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A History | French and Indian War - Key Events & Battles |
The French and Indian War in the American South
The French and Indian War in the American South
[Note: This presenation of the French and Indian War in the American South is Chapters IV-VI of Archibald
Henderson (Ph.D.)'s The Conquest of the Old Southwest, published by the Century Company, New York in
1920. Henderson never uses the term "French and Indian War in the American South" but this portion
of his book is essentially that. Despite the term I have given to this article, the French were minimally
involved in the fighting in the South, and much of the difficulty with the Indians of the time and place was
more the fault of the English than due to interferrence of the French.]
Chapter IV: The Indian War
All met In companies with their wives and children, and Set about building little fortifications, to defend
themselves from such barbarian and inhuman enemies, whom they concluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure.
THE REVEREND HUGH McADEN: Diary, July, 1755.
LONG before the actual outbreak of hostilities powerful forces were gradually Convergmg to produce a
clash between the aggressive colonials and the crafty Indians. As the
settlers pressed farther westward into the domain of the red men,
arrogantly grazing their stock over the cherished hunting-grounds of
the Cherokees, the savages, who were already well disposed toward the
French, began to manifest a deep indignation against the British
colonists because of this callous encroachment upon their territory.
During the sporadic forays by scattered bands of Northern Indians upon
the Catawbas and other tribes friendly to the pioneers the isolated
settlements at the back part of the Carolinas suffered rude and
sanguinary onslaughts. In the sunimer of 1758 a party of northern
Indians warring in the French interest made their appearance in Rowan
County, [North Carolina] which had just been organized and committed
various depredations upon the scattered settlements. To repel these
attacks a band of the Catawbas sallied forth, encountered a detached
party of the enemy, and slew five of their number. Among the spoils,
significantly enough, were silver crucifixes, beads, looking-glasses,
tomahawks and other in implements of war, all of French manufacture.
Intense rivalry for the good will of the
near-by southern tribes existed between Virginia and South Carolina.
In strong remonstrance against the alleged attempt of Governor
Dinwiddie of Virginia to alienate the Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscogees,
and Chickasaws from South Carolina and to attach them to Virginia,
Governor Glen of South Carolina made pungent observations to
Dinwiddie: "South Carolina is a weak frontier colony, and in case
of invasion by the French would be their first object of attack. We
have not much to fear, however, while we retain the affection of the
Indians around us; but should we forfeit that by any mismanagement on
our part, or by the superior address of the French, we are in a
miserable situation. The Cherokees alone have several thousand gunmen
well acquainted with every inch of the province... their country is
the key to Carolina." By a treaty concluded at Saluda (November
24, 1753), Glen promised to build the Cherokees a fort near the lower
towns, for the protection of themselves and their allies; and the
Cherokees on their part agreed to become the subjects of the King of
Great Britain and hold thier lands under him.35 This fort, erected the
same year on the headwaters of the Savannah, within gunshot distance
of the important Indian town of Keowee, was named Fort Prince George.
"It is a square," says the founder of the fort (Governor
Glen to the Board of Trade, August 26, 1754), "with regular
Bastions and four Ravelins it is near Two hundred foot from Salient
Angle to Salient Angle and is made of Earth taken out of the Ditch,
secured with fachines and well rammed with a banquet on the Inside for
the men to stand upon when they fire over, the Ravelins are made of
Posts of Lightwood which is very durable, they are ten foot in length
sharp pointed three foot and a half in the ground." 36 The dire
need for such a fort in the back country was tragically illustrated by
the sudden onslaught upon the "House of John Gutry & James
Anshers" in York County by a party of sixty French Indians
(December 16, 1754), who brutally murdered sixteen of the twenty-one
persons present, and carried off as captives the remaining five.37
At the outbreak of the French and Indian War
in 1754 North Carolina voted twelve thousand pounds for the raising of
troops and several thousand pounds additional for the construction of
forts-a sum considerably larger than that voted by Virginia. A
regiment of two hundred and fifty men was placed under the command of
Colonel James Innes of the Cape Fear section; and the ablest officer
under him was the young Irishman from the same section, Lieutenant
Hugh Waddell. On June 3, 1754, Dinwiddie appointed Innes, his close
friend, commander-in-chief of all the forces against the French; and
immediately after the disaster at Great Meadows (July, 1754), Innes
took command. Within two months the supplies for the North Carolina
troops were exhausted; and as Virginia then failed to furnish
additional supplies, Colonel Innes had no recourse but to disband his
troops and permit them to return home. Appointed governor of Fort
Cumberland by General Braddock, he was in command there while Braddock
advanced on his disastrous march.
The lesson of Braddock's defeat (July 9,
1755) was memorable in the history of the Old Southwest. Well might
Braddock exclaim with his last breath: "Who would have thought
it? . . . We shall know better how to deal with them another
time." Led on by the reckless and fiery Beaujeu, wearing an
Indian gorget about his neck, the savages from the protection of trees
and rough defenses, a prepared ambuscade, poured a galling fire into
the compact divisions of the English, whose scarlet coats furnished
ideal targets. The obstinacy of the British commanders in refusing to
permit their troops to fight Indian fashion was suicidal; for as
Herman Alrichs wrote Governor Morris of Pennsylvania (July 22, 1755):
. . the French and Indians had cast an Intrenchmcnt across the road
before our Army which they Discovered not Untill the [y] came Close up
to it, from thence and both sides of the road the enemy kept a
constant fireing on them, our Army being so confused, they could not
fight, and they would not be admitted by the Gen1 or Sir John St.
Clair, to break thro' their Ranks and Take behind trees." 38
Daniel Boone, who went from North Carolina as a wagoner in the company
commanded by Edward Brice Dobbs was on the battle-field; but Dobbs's
company at the time was scouting in the woods. When the fierce attack
fell upon the baggage train, Boone succeeded in effecting his escape
only by cutting the traces of his team and fleeing on one of the
horses. To his dying day Boone continued to censure Braddock's
conduct, and reprehended especially his fatal neglect to employ strong
flank-guards and a sufficient number of Provincial scouts thoroughly
acquainted with the wilderness and all the wiles and strategies of
savage warfare.
For a number of months following Braddock's
defeat there was a great rush of the frightened people southward. In a
letter to Dinwiddie, Washington expresses the apprehension that
Augusta, Frederick, and Hampshire County will soon be depopulated, as
the whole back country is in motion toward the southern colonies.
During this same summer Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina made a
tour of exploration through the western part of the colony, seeking a
site for a fort to guard the frontier.39 The frontier company of fifty
men which was to garrison the projected fort was placed under the
command of Hugh Waddell, now promoted to the rank of captain, though
only twenty-one years old. In addition to Waddell's company, armed
patrols were required for the protection of the Rowan County frontier;
and during the summer Indian alarms were frequent at the Moravian
village of Bethabara, whose inhabitants had heard with distress on
March 31st of the slaughter of eleven Moravians on the Mahoni and of
the ruin of Gnadenhijtten. Many of the settlers in the outlying
districts of Rowan fled for safety to the refuge of the little
village; and frequently every available house, every place of
temporary abode was filled with panic-stricken refugees. So persistent
were the depredations of the Indians and so alarmed were the scattered
Rowan settlers by the news of the murders and the destruction of
Vaux's Fort in Virginia (June 25, 1756) that at a conference on July
5th the Moravians "decided to protect our houses with palisades,
and make them safe before the enemy should invade our tract or attack
us, for if the people were all going to retreat we would be the last
left on the frontier and the first point of attack." By July 23d,
they had constructed a strong defense for their settlement, afterward
called the "Dutch Fort" by the Indians. The principal
structure was a stockade, triangular in plan, some three hundred feet
on a side, enclosing the principal buildings of the settlement; and
the gateway was guarded by an observation tower. The other defense was
a stockade embracing eight houses at the mill some distance away,
around which a small settlement had sprung up.40
During the same year the fort planned by
Dobbs was erected upon the site he had chosen--between Third and
Fourth creeks; and the commissioners Richard Caswell and Francis
Brown, sent out to inspect the fort, made the following picturesque
report to the Assembly (December 21, 1756):
That they had likewise viewed the State of
Fort Dobbs, and found it to be a good and Substantial Building of
the Dimentions following (that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty
three feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty four feet and
Twenty-Two In Height Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan
annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls which are made of Oak
Logs regularly Diminished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains
three floors and there may be discharged from each floor at one and
the same time about one hundred Musketts the same is beautifully
scituated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River.
And that they also found under Command of Capt Hugh Waddel Forty six
Effective men Officers and Soldiers... the said Officers and
Soldiers Appearing well and in good Spirits.41
As to the erection of a fort on the Tennessee
promised the Cherokees by South Carolina difficulties between the
governor of that province and of Virgiuia in regard to matters of
policy and the proportionate share of expenses made effective
cooperation between the two colonies well-nigh impossible. Glen, as we
have seen, had resented Dinwiddie's efforts to win the South Carolina
Indians over to Virginia's interest. And Dinwiddie had been very
indignant when the force promise by the Indians to aid General
Braddock did not arrive, attributing this defection in part to Glen's
negotiations for a meeting with the chieftans and in part to the
influence of the South Carolina traders, who kept the Indians away by
hiring them to go on long hunts for furs and skins. But there was no
such contention between Virginia and North Carolina. Dinwiddie and
Dobbs arranged (November 6, 1755) to send a commission from these
colonies to treat with the Cherokees and the Catawbas. Virginia sent
two commissoners Colonel William Byrd, third of that name and Colonel
Peter Randolph; while North Carolina sent one, Captain Hugh Waddell.
Salisbury, North Carolina, was the place of rendezvous. The treaty
with the Catawbas made at the Catawba Town, presumably the village
opposite the mouth of Sugaw Creek, in York County, South Carolina on
February 20-21, 1756; that with the Cherokees on Broad River, North
Carolina, March 13-17. As a result of the negotiations and after the
receipt of a present of goods, the Ctawbas agreed to send forty
warriors to aid Virginia within forty days; and. The Cherokees, in
return for presents and Virginia's promise to contribute her
proportion toward the erection of a strong fort, undertook to send
four hundred warriors within forty days, "as soon as the said
fort shall be built." Virginia and North Carolina thus wisely
cooperated to "straighten the path" and "brighten the
chain" between the white and the red men, in important treaties
which have largely escaped the attention of historians.42
On May 25, 1756, a conference was held at
Salisbury between King Heygler and warriors of the Catawba nation on
the one side and Chief Justice Henley, doubtless attended by Captain
Waddell and his frontier company on the other. King Heygler, following
the lead set by the Cherokees, petitioned the Governor of North
Carolina to send the Catawbas some ammunition and to "build us a
fort for the securing our old men, women and children when we turn out
to fight the Enemy on their coming." The chief justice assured
the King that the Catawbas would receive a necessary supply of
ammunition (one hundred pounds of gunpowder and four hundred pounds of
lead were later sent them) and promised to urge with the governor
their request to have a fort built as soon as possible. Pathos not
unmixed with dry humor tinges the eloquent appeal of good King Heygler,
ever the loyal friend of the whites, at this conference:
I desire a stop may be put to the selling
of strong liquors by the White people to my people especially near
the Indian nation. If the White people make strong drink, let them
sell it to one another, or drink it in their own families. This will
avoid a great deal of mischief which otherwise will happen fromi my
people getting drunk and quarrelling with the White people. I have
no strong prisons like you to confine them for it. Our only way is
to put under ground and all these (pointing proudly to his Warriors)
will be ready to do that to those who shall deserve it.43
In response to this request, the sum of four
thousands pounds was appropriated by the North Carolina Assembly for
the erection of "a Fort on our western frontier to protect and
secure the Catawbas" and for the support of two companies of
fifty men each to garrison this and another fort building on the sea
coast. The commissioners appointed for the purpose recommended
(December 21, 1756) a site for the fort "near the Catawba
nation"; and on January 20, 1757, Governor Dobbs reported:
"We are now building a Fort in the midst of their towns at their
own Request." The fort thereupon begun must have stood near the
mouth of the South Fork of the Catawba River, as Dobbs says it was in
the "midst" of their towns, which are situated a "few
miles north and south of 38 [degrees]" and might prop be included
within a circle of thirty miles radius.44
During the succeeding months many
depredations were committed by the Indians upon the exposed and
scattered settlements. Had it not been for the protection afforded by
all these forts, by the militia companies under Alexander Osborne of
Rowan and Nathaniel Alexander of Anson, and by a special company of
patrollers under Green and Moore, the back settles who had been so
outrageously "pilfered" by the Indians would have
"retired from the Frontier into the inner settlements."45
Chapter V: In Defense of Civilization
We give thanks and praise for the safety and
peace vouchsafed us by our Heavenly Father In these times of war. Many
of our neighbors, driven hither and yon like deer before wild beasts,
came to us for shelter, yet the accustomed order of our congregation
life was not disturbed, no not even by the more than 150 Indians who
at sundry times passed by, stopping for a day at a time and being fed
by us.
-Wachovia Community Diary, 1757.
WITH commendable energy and expedition
Dinwiddie and Dobbs, acting in concert, initiated steps for keeping
the engagements conjointly made by the two colonies with the Cherokees
and the Catawbas in the spring and summer of 1756. Enlisting sixty
men, "most of them Artificers, with Tools and Provisions,"
Major Andrew Lewis proceeded in the late spring to Echota in the
Cherokee country. Here during the hot summer months they erected the
Virginia Fort on the path from Virginia, upon the northern bank of the
Little Tennessee, nearly opposite the Indian town of Echota and about
twenty-five miles southwest of Knoxville.46 While the fort was in
process of construction, the Cherokees were incessantly tampered with
by emissaries from the Nuntewees and the Savannahs in the French
interest, and from the French themsleves at the Alibamu Fort. So
effective were these machinations, supported by extravagant promises
and doubtless rich bribes, that the Cherokees soon were outspokenly
expressing their desire for a French fort at Great Tellico.
Dinwiddie welcomed the departure from America
of Governor Glen of South Carolina, who in his opinion had always
acted contary to the king's interest. From the new governor, William
Henry Lyttelton, who arrived in Charleston on June 1, 1756, he hoped
to secure effective cooperation in dealing with the Cherokees and the
Catawbas. This hope was based upon Lyttelton's recognition, as stated
in Dinwiddie's words, of the "Necessity of the strict Union
between the whole Colonies, with't any of them considering their
particular Interest separate from the general Good of the whole."
After constructing the fort "with't the least assistance from
South Carolina," Major Lewis happened by accident upon a grand
council being held in Echota in September. At that time he discovered
to his great alarm that the machinations of the French had already
produced the greatest imaginable change in the sentiment of the
Cherokees. Captain Raymond Demere of the Provincials, with two hundred
English troops had arrived to garrison the fort; but the head men of
all the Upper Towns were secretly influeneed to agree to write a
letter to Captain Demere, ordering him to return to Charleston with
all the troops under his command. At the grand council,
Atta-kulla-kulla, the great Cherokee chieftain, passionately declared
to the head men, who listened approvingly, that "as to the few
soldiers of Captain Demere that was there, he would take their Guns,
and give them to his young men to hunt with and as to their clothes
they would soon be worn out and their skins would be tanned and be of
the same colour as theirs, and that they should live among them as
slaves." With impressive dignity Major Lewis rose and earnestly
pleaded for the observance of the terms of the treaty solemnly
negotiated the preceding March. In response the crafty and treacherous
chieftains desireed Lewis to tell the Governor of Virginia that they
had taken up the Hatchet against all Nations that were Enemies to the
English"; but Lewis, an astute student of Indian psychology,
rightly surmised that all their glib professions of friendship and
assistance were "only to put a gloss on their knavery."47 So
it proved; for instead of the four hundred warriors promised under the
treaty for service in Virginia, the Cherokees sent only seven warriers
accompanied by three women. Although the Cherokees petitioned Virginia
for a number of men to garrison the Virginia fort, Dinwiddie postponed
sending the fifty men provided for by the Virginia Assembly until he
could reassure himself in regard to the "Behaviour and
Intention" of the treacherous Indian allies. This proved to be a
prudent decision; for not long after its erection the Virginia fort
was destroyed by the Indians.
Whether on account of the dissatisfaction
expressed by the Cherokees over the erection of the Virginia fort or
because of a recognition of the mistaken policy of garrisoning a work
erected by Virginia with troops sent from Charleston, South Carolina
immediately proceeded to build another stronghold on the southern bank
of the Tennessee at the mouth of Tellico River, some seven miles from
the site of the Virginia fort; and here were posted twelve great guns,
brought thither at immense labor through the wilderness.48 To this
fort, named Fort Loudoun in honor of Lord Loudoun, then
commander-in-chief of all the English forces in America, the Indians
allured artisans by donations of land; and during the next three or
four years a little settlement sprang up there.
The frontiers of Virginia suffered most from
the incursions of hostile Indians during fourteen months following May
1, 1755. In July, the Rev. Hugh McAden records that he preached in
Virginia on a day set apart for fasting and prayer on account of the
wars and many murders, committed by the savage Indians on the back
inhabitants." On July 30th a large party of Shawano Indians fell
upon the New River settlement and wiped it out of existence. William
Ingles was absent at the time of the raid; and Mrs. Ingles, who was
captured, afterward effected her escape.49 The following summer (June
25, 1756), Fort Vaux on the headwaters of the Roanoke, under the
command of Captain John Smith, was captured by about one hundred
French and Indians, who burnt the fort, killed John Smith, junior,
John Robinson, John Tracey and John Ingles, wounded four men, and
captured twenty-two men, women, and children. Among the captured was
the famous Mrs. Mary Ingles, whose husband, John Ingles, was killed;
but after being "carried away into Captivity, amongst whom she
was barbarously treated," according to her own statement, she
finally escaped and returned to Virginia.50 The frontier continued to
be infested by marauding bands of French and Indians; and Dinwiddie
gloomily confessed to Dobbs (July 22d): "I apprehend that we
shall always be harrass'd with fiy'g Parties of these Banditi unless
we form an Expedit'n ag'st them to attack 'em in y'r Towns." 51
Such an expedition, known as the Sandy River Expedition, had been sent
out in February to avenge the massacre of the New River settlers; but
the enterprise engaged in by about four hundred Virginians and
Cherokees under Major Andrew Lewis and Captain Richard Pearis, proved
a disastrous failure. Not a single, Indian was seen; and the party
suffered extraordinary hardships and narrowly escaped starvation.52
In conformity with his treaty obligations
with the Catawbas, Governor Dobbs commissioned Captain Hugh Waddell to
ereect the fort promised the Catawbas at the spot chosen by the
commissioners near the mouth South Fork of the Catawba River. This
fort, for which four thousand pounds had been appropriated was for the
most part completed by midsummer, 1757. But owing, it appears, both to
the machinations of the French and to the intermeddling of the South
Carolina traders, who desired to retain the trade of the Catawbas for
that provience, Oroloswa, the Catawba King Heygler, sent a
"talk" to Governor Lyttelton, requesting that North Carolina
desist from the work of construction and that no fort be built except
by South Carolina. Accordingly, Governor Dobbs ordered Captain Waddell
to discharge the workmen (August 11, 1757)53; and every effort was
made for many months thereafter to conciliate the Catawbs erstwhile
friends of North Carolina. The Catawba fort erected by North Carolina
was never fully completed; and several years later South Carolina,
having succeeded in alienating the Catawbas from North Carolina, which
colony had given them the best possible treatment, built for them a
fort 54 at the mouth of Line Creek on the east bank of the Catawba
River.
In the spring and summer of 1757 the long
expected Indian allies arrived in Virginia, as many as four hundred by
May-Cherokees, Catawbas, Tuscaroras, and Nottaways. But Dinwiddie was
wholly unable to use them effectively; and in order to provide
amusement for them, he directed that they should go "a
scalping" with the whites-"a barbarous method of war,"
frankly acknowledged the governor, "introduced by the French,
which we are oblidged to follow in our own defense." Most of the
Indian allies discontentedly returned home before the end of the year,
but the remainder waited until the next year but take part in the
campaign against Fort Duquesne. Three North Carolina companies,
composed of trained soldiers and hardy frontiersmen, went through this
campaign under the command of Major Hugh Waddell, the "Washington
of North Carolina." Long of limb and broad of chest, powerful,
lithe, and active, Waddell was an ideal leader for this arduous
service, being fertile in expedient and skilful in the employment of
Indian tactics. With true provincial pride Governor Dobbs records that
Waddell "had great honor done him, being employed in all
reconnoitring parties, and dressed and acted as an Indian; and his
sergeant, Rogers, took the only Indian prisoner, who gave Mr. Forbes
certain intelligence of the forces in Fort Duquesne, upon which they
resolved to proceed." This apparently trivial incident is
remarkable, in that it proved to be the decisive factor in a campaign
that was about to be abandoned. The information in regard to the state
of the garrison at Fort Duquesne, secure from the Indians for the
capture of whom two leading officers had offered a reward of two
hundred and fifty pounds, emboldened Forbes to advance rather than to
retire. Upon reaching the fort (November 25th), he found it abandoned
by the enemy. Sergeant Rogers never received the reward promised by
General Forbes and the other English officer; but some time afterward
he was compensated by a modest sum from the colony of North
Carolina.55
A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly the
fault of the whites, soon resulted in the precipitation of a terrible
Indian outbreak. A party of Cherokees, returning home in May 1758,
seized some stray horses on the frontier of Virginia-never dreaming of
any wrong, says an old historian, as they saw it frequently done by
the whites. The owners of the horses, hastily forming a party, went in
pursuit of the Indians and killed twelve or fourteen of the number.
The relatives of the slain Indians, greatly incensed, vowed vengeance
upon the whites.56 Nor was the tactless conduct of Forbes calculated
to quiet this resentment; for when Atta-kulla-kulla and nine other
chieftains deserted in disgust at the treatment accorded them, they
were pursued by Forbes's orders, apprehended and disarmed.57 This rude
treatment, coupled with the brutal and wanton murder of some Cherokee
hunters a little earlier by an irresponsible band of Virginians under
Captain Robert Wade, still further aggravated the Indians.58
Incited by the French, who had fled to the
southward after the fall of Fort Duquesne, parties of bloodthirsty
young Indians rushed down upon the settlements and left in their path
and desolation along the frontiers of the Carolinas.59 On the upper
branch of the Yadkin and below the South Yadkin near Fort Dobbs
twenty-two whites fell in swift succession before the secret
onslaughts of the savages fro~m the lower Cherokee towns.60 Many of
the settlers along the Yadkin fled to the Carolina Fort at Bethabara
and the stockade at the mill; and the sheriff of Rowan County suffered
siege by the Cherokees, in his home, until rescued by a detachment
under Brother Loesch from Bethabara. While many families took refuge
in Fort Dobbs, frontiersmen under Captain Morgan Bryan ranged through
the mountains to the west of Salisbury and guarded the settlements
from the hostile incursions of the savages. So gravely alarmed were
the Rowan settlers, compelled by the Indians to desert their planting
and crops, that Colonel Harris was despatched post-haste for aid to
Cape Fear, arriving there on in July 1st. With strenuous energy
Captain Waddell, then stationed in the east rushed two companies of
thirty men each to the rescue, sending by water-carriage six swivel
guns and ammunition on before him and these reinforcements brougtt
relief at last to the harassed Rowan frontiers.61 During the remainder
of the year, the borders were kept clear by bold and tireless
rangers--under the leadership of expert Indian fighters of the stamp
of Griffith Rutherford and Morgan Bryan.
When the Cherokee warriors who had wrought
havoc along the North Carolina border in April arrived at their town
of Settiquo they proudly displayed the twenty-two scalps of the slain
Rowan settlers. Upon the demand for these scalps by Captain Demere at
Fort Loudon and under direction of kulla-kulla, the Settiquo warriors
surrendered eleven of the scalps to Captain Demere who, according to
custom in time of peace, buried them. New murders on Pacolet and along
the Virginia Path, which occurred shortly afterward, caused gloomy
forebodings; and it was plain, says a contemporary gazette, that
"the lower Cherokees were not satisfied with the murder of the
Rowan settlers, but intended further mischief."62 On October 1st
and again on October 31st, Governor Dobbs received urgent requests
from Governor Lyttelton that the 'North Carolina provincials and
militia cobperate to bring him assistance. Although there was no law
requiring the troops to march out of the province and the exposed
frontiers of North Carolina sorely needed protection, Waddell, now
commissioned colonel, assembled a force of five small companies and
marched to the aid of Governor Lyttleton. But early in January, 1760
while on the march, Waddell received a letter from Lyttleton,
informing him that the assistance was not needed and that a treaty of
peace had been negotiated with the Cherokees.63
Chapter VI - Crushing the Cherokees
Thus ended the Cherokee war, which was among the last humbling strokes
given to the expiring power of France in North America.
--Hewatt: An Historical Account of the Rise
and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. 1779
GOVERNOR LYTTELTON'S treaty of
"peace," negotiated with the Cherokees at the close of 1759,
was worse than a crime: it was a crass and hideous blunder. His
domineering attitude and tyrannical treatment of these Indians had
aroused the bitterest animosity. Yet he did not realize that it was no
longer safe to trust their word. No sooner did the governor withdraw
his army from the borders than the cunning Cherokees, whose passions
had been inflamed by what may fairly be called the treacherous conduct
of Lyttelton, rushed down with merciless ferocity upon the innocent
and defenseless families on the frontier. On February 1, 1760, while a
large party (including the family of Patrick Calhoun), numbering in
all about one hundred and fifty persons, were removing from the Long
Cane settlement to Augusta, they were suddenly attacked by a hundred
mounted Cherokees, who slaughtered about fifty of them. After the
massacre, many of the children were found helplessly wandering in the
woods. One man alone cariied to Augusta no less than nine of the
pitiful innocents, some horribly mutilated with the tomahawk, others
scalped, and all yet alive.
Atrocities defying description continued to
be committed, and many people were slain. The Cherokees, under the
leadership of Si-lou-ee, or the Young Warrior of Estatoe, the Round O,
Tiftoe, and others, were baffled in their persistent efforts to
capture Fort Prince George. On February 16th the crafty Oconostota
appeared before the fort and under the pretext of desiring some white
man to accompany him on a visit to the governor on urgent business,
lured the commander, Lieutenant Coytomore, and two attendants to a
conference outside the gates. At a preconceied signal a volley of
shots rang out; the two attendants were wounded, and Lieutenant
Coytomore, riddled with bullets, fell dead. Enraged by this act of
treachery, the garrisson put to death the Indian hostages within.
During the abortive attack upon the fort, Oconostota, unaware of the
murder of the hostages, was heard shouting above the din of battle:
"Fight strong, and you shall be relieved." 64
Now began the dark days along the Rowan
border, which were so sorely to test human endurance. Many refugees
fortified themselves in the different stockades; and Colonel Hugh
Waddell with his redoubtable frontier company of Indian-fighters
awaited the onslaught of the savages, who were reported to have passed
through the mountain defiles and to be approaching along the
foot-hills. The story of the investment of Fort Dobbs and the
splendidly daring sortie of Waddell and Bailey is best told in
Waddell's report to Governor Dobbs (February 29, 1760):
For several Days I observed a small party
of Indians were constantly about the fort, I sent out several
parties after them to no purpose, the Evening before last between 8
& 9 o'clock I found by the Dogs making an uncommon Noise there
must be a party nigh a Spring whicht we sometimes use. As my
Garrison is but small, and I was apprehensive it might be a scheme
to draw out the Garrison, I took our Capt. Bailie who with myself
and party made up ten: We had not marched 300 yds. from the fort
when we were attacked by at least 60 or 70 Indians. I had given my
party Orders not to fire until I gave the word, which they
punctually observed: We recd the Indians' fire: When I perceived
they had almost all fired, I ordered my party to fire which We did
not further than 12 steps each loaded with a Bullet and 7 Buck Shot,
they had nothing to cover them as they were advancing either to
tomahawk us or make us Prisoners: They found the fire very hot from
so small a Number which a good deal confused them: I then ordered my
party to retreat, as I found the Instant our skirmish began another
party had attacked the fort, upon our reinforcing the garrison the
Indians were soon repulsed with I am sure a considerable Loss, from
what I myself saw as well as those I can confide in they cou'd not
have less than 10 or 12 killed and wounded; The next Morning we
found a great deal of Blood and one dead whom I suppose they cou'd
not find in the night. On my side I had 2 Men wounded one of whom I
am afraid will die as he is scalped, the other is in way of
Recovery, and killed near the fort whom they durst not advance to
scalp. I expected they would have paid me another visit last night,
as they attack all Fortifications by Night, but find they did not
like their Reception.65
Alarmed by Waddell's
"offensive-defensive," the Indians abandoned the siege.
Robert Campbell, Waddell's ranger, who was scalped in this engagement,
subsequently recovered from his wounds and was recompensed by the
colony with the surnof twenty pounds.66.
In addition to the frontier militia, four
independent companies were now placed under Waddell's command.
Companies of volunteers scoured the woods in search of the lurking
Indian foe. These rangers, who were clad in hunting-shirts and
buckskin leggings, and who employed Indian tactics in fighting, were
captained by such hardy leaders as the veteran Morgan Bryan, the
intrepid Griffith Rutherford, the German partisan, Martin Phifer
(Pfeiffer), and Anthony Hampton, the father of General Wade Hampton.
They visited periodically a chain of "forest castles"
erected by the settlers extending all the way from Fort Dobbs and
Moravian fortifications in the Wachau to Samuel Stalnaker's stockade
on the Middle Fork of the Holston in Virginia. About the middle of
March, thirty volunteer Rowan County rangers encountered a band of
forty Cherokees, who fortified themselves in a deserted house near the
Catawba River. The famous scout and hunder, John Perkins assisted by
one of his bolder companions, crept up to the house and flung lighted
torches upon the roof. One of the Indians as the smoke became
suffocating and the flames burned hotter, exclaimed: "Better for
one to die bravely than for all to perish miserably in the
flames," and darting forth, dashed rapidly hither and thither, in
order to draw as many shots as possible. This act of superb
self-sacrifice was successful; and while the rifles of the whites, who
riddled the brave Indian with balls, were empty, the other savages
made a wild dash for liberty. Seven fell thus under the deadly rain of
bullets; but many escaped. Ten of the Indians, all told lost their
scalps, for which the volunteer rangers were subsequently paid one
hundred pounds by the colony of North Carolina.67
Beaten back from Fort Dobbs, sorely defeated
along the Catawba, hotly pursued by the rangers, the Cherokees
continued to lurk in the shadows of the dense forests, and at every
opportunity to fall suddenly upon wayfaring settlers and isolated
cabins remote from any stronghold. On March 8th William Fish, his son,
and Thompson, a companion, were riding along the "trace," in
search of provisions for a group of families fortified on the Yadkin,
when a ffight of arrows hurtled from the cane-brake, and Fish and his
son fell dead. Although pierced with two arrows, one in the hip and
one clean through his body, Thompson escaped upon his fleet horse; and
after a night of ghastly suffering finally reached the Carolina Fort
at Bethabara. The good Dr. Bonn, by skilfully extracting the barbed
shafts from his body, saved Thompson's life. The pious Moravians
rejoiced over the recovery of the brave messenger, whose sensational
arrival gave them timely warning of the close of the Indians. While
feeding their cattle settlers were shot from ambush by the lurking
foe; and on March 11th, a family barricaded within a burning house,
which they were defending with desperate courage, were rescued in the
nick of time by the militia. No episode from Fenimore Cooper's
Leatherstockings Tales surpasses in melaneho1y interest Harry Hicks's
heroic defense of his little fort on Bean Island Creek. Surrounded by
the Indians, Hicks and his family took refuge within the small outer
palisade around his humble home. Fighting desperately against terrific
odds, he was finally driven from his yard into log cabin, which he
continued with dauntless courage. With every shot he tried to send a
redskin to the happy hunting-grounds; and it was only after his powder
was exhausted that he fell, fighting to the last, beneath the deadly
tomahawk. So impressed were the Indians by his bravery that they
spared the life of his wife and his little son; and these were
afterward rescue by Waddell when he marched to the Cherokee towns in
1761.68
The kindly Moravians had always entertained
with generous hospitality the roving bands of Cherokees, who
accordingly held them in much esteem and spoke of Bethabara as
"the Dutch Fort, where there are good people and much
bread." But now, in these dread days, the truth of their daily
text was brought forcibly home to the Moravians: "Neither
Nehemiah nor his brethren put off their clothes, but prayed as they
watched." With Bible in one hand and rifle in the other, the
inhabitant of Wachovia sternly marched to religious worship. No
Puritan of bleak New England ever showed more resolute courage or
greater will to defend the hard-won outpost of civilization than did
the pious Moravian of Wachau. At the new settlement of Bethania on
Easter Day, more than four hundred souls, including sixty rangers,
listened devoutly to the eloquent sermon of Bishop Spangenberg
concerning the way of salvation--the while their arms, stacked without
the Gemein Haus, were guarded by the watchful sentienel. On March 14th
the watchmen at Bethania with well-aimed shots repelled the the
Indians, whose hideous yells of baffled rage sounded down the wind
like "the howling of a hundred wolves." Religion was no
protection against the savages; for three ministers journeying to the
present site of Salem were set upon by the red men-one escaping,
another suffering capture, and the third, a Baptist losig his life. A
little later word came to Fort Dobbs that John Long and Robert
Gillespie of Salisbury had been shot from ambush and scalped-Long
having been pierced with eight bullets and Gillespie with seven.69
There is is one beautiful incident recorded
by the Moravians, which has a truly symbolic significance. While the
war was at its height, a strong party of Cherokees, who had lost thier
chief, planned in retaliation to attack Bethabara. "When they
went home," sets forth the Moravian Diary, "they said they
had been to a great town, where there were a great many people, where
the bells rang often, and during the night, time after time, a horn
was blown, so that they feared to attack the town and had taken no
prisoners." The trumpet of the hour, watchman, announcing the
passing of the hour had convinced the Indians that their plans for
attack were discovered; and the regular evening bell, summoning the
pious to prayer, rang in the stricken ears of the red men like the
clamant call to arms.
Following the retirement from office of Governor
Lyttelton, Lieutenant-Governor Bull proceeded to prosecute the war
with vigor. On April 1, 1760, twelve hundred men under Colonel
Archibald Montgomerie arrived at Charleston, with instructions to
strike an immediate blow and to relieve Fort Loudon, then invested by
the Cherokees. With his own force two hundred and ninety-five South
Rangers, forty picked men of the new "levies" and "a
good number of guides," Montgomerie moved from Fort Ninety-Six on
May 28th. On the first of June, crossing Twelve-Mile River,
Montgomerie began the campaign in earnest, devastating and burning
every Indian village in the Valley of Keowee, killing and capturing
more than a hundred of the Cherokees, and destroying immense stores of
corn. Receiving no reply to his summons to the Cherokees of the Middle
and Upper Towns to make peace or suffer like treatment, Montgomerie
took up his march from Fort Prince George on June 24th, resolved to
carry out his threat. On the morning of the 27th, he was drawn into an
ambuscade within six miles of Et-chow-ee, eight miles south of the
present Franklin, North Carolina, a mile and a half below Smith's
Bridge, aiid was vigorously attacked from dense cover by some six
hundred and thirty warriors led by Si-lou-ee. Fighting with Indian
tactics, the Provincial Rangers under Patrick Calhoun particularly
distinguished themselves; and the blood-curdling yells of the painted
savages were responded to by the wild huzzas of the kilted Highlanders
who, waving their Scotch bonnets, impetuously charged the redskins and
drove them again and again from their lurking-places. Nevertheless
Montgomerie lost from eighty to one hundred in killed and wounded,
while the loss of the Indians was supposed to be about half the loss
of the whites. Unable to care for his wounded and lacking the means of
removing his baggage, Montgomerie silently withdrew his forces. In so
doing he acknowledged defeat, since he was compelled to abandon his
original intention of relieving the beleaguered garrison of Fort
Loudon.
Captain Demere and his devoted little band,
who had been resolutely holding out, were now left to their tragic
fate. After the bread was exhausted, the garrison was reduced to the
necessity of eating dogs and horses; and the loyal aid of the Indian
wives of some of the garrison, who secretly brought them supplies of
food daily enabled them to hold out still longer. Realizing at last
the futility of prolonging the hopeless contest, Captain Demere
surrendered the fort on August 8, 1760. At daylight the next morning,
while on the march to Fort Prince George, the soldiers were set upon
by the treacherous Cherokees, who at the first onset killed Captain
Demere and twenty-nine others. A humane chieftain, Outassitus, says
one of the gazetttes of the day, " went around the field calling
upon the Indians to desist, and making such representations to them as
stopped the further progress and effects of their barbarous and brutal
rage," which expressed itself in scalping and hacking off the
arms and legs of the defenseless whites. Atta-kulla-kulla, who was
friendly to the whites, claimed Captain Stuart, the second officer, as
his captive, and bore him away by stealth. After nine days' journey
through the wilderness they encountered an advance party under Major
Andrew Lewis, sent out by Colonel Burd, head of a relieving army to
rescue and succor any of the garrrison who might effect their escape.
Thus Stuart was restored to his friends. This abortive and tragic
campaign, in which the victory lay conclusively with the Indians,
ended when Byrd disbanded his new levies and Montgomerie sailed from
Charleston for the north (August 1760).
During the remainder of the year, the
province of North Carolina remained free of further alarms from the
Indians. But the view was generally entertained that one more joint
effort of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia would have to
be made in order to humble the Cherokees. At the sessions of the North
Carolina Assembly in November and again in December, matters in
dispute between Governor Dobbs and the representatives of the people
made impossible the passage of a proposed aid bill, providing for five
hundred men to cooperate with Virginia and South Carolina.
Nevertheless volunteers in large numbers patriotically marched from
North Carolina to Charleston and the Congaree (December, 1760, to
April, 1761), to enlist in the famous regiment being organized by
Colonel Thomas Middleton.70 On March 31, 1761, Governor Dobbs called
together the Assembly to act upon a letter received from General
Amherst, outlining a more vigorous plan of campaign appropriate to the
succession of a young and vigorous sovereign, George III. An aid bill
was passed, providing twenty thousand pounds for men and supplies; and
one regiment of five companies of one hundred men each, under the
command of Colonel Hugh Waddell, was mustered into service for seven
months' duty, begining May 1, 1761.71
On July 7, 1761, Colonel James Grant, detached
from the main army in command of a force of twenty-six hundred men,
took up his march from Fort Prince George. Attacked on June 10th two
miles south of the spot where Montgomerie was engaged the preceeding
year, Grant's army, after a vigorous engagement lasting several hours,
drove off the Indians. The army then proceeded at leisure to lay waste
the fifteen towns of the Middle Settlements; and, after this work of
systematic devastation was over, returned to Fort Prince George. Peace
was concluded in September as the result of this campaign; and in
consequence the frontier was pushed seventy miles farther to the west.
Meantime, Colonel Waddell with his force of
five hundred North Carolinans had acted in concert with Colonel
William Byrd, commanding the Virginia detachment. The combined forces
went into camp at Captain Samuel Stalnaker's old place on the Middle
Fork of Holston. Because of his deliberately dilatory policy, Byrd was
superseded in the command by Colonel Adam Stephen. Marching their
forces to the Long Island of the Holston, Stephen and Waddell erected
there Fort Robinson, in compliance with the instructions of Governor
Fauquier of Virginia. The Cherokkes, heartily tired of the war, now
sued for peace, which was concluded, independent of the treaty at
Charleston, on November 19, 1761.
The successful termination of this campaign
had an effect of signal importance in the development of the
expansionist spirit. The rich and beautiful lands which fell under the
eye of the North Carolina and Virginia pioneers under Waddell, Byrd,
and Stephen, lured them irresistibly on to wider casts for fortune and
bolder explorations into the unknown, beckoning West.
Map of Area under dispute during the French and Indian War
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