USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 6
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At this treaty a large cession of territory was made to the king, and deeds of conveyance were formally executed by the head men, in the name of the whole people.
Soon after this cession, Governor Glen built Fort Prince George upon the Savannah, near its source, and three hun- dred miles from Charleston, and within gun-shot of an Indian town, called Keowee. It contained barracks for one hundred men, and was well mounted with cannon, and designed for a defence of the western frontier of the province.
The earl of Loudon, who had been appointed commander 1756 § of the king's troops in America, and governor of the province of Virginia, came over in the spring of this year. He sent Andrew Lewis to build another fort on Ten- nessee river, on the southern bank, at the highest point of its navigation, nearly opposite to the spot on which Tellico Block House has since been placed, and about thirty miles from the present town of Knoxville ; the fort was called, in
. There is reason to believe that the French at this time had trading establish- menta on the Tennessee river, about the Muscle Shoals, in close propinquity with the Over-bill Cherokees, and that in their hunting. trapping and trading excur- sions, they had ascended to the centre of East Tennessee.
52
FORT LOUDON BUILT.
honour of the earl, Fort Loudon. Lewis informed Governor Dobbs that, on his arrival at Chota, he had received the kindest usage from Old Hop, the Little Carpenter, and that the Indians in general expressed their readiness to comply with the late treaty with the Virginia commissioners (Byrd and Randolph). They manifested this disposition while the fort was building ; but when it was finished, and they were pressed to fulfil their engagements, and send warriors to Virginia, they equivocated. Lewis observed that the French and their Indian allies, the Savannahs, kept a regular cor- respondence with the Cherokees, especially those of the great town of Tellico. He expressed his opinion that some scheme was on foot for the distress of the English back settlers, and that the Cherokees greatly inclined to join the French. While he was at Chota, messengers had come to the Little Carpenter, (Atta-Culla-Culla,) from the Nantowees, the Sa- vannahs, and the French at the Alabama fort. He took notice that the object of the communications were indus- triously concealed from him, and that a great alteration in that chief's behaviour towards him had ensued. In return, towards the latter part of September, a Frenchman, who had lived a considerable time among the Cherokees, accom- panied by a Cherokee woman, who understood the Shawnee tongue, went from Chota to the Alabama fort, and to the Savannah Indians. The object of his visit to the French, was to press them for the accomplishment of a promise the commander of the fort had made, to send and have a fort built among the Cherokees, near the town of Great Tellico. The communication concluded, by observing that the Indians had expressed a wish that Captain Dennie, (Demere ?) " sent by the Earl of Loudon, with a corps of two hundred men to garrison the fort, might return to Virginia, the Indians being displeased at seeing such a large number of white people, well armed, among them, expressing a belief that their intention was to destroy any small force that might be sent, in order to take the fort and surrender it to the French. On this information, Captain Hugh Waddle was sent with a small force to reinforce Captain Dennie.""
* Martin.
53
LONG ISLAND FORT BUILT.
Fort Loudon was then estimated to be five hundred miles from Charleston, and Hewitt remarks, that it was a place to which it was very difficult at all times, but, in case of a war with the Cherokees, utterly impracticable, to convey neces- sary supplies. Prince George and Loudon were garrisoned by the king's independent companies of infantry stationed there. " The Indians invited artizans into Fort Loudon by donations of land, which they caused to be signed by their own chief, and, in one instance, by Governor Dobbs of North- Carolina."* " These strongholds were garrisoned by troops from Britain ; and the establishment of these defences in the interior, led to the rapid accumulation of settlers in all the choice places in their neighbourhood."t Loudon is remarka- ble as being the first fort or other structure erected in Ten- nessee by Anglo-Americans.}
The continued possession of Fort Du Quesne enabled the French to preserve their ascendancy over the Indians, and to hold undisturbed control over almost the entire country west of the Alleghany mountains. The spirit of Britain rose in full proportion to the occasion, and Mr. Pitt, in a circular letter to the colonial governors, promised to send a large force to America to operate by sea and land against the French, and called upon them to raise troops to assist in that measure. In furtherance of that object, Virginia, pushing her settlements south-west, and guarding and protecting them, as they advanced, by forts and garrisons, had built Fort Lewis near the present village of Salem, in Bottetourt county. In 1758, Col. Bird, in pursuit of the French and Indians, who had recently taken Vaux's Fort on Roanoke, marched his regiment, and built Fort Chissel and stationed a garrison in it. It stood a few miles from New river, near ` ! the road leading from what is since known as Inglis' Ferry.
Col. Bird continued his expedition further, and erected an- other fort, in the autumn of this year, on the north bank of Holston, nearly opposite to the upper end of the Long Island, now the property of Col. Netherland. It was situated upon
* Haywood. + Simms. ¿ In Haywood, the time of its erection is given in 1757. I have chosen to fol- low Hewitt, who wrote in 1779, and gives it as it is in the text, 1756.
54
FORT LOUDON THREATENED.
a beautiful level, and was built upon a large plan, with pro- per bastions, and the wall thick enough to stop the force of small cannon shot. The gates were spiked with large nails, so that the wood was all covered. The army wintered there in the winter of 1758. The line between Virginia and North-Carolina had not then been extended beyond the Steep Rock. Long Island Fort was believed to be upon the terri- tory of the former, but as it is south of her line, the Virgi- nians have the honour of having erected the second Anglo- American fort within the boundaries of Tennessee.
In the spring of 1758, the garrison of Fort Loudon was augmented to two hundred men. In a few months, by the arrival of traders and hunters, it grew into a thriving village.
In the meantime, the French garrison at Fort Du Quesne,
1758 S deserted by their Indian allies, and unequal to the maintenance of the place against the army of Gene- ral Forbes that approached it, abandoned the fort, and es- caped in boats down the Ohio. The English took posses- sion of it, and, in compliment to the popular minister, called it Pittsburg. In the army of Forbes were several Cherokees, who had accompanied the provincial troops of North and South-Carolina.
" The capture of Fort Du Quesne, though a brilliant termination of the several campaigns so successfully prosecuted from the northern colo- nies against the French, was followed by disastrous consequences as to the frontier settlements in the south. The scene of action was only changed from one place to another, and the baneful influence of those active and enterprising enemies that had descended the Ohio, soon manifested itself in a more concentrated form among the Upper Chero- kees ; the interior position of whose country furnished facilities of imme- diate and frequent intercourse with the defeated and exasperated French- men, who now ascended the Tennessee river and penetrated to their mountain fastnesses. An unfortunate quarrel with the Virginians helped to forward their intrigues, and opened an easier access into the towns of the savages. The Cherokees, as before remarked, had, agreeably to their treaties, sent a number of their warriors to assist in the reduction of Du Quesne. Returning home through the back parts of Virginia, some of them, who had lost their horses on the expedition, laid hold on such as they found running at large, and appropriated them. The Vir- ginians resented the injury by killing twelve or fourteen of the unsus- pecting warriors, and taking several more prisoners. This ungrateful conduct, from allies whose frontiers they had defended and recovered,
55
FORT PRINCE GEORGE ATTACKED.
aroused at once a spirit of deep resentment and deadly retaliation." *
* *. "The flame soon spread through the upper towns. The garri- son of Fort Loudon, consisting of about two hundred men, under the command of Captains Demere and Stuart, was, from its remote position from the white settlements, the first to notice the disaffection of the Indians, and to suffer from it. The soldiers, as usual, making excur- sions into the woods, to procure fresh provisions, were attacked by them, and some of them were killed. From this time such dangers threat- ened the garrison, that every one was confined within the small bonnda- ries of the fort."t " All communication with the settle- ments across the mountains, from which they received supplies, was cut of, and the soldiers, having no other sources from which provisions could be obtained, had no prospect left them but famine or death. Par- ties of the young warriors rushed down upon the frontier settlements, and the work of massacre became general along the borders of Caro- lina."1 * * * "Governor Lyttleton, receiving intelligence of these outrages, prepared to chastise the enemy, and summoned the militia of the province to assemble at Congaree." * * * "A treaty was imade afterwards, signed by the governor and only six of the head men ; in this, it was agreed that the twenty-two chieftains should be kept as hostages, confined in Fort Prince George, until the same number of Indians, guilty of murder, should be delivered up, and that the Chero- kees should kill or take prisoner every Frenchman that should presume to come into the nation."§
The treaty, however, illy expressed the sentiment of the tribe. And, immediately after the return of the governor and the dispersion of his army from Fort Prince George, hostilities were renewed, and fourteen whites were killed within a mile of the fort. Under a pretence of procuring a 1760 release of the hostages, Oconostota approached and surprised the fort, and faithlessly fired upon and killed its officers. Exasperated to madness by this outrage, the garrison fell upon the hostages, and killed them to a man. This was followed by a general invasion of the frontier of Carolina, and an indiscriminate butchery of men, women and children.
+ Hewitt. # Simms.
Colonel, afterwards General, Sumpter, accompanied Oconostota and his Cherokee delegation on their visit to Charlestown. Returning with that distin- guisbed chief to the seat of his empire, he there found among the Indians one Baron Des Johnnes, a French Canadian, who spoke seven of the Indian lan- quages. Sumpter, suspecting the baron of being an incendiary sent to excite the several tribes to hostility against their white neighbours, with characteristic resolution arrested him ; taking him single-handed, n spite of the opposition of the Indians, and, at much personal risk, carrying him prisoner to Fort Prince George. Des Johnnes was afterwards sent to Charleston, where he was exam- ined, and though not proved guilty, it was deemed expedient to send him to Eng- land.
-
56
ARMY UNDER COLONEL MONTGOMERY.
Prompt measures were adopted to restrain and punish these excesses. Application was made to the neighbouring provinces, North-Carolina and Virginia, for assistance, and seven troops of rangers were raised to patrol the frontiers, and the best preparation possible was made for chastising the enemy, so soon as the regulars coming from the north should arrive. Before the end of April, 1760, Colonel Mont- gomery landed with his troops, and, being joined by several volunteer companies, hastened to the rendezvous at Conga. rees, where he was met by the whole strength of the pro- vince, and immediately set out for the Cherokee- country. His march was spirited and expeditious. Little Keowee was surprised by a night attack, and every warrior in it put to the sword. Estatoe was reduced to ashes. Sugaw Town, and every other settlement in the lower nation, suffered the same fate.
" Montgomery, after the loss of but four men, advanced to the relief of Fort Prince George, which had been for some time invested by the savages. From this place a message was sent to the Middle Settle- ments, inviting the Cherokees to sue for peace, and also to Captains Demere and Stuart, the commanding officers at Fort Loudon, request- ing them to obtain peace with the Upper Towns. Finding the enemy not disposed to listen to terms of accommodation, he determined to penetrate through the dismal wilderness between him and the Middle
Towns." * * "Captain Morrison's rangers had scarcely entered the valley near Etchoe, when the savages sprang from their lurking den, fired upon and killed the captain, and wounded a number of his men. A heavy fire began on both sides. The battle continued above an hour. Colonel Montgomery lost in the . engagement twenty men, and had seventy-six wounded. The Indians, it is believed, lost more. But the repulse was far from being decisive, and Colonel Montgomery, finding it impracticable to penetrate the woods further with his wounded men, returned to Fort Prince George with his army, and soon after departed for New-York.
"In the meantime, the distant garrison of Fort Loudon, consisting of two hundred men, was reduced to the dreadful alternative of per- ishing by hunger or submitting to the mercy of the enraged Cherokees. The Governor of South-Carolina hearing that the Virginians had under- taken to relieve it, for a while seemed satisfied, and anxiously waited to hear the news of that happy event. But they, like the Carolinians, were unable to send them assistance. So remote was the fort from any settlement, and so difficult was it to march an army through the barren wilderness, where every thicket concealed an enemy, and to carry, at the same time, sufficient supplies along with them, that the Virginians had
57
SURRENDER OF FORT LOUDON.
dropped all thoughts of the attempt. Provisions being entirely ex- hausted at Fort Loudon, the garrison was upon the point of starving. For a whole month they had no other subsistence than the flesh of lean horses and dogs, and a small supply of Indian beans, procured stealthily for them by some friendly Cherokee women. The officers had long endeavoured to animate and encourage the men with the hope of suc- cour; but now, being blockaded night and day by the enemy, and having no resource left, they threatened to leave the fort, and die at once by the hands of savages, rather than perish slowly by famine. In this ex- tremity, the commander was obliged to call a council of war to consider what was proper to be done ; when the officers were all of opinion, that it was impossible to hold out longer, and therefore agreed to surrender the fort to the Cherokees, on the best terms that could be obtained from them. For this purpose Captain Stuart, an officer of great sagacity and address, and much beloved by those of the Indians who remained in the British interest, procured leave to go to Chota, one of the principal towns in the neighbourhood, where he obtained the following terms of capitulation, which were signed by the commanding officer and two of the Cherokee chiefs. 'That the garrison of Fort Loudon march out with their arms and drums, each soldier having as much powder and ball as their officer shall think necessary for the march, and all the bag- gage they may choose to carry ; that the garrison be permitted to march to Virginia or Fort Prince George, as the commanding officer shall think proper, unmolested ; and that a number of Indians be appointed to escort them, and hunt for provisions during the march ; that such sol- diers as are lame, or by sickness disabled from marching, be received into the Indian towns, and kindly used until they recover, and then be allowed to return to Fort Prince George; that the Indians do provide for the garrison as many horses as they conveniently can for their march, agreeing with the officers and soldiers for payment; that the fort, great guns, powder, ball and spare arms, be delivered to the Indians without fraud or further delay, on the day appointed for the march of the troops.'*
" Agreeable to this stipulation, the garrison delivered up the fort, and marched out with their arms, accompanied by Oconostota, Judd's friend, the prince of Chota, and several other Indians, and that day went
*Great guns. Of these there were twelve. It is difficult to conceive how the cannon of Fort Loudon, in 1756, had been transported to a point so interior and inaccesible. A wagon had not then passed the head of Holston, and not till the autumn of 1776 had one come as low down that stream as the Long Island, with provisions for the supply of Fort Patrick Henry. Artillery could not have been brought down the Ohio and up the Tennessee, for after the loss of Du Quesne the French still held undisturbed possession of the rivers below. The cannon at Lou- don were most probably taken there across the mountain from Augusta or Fort Prince George when reinforcements were sent to its relief. In this case the trans- portation of the great guns must have been made along a narrow mountain trace upon pack horses-requiring in the more difficult gorges even yet found in the in- tervening country, the assistance of the soldiers. It is barely possible that these cannon may have been brought from Fort Lewis or Fort Chissel, to the head waters of Holston, and carried down that stream, and up the Little Tennessee to Loudon. There is no tradition on the subject in Tennessee.
58
MASSACRE OF THE GARRISON.
fifteen miles on their way to Fort Prince George. At night they en- camped upon a plain about two miles from Taliquo, an Indian town, when all their attendants, upon one pretence or another, left them; which the officers considered as no good sign, and therefore placed a strict guard around their camp. During the night they remained un- molested, but next morning about break of day, a soldier from an out- post came running in, and informed them that he saw a vast number of Indians, armed and painted in the most dreadful manner, creeping among the bushes, and advancing in order to surround them. Scarcely had the officer time to order his men to stand to their arms, when the savages poured in upon them a heavy fire from different quarters, so- companied with the most hideous yells, which struck a panic into the soldiers, who were so much enfeebled and dispirited that they were in- capable of making any effectual resistance. Captain Demere, with three other officers, and about twenty-six privates, fell at the first onset. Some fled into the woods, and were afterwards taken prisoners and confined among the towns in the valley. Captain Stuart and those that remained, were seized, pinioned, and brought back to Fort Loudon. No sooner had Attakullakulla heard that his friend Mr. Stuart had escaped, than he hastened to the fort, and purchased him from the Indian that took him, giving him his rifle, clothes, and all he could command by way of ransom. He then took possession of Captain Demere's house, where he kept his prisoner as one of his family, and freely shared with him the little provisions his table afforded, until a fair opportunity should offer for rescuing him from the hands of the savages ; but the poor soldiers were kept in a miserable state of captivity for some time, and then re- deemed by the province at great expense.
" While the prisoners were confined at Fort Loudon, Oconostots formed the design of attacking Fort Prince George. To this bold under- taking he was the more encouraged, as the cannon and ammunition sur- rendered by the garrison would, under the direction of French officers who were near him, secure its success. Messengers were therefore dis- patched to the valley towns, requesting their warriors to meet him at Stickoee.
" By accident a discovery was made of ten bags of powder, and a large quantity of ball that had been secretly buried in the fort, to pre- vent their falling into the enemy's hands. This discovery had nearly proved fatal to Captain Stuart; but the interpreter had such presence of mind as to assure the incensed savages that these warlike stores were concealed without Stuart's knowledge or consent. The supply of ammunition being sufficient for the siege, a council was held at Chota, to which the captive Stuart was taken. Here he was reminded of the obligations he was under for having his life spared, and as they had determined to take six cannon and two cohorns against Prince George, the Indians told him he must accompany the expedition-man- age the artillery and write such letters to the commandant as they should dictate to him. They further informed him that if that officer should refuse to surrender, they had determined to burn the prisoners one by one before his face, and try whether he could be so obstinate as to hold out while his friends were expiring in the flames.
59
ESCAPE OF CAPTAIN STUART.
"Captain Stuart was much alarmed at his present situation, and from that moment resolved to make his escape or perish in the attempt. He ·privately communicated his design to Attakullakulla and told him that the thought of bearing arms against his countrymen harrowed his feel- ings, and he invoked his assistance to accomplish his release. The old warrior took him by the hand-told him he was his friend. and was fully apprised of the designs of his countrymen, and pledged his efforts to deliver him from danger. Attakullakulla claimed Captain Stuart as his prisoner, and resorted to stratagem to rescue him. He told the other Indians that he intended to go a hunting for a few days, and to take his prisoner with him. Accordingly they departed, accompanied by the warrior's wife, his brother and two soldiers. The distance to the frontier settlements was great, and the utmost expedition was necessary to prevent surprise from Indians pursuing them Nine days and nights did they travel through a dreary wilderness, shaping their course by the sun and moon for Virginia. On the tenth they arrived at the banks of Holston's river, where they fortunately fell in with a party of three hundred men, sent out by Colonel Bird for the relief of Fort Loudon. On the fourteenth day the captain reached Colonel Bird's camp on the frontiers of Virginia. His faithful friend, Attakullakulla, was here loaded with presents and provisions, and sent back to protect the unhappy pris- oners till they should be ransomed, and to exert his influence with the Cherokees for the restoration of peace."
After Captain Stuart's escape, he lost no time in concert- · ing measures of relief to his garrison. An express was at once forwarded to the Governor of South-Carolina to inform him of the disaster at Fort Loudon, and of the designs of the enemy against Fort Prince George. The prisoners that had survived the hardships of hunger, disease and captivity, at Loudon, were ransomed and delivered up to the commanding officer at Fort Prince George.
This account of the siege and capitulation of Fort Loudon, and of the attack upon the retiring garrison, has been copied or condensed from " Hewitt's Historical Account of South- Carolina and Georgia," as republished in the valuable his- torical collection of Carroll. Being written in 1779, soon after the transactions which it relates took place, Hewitt's work is considered authentic, and may be fully relied on as being generally correct. Still in some of the details other historians differ from him. One of them gives another ver- tion of the assault upon the camp the morning after the evacuation of the fort. Haywood says : " At this place, about day-break, the Indians fell upon and destroyed the whole troop, men, women and children, except three men,
.
60
ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH LOUDON.
Jack, Stuart and Thomas, who were saved by the friendly exertions of the Indian chief called the Little Carpenter ; ex- cept also, six men, who were in the advance guard, and who escaped into the white settlements." * * * " It is said that between two and three hundred men, besides women and children, perished in this massacre. The Indians made a fence of their bones, but after the war they were, by the advice of Oconostota, King of the Over-hill Cherokees, removed and buried, for fear of stirring afresh the hostility of the English traders, who began again to visit them." Such, too, has been the prevalent tradition.
In addition to the concealment within the fort of the am- munition, as already related, Haywood mentions that the garrison threw their cannon, with their small arms and am- munition, into the river. After the close of the war the Cherokees excused their perfidy in violating the terms of the capitulation, and their barbarous massacre of the garrison, by imputing bad faith on the part of the whites in hiding the warlike stores surrendered with the fort.
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