravaged towns, burned crops, destroyed stored food and grain, forcing Cherokee families to flee into the mountains with little food and no shelter. He sent word for the Middle Towns to surrender, but they refused.
Montgomery’s planned to destroy the Middle towns, and move on the Valley towns, raze them, and continue up the Indian Path to the relief of Fort Louden. He didn’t make it.
A large force of Cherokee met Montgomery on June 27, 1760, in which 20 British were killed and 76 wounded. Montgomery retreated to FortPrince George. That left no help for Fort Louden, and the starved-out garrison surrendered on Aug. 8. The terms specified leaving all powder, munitions and armament behind, for which the surrendered garrison would be allowed to pass to white settlements.
As the 200 surrendered British made their way along Tellico Creek, the Cherokee rushed into Fort Louden for the spoils. They discovered that 10 bags of powder hidden under a floor, buried cannon balls, and other small arms and ammunition that had been tossed into the river – a clear violation of the agreement.
The enraged Cherokee burned the fort – and attacked the British column.
During the attack, the commander of Fort Louden, Capt. Demere, and 29 of his men were killed, with everyone else captured and held for ransom until the British coughed up payment to free the captives.
Word spread quickly through the settler’s world of the atrocity and a new revenge army was raised from several colonies under the command of Lt. Col. James Grant with 3,000 men, including Indian troops of long time Cherokee enemies from the Chickasaw and Catawba. Grant was met by Attakullakulla offering peace overtures, but Grant was not interested, punishment was his goal. On June 7, 1761, he left FortPrince George for the Middle Towns in a column that was 2 miles long.
The column was met by 600 Cherokee, who fought constantly until Grant crossed the Little Tennessee. Realizing the overwhelming size of the attacking army, the Cherokee again fled into the hills as Grant destroyed everything in sight, rampaging for 30 days. He burned 1,500 acres of growing crops, 15 towns and left 5,000 Cherokee to get by.
A Virginia-based force pushed into Cherokee lands from the Overhill side, occupying the towns around Murphy. The Cherokee had had enough, and by Nov. 19 it was time for peace. Attakullakulla led a delegation that agreed to the surrender.
The result was devastation from which the Cherokee nation never recovered. The buckskin trade was disrupted, they had no crops to get them through the coming winter, they had no money, and the French, who had encouraged the Cherokee in fighting the British, were in turn defeated themselves in the French & Indian War and were soon gone.
The only reminder that French were ever in the area is the lending of their name to a western North Carolina river, the French Broad.
With the Cherokee War ended and the tribe facing hard times, they had once again proved the knack they had for picking the wrong side in a war and bearing the brunt of the retribution.
Until now the British had always been concerned about the French presence on the other side of the Blue Ridge and considered the Cherokee a convenient buffer between their English settlements and the French. Now with the French no longer there, there was no longer need for the Cherokee as a buffer. This would dramatically alter the way the British treated the Cherokee.
For over a century, the Cherokee had agreed to treaty after treaty with the British – and honored them for the most part. So when the Revolutionary War broke out 13 years later, the Cherokee continued to honor their alliances with the British – and once again proved their knack for picking the wrong side in a war.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, the Cherokee now found themselves on the losing side yet again – and now forced to deal with the new government of a new country – the United States of America.
Bruce Voyles’ local history column runs every other week in the Cherokee Scout. Email him at RoadsLessTraveled@cherokeescout.com.