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FORT
DOBBS
  hen
war began, North Carolina's unprotected frontier settlements
were considered at risk from Indians friendly to the French.
In 1755, Gov. Arthur Dobbs (1689-1765) persuaded the legislature
to fund "a Barrack and Fort for the Company on the Western
Frontier." Construction was underway by the spring
of 1756.
In December
1756, the only known contemporary description of Fort Dobbs
was written as:
"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 frontier provincial fort in the colony
of North Carolina. 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
seventy Cherokees were repelled. One colonial boy was killed,
two soldiers and one volunteer injured and approximately twelve
Cherokee were wounded and killed. Waddell described the encounter
in a dispatch to Governor Dobbs.
"We
had not marched 300 yds from the fort when we were attacked
by at least 60 or 70 Indians ... We recd the Indian's fire:
When I perceived they had almost all fired, I ordered my party
to fire which We did not further than 12 Steps each loaded
with a Bullet and 7 Buck shot, they had nothing to cover them
as they were advancing either to tomahawk or make us prisoners
... the Indians were soon repulsed with I am sure a considerable
Loss, from what I myself saw as well as those I can confide
in they cou'd not have less that 10 or 12 killed and wounded
... On my sided I had 2 Men wounded one of whom I am afraid
will die as he is scalped, the other is in a way of Recovery,
and one boy killed near the fort."
By the
end of 1761, the British had essentially won the war and only
thirty troops remained at the fort. Colonial leaders disbanded
them as settlement moved far west of the fort. The neglected
fort was in ruins by 1766. |
