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The Battle of Echoee, or Etchoe Pass, was a battle on June 27, 1760, between the British and colonial force under Archibald Montgomerie and a force of Cherokee warriors under Seroweh. The encounter took place near the present-day municipality of Otto, in Macon County, North Carolina.〔Anderson, William, "Etchoe, Battle of", ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina'', William S. Powell, ed., (UNC Press 2006).〕 ==Background== With the outbreak of the French and Indian War, a part of the Seven Years' War, in 1754, the Cherokee were sought out as allies by the British, eventually taking part in campaigns against Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and the Shawnee of the Ohio Country. In exchange for the participation of the Cherokee warriors, the British agreed to build two forts to protect the Cherokee women, children and towns from the retaliation of the French and their Indian allies. The forts built by South Carolina were Fort Prince George, near Keowee on the Savannah River in the Lower Towns and Fort Loudoun, near Chota, where the Little Tennessee River and Tellico River converged, by the Overhill Towns. A third fort, built by Virginia, across the Little Tennessee near Chota was left unmanned.〔Conley, Robert J..''The Cherokee Nation: A History'', University of New Mexico Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8263-3236-3, p. 46.〕 Ostenaco, a Cherokee leader, with 100 warriors joined Major Andrew Lewis with 200 Virginia Provincial troops in the depths of winter in February 1756. After six weeks, the expedition was out of supplies and had eaten their horses. The Cherokee, irritated by the performance of the Provincials decided to begin walking back towards Chota. The following year, the Cherokee joined a British army which was being put together in Pennsylvania under British General John Forbes. The expedition, which included British regular troops, Provincials from North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, along with Catawba, Tuscarora, and a few Creek and Chickasaw warriors, was aimed at forcing the French from their major fortification in western PA, Ft Duquesne. The Forbes campaign was plagued with logistical problems. Having promised goods to the various Indian warriors for their assistance, and falling short, many warriors began leaving quite disgusted by June of 1758. Provisions were promised to the warriors traveling home, many with their families. These goods were supposed to be obtained at forts which were located along their way back to their homelands. On their way back, the Cherokee took some stray horses in Virginia to replace those they had lost. Virginia settlers got angry and banded together, pursuing the Cherokee, attacking them and killing, scalping and mutilating 20 of the Indians, later collecting the bounty offered for enemy scalps.〔Mooney, p. 41.〕 Although Dinwiddie, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, apologized some Virginians considered them horse thieves. Some Cherokees and Moytoy (''Amo-adawehi'') of Citico retaliated for the murders of Cherokee warriors at the hands of their colonial allies and the situation escalated. The colonists' actions and Cherokee reactions began a domino effect that ended with the murders of Cherokee hostages at Fort Prince George near Keowee. These events ushered in a war which didn't end until 1761. The Cherokee were led by Standing Turkey, ''Aganstata'' (Oconostota) of Chota, Attakullakulla (''Atagulgalu'') of Tanasi, Ostenaco of Tomotley, Wauhatchie (''Wayatsi'') of the Lower Towns, and Round O of the Middle Towns. The Cherokee sought allies among the other Indian tribes and help from the French but received no practical aid and faced the British alone. The new governor of South Carolina, William Henry Lyttelton, declared war on the Cherokee in 1759.〔Mooney, p. 42, Conley, p. 47.〕 The governor embargoed all shipments of gunpowder to the Cherokee and raised an army of 1,100 provincial troops along with an artillery company under Christopher Gadsden which marched to confront the Lower Towns of the Cherokee. Desperate for ammunition for their fall and winter hunts, the Cherokee sent a peace delegation of moderate chiefs to negotiate. The thirty-two chiefs were taken prisoner, as hostages, and, escorted by the provincial army, were sent〔Anderson, p. 460.〕 to Fort Prince George and held in a tiny room only big enough for six people.〔Conley, p. 47.〕 Three of the chiefs were released conditionally because Lyttelton thought this would ensure peace. Lyttelton returned to Charleston, but the Cherokee were now quite angry, and continued to attack frontier settlements into 1760. In February 1760, they attacked Fort Prince George in an attempt to rescue their hostages. The fort's commander was killed. His replacement killed all of the hostages and fended off the attack. The Cherokee also attacked Fort Ninety Six, but it withstood the siege. Fort Loudoun was also put under siege; and several lesser posts in the South Carolina back-country quickly fell to Cherokee raids. Governor Lyttelton appealed for help to Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander in North America. Amherst sent Archibald Montgomerie with an army of 1,300 to 1,500 troops〔Oliphant, p. 113. Hatley gives 1,200, p. 131.〕 including 400 in four companies of the Royal Scots〔Woodward, p. 74, Drake, p. 376, Fortescue, p. 400.〕 and a 700-man battalion of the Montgomerie's Highlanders to South Carolina. His second in command was Major James Grant. The regulars were joined by some 300 mounted Carolina rangers, in seven troops, and 100 militia as well a party of 40 to 50 Catawba warriors.〔Anderson, p. 462, Keenan. p. 40.〕 The goal of the expedition was to subdue the Cherokee by razing their towns and crops, while relieving those posts invested by the Cherokee, in particular, Fort Loudoun. In late May the British had reached Fort Ninety-Six, Montgomerie's campaign razed some of the Cherokee Lower Towns, including Keowee, Estatoe and Sugar Town, killing or capturing around 100 Indians. He then relieved Fort Prince George offering to parley with the Cherokee who, having retreated to the Middle Towns, were no longer willing to negotiate. Montgomerie waited ten days then prepared to march on the Middle Towns, some sixty miles northeast over very difficult terrain, both mountainous and forested. He had to leave behind his wagon transport which could not move beyond the Lower Towns and use improvised panniers and packsaddles for the horses of the baggage train. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Echoee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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