Anglo-Cherokee

War

The Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761; in the Cherokee language: the "war with those in the
red coats" or "War with the English"), was also known from the Anglo-European perspective as
the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, or the Cherokee Rebellion. The war was a conflict
between British forces in North America and Cherokee bands during the French and Indian
War.

The British and the Cherokee had been

allies at the start of the war, but each party
had suspected the other of betrayals.
Tensions between British-American
settlers and Cherokee warriors of towns
that the pioneers encroached on had
increased during the 1750s, culminating in
open hostilities in 1758.

Background
After siding with the Province of Carolina
in the Tuscarora War of 1711–15, the
Cherokee had turned on their British allies
at the outbreak of the Yamasee War of
1715–17. Midway through the war, they
switched sides and allied again with the
British, ensuring the defeat of the Anglo-Cherokee
Yamasee. The Cherokee remained allies of
the British until the French and Indian War. War
At the 1754 outbreak of the war, Cherokee
warriors took part in British campaigns Part of the Seven
against the French Fort Duquesne (at
present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and Years' War
the Shawnee of the Ohio Country. In 1755,
a band of 130 Cherokee under Ostenaco
(or Ustanakwa) of Tamali (Tomotley)
became the garrison in a fortified town at
the mouth of the Ohio River at the behest
of the Iroquois League (most of these Six
Nations were also British allies).[1]

For several years, French agents from Fort

Toulouse had been visiting the Overhill
Cherokee on the Hiwassee and Tellico
rivers and had made inroads into those After the Anglo-
places. The strongest pro-French Cherokee
leaders were Mankiller (Utsidihi) of Talikwa Cherokee War,
(Tellico Plains), Old Caesar of Chatuga (or
Tsatugi, Chatooga), and Raven (Kalanu) of
bitterness remained
Ayuhwasi (Hiwassee). The "First Beloved
Man" (or Uku) of the nation, Conocotocko
between the two
(called "Old Hop"), was pro-French, as was
groups. In 1762,
his nephew, Conockotocko ("Standing
Turkey"), who succeeded him after the Henry Timberlake
death of the elder man in 1760.[2]

The former site of the Coosa chiefdom

took three of the
had been abandoned for some time. It was former Cherokee
reoccupied in 1759 by a Muscogee
contingent under Big Mortar adversaries to
(Yayatustanage) in support of the pro-
French Cherokee residing in Great Tellico London to help
and Chatuga. This was a step toward Yayatustanage's planned alliance of Muscogee,
Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, and
Catawba peoples (which would have been cement the newly
the first of its kind in the South). Although
such an alliance was not organized until declared friendship
the days of Dragging Canoe, Big Mortar
still rose to become leading chief of
Muscogee bands after the French and
Date 1758–
Indian War.[3][4]
1761

Prelude Location present-

day Sout
The Anglo-Cherokee War broke out in 1758
when the Virginia militia attacked Moytoy Carolina,
(Amo-adawehi) of Citico in retaliation for
the alleged theft of some horses by the North
Cherokee. Moytoy led retaliatory raids
against colonial towns along the Yadkin Carolina,
and Catawba rivers in North Carolina.[5]
This began rounds of retaliation. After 16 and
Cherokee hostages at Fort Prince George
near Keowee were killed by the panicked Tennesse
garrison during an attempt to move them,
the Cherokee attacked and massacred the
British garrison of Fort Loudoun near
Result British
Chota (Itsati).
victory
This conflict did not end until 1761. The
Cherokee were led by Aganstata of Chota,
Attakullakulla (Atagulgalu) of Tanasi, Belligerents
Ostenaco of Tomotley, Wauhatchie
(Wayatsi) of the Lower Towns, and Round
O of the Middle Towns. During the second
Cherokee Great
year of the French and Indian War, the
British had sought Cherokee assistance
Britain
against the French and their Indian allies.
The British had reports, which proved
accurate, that indicated the French were Commanders and
planning to build forts in Cherokee
territory. (They had already built Fort
leaders
Charleville at Great Salt Lick (now
Nashville) on the Cumberland River); Fort
Toulouse near present-day Montgomery, Attakullak William
Alabama; Fort Rosalie at Natchez,
Mississippi; Fort St. Pierre at modern-day ulla Henry
Yazoo City, Mississippi; and Fort
Tombeckbe on the Tombigbee River), Oconostot Lyttelton
extending their reach from some of their
colonial settlements along the Gulf Coast. a Archibald
Once the Cherokee agreed to be their
allies, the British hastened to build forts of
Montgom
their own in Cherokee lands, completing
Fort Prince George near Keowee in South
rie
Carolina (among the Lower Towns); and
Fort Loudoun in 1756. Once the forts were
James
built, the Cherokee raised close to 700
warriors to fight in western Colony of
Grant
Virginia under Ostenaco. Oconostota and
Attakullakulla led another large group to
attack Fort Toulouse. In 1758, the Cherokee participated in the taking of Fort Duquesne.
However, they felt their efforts were unappreciated. While traveling through Virginia on their
way home, several Cherokee were murdered by Virginians. The Cherokee had been promised
supplies but misunderstood where they were to get them from. After the Cherokee took some
horses they believed were rightly theirs, several Virginians killed and scalped between 30 and
40 of the Cherokee warriors. Later, the Virginians claimed bounties for the scalps, saying they
were Shawnee.[6][7]

War
While some Cherokee leaders still called for peace, a few led retaliatory raids on outlying
English pioneer settlements. A number of Muskogee under Big Mortar moved up to
Coosawatie. These people had long been French allies in support of the Cherokee pro-French
faction centered in Great Tellico.

South Carolina Governor William Henry Lyttelton embargoed all gunpowder shipments to the
Cherokee and raised an army of 1,100 men which marched to confront the Lower Towns of
the Cherokee. Desperate for ammunition for their fall and winter hunts, the nation sent a
delegation of moderate chiefs to negotiate. The 38 chiefs were taken prisoner[8] as hostages
and sent to Fort Prince George, escorted by the provincial army.[8] Lyttleton thought this
would ensure peace.

Lyttleton returned to Charleston, but the Cherokee were angry and began 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 massacred[9] all of
the hostages and fended off the attack. This resulted in the Cherokee declaring open war
against the British colonies. The Cherokee also attacked Fort Ninety Six, but it withstood the
siege.

By February 1760, the Cherokee expanded their retaliatory campaign into North Carolina, as
far east as modern day Winston-Salem. An attack on Fort Dobbs in North Carolina was
repulsed by Colonel Hugh Waddell. However, lesser settlements in the North and South
Carolina back-country quickly fell to Cherokee raids.

Timberlake's "Draught of the Cherokee

Country"
Lyttleton appealed for help to Jeffery Amherst, the British commander in North America.
Amherst sent Archibald Montgomerie with an army of 1,200 troops (the Royal Scots and
Montgomerie's Highlanders) to South Carolina. Montgomerie's campaign razed 10 Cherokee
Lower Towns, including Keowee. It ended with a defeat at Echoee (Itseyi) Pass when
Montgomerie tried to enter the Middle Towns territory. Later in 1760, the Overhill Cherokee
defeated the British colonists at a siege of Fort Loudoun and took it over.

In 1761, a second expedition against the Cherokee under James Grant was planned. He led
an army of 2,800 men (the largest force to enter the southern Appalachians to date) against
the Cherokee. His army moved through the Lower Towns, defeated the Cherokee at Echoee
Pass, and proceeded to raze about 18 Middle Towns while burning fields of crops along the
way. The army of British Regulars, Provincial Soldiers, and allied Catawba, Chickasaw,
Mohawk, and Stockbridge Indians destroyed the homes and food of approximately 5,000
Cherokee people.

Treaties
In November 1761, the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Long Island on the Holston with the
Colony of Virginia. They made peace with South Carolina in December with the Treaty of
Charlestown. During the Timberlake Expedition, Lt. Henry Timberlake, Sgt. Thomas Sumter,
John McCormack (who served as their interpreter), and an unknown servant traveled into the
Overhill settlements area to deliver a copy of the treaty with Virginia to the Cherokee.
Timberlake's diary and map of his journey (see above), were published in 1765. His diary
contained what historians assessed was an accurate description of Cherokee culture.

Pro-French leader Standing Turkey was deposed and replaced as "First Beloved Man" with the
pro-British Attakullakulla. John Stuart became British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the
Southern District, based out of Charlestown, South Carolina, and was the main liaison
between the Cherokee and the British government. His first deputy, Alexander Cameron, lived
among the Cherokee, first at Keowee, then at Toqua on the Little Tennessee River, while his
second deputy, John McDonald, resided a hundred miles to the southwest on the west side of
Chickamauga Creek where it was crossed by the Great Indian Warpath.

During the war, many Cherokee towns had been destroyed under General Grant and were
never reoccupied. The most notable of these was Kituwa, the inhabitants of which migrated
west, taking up residence at Great Island Town (on the Little Tennessee), living among the
Overhill Cherokee.[10] As a result of the war, Cherokee warrior strength estimated at 2,590
before the war in 1755[11] was reduced by battle, smallpox and starvation to 2,300.[12]

Aftermath
In the aftermath of the war, French Louisiana east of the Mississippi went to the British, along
with Canada, while Louisiana west of the Mississippi went to Spain; in return, Spanish Florida
went to Britain, which divided it into East Florida and West Florida.

After the signing of the treaties and the conclusion of the Timberlake Expedition, Henry
Timberlake visited London with three Cherokee leaders: Ostenaco, Standing Turkey, and
Wood Pigeon (Ata-wayi).[13] The Cherokee guests visited the Tower of London, met the
playwright Oliver Goldsmith, drew massive crowds, and had an audience with King George III.
On the voyage to England, their interpreter William Shorey died. This made communication
nearly impossible.

Hearing of the Cherokees' warm welcome in London, South Carolinians viewed their
reception as a sign of imperial favoritism at the colonists' expense, especially in view of the
Royal Proclamation of 1763 (which prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian
Mountains), and was a foundation of one of the major irritants for the colonials leading up to
the American Revolution.

See also

Cherokee–American wars

Notes

1. Tanner, p. 95
 2. Brown, Eastern Cherokee Chiefs
3. Heard (1993), p. 255.
4. Adair (1971), pp. 254–256, 268–272.
5. Oliphant (2001), pp. 72–78, 110–111.
6. Mooney (1982), p. 41.
7. Anderson (2000), p. 458.
8. Anderson (2000), p. 460.
9. Anderson (2000), p. 461.
10. Klink and Talman, p. 62
11. Mooney (1982), p. 39, 2,590 in 1755;
5,000 in 1739 before the great smallpox
epidemic.

12. Mooney (1982), p. 45.

13. Evans (1976).
References

"Cherokee War 1760 - Library

resources
1762" (https://web.ar
about
chive.org/web/20021 Anglo-
Cherokee
012214056/http://ww
War
w.ricehope.com/histo
ry/CherokeeWar1760. Online
books (http
htm) . Rice Hope s://ftl.toolfor
Plantation Inn. ge.org/cgi-bi
n/ftl?st=wp
Archived from the &su=Anglo-
original (http://www.ri Cherokee+W
ar&library=O
cehope.com/history/ LBP)
CherokeeWar1760.ht Resources
in your
m) on October 12, library (http
2002. s://ftl.toolfor
ge.org/cgi-bi
Adair, James (1971). n/ftl?st=wp
&su=Anglo-
History of the Cherokee+W
American Indian. ar)
Resources
Nashville: Blue and in other
Gray Press. libraries (htt
ps://ftl.toolf
Anderson, Fred orge.org/cgi
-bin/ftl?st=w
(2000). Crucible of
p&su=Anglo
War: The Seven Years' -Cherokee+
War&library
War and the Fate of
=0CHOOSE
Empire in British North 0)
America, 1754–1766.
New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40642-5.
See ch. 47, "The Cherokee War and
Amherst's Reforms in Indian Policy",
pp. 457–71.
Brown, John P. (1938). Old Frontiers:
The Story of the Cherokee Indians from
Earliest Times to the Date of Their
Removal to the West, 1838. Kingsport:
Southern Publishers.
Evans, E. Raymond (Summer 1976).
"Notable Persons in Cherokee History:
Ostenaco". Journal of Cherokee
Studies. 1 (1): 41–54.

French, Christopher (Summer 1977).

"Journal of an Expedition to South
Carolina". Journal of Cherokee Studies.
3 (2): 275–302.

Hatley, Thomas (1993). The Dividing

Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians
Through the Era of Revolution. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Heard, J. Norman (1993). Handbook of
the American Frontier, The Southeastern
Woodlands: Four Centuries of Indian–
White Relationships. Metuchen:
Scarecrow Press.
Kelly, James C. (Winter 1978). "Notable
Persons in Cherokee History:
Attakullakulla". Journal of Cherokee
Studies. 3 (1): 2–34.

Kelly, James C. (Fall 1978).

"Oconostota". Journal of Cherokee
Studies. 3 (4): 221–238.

King, Duane H. (1979). The Cherokee

Indian Nation: A Troubled History.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee
Press.
Maass, John R. (2013). The French and
Indian War in North Carolina: The
Spreading Flames of War. Charleston:
The History Press. ISBN 1-609-49887-
9.
Mooney, James (1982). Myths of the
Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the
Cherokee. Nashville: Charles and
Randy Elder-Booksellers. Also Dover,
1995.
Oliphant, John (2001). Peace and War
on the Anglo-Cherokee Frontier, 1756–
63. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State
University Press.
Timberlake, Henry (2007). King, Duane
H. (ed.). The Memoirs of Lt. Henry
Timberlake: The Story of a Soldier,
Adventurer, and Emissary to the
Cherokees, 1756–1765. Cherokee, N.C.:
Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press.
Tortora, Daniel J. (2015). Carolina in
Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves
in the American Southeast, 1756–1763.
Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press. ISBN 1-469-62122-3.
Williams, Samuel Cole (1928). Early
Travels in the Tennessee Country,
1540–1800. Johnson City: Watauga
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