French and Indian War
He served in the disastrous 1755 Braddock Expedition during the French and Indian War.
In 1761 Sumter was invited to join an expedition (known as the Timberlake Expedition) organized by Colonel Adam Stephen to visit the Overhill Cherokee (in present-day Tennessee) to verify that war with the Cherokee had ended in the Virginia backcountry. Stephen gave command of the expedition to Henry Timberlake, who volunteered for the assignment. Timberlake was accompanied by Sumter (then a sergeant), an interpreter named John McCormack, and an unknown servant. The group purchased a canoe and 10 days' worth of provisions with money Sumter had borrowed. The plan was to follow the Holston River to its confluence with the French Broad River, and proceed to the Little Tennessee River, where the Overhill towns were situated.
Timberlake's party left Long Island on November 28, 1761. The Holston River's unusually low water levels slowed their progress, as the party had to drag or portage the canoe over and around exposed shoals and sandbars. They ran out of provisions after several days, but McCormack managed to shoot a bear, supplying them with several days' worth of meat. Around December 7, the party explored a stalactite-filled cave situated approximately 50 feet (15 m) above the river. Timberlake described Sumter's swimming nearly a half-mile in the icy waters to retrieve their canoe, which had drifted away while they were exploring the cave.
On December 13, the expedition reached a series of cascades which Timberlake called "Great Falls." The party spent a day maneuvering their way down the cascades but found the Holston frozen over immediately downstream. The ice slowed them more, but rains on the night of December 14 thawed the ice, and the party passed out of the mouth of the Holston (in modern Knoxville) into what is now the Tennessee River on December 15.
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