|
The Siege of Fort Loudoun was an engagement during the Anglo-Cherokee War fought from February 1760 to August 1760 between the warriors of the Cherokee led by Ostenaco and the garrison of the fort composed of British and colonial soldiers commanded by Captain Paul Demeré. During the French and Indian War the Cherokee were sought after as allies by the British and Provincial Colonial Governments to help contest the frontiers against the French and their Indian allies. An alliance was formed and both sides initially fulfilled each other's expectations. The Cherokee provided warriors and in return the British and Provincials provided supplies and protection of the warriors homelands. However, the alliance unravelled and soon incidents by both sides provoked the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1758. ==Background== The British had reports that indicated the French were planning to build forts in Cherokee territory (as they had already done with Ft. Charleville at Great Salt Lick on the Cumberland River); Ft. Toulouse, near present day Montgomery, Alabama; Ft. Rosalie at Natchez, Mississippi; Ft. St. Pierre at modern day Yazoo, Mississippi; and Ft. Tombeckbe on the Tombigbee River). With the Cherokee now their allies, the British hastened to build forts of their own in the Cherokee lands, completing Fort Prince George near Keowee in South Carolina among the Cherokee Lower Towns; and Fort Loudoun in the Overhill towns. Once the forts were built, the Cherokee raised 400 warriors to fight in western Virginia Colony under Ostenaco. Oconostota and Attakullakulla led another large group to attack Fort Toulouse. Fort Loudoun was built as an outpost of the British and their colony of South Carolina during the French and Indian War as part of an alliance treaty with the Cherokee in return for a field force of Cherokee warriors to help in the campaign against the French at Fort Duquense. The Virginians in particular were desperate for Cherokee assistance against the French and their Shawnee Indian allies. The fort was to be both a trading post supplying manufactured goods, guns and powder to the Cherokee as well as providing additional defense of the Cherokee Middle Towns as well as a refuge for Cherokee women and children while their warriors were away on campaign. Building of the fort began by 120 troops of Sergeant William Gibbs' South Carolina Provincial Militia accompanied by 80 British regulars and was continued by Captain Postell's Company of construction into 1757. It was named after General John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, the British Commander in Chief in North America. It was sited on the south side of the Little Tennessee River on high ground about five miles below the Cherokee capitol town of Chota. The elongated diamond-shaped fort was designed by a German engineer, William Gerald de Brahm, who departed before completion on Christmas Day 1756. The earthen walls topped with wooden palisades 15 feet high and 100 feet long on each side and the 4 corners were 2 large and 2 small bastions each mounting 3 small cannon or swivel guns. The moat was some 50 feet wide and there was a ravelin covering the front gate. When completed, operational and garrisoned by 90 regulars and 120 provincial troops in the summer of 1757 the troops families moved to the fort and a small community was started.〔Kaufmann, pp.87-88.〕 The fort remained dependent on white settlements nearly 200 miles east over the Appalachian Mountains for much of their supplies. Fort Loudoun's first commander was Captain Raymond Demeré who was friendly with the Cherokee, he was replaced by his brother, Paul Demeré whose overbearing nature exacerbated bad relations with the Cherokee. In 1759 Captain John Stuart and a reinforcement of 60 or 70 artillerymen〔Nichols, John L.. ''John Stuart Beloved Father of the Cherokees'', ''Highlander Magazine'', Sept./Oct. 1993.〕 of the South Carolina Provincial Regiment, known as the 'Buffs' after their facing colors, arrived bringing supplies of meat, flour, salt, ammunition and clothing. The alliance between the Cherokee and the British began to unravel with the British expedition under General Forbes against Fort Dusquesne in 1758. The Cherokee felt their efforts were unappreciated. Kanagatucko, then the leading chief of the Cherokee, ordered his warriors home. Later, a contingent of Cherokee warriors under Moytoy accompanied Virginian troops on a campaign against the Shawnee of the Ohio Country. During the expedition, the enemy proved elusive. After several weeks, the Tuscarora contingent left, while that of the Cherokee stayed, but dwindled. Then, a group of Cherokee warriors scalped and killed one or more white settlers and deceptively attempted to proclaim to the British the scalps belonged to their enemies in order to receive a reward.〔Letter to John Ross from Principal Chief Charles Renatus Hicks, dated July 15th, 1825〕 Suspicious of the truth, the British soldiers disarmed and briefly detained them, and then chose to send them home. Some Cherokees, who had not been involved in the treachery, were bitter over this treatment, and raided Virginia's frontier settlements while returning to the Tennessee Valley. Virginia settlers got angry and banded together to pursue 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 other Virginians called them horse thieves. Some Cherokees retaliated and the situation spun out of control. 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 which marched to confront the Lower Towns of the Cherokee. Desperate for ammunition for their fall and winter hunts, the nation 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, Lyttleton thought this would ensure peace. As smallpox broke out among his troops Governor Lyttleton feared the desertion of most of his force and hurried back to Charleston in great disorder.〔Hatley, p.124.〕 The Cherokee were still 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. The garrison, in panicked retaliation, massacred all of the hostages.〔Hatley, p.126〕 And two days later the fort fired artillery into the town of Keowee. The Cherokee now attacked Fort Ninety Six, but it withstood the siege. However, settlements and lesser posts in the South Carolina backcountry quickly fell to Cherokee raids.〔Hatley, p.127.〕 The Cherokee were led by Standing Turkey as Principal Chief, Oconostota (''Aganstata'') 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. While some Cherokee leaders still called for peace, others led retaliatory raids on outlying pioneer settlements. 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「Siege of Fort Loudoun」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|