Siege of Fort Loudoun was a Colonial and Pre-Columbian engagement fought in Tennessee, 1760. It was a Cherokee victory.
From February to August of 1760, Cherokee fighters under Ostenaco laid siege to Fort Loudoun, a post now located within Tennessee, in one of the clashes that made up the Anglo-Cherokee War. Defending the fort was a garrison of British and colonial troops under the command of Captain Paul Demeré.
Earlier, during the French and Indian War, both the British and the Provincial Colonial Governments had courted the Cherokee as partners in defending frontier territory against French forces and their native allies. This partnership took shape and, in its early stages, satisfied what each party expected of the other: Cherokee warriors joined the fight, while the British and Provincials furnished supplies and safeguarded Cherokee lands. Over time, though, this cooperation broke down, and a series of provocations from each side eventually ignited the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1758.
When the siege began, warriors spent a handful of days firing their rifles at the men inside the fort, then stopped to preserve their limited ammunition. Hunting and foraging beyond the walls became impossible, since the Cherokee kept soldiers and settlers penned inside. An exception existed, though: wives of the soldiers who came from Indian communities could still pass freely, as the Cherokee had no wish to provoke conflict with those women's own tribes and kin. Through this loophole, food was quietly smuggled into the fort. Even so, such supplies could not sustain the defenders forever, and Demeré had already told Lyttleton back in January that what remained on hand would last only four more months.
Isolation from outside help became total, as the Cherokee severed every channel of communication with the fort. Messengers dispatched by Demeré were captured or killed, and no white settler would risk carrying word onward. Faced with this, Demeré approached an enslaved man named Abram, offering him liberty if he could slip past Indian lines and cross the mountains into South Carolina with messages. Abram undertook this perilous journey more than once, and for his service the South Carolina Commons House granted him freedom through a 1761 tax measure.
Seeking reinforcement, Lyttleton turned to Jeffrey Amherst, who held command of British forces across North America. In response, Amherst dispatched Archibald Montgomerie toward South Carolina at the head of a force numbering between 1,300 and 1,500 men, among them four companies of the Royal Scots totaling 400 soldiers and a 700-strong battalion of Montgomerie's Highlanders, all bound for a fresh campaign against the Cherokee. James Grant served as his second in command. Alongside the regular troops rode roughly 300 Carolina rangers organized into seven mounted troops, together with 100 militiamen and a band of 40 to 50 Catawba war
Approximate area near Vonore. Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
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