FORT LOUDOUN HISTORY

July 20, 2009---After laying around all weekend we decided to go back up the Little Tennessee River to the historical site of Fort Loudoun. Again a pleasant 20 mile run facing the Great Smoky Mountains. Set anchor just south of the Fort and took the dinghy to shore.





















During the French and Indian War (1754-1763) the British Colony of South Carolina felt threatened by French activities in the Mississippi Valley. To counter this threat, the Colony sent the Independent Company of South Carolina to construct and garrison what became Fort Loudoun. (It was named after John Campbell the 4th Earl of Loudoun.) This move to build a fort helped to ally the Overhill Cherokee Nation in the fight against the French and guaranteed the trade would continue between the Cherokee and South Carolina. In the course of the fort’s four-year existence, relations between South Carolina and the Cherokee Nation broke down. In August, 1760, the Cherokee captured Fort Loudoun and its garrison. After the surrender in 1760, Fort Loudoun was never used again for any military purpose. It is thought the Cherokees destroyed the fort sometime shortly after the English marched away.






















































This last picture is an artists conception of how the Fort and surrounding area may have appeared around 1760. The Little Tennessee River was not nearly so wide as it is today. The construction of dams flooded the area. The site of the fort was elevated 17 feet to avoid flooding when the Tellico Lake was created in 1979. The Fort was reconstructed as a historic site. The Fort and Museum are now on an island.