Henry Timberlake - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Henry Timberlake was probably born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1730. Although he inherited a small fortune when his father died, Timberlake still had to support himself, and sought a military career. In 1756, at the outset of the French and Indian War, he joined a Virginia militia company known as the "Patriot Blues." It had embarked on a campaign to expel French and Native American raiders in the western part of the colony. Shortly thereafter, he applied for a commission in the Virginia regiment—then commanded by George Washington—but was denied due to a lack of vacancies.

In 1758, Timberlake successfully applied for a commission in Colonel William Byrd's recently formed 2nd Virginia Regiment. Commissioned as an Ensign, Timberlake accompanied the regiment on its march to Fort Duquesne, but illness kept him from proceeding. In 1759, he took part in several minor operations in the Pittsburgh area, mostly overseeing the construction of defensive works.

In 1760, British relations with the Cherokee, which had been moderately friendly for several decades, grew sour after several Cherokee chiefs were imprisoned and killed in South Carolina. In early 1760, the Cherokee laid siege to Fort Loudoun, a remote outpost in what is now Tennessee. The garrison held out until August of that year, but was forced to surrender to lack of provisions when a relief column under Archibald Montgomerie failed to reach the fort after burning the Lower Towns and being stopped at the Battle of Echoee. In spite of leaving under a flag of truce, 22 of the garrison were killed on its march home in return for the earlier killing of 22 Cherokee chiefs that were prisoners at Fort Prince George. In 1761, Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander in North America responded with a larger invasion force, sending James Grant against the Middle Towns and Virginia sending Byrd to threaten the Overhill towns.

While Byrd proceeded to destroy the Cherokee Middle towns in North Carolina, he dispatched Colonel Adam Stephen into the Holston River valley to attack the Overhill towns. Timberlake accompanied Stephen to Long Island of the Holston (in modern-day Sullivan County, Tennessee), where they began building a base known as "Fort Robinson" and made preparations to march south.