Battle of Echoee

On June 27, 1760, British and colonial troops led by Archibald Montgomerie clashed with Cherokee warriors commanded by Seroweh in what became known as the Battle of Echoee, also called Etchoe Pass. This engagement, occurring during the French and Indian War, unfolded near the site of what is now Otto, a municipality in Macon County, North Carolina.

Battle

About five miles short of Etchoe, the southernmost of the Cherokee middle settlements, disaster struck when a company of Rangers serving as Montgomerie's advance guard walked into an ambush in a steep valley. Captain Morrison died there along with several of his men. The Cherokee fighters carried rifles that outranged and outperformed the muskets carried by the British soldiers, and while the Cherokee fired with careful aim, the British responded with platoon volleys that accomplished little. According to Indian accounts, British troops bunched together in clusters and fell like turkeys under the gunfire. The Rangers fared worst of all; Lieutenant Grant later noted that roughly fifty had deserted even before the march began, and once Morrison fell, the remainder simply fled the field.

To bolster the faltering Rangers, the Grenadier and Light infantry companies pushed forward, while the Royal Scots climbed rising ground on the Cherokee's right flank. Punishing rifle fire drove the Royal Scots back down into open terrain, forcing them to regroup and repel a Cherokee counterattack before they could hold their position. On the opposite side, Montgomerie stretched his line leftward using the Highlanders, who succeeded in flanking the Indian right. Faced with this maneuver, the Cherokee pulled back and clashed sharply with the Royal Scots before withdrawing to defensible high ground that proved impossible to storm. Montgomerie then pushed his men through the pass toward the town itself, though some Cherokee broke away to alert the townspeople to flee. Meanwhile other warriors had slipped around the British flanks to strike at the pack animals and supply train, an assault that, left unchecked, threatened to cripple the entire campaign. British forces eventually beat back this attack.

By this point Montgomerie found himself burdened with many gravely wounded soldiers who could be neither left behind nor easily transported, whichever direction he chose. The loss of numerous pack animals only deepened his difficulties. Ultimately he abandoned the push forward entirely, sacrificing a substantial store of supplies so that the surviving horses could carry the wounded to safety. The column fell back to Fort Prince George, where Montgomerie handed over what supplies remained and left his most seriously injured men before continuing on toward Charleston. The campaign achieved only partial success: it managed to destroy the Cherokee Lower Towns and lift the siege at Fort Prince George, yet Montgomerie was compelled to retreat once he reached the Middle Towns, and he never managed to relieve Fort Loudoun in the Overhill region. By August, he and his troops had sailed back to New York.

Aftermath

No relief ever reached Fort Loudon, and this failure left the defenders with no choice but to give up the post. Under the surrender terms, the Cherokee permitted Captain Demeré and his men to keep their weapons along with a modest ammunition supply sufficient for the journey home to South Carolina, on the condition that all remaining arms and munitions stayed behind for Ostenaco's warriors. On August 9 the garrison departed the fort under Cherokee guard. Once inside, however, the Cherokee discovered ten bags of powder and shot hidden underground, while the cannons and muskets had been tossed into the river so they could not be used. This violation of the terms enraged the Cherokee, who set out in pursuit. By the following morning the escort had scattered, leaving the retreating soldiers exposed to an assault by an Indian force numbering perhaps 700 as they moved through the forest. The toll included about 22 soldiers dead, a figure close to the number of Cherokee chiefs held hostage and killed earlier at Fort Prince George, along with three civilians, and another 120 were captured. News of the massacre threw Charleston into a state of panic. Though the two sides negotiated a six month truce, a lasting peace remained out of reach.

The Cherokee endured a harsh winter marked by the destruction of the Lower Towns' harvest, dwindling ammunition needed for hunting, and outbreaks of illness, yet their resolve did not weaken. Amherst, however, resolved on a much larger offensive against Cherokee territory, aiming, in his words, to punish them and force them into begging for mercy. Command fell to James Grant, whose forces included the 1st, 17th, and 22nd Regiments of regulars, along with Mohawk and Stockbridge scouts, Catawba and Chickasaw fighters, a substantial body of provincial troops under Colonel Middleton, and additional ranger units. Among the provincials serving were men later celebrated for their roles in the Revolution, including William Moultrie, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Francis Marion, later nicknamed the Swamp Fox. In total, Grant commanded upward of 2,800 men, equipped for a long campaign through rugged mountain and woodland terrain. Their supply line stretched a full mile, anchored by 600 packhorses hauling a month's worth of food, plus a sizable cattle herd tended by several dozen enslaved African Americans.

On June 10, 1761, near the site of the earlier engagement at Echoee, Grant's column ran into roughly 1,000 Cherokee fighters. As before, the warriors staged an ambush, focusing their fire on the pack animals rather than the soldiers. The fighting dragged on for six hours at long range until the Cherokee, running low on ammunition, broke off and withdrew. Grant then pushed forward, torching all fifteen of the Middle Towns and destroying every crop in the region. His orders were explicit: any Cherokee man, woman, or child captured was to be killed on the spot. By July the campaign had taken a heavy toll on his own men too, with 300 too ill to continue marching, but the Cherokee economy lay in ruins. Around 4,000 people from the Middle Towns were now homeless and facing starvation. That August, the Cherokee finally requested peace. By the war's end, Cherokee fighting strength, which had stood near 5,000 back in 1739, had fallen to just 2,300 due to combat losses, smallpox, and famine.