Existing comment:
The Cherokee Council at Fort Loudoun
From June 14-16, 1758, some 200 warriors from the Cherokee and Catawba Nations gathered at Fort Loudoun to meet with Colonel Henry Bouquet, second in command of a British and Colonial army led by General John Forbes, to consider a British request for an alliance against the French. While Forbes' army was still preparing for the march west to capture Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh), Colonel Bouquet, through an interpreter named "Anthony," tried to convince the Cherokee to join in the campaign. For two days talks were held at "the summer house near the River Side," a small fog building constructed for the occasion." In a letter written to General Forbes from Fort Loudoun on June 16, 1758, Bouquet observed that:
"After two days of intrigue, dinners, and public councils, the Cherokees who were determined to leave us have changed their minds. And besides the 27 Catawbas, we have 99 Cherokees resolved to follow us everywhere you may want to lead us... I should like to be able to send you their replies to the speeches that I have made to them. I assure you, Sir, that I was astonished to find so much spirit, imagination, strength, and dignity in the savages."
Bouquet's confidence proved to be short-lived, for by mid-August most of the Cherokee had decided to return home. |