Cherokee Men, killed less than 3 yrs later. They were here.
One Hundred forty eight Cherokees arrived at Fort Loudoun in Winchester on 21 April 1757, looking for presents promised, but got none. Their reaction unnerved Captain George Mercer of the Virginia Regiment. They argued and debated for 3 days with speeches kin to ancient Greece and Rome. In the end, they still accompanied the Virginia Regiment's forays toward Fort Duquesne. For that effort, they lost Swallow and his son was shot in both legs. But fast forward to 1759, many of those same top warriors who came to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA, were on a peace mission to Gov Lyttlelton in Charleston (then called Charles Town). He wanted those peacemakers to give up 24 Cherokees for the murders they committed after the Forbes Expedition in 9 Nov1758. And then he tricked them. He took them hostage as barter for those Cherokee murderers. He left them in Fort Prince George SC (its site now at the bottom of a lake) in Dec 1759. Those hostages were held for a long time. So too were 3 tons of black powder held hostage. Lyttelton closed down trade with the Cherokees, putting an embargo on black powder and muskets since Aug 1759. This Fort Prince George was a powder keg literally and figuratively. Then in 16 Feb 1760, because of a Cherokee ruse to parley for those long held hostages, Lieutenant Coytmore was shot and later died. Revenge raged inside that fort. The Carolinians killed all 22 hostages (by then). After the final stabbings of the wounded, silence sat over that blood spilled, while the Cherokees outside called out, "Fight strong and we will deliver you." There was no answer, not even by the Carolinians.
This disaster escalated the war in 1760 and was in the minds of all who fought it.
First, we present the story on the trick Oconostota played on Fort Prince George which led to the massacre. Then a partial listing is presented of the Cherokee men who came to Fort Loudoun in Winchester Virginia, who were killed in that massacre or who died by Small Pox at Fort Prince George, SC.
[Minature painted by Attica but the figure was produced by La Meridiana Minatures]
Excerpt from the Corkran book:
"On the morning of February 16 [1760], Oconostota, having placed an ambush in the thickets beside the river, stoo at Keowee ford [the Cherokee town of Keowee sat near Fort Prince George] and summoned Coytmore. Accompanied by Cornelius Dougherty, Ensign Bell, and an interpreter, Coytmore came down to the ford. Oconostota called over that he wanted a white man to accompany him to Charlestown to see the Governor. When Coytmore agreed, the Great Warrior shouted he would catch a horse and, turning, swung the bridle over his head. Musket fire spurted from the thickets and Coytmore fell. Soldiers rushed from the fort and bore the Lieutenant [Coytmore] inside as shots sung by them. Hastily manned, the cannon of the fort belched, scattering the Indians and knocking down houses in Keowee. But the Indians did not attack. When Coytmore died that afternoon in the fort, the soldiers, according to Ensign Milne, his successor, turned on the twenty-two hostages confined among them. Swearing bitterly that they would kill every Indian in the fort, they fixed their bayonets. Milne later maintained that he tried to stop them, but failed. The hostages armed with weapons smuggled to them during their captivity, fought back in desperation."
Corkran cites the Fort Prince George Journal, February14 and February 24, 1760 entries.
Corkran continues:
"Near eight o'clock that evening a crowd of Indians appeared on the hills accross the river and fired two shots as if to signal their countrymen in the fort. "Fight strong and we will deliver you," they shouted. But their battle cry brought no response. All the hostages were dead, and the garrison manned the walls to repulse the expected attack. The Great Warrior [Oconostota], in uncontrollable hatred of Coytmore to for encouraging him to walk into Lyttelton's trap, had signaled the final disaster to the hostages and calamity to his people. The Little Carpenter [also known as Attakullakulla], defeated, went home to Tomatly, from whence he shortly withdrew his immediate family into the woods. Remaining true to the treaties he had signed, symbollically and actually he separated himself from the Chota council, which was now launched on a course he did not wish to be even thought to tolerate."
These excerpts are from page 195, The Cherokee Frontier, Conflict and Survival 1740-1762, by David H Corkran, published by the University of Oklahoma Press 1962).
Compiled, researched, authored by Jim Moyer, 4/28/2024
Below are some of the Cherokee who died some time after this visit to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
Fort Prince George was located near the Cherokee town of Keowee, shown on this map on the top left.
The Cherokees
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Here is a partial listing of the Cherokee men who came to Fort Loudoun in Winchester Virginia, who were killed in that massacre or who died by Small Pox at Fort Prince George, SC.
Round-O and his son.
Two days before the massacre on 14 Feb 1760, killed several soldiers and 4 hostages. One of those hostages was Round-O. He was made free at one point, but he chose to make himself a hostage because his son was still a hostage in that fort [Fort Prince George] as a hostage. His son was killed in the massacre.
Wauwahatchee.
He was hostage and killed in the massacre inside Fort Prince George, 14 Feb 1760. Almost 3 years earlier he was at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA, upset about the lack of promised presents. Captain George Mercer at Fort Loudoun wrote to Colonel George Washington, "Wauhatchee the Head Warriour, after I had told him among many other things, that I was sorry we had not timely Notice of their Coming, that the Governour would have ordered the necessary presents for them, but they might depend upon every thing they could want at their Return, would not receive the Wampum I offered him, as is usual, at the End of the Speech; but immediately got up, & went out of the Council in a great passion, and told the rest of the Warriours they might speak to me, if they had anything to say ."
KEERARUSTIKEE
He was hostage and killed in the Massacre inside Fort Prince George 14 Feb 1760. Almost 3 years earlier he was at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA, upset about the lack of promised presents. Captain George Mercer at Fort Loudoun wrote to Colonel George Washington,
told them he knew them all,
that they had laid in no Goods here;
that the Warriours
were obliged to send them down to Williamsburg,
and when they came there,
they seemed surprized,
that they had not been supplied at Winchester.
Youghtanno
Youghtanno, the Cherokee warrior from the Overhill town of Telassie. He led a party north into Maryland and Pennsylvania with Wawhatchee when he and Wawhatchee left Winchester with Richard Pearis on 29 April [1756]. In April 1757 he spoke to his Cherokee brothers and to the Virginia Regiment at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA:
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After this, the Warriour of Tallassee said,
Brothers, why do you despise that Wampum?
We must not measure the Warriours Present by that.
for my part, I take the Will for the Deed.
I look upon it in the Light he offers it,
as a Token that his Heart is good towards us,
and that he tells us the Truth.
Because others have lied shall we not believe him?
I will do it, and tho’ I am here with a small Number,
I came here to fight for the Great King George;
and if none of you will take his Wampum,
I will do it, and I will stand by him ’till I find he lies.
He tells you that yet he has not received Orders from the Govr
and that perhaps he is in a Hurry,
and yet has not Time to write.
I believe it is so.
The present will be here when we return.
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Sources for the above are:
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SWALLOW
Swallow was killed 5 June 1757, almost 2 months after his visit to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA. When he was here, he said:
“I don’t understand writing, but got a Man [Clement Read] to write a Letter for me to the Governour to acquaint him what things I had promised my young Men to engage them to come up with me, and expected to have found everything I mentioned ready for us. . . . Brother we blame the Govr and not you. What you have, you are free of; and it looks to me, the Govr has little Regard for you that are in the back Settlements”
About that fateful day that Swallow was killed, Douglas Southall Freeman writes:
It developed that on the 5th of June,
near the head of Turtle Creek [this is a map] , about twenty miles from Fort DuQuesne, Baker and his men had come upon ten French soldiers, including three Ensigns, who had separated the previous day from a company of raiding Shawnees.
The English and their Indians were naked when they flushed the enemy, and consequently could not be identified immediately While the French hesitated for a few seconds, the Virginians and the Indians fired.
Swallow Killed
Swallow Warrior, seeing his target fall, sprang forward to scalp the man and, at that instant, received a bullet through the head.
The other French broke and ran, but some of them found their pursuers fleet and cunning.
Two of the fugitives surrendered. The Indians brought them triumphantly back to Baker— only to turn on them furiously when they found that Swallow Warrior was dead.
One prisoner they killed in spite of Baker, the other he was able to save.
Two wounded Frenchmen were scalped and slam, two adversaries already were dead.
Swallow's Son was shot
Besides Swallow Warrior,
there had been another casualty on the English side in the person of his son, who was shot through both thighs.
The young Indian had to be removed, of course, because the escaping Frenchmen would sound an alarm that might bring an avenging force to the scene of the skirmish. Sources
Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Pages 249-251, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons,]
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