Fort Loudoun

The British wanted a fort among the Overhill Cherokee (Tsalagi) to bind them in trade and diplomacy, an idea that dates to the 1740s and took shape only with the Seven Years' War. The garrison depended on Cherokee goodwill. Cherokee women traded fresh food, berries and fish for goods, and Cherokee visitors treated the post as much theirs as the colonists'. When trust broke down in 1760, a siege cut off supplies, and the fort surrendered on August 7, a few weeks before the march that ended at Tellico Plains.

What the plaque says

Fort Loudoun One mile east is a replica of this fort, built 1756-57 by South Carolina provincial troops to check the French and strengthen the English influence in the Mississippi Valley. It was besieged by the Cherokee and surrendered August 7, 1760.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Loudoun State Historic Park — 0.5 mi
  A reconstructed 1756-57 British fort on the Little Tennessee River in Overhill Cherokee country, besieged in 1760 and surrendered on August 9 of that year.
• Sequoyah Birthplace Museum — 0.6 mi
  The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' museum on Tellico Lake, near the town where Sequoyah was born, telling how he built the Cherokee syllabary and what the Tellico Dam drowned.
• Cades Cove — 24 mi
  A Smokies valley ringed by mountains, once the Cherokee hunting ground of Tsiyahi and later a farming community of 685 people, kept by the park after its families were bought out.
• Fort Southwest Point State Historic Park — 26 mi
  A reconstructed 1797 federal fort on a knoll at the meeting of the Clinch and Tennessee rivers, headquarters of Cherokee agent Return J. Meigs, a state park since July 2026.

More markers nearby

• Cherokee Villages — 0.7 mi
• Sequoyah — 0.7 mi
• Tenasee Cherokee Village — 7.6 mi
• Hiwassee College — 8.2 mi