Fort Dobbs

England and France had been enemies for centuries before either claimed parts of the New World. In North America, the conflict involved settlers, soldiers and native peoples. The climax was the French and Indian War. As a result of France's growing attempt in early 1754 to connect her extensive dominions in North America by uniting Canada with Louisiana, she took possession claimed by England to be within the Province of Virginia and began a line of military posts from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley. North Carolina was the first colony to respond to Virginia Governor Dinwiddie's call for military assistance; voting to support troops outside of its own borders in behalf of a common cause and defense. North Carolina's Colonel James Innes (1700-1759) was commissioned commanding officer of all provincial forces in the first Ohio expedition by Governor Dinwiddie in 1754. Under Innes, the North Carolina Provincial Regiment consisted of approximately 450 men, including Lieutenant Hugh Waddell. Disbanded in the fall of 1754, North Carolina Provincials returned to service under Major Edward Brice Dobbs in Braddock’s 1755 campaign, and during a New York Expedition in 1756. North Carolina continued to send troops throughout the war to the aid of the other colonies and participated in the 1758 Forbes Campaign. In 1759, war broke out between the English and their Cherokee allies following the murders of as many as 40 Cherokee warriors by Virginians. Under the command of now-Colonel Hugh Waddell, North Carolina Provincials were tasked with defending their own frontier and aided Virginia in 1761, when the Cherokees were finally defeated. "A good and Substantial Building of the Dimentions following (that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty four feet and Twenty-two, In height Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls which are made of Oak Logs regularly Diminished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains three floors and there may be discharged from each floor at one and the same time about one hundred Muskets the same is beautifully scituated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River." Fort Dobbs was the only permanent frontier provincial fort in the colony of North Carolina. Construction began in late 1755 and was completed by October, 1756. It served as the military headquarters for the Frontier Company (approximately fifty men) as well as a safe-haven for settlers. The fort was attacked on the night of February 27, 1760 when more than sixty Cherokees were repelled. The garrison suffered two men wounded, one of whom later died, as well as having one colonial boy killed. The Cherokee were reported to have lost 10-12 men killed and wounded. Waddell described the encounter in a dispatch to Governor Dobbs: By the end of 1761, the British had essentially won the war. No soldiers garrisoned the fort, but a caretaker watched over it. In March, 1764, colonial leaders removed all the supplies from Fort Dobbs and ordered it abandoned. The neglected fort was in ruins by 1766. By 1800 it was a farm field. Official archaeological excavations begun in 1967, led Dr. Stanley South to confirm the exact location of the fort by 1968. could accommodate 100 soldiers firing muskets on each of its three floors. Click the aerial image below to view enlargement of the 2002 excavation. Other photos were taken during the 2006 excavation. The settlers who established themselves on the western edge of North Carolina almost all originated in Pennsylvania. Many began moving south in the mid-1730’s, some settling in western Maryland and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley for several years before following the Great Wagon Road to western NC as early as 1749. The settlers were drawn by inexpensive, fertile land. North Carolina was also far removed from the threat of French-allied Native American attacks until the start of the French and Indian War in 1754. By