Fort Loudoun (Tennessee) - History

History

The British colony of South Carolina built the fort in 1756, naming it for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. With the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the Overhill Cherokee were attacked by French-allied Shawnee, and requested the construction of a fort. Fort Loudoun was built a few miles downstream from the Cherokee capital Chota. Its purpose was to defend the Cherokee and British settlers on the frontier, to maintain the Cherokee-British alliance, and to guard against French attempts to gain influence among the Cherokee. It also served as a diplomatic and trading outpost.

Mutual suspicions and betrayals repeatedly undermined the Cherokee-British alliance. Relations soured as South Carolina frontiersmen invaded the Lower Cherokee Towns along the headwaters of the Savannah River to procure scalps. Open warfare erupted between the Cherokee and the British in 1759, when Cherokee warriors returning from raids against the Shawnee killed cattle belonging to Virginian settlers, and were killed in retaliation. A Cherokee war party led by Chief Oconastota laid siege to Fort Loudoun, which fell on August 7, 1760. The Cherokee attacked and killed part of the garrison in an ambush two days later, as they were returning to South Carolina. During this period, several Cherokee had apparently traveled to Louisiana to secure French aid. The British response was swift; South Carolina militia destroyed the Lower Towns, and Virginia threatened to invade the Overhill Towns, forcing the Cherokee to sue for peace.

The Cherokee village of Tuskegee grew up around Fort Loudoun. Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, was born in this village seventeen years after the destruction of the fort. After Fort Loudoun was burned, the site was abandoned for nearly two centuries. In 1917, the Colonial Dames of America placed a marker at the site of the fort. With sporadic support from the state, and from the federal government via the Works Progress Administration, preservationists researched the fort's history and reconstructed the facility starting in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The reconstructed fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

The present-day reconstruction of the fort sits on the bank of the Little Tennessee River, but the fort was not originally on the waterfront. When the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) construction of Tellico Dam threatened to flood the original fort site, preservationists moved the reconstruction. They dismantled the fort, used fill dirt to raise the site 17 feet (5m), and rebuilt it. The dam brought the river closer to the fort than it was originally.

Together with an interpretive center and recreation area, the fort is part of Fort Loudoun State Park. The Tellico Blockhouse site is also part of the park. It features foundations reconstructed based on archaeological investigations. The blockhouse was built on the river opposite the fort by the U.S. Government in 1794 and was in operation until 1805.

Located nearby is the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. The TVA deeded the land around the museum back to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee.

Loudon County, Tennessee; Loudon, Tennessee; and Fort Loudoun Dam are named for the fort.