Battle of Lindley's Fort

On July 15, 1776, forces loyal to the crown and their Cherokee allies clashed with defenders at Lindley's Fort in what became one of many struggles for dominance over South Carolina's interior during the war's opening phase. The Cherokees had entered the conflict because settlers kept pushing into their lands, prompting them to fight back. As tensions mounted, area residents fled toward the safety of Lindley's Fort, located in what is now Laurens County. Roughly 150 militiamen had reached the stockade only a day before a combined force of Loyalists and Cherokee warriors, their faces marked with paint, launched an assault on the position. Those inside held their ground and drove the attackers back. As the enemy retreated, the militia charged out from the fort and gave chase. In the end, two Loyalists lost their lives and thirteen more were captured.

Background

When fighting first erupted across the southern Thirteen Colonies during the Revolutionary War, Native peoples were not initially drawn into the struggle. Late in 1775, tensions between colonists loyal to the crown and those supporting independence flared throughout the South Carolina backcountry, and by the end of these clashes most of the region's leading Loyalists had been jailed, driven off, or forced to flee. Many sought sanctuary among Cherokee settlements nearby, situated in and around what is now western South Carolina within the southern Appalachian range, and there they found protection.

As 1776 began, representatives from northern tribes reached these Cherokee communities and persuaded younger warriors to rise up in arms against the colonial settlers. John Stuart, serving as the British agent to the Indians, attempted to hold the Cherokee to a position of neutrality. Yet he came to accept that conflict could not be avoided, and instead worked to direct Cherokee war efforts so they would align with British strategy.

Battle

On the first of July in 1776, the Cherokee took up arms in earnest. Henry Laurens described the assault as coming without warning or justification, noting that "treacherous Devils" organized into bands under white leadership struck without any real provocation, and the toll reached as high as 60 South Carolinians dead. The moment could not have been better chosen from the Cherokee perspective, since a sizable British fleet had sat off the coast near Charleston, South Carolina since the beginning of June only to see its assault on the city thrown back on June 28 at the Battle of Sullivan's Island. This left Charles Lee, commanding Continental forces, powerless to send any aid.

As Cherokee raids swept through South Carolina, settlers abandoned their homes on the frontier and streamed toward fortified positions for safety. Among these refuges stood Lindley's Fort, a structure dating back to the Anglo-Cherokee War of the 1760s that displaced families had since restored and reinforced. On July 14, Major Jonathan Downs brought a militia company to bolster the fort, bringing the defenders' ranks to roughly 150 armed men.

A combined force of Loyalists and Cherokee warriors, numbering around 190, appeared the following day. They pushed forward with an attack, yet the fort's stockade proved too sturdy for their arsenal, which consisted only of muskets and traditional weapons like tomahawks. As the attackers began shifting their focus toward more vulnerable targets in the vicinity, giving up on breaching the fort itself, Downs seized the opportunity to lead his men outside in a sortie. What followed was a running skirmish in which he succeeded in taking about ten Loyalists prisoner.

Aftermath

The Cherokee attacks of that spring and summer touched off a fierce response from their neighbors. Militia units from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia poured significant manpower into a campaign meant to punish the tribe. From late July until early October 1776, thousands of militiamen pushed into Cherokee territory, laying waste to villages and fields as they went. Rather than stand and fight, the Cherokee retreated ahead of these forces, eventually settling in territory farther to the west and south.

Today the location of Lindley's Fort, near Laurens, South Carolina, holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places.