1 7 6 0 we marched to Keowee and arrived the 2d June (after a march of above 60 miles without sleeping) at 4 in the evening at Fort Prince George. There must have been from 60 to 80 Cherokees killed with about 40 prisoners; I mean men, women and children. Those who escaped must be in a miserable condition and can possibly have no resource but flying over the mountains in case their friends there will receive them; they can have saved nothing; some of them had just time to run out of their beds; the whole affair was the work of a few hours. They had both at Estatoe and Sugar-Town plenty of ammunition which was destroyed; and everywhere astonishing magazines of corn which were all consumed in the flames. They had not even time to save their most valuable effects. We intended to Montgomery's June 24 save Sugar-Town as the place nearest the fort (where they even had a stockade fort): Centries were placed for the security of the town but we found the body of a dead man whom they had put to the torture that very morning, it was then no longer possible to think of mercy." The Indians, not strong enough to make much resistance, "were plainly observed on the tops of the mountains, gazing at the flames. For years, the half-charred rafters of their dwellings might be seen on the desolate hillsides." Returning to Fort Prince George, Montgomery summoned the upper and middle Cherokee towns to make peace on penalty of a like visitation. As the Cherokee chiefs gave no heed to his demand, he set out again without tents or baggage, "thro a country where no W aggon could move." On the twenty-sixth of June, the British army crossed the Blue Ridge at Rabun Gap and thence passed down the valley of the Little Tennessee River toward the nearest of the middle settlements of the Cherokees. "Let Montgomery be wary," wrote Washington, "he has a subtle enemy that may give him most trouble when he least expects it." At a narrow pass then called Cow's Creek, not far from the site of Franklin in Macon County, North Carolina, the Chero kees lay in ambush. Fierce fighting followed and the 1 7 6 0 Indians were driven from their lurking-places. Of the June 27 Highlanders and provincials, a score were killed and nearly fourscore wounded. Although victorious, Montgomery found it prudent to rest only one day and then to withdraw from the heart of the Alleghenies. On the first of July, he and his troops were at Fort Prince George; on the eighth, they were at Ninety Six. As he had been instructed by General Amherst to strike a hasty blow and then return to Albany in time to take part in the final campaign against Canada, he was unable to linger longer in the Carolinas. Returning to Charles Town, he sailed for New York, leaving Major Frederick Ham- August 11 ilton with four hundred men of the Royal Scots encamped at the Congarees to cover the back settlements. Meanwhile the Cherokees had been besieging Fort The Fate of Loudoun. The withdrawal of Montgomery sealed its Fort Loudoun fate. Driven by hunger, the garrison of two hundred capitulated on condition that they be allowed to return to August 7 their homes. On the following day, they were overtaken by a horde of warriors who slew the commander, Captain Paul Demere, and about twenty-six others. The story that the Cherokee warriors were "particular in that number [twenty-four] as being the amount of Hostages detained by Gov. Lyttelton" and slain at Fort Prince George is probably ill-founded; the numbers do not tally and the Cherokee warriors were not very sentimental when the tomahawk was red. The rest of the fugitives were taken prisoners and distributed among the tribes. Among the prisoners was the second in command, The Escape of Captain John Stuart of the South Carolina provincial Captain Stuart regiment, an officer who had been much liked by many of the Indians and who had been an especial friend of Attakullakulla. When that chieftain learned of Stuart's captivity, he hurried to the fort, bought him from the Indian who had captured him, and treated him as one of his own family. After a time, the Indians formed a plan for capturing Fort Prince George. Stuart was brought before their council and informed that he must undertake the management of the artillery in the siege, that he must 1760 write such letters to the commandant as the Indians 1 7 6 1 should dictate, and that, if the fort did not surrender, the prisoners, one by one, would be burned before it. Áttakullakulla resolved to save his friend from his impending fate. Under the pretense of going hunting, he set out with his wife, his brother, Captain Stuart, and two soldiers. On the tenth day, at the Holston River, the party met a force of soldiers under Major Lewis; on the fourteenth day, they reached Colonel Byrd's camp on the borders of Virginia. By Attakullakulla, Byrd sent to Oconostota a minatory and mandatory letter dated "At the Camp on the Waters of Kanawa, Sept. 16, 1760," together with his terms of peace. Stuart at once sent word of the impending attack to Colonel Grant Lieutenant-governor Bull. Reinforcements and supplies were thrown into Fort Prince George and a new appeal was made to General Amherst for assistance. As Montreal had fallen and Montgomery had returned to England, Amherst sent Lieutenant-colonel James Grant, who had made the unfortunate attack upon Fort Duquesne in 1758, and had fought against the Cherokees in 1760. With Grant were two battalions of Highlanders numbering about twelve hundred men, and five or six Mohawk warriors. Grant and his men arrived at Charles Town early in the new year and went into winter quarters until January 6, there should be "feeding on the ground for the horses 1761 that are to draw the carriages." A new provincial regiment, commanded by Colonel Henry Middleton, rendezvoused at the Congarees-one of the schools in which several distinguished officers of the Revolution learned their first lessons in the art of war. Cherokees Punished Grant's advance from Charles Town was delayed by The heavy rains but, by the third of May, the last of the army had marched from the Congarees. Moving by way of Ninety Six, the troops arrived at Fort Prince George on the twenty-seventh. There, on the seventh of June, the expedition, which numbered about twenty-six hundred men including Chickasaw and Catawba allies, entered the 1 7 6 1 Cherokee country by way of the lower towns. June 10 July 9 Peace August 14 Near the place where Montgomery had fought his battle of the year before, the Cherokees attacked the English. The fight raged for several hours, but at last the Indians gave way. About midnight of the same day, the invaders reached and burned a large Indian town. Every town in the middle settlements, about fifteen in all, shared the same fate. The magazines of provisions were destroyed, as was the corn growing in the fields, and the unhappy Indians "were driven to seek shelter and provisions among the barren mountains-their fields destroyed, their villages burned, their women and old men left to perish." For thirty days, the expedition continued in the heart of the Cherokee country. Grant then returned to Fort Prince George to give his army needed rest and to await the results of its work. Attakullakulla, who seems to have been the consistent friend of the English during all the trouble, soon appeared at the fort accompanied by other chiefs, and sued for peace. They were given a safe conduct to Charles Town and set out from the fort on the third of September. Lieutenant-governor Bull and his council met them at September 15 Ashley Ferry and received them kindly. "A fire was kindled, the pipe of peace was lighted, and all smoked together for some time in great silence. Attakullakulla then opened his mission and, in a speech of great dignity and pathos, sued for peace"-a peace that was readily granted. The little English army left Fort Prince George on the sixteenth of October and was at Ninety Six on the twenty-fifth; Colonel Middleton of the provincials had previously arrived at Charles Town. By the nineteenth of December, the last of the British regulars who had been in the Cherokee country marched into the city and were immediately embarked on the transports. About December 22 this time, Thomas Boone arrived at Charles Town as governor of the province and was received with due formality. For various reasons, many of the facts relating to the Cherokee war are obscure, but none more so than the |