Siege of Fort Loudoun

Siege of Fort Loudoun
Part of the Anglo-Cherokee War and the French and Indian War
Map of Cherokee Country by Henry Timberlake
Date February, 1760 to August 9, 1760 Location Little Tennessee River Cherokee Country now Tennessee Result Cherokee victory
Belligerents
Cherokee Nation	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Ostenaco	Captain Paul Demeré
Strength
500-700	150-230 12 cannon
Casualties and losses
	142 22 killed 120 prisoners

150-230

142

The Siege of Fort Loudoun was an engagement during the Anglo-Cherokee War fought from February 1760 to August 1760 between the warriors of the Cherokee led by Ostenaco and the garrison of Fort Loudoun (in what is now Tennessee) composed of British and colonial soldiers commanded by Captain Paul Demeré.

During the French and Indian War the Cherokee were sought after as allies by the British and Provincial Colonial Governments to help contest the frontiers against the French and their Indian allies. An alliance was formed and both sides initially fulfilled each other's expectations. The Cherokee provided warriors and in return the British and Provincials provided supplies and protection of the warriors homelands. However, the alliance unravelled and soon incidents by both sides provoked the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1758.

The British had reports that indicated the French were planning to build forts in Cherokee territory (as they had already done with Ft. Charleville at Great Salt Lick on the Cumberland River); Ft. Toulouse, near present day Montgomery, Alabama; Ft. Rosalie at Natchez, Mississippi; Ft. St. Pierre at modern day Yazoo, Mississippi; and Ft. Tombeckbe on the Tombigbee River). With the Cherokee now their allies, the British hastened to build forts of their own in the Cherokee lands, completing Fort Prince George near Keowee in South Carolina among the Cherokee Lower Towns; and Fort Loudoun in the Overhill towns. Once the forts were built, the Cherokee raised 400 warriors to fight in western Virginia Colony under Ostenaco. Oconostota and Attakullakulla led another large group to attack Fort Toulouse.

Fort Loudoun was built as an outpost of the British and their colony of South Carolina during the French and Indian War as part of an alliance treaty with the Cherokee in return for a field force of Cherokee warriors to help in the campaign against the French at Fort Duquense. The Virginians in particular were desperate for Cherokee assistance against the French and their Shawnee Indian allies. The fort was to be both a trading post supplying manufactured goods, guns and powder to the Cherokee as well as providing additional defense of the Cherokee Middle Towns as well as a refuge for Cherokee women and children while their warriors were away on campaign.

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