The Fall of Fort Loudon

» Mugwump53 - An Exciting Story

Another great article, the best of the Fort Loudin series.

Several things were hard to believe. The most incredible, to my mind, was that the most powerful nation on earth did so little to relieve a long-seiged fort. Were I one of the soldiers in that fort, I would have felt very betrayed and abandoned.

I also found some of the acts of these English gentlemen to be very uncivilized. That British officers, who came almost exclusively from the aristocracy, would commit such atrocities is hard to believe indeed.

I do have a question. How far was Fort Loudin from the other fort which was successfully relieved? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the Fort Loudin garrison to head for the other fort rather than over the mountains with much more exposure?

Thanks again for a great article on a little known but fascinating part of history.

John S. Cooper
Editor, Presidents & First Ladies

-- posted by Mugwump53

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» StateOFranklin - I should have given more geographic info.

First of all thank you for the high review, I really appreciate it.

The Fort that was relieved (Fort Prince George) was on the frontier at that time, but they were on the East side of the mountains. Fort Loudon was the only British fort in the area over the southern mountains. Fort Prince George was located in western South Carolina. The way that the distance was described was "Across 24 mountains, past Great Tellico, and on down the river". By thier route it was more than 100 miles. When they left Fort Loudon thier first stop would have been at Fort Prince George...they never made it though.

I agree that it is hard to believe that Britan would let the fort fall. Try to remember though how long Braddock took on his campaign. If the soldiers had waited that long they would have starved to death.

The passes over the mountains were areas which Montgomery wrote "One man could hold off a hundred and never be seen."

Maybe I have explained it a little better this time.

YMOS:
JB

-- posted by StateOFranklin

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