Anglo-Cherokee War

Background

The Cherokee first fought alongside the British colony of Carolina during the Tuscarora War, but when the Yamasee War broke out, they turned against their allies. Halfway through that conflict, they flipped sides again, helping the British crush the Yamasee. They stayed loyal to Britain until the French and Indian War began in 1754, when Cherokee warriors joined campaigns against Fort Duquesne and the Shawnee in the Ohio Country.

The next year, at the request of the Iroquois League, a group of 130 Cherokee led by Ostenaco of Tamali took over a fortified town at the mouth of the Ohio River. Meanwhile, French agents from Fort Toulouse had been winning over the Overhill Cherokee living along the Hiwassee and Tellico rivers. The most influential pro-French Cherokee were Mankiller of Talikwa, Old Caesar of Chatuga, and Raven of Ayuhwasi.

The nation’s First Beloved Man, Conocotocko, known as Old Hop, also leaned French, as did his nephew Conockotocko, called Standing Turkey, who took over after Old Hop died in 1760. The long-abandoned site of the old Coosa chiefdom was resettled in 1759 by a Muscogee force under Big Mortar, who backed the pro-French Cherokee in Great Tellico and Chatuga. Big Mortar aimed to create a grand alliance of Muscogee, Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, and Catawba—a first for the South—though such a coalition only emerged later under Dragging Canoe.

Prelude

The Anglo-Cherokee War began in 1758 after the Virginia militia attacked Moytoy of Citico, claiming the Cherokee had stolen horses. Moytoy responded by raiding colonial settlements along the Yadkin and Catawba rivers in North Carolina, sparking a cycle of revenge. When the garrison at Fort Prince George near Keowee panicked and killed sixteen Cherokee hostages they were trying to move, the Cherokee retaliated by massacring the British garrison at Fort Loudoun near Chota. The war lasted until 1761.

Earlier, during the second year of the French and Indian War, the British had asked the Cherokee for help against the French, who were building forts in Cherokee territory. The Cherokee agreed, and the British built Fort Prince George near Keowee and Fort Loudoun in 1756. The Cherokee then raised nearly 700 warriors to fight in western Virginia under Ostenaco, while Oconostota and Attakullakulla led another group to attack Fort Toulouse.

In 1758, the Cherokee helped capture Fort Duquesne, but they felt their efforts were not valued. On their way home through Virginia, several Cherokee were murdered. The Cherokee had been promised supplies but misunderstood where to get them. After taking horses they believed were theirs, Virginians killed and scalped between thirty and forty Cherokee warriors, later claiming bounties for the scalps by saying they were Shawnee.

War

Some Cherokee leaders wanted peace, but others launched raids against English frontier settlements. Muskogee warriors under Big Mortar moved to Coosawatie, supporting the pro-French Cherokee faction in Great Tellico. South Carolina Governor William Henry Lyttelton stopped all gunpowder shipments to the Cherokee and led 1,100 soldiers toward the Lower Towns. Needing ammunition for hunting, the Cherokee sent moderate chiefs to negotiate.

Lyttelton took 38 of them hostage, sent them to Fort Prince George under guard, and returned to Charleston, thinking this would keep the peace. Instead, angry Cherokee attacked frontier settlements into 1760. In February, they tried to free the hostages at Fort Prince George. The fort’s commander died, and his successor killed all the hostages and beat back the attack.

The Cherokee then declared open war. They also besieged Fort Ninety Six, but it held. By February 1760, Cherokee raids reached North Carolina, as far east as modern Winston-Salem.

Colonel Hugh Waddell repelled an attack on Fort Dobbs, but smaller back-country settlements fell quickly. Lyttelton asked Jeffery Amherst for help. Amherst sent Archibald Montgomerie with 1,200 troops, including the Royal Scots and Montgomerie’s Highlanders. Montgomerie burned ten Lower Towns, including Keowee, but was defeated at Echoee Pass when he tried to enter the Middle Towns.

Later in 1760, the Overhill Cherokee besieged and captured Fort Loudoun. In 1761, James Grant led 2,800 men—the largest force yet in the southern Appalachians—against the Cherokee. He moved through the Lower Towns, defeated them at Echoee Pass, and destroyed about 18 Middle Towns, burning crops and homes. The army, made up of British regulars, provincial soldiers, and allied Catawba, Chickasaw, Mohawk, and Stockbridge warriors, wiped out the food and shelter of roughly 5,000 Cherokee people.

Treaties

By late 1761, the Cherokee had made separate peace agreements, first with Virginia in November through the Treaty of Long Island on the Holston, and then with South Carolina the following month via the Treaty of Charlestown. The pro-French leader Standing Turkey lost his position as First Beloved Man to Attakullakulla, who favored the British.

John Stuart took over as British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern District, operating from Charlestown. His deputies lived among the Cherokee: Alexander Cameron first at Keowee, then Toqua on the Little Tennessee, while John McDonald was stationed about a hundred miles southwest on Chickamauga Creek. Timberlake’s diary and map from his earlier expedition were published in 1765.

Did You Know?

• After the war, Henry Timberlake visited London with three Cherokee leaders: Ostenaco, Standing Turkey, and Wood Pigeon, who met King George III.
• Cherokee warrior strength estimated at 2,590 before the war in 1755 was reduced by battle, smallpox and starvation to 2,300.
• Many Cherokee towns destroyed under General Grant were never reoccupied, including Kituwa, whose inhabitants migrated west to Great Island Town.