The World in Transition in December 1760

Russian troops enter Berlin. A leader of the english speaking world dies. Sounds like World War II, but this is really the first world wide war, the Seven Years War, a war of many names depending on which region of the globe this war was fought. In our area of the world we call it the French and Indian War.

In India, they call it the 3rd Carnatic War. Kind of a French and Indian War right? So let us go there for a moment in December 1760.

French General Thomas Arthur comte de Lally is holed up in his Alamo of sorts. In fact he was in a running Alamo. He was pushed and attacked all the way to the shore where Pondicherry sat. And so now he is being beseiged in Pondicherry India. This town was created by the French in 1674. The Dutch attacked it in 1674 and then gave it back to the French in 1699. And now they are about to lose it again in 1760 to who? The British and their India. Off shore is a French fleet held off by the British navy. But let us leave Lally to his Alamo for a moment.

Map from Fred Anderson's Crucible of War

Back in Europe

the French army pushes back Ferdinand of Brunswick-Luneburg (the Hanover area that brought you the three King Georges of England). Frederick the Great pushes back the Austrians past the river Elbe. That river later becomes the boundary between East Germany and West Germany after WWII. Meanwhile the Russians are in Berlin. They end up taking Konigsberg, the homeland of the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, and which today is an oasis of Russian territory isolated from mainland Russia. This odd piece of land is now known as Kaliningrad. And it is armed and dangerous.

Let us cross back to Detroit.

It has fallen. Robert Rogers and Alexander McKee take these French prisoners back to Fort Pitt, after holding a big Indian conference, where the hatched is buried, so to speak as they spoke. FRANÇOIS-MARIE PICOTÉ DE BELESTRE was the French commander of Fort Detroit. His son FRANÇOIS-LOUIS PICOTÉ DE BELESTRE was captured near Turtle Creek PA in 1757 and brought back to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA for interrogation. The way that was handled almost started the Cherokee war right then and there. Colonel George Washington thought this French prisoner to be a Gascon, a region of France that still celebrates annually a festival for Liars and lying.

Which leads us to the Cherokee war down south.

William Byrd III doesn't want to do this.

He tries first just to resign from the expediton but keep his command. He has basically deserted a wife who committs suicide this year of 1760. And Byrd himself committs suicide in 1777 after a lifetime of deadly gambling debt. Byrd's father was famous for determining the North Carolina and Virginia border. His father probably had the biggest library in Virginia at the time.

May 29, 1760 - Colonel William Byrd III offers to be excused from commanding an expedition to deal with the Cherokee rebellion. That letter is read by the Virginia Executive Council 11 June 1760. They reject his offer to be excused. They must also reply to Monckton, head of Fort Pitt, who had already requested Byrd to lead the 300 Virginia Regiment soldiers at "Pittsburg." They, the Council of Virginia, requests Lt Gov Fauquier to write to Monckton to explain Virginia needs Byrd to head the expedition to save Fort Loudoun (in today's Tennessee), that this is more urgent than the relatively currently relaxed situation at Fort Pitt.

Byrd does offer resignation from total command 2 Dec 1760, but he is ordered to continue on to Stalnaker's. He finally really resigns in August 1761. Adam Stephen takes command in Sept 1761.

Finally Adam Stephen becomes Colonel of the whole Virginia Regiment. It is Adam Stephen who takes this expedition the furtherest in 1761. He forges on to the Big Island on Holston River now known as Kingsport TN and builds Fort Robinson, naming if after the powerful Speaker and Treasure of Virginia. That Robinson did not destroy the paper money as commanded by the House of Burgesses. That money had a sunset date. It had to be destroyed to decrease the excess money supply creating inflation. He used that money to keep afloat many of the elite who had fallen into major debt. Never again did the House of Burgesses allow one man to be both Speaker and Treasurer.

The Grant Expedition

And meanwhile in December 1760, a new expedition are on ships led by James Grant heading towards Charleston SC. They will be hit by a famous ambush and will survive it and forge on to destroy the Cherokee nation in June 1761.

On December 15, 1760,

Lord Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander-in-chief in America, being now master of Canada, sent orders to Colonel James Grant to prepare a new expedition against the Cherokee for the defence of the southern provinces.

On December 23, 1760

Grant's force sailed from New York for Charleston where he arrived January 10 1761.

March 5, 1761 Virginia's council reads out loud these leters

Two Letters from Governour Bull dated January the 21st signifying what was determined in regard to the motion of the Troops against the Enemy and the number of the Forces to be employed- that it is proposed they should reach Fort Prince George by the first of May - expressing his hopes that the motions of the army from this Province will be contrived so as to arrive at Chotee about the same time their Army shall get to Keowee — and communicating some advices he had received concerning the late behaviour of the Cherokees .

By mid April, 1761

delayed by heavy rain, Grant was still encamped at Monk's Corner.

On April 14, 1761

Grant finally started his march towards the Congaree River.

By the way that Belestre who was the French prisoner at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA? He is later in Cherokee country encouraging Cherokee resistance to the English. He was brought from Fort Loudoun because he was a prisoner of the Cherokee, not of George Washington's Baker Company of the Virginia Regiment. As a prisoner of the Cherokee he helped carry Swallow's wounded son from Turtle Creek to Fort Cumberland in 1757.

Compiled by Jim Moyer 12/08/2024, updated 12/09/2024, 12/10/2024

Links and sources to this overview will be added later today. Each summary mentioned above has an in depth story to it.

Wikipedia overview of 1760

Here's the Wikipedia overview of this worldwide war towards the end of 1760.

October 16 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Kloster-Kamp – Ferdinand of Brunswick is beaten back from the Rhine by a French army.

October 9 – Seven Years' War: Russian troops enter Berlin.

October 25 – George II of Great Britain dies; his 22-year-old grandson George, Prince of Wales, succeeds to the throne as King George III and reigns for 59 years until his death on January 29, 1820.

November 3 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Torgau – In another extremely hard battle, Frederick defeats Daun's Austrians, who withdraw across the Elbe.

November 29 – French Army Colonel François-Marie Picoté de Belestre formally surrenders Detroit to British Army Major Robert Rogers, and the British Union Jack is raised over Fort Detroit.[17]

December 4 – For the first time since the surrender of Fort Detroit by France, British authorities meet nearby at a Native American council house with delegates from various Indian tribes that had fought as allies of the French Army, such as the Wyandot and Ottawa Indians, and with tribes that had formerly been allies of the British. The European and Native American representatives open the peace conference with the presentation by the Indians to the British of a wampum belt, and the pronouncement from the principal chief that "The ancient friendship is now renewed, and I wash the blood off the earth that had been shed during the present war, that you may bury the war hatchet in the bottomless pit."[18]

December 6 – The siege of Pondicherry, a stronghold of France in India, is begun by British Army Lieutenant General Eyre Coote. The French commander, General Thomas Lally, is finally forced to surrender Pondicherry to the British on January 15, 1761.[19]

December 18 – In the wake of Tacky's War by African-born rebels, the Assembly of the British colony of Jamaica outlaws the African religious practice of obeah, with penalties ranging from banishment from the colony to execution. The legislation specifically bans use of contraband associated with obeah, including "animal blood, feathers, parrots' beaks, dogs' teeth, alligators' teeth, broken bottles, grave dirt, rum, and eggshells".[20]