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Located near Statesville, Fort Dobbs is North Carolina's only state historic site associated with the French and Indian War and provides a window into the tumultuous period of history (1754-1763) in which England and France waged a global war that crossed five continents, lasted nearly a decade, and sowed the seeds of independence that determined the fate of North America.
In correspondence dating to December 21, 1756, Commissioners of Fortifications Frances Brown and Richard Caswell were asked to describe Fort Dobbs. Over 250 years later, their words paint a picture with the power to transport us through time.
 “…A good and Substantial Building of the Dimentions (sic) 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 (sic) in the fort of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River.”
The fort was named for Arthur Dobbs, Royal Governor of the Colony of North Carolina, who ordered the fort’s construction. North Carolina provincial soldiers served the royal colony even prior to the fort’s construction during the first Ohio Expedition in 1754 and continued their service throughout the war, serving in campaigns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Garrisoned from 1756 until 1761, Fort Dobbs served as a barracks for the provincials, shelter for settlers during Indian attacks, and supply depot for the British Empire. The fort’s location defined the western frontier for the colony of North Carolina in British North America. By 1764, Fort Dobbs had been abandoned following the Treaty of Paris, which ended the global war for empire one year earlier. |
