Fort Dobbs State Historic Site
Fort Dobbs Gazette
March 2016
Volume XIII Issue 1
New Exhibits
The staff of Fort Dobbs are very
excited about two new exhibits that will
be completely installed by the end of
March!
The first is a recreated section of
INSIDE THIS
the fort’s wall. Measuring three feet wide
ISSUE:
by six feet tall, this wall is set up inside
the visitor center, allowing visitors to get
a realistic sense of how the fort was
p. 1
constructed. The wall is made out of ten-New Exhibits
inch thick squared oak logs which were
p. 2
hand hewn over the winter by staff and
-War for Empire
volunteers in the same manner as the logs
-Living History Update
in the original fort. The wall also features
-A Report from the Past
a representation of one of the windows of
p. 3
the fort, which will serve as a mount for
-Photos from the Frontier
an original swivel cannon.
p. 4-5
The cast iron, 1.5 inch bore
- Provincials in “Indian Dress” swivel gun was made in England around
1750 and is the very same type that was
p.6
mounted on the walls of several North
-Musket Raffle
Carolina forts during the French and
-Volunteer Spotlight
Indian War, including Fort Dobbs. Until
p. 7
recently, this gun and an identical piece
-Friends of Fort Dobbs
had been on display at Alamance
Roll Call
Battleground State Historic Site in
Burlington, which has very
Department of Natural and
generously transferred one of the
Cultural Resources
pair to Fort Dobbs.
Susan W. Kluttz, Secretary
The final exciting
addition to the site is a clear
Office of Archives and History
Dr. Kevin Cherry, Deputy Secretary panel featuring an architectural
line drawing of the fort on it.
Division of State Historic Sites
Mounted at eye level about 30
Keith Hardison, Director
yards from the archaeological
Western Region Supervisor
footprint of the fort itself, this
Jennifer Farley
panel allows the viewer to “see”
Fort Dobbs as if it were standing
Fort Dobbs Historic Site
Scott Douglas, Site Manager
on the hillside once again.
Frank McMahon, Historic Interpreter
Thank you to Alamance, The
Wayne Steelman, Maint. Mechanic
Friends of Fort Dobbs, and our
Michael Lampart, Site Interpreter
Tom Nicastro, Site Interpreter
volunteers for your help!
Page 2
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
Volume XIII Issue 1
War for Empire
On April 16th and 17th, the past will come to life as Fort Dobbs presents our largest event of the year:
War for Empire.
Join soldiers, American Indians, and
settlers who inhabited North Carolina’s
colonial frontier and learn about their
lives and struggles through
encampments, weapons demonstrations,
displays of music and trades, and battle
re-enactments.
Hours: 9am-5pm Saturday
and 10am-3pm Sunday.
Admission: $3 per person including
sales tax. Children under 5 free.
Living History Update
On the weekend of
February 27th we commemorated
the 256th anniversary of the
Cherokee attack on Fort Dobbs.
Demonstrations included musket
and artillery firing as well as
military food ways. On March 5th,
we demonstrated historic beer
making at the site. Thank you to
everyone that assisted with these
events.
The spring time means gardening and we will
soon be preparing the soil and planting the garrison
garden for another year. We will also
be looking for volunteers in the garden.
Please, contact the site’s historical
interpreter Frank McMahon if you
would be interested in helping.
The Garrison will be on the
move this spring, assisting with events.
On May 14th-15th, we will participate
in the first re-enactment of the Battle of
Alamance in Burlington and on June
11th, we will provide living history demonstrations at
Chimney Rock State Park for their outdoor screening of The
Last of the Mohicans, part of which was filmed at that park.
A Report from the Past
Fort Patterson was located near present-day Nollville, West Virginia and garrisoned by Virginia Provincials and Militia.
The following Report on Stores and A rms at Fort Patterson was sent by Joshua Lewis to George Washington February 7,
1758 and provides a glimpse into what provisions could be found in a frontier fort.
Page 3
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
Photos From the Frontier
Top:
Images from the December living history weekend.
Bottom:
Winter diversions—
Timber work, firewood splitting, and beer brewing
March 2016
Page 4
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
Volume XIII Issue 1
“The Shadow May Be Taken For Reality”
Making Indians out of provincials on the 1758 Forbes Campaign
By Frank McMahon
In the wake of British General Edward Braddock’s
death and failure to capture French Fort Duquesne during
the summer of 1755, Anglo-American military thinkers
began to radically reevaluate their strategy against allied
French and Indian forces. North America with its ancient
forests, rugged mountains and unbridged rivers combined
with the logistics of distant resupply points creating a
theater of combat alien to tacticians trained in Europe. The
challenges of this new landscape would force British
officers to adapt not only their tactics and supply system
but also the uniforms of their soldiers. In the minds of
several Anglo-American officers there seemed to be one
obvious solution; to adopt the fighting style and clothing of
the American Indian warrior.
An important part of General John Forbes’s
campaign plan was to attract American Indians as scouts
and skirmishers in his fight for Fort Duquesne. Attracted
by Forbes’s offer of rations, trade goods and the potential
glories of war against enemy tribes, Cherokee and
Catawba warriors began to arrive in the spring of 1758. It
is likely that Cherokee and Catawba warriors expected to
return home by fall for the hunting season. Unfortunately,
a hallmark of the Forbes campaign was the slow
systematic construction of an effective supply chain
supported by roads and forts linking the port of
Philadelphia with the ever advancing front. Due to the
slow pace of the campaign most of the warriors would
desert by mid-summer. On July 14th Forbes second in
command, Colonel Henry Bouquet, would write to Colonel
George Washington, the commander of provincial forces:
Our new comers Cherokee, are gone away after having
Stolen our goods. It is a great humiliation for us to be
obliged to Suffer the repeated Insolence of Such Rascals; I
think it would be easier to make Indians of our White men,
than to cox that damned Tanny Race.
Unable to raise a force of allied Cherokees and Catawbas,
Forbes was forced to find new ways to adapt to warfare in
the Pennsylvanian wilderness.
It is unclear whose idea it was initially to make
Indians out of white men on the Forbes campaign. It
appears to have been a collaboration between Colonel
George Washington, Colonel Henry Bouquet and General
John Forbes. The first reference seems to be Washington
purchasing Indian” clothing for his men on May 1st of
1758:
Sir: I shall be much obliged, if you would provide for me,
and send immediately to this place, by the Bearers
waggon, the following articles: vizt. As much green halfthick's, as will make indian-leggings for 1,000 men: if
green can not be had, get white; if there is not enough of
that, then get any other colour.
On the 21st of June Bouquet suggests to Forbes his idea of
dressing the provincials as Indians:
….One other thing, that is to make Indians of part of
our provincial soldiers. They are very willing, the
expense is nothing, and I believe the advantage would
be very real.
It would only be necessary for them to remove their
coats and breeches, which will delight them; give them
moccasins and blankets; cut off their hair and daub
them with paint and intermingle them with the real
Indians. It would be difficult for the enemy to
distinguish them and I believe that the impression which
this number would produce would be useful to us.
On June 27 Forbes replies to Bouquet suggesting that
Indian dress should be adopted for certain scouts and
patrols.
I have been long in your opinion of equiping numbers of
our men like the savages and I fancy col: Byrd of
Virginia has most of his best people equipt in that
manner, I could not so well send orders to others to do
the same as they had gott provinciall cloathing, but I
was resolved upon getting some of the best people in
every corps to go out a scouting in that stile fro as you
justly observe, the shadow may be taken for reality, and
i must confess in this country, wee must comply and
learn the art of Warr, from Ennemy Indians or anything
else who have seen the country and Warr carried on in
itt...
On July 7th Washington writes to Bouquet suggesting
that Indian dress could be adopted by his entire
regiment:
My men are very bare of cloaths (Regimentals, I mean),
and I have no prospect of a Supply. This want so far from
my regretting during this campaign, that were I left to
pursue my own Inclinations, I woud not only order the
Men to adopt the Indian dress, but cause the Officers to
do it also, and be the first to set the example myself.
Page 5
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
March 2016
Nothing but the uncertainty of its taking with the General
Governor Dobbs without orders has sent 200 of the North
causes me to hesitate a moment at leaving my Regimentals
Carolina people by sea to Alexandria, and marches 100
at this place, and proceeding as light as any Indian in the
more by land to Winchester, so you will give orders for
Woods. ’T is an unbecoming dress, I confess, for an
their being taken care of and victualled and order them
officer; but convenience, rather than shew, I think, shoud
directly up to join us
be consulted. The reduction of Bat Horses alone is
Supplying the North Carolina provincials proved to
sufficient to recommend it; for nothing is more certain
be
a
major
headache for Forbes and he would write that
than that less baggage will be requird, and that the
“they
are
in
want of everything, ,I must either give them a
Publick will be benefited in proportion.
kind of clothing of get no service from them”. Many of the
Following this letter, Washington, outfitted his men under provincials lacked equipment as basic as canteens,
Major Lewis in Indian dress. After reviewing Major
uniforms and firearms. As a result the North Carolinians
Lewis’s company Bouquet would write to Washington on were supplied out of the British military budget for the
July 11th stating that “Their dress should be our pattern in campaign. More evidence of North Carolina Provincial
this expedition”. In another letter On July 14th Bouquet
soldiers being uniformed in Indian dress comes to us from
writes that the General Forbes had approved Indian dress
Royal Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina. In 1760
for provincials:
he reported to the Board of Trade that Major Hugh
Waddell, while serving on the 1758 Forbes campaign, “had
Before the general could be acquainted with your new
great honour done him being employed in all
dress, he has approved it extremely upon a hint I gave him reconnoitring parties, and dressed and acted as an
Some time ago. It takes very well here, and thank god we Indian”. Between being completely outfitted from Forbes's
see nothing but Shirts and Blanketts
campaign budget and the description of Waddell wearing
On July 16, 1758 Washington would write Adam Stephen Indian clothing, it is likely that the entire North Carolina
regiment was eventually outfitted in “Indian dress” during
at Raystown:
the campaign.
The Quarter Master brings you all the stuff he has for
Breech Clouts: if the quantity falls short you must
purchase more, and charge the Publick with the cost (if he
has not oppertunity of doing it himself while there).
I have directed the adjutant to transmit you a Copy of
several Orders that I have Issued at this place for
regulating the Mens dress; and beg that you will cause
them to be punctually observ'd by that part of the first
Regiment under your Command. It gives me great
pleasure to find this Dress; or undress as you justly
remark; so pleasing to Colo. Bouquet, and that therein I
seem to have anticipated the Generals Orders. If my
Orders shou'd be a little unintelligable in any Instance you
will make the dress of the Officers and Soldiers of Maj.
Lewis's Company a guide to come at my meaning; that we
may, even in this trim, have some regard to uniformity.
At this point it appears that “Indian dress” became the
uniform for the Virginia regiment for the rest of the
campaign. In fact “Indian dress” was probably adopted by
most provincial forces not supplied with regimentals
during the Forbes campaign.
North Carolina Provincial Forces were notoriously
under supplied and likely also received Indian clothing
while on the Forbes Campaign. On June 16th Forbes
would write Bouquet to inform him that:
By autumn, the French garrison of Fort Duquesne
had been cut from its supply system and most of their
native allies had left for the hunting season. At the
approach of Forbes’s army Fort Duquesne would be burned
and abandoned by its French occupants. On the 24th of
November 1758 Forbes and his army would control the
forks of the Ohio River. Adopting Indian clothing helped
Anglo-American forces adapt to warfare in North America
and with the French abandonment of Fort Duquesne John
Forbes no longer had to wonder if the “the shadow may be
taken for reality”.
For Further Reading:

The Papers of Henry Bouquet

Douglass R. Cubbinson, The British Defeat of the
French in Pennsylvania, 1758

Matthew Keagle, “One of the least in Trade and
Riches”

The Washington Papers
Page 6
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
Volume XIII Issue 1
Musket Raffle
Tickets are now on sale for Fort Dobbs’ annual musket raffle!
The top prize this year is a fully functioning replica of a 1728 pattern Long Land musket: one of the main weapons used
by British troops in North America during the French and Indian War.
The drawing will be on Sunday, April 17, 2016 during the annual “War for Empire” event.
You do NOT need to be present to win.
Tickets are $10 each, while $40 will purchase five tickets. Don’t miss out on your chance to win a $700 musket
and to support the educational programming and events at Fort Dobbs!
To purchase tickets, visit the site, or order by phone (704-873-5882) or via e-mail (info@fortdobbs.org.)
Volunteer Spotlight
Volunteer Spotlight is our opportunity to honor the volunteers that make the programs and activities a Fort Dobbs State
Historic Site possible. This spring we focus on one of our newer volunteers Rachel Hoyle. Rachel grew up in Newton, N.C. and
has been a volunteer of Fort Dobbs since November of last year.
Rechel is a homeschooled student currently
wrapping up her senior year and planning to attend college
in the fall. She hopes to major in history or government
and eventually find a career in public history or politics.
Rachel has long been interested in American history and
told us that “I can't pinpoint where my interest in American
History began, but it grew because I loved the wealth of
stories to be found. While most people see history as names
and dates, the stories of life are what make it truly worth
studying.” Rachel decided that volunteering at Fort Dobbs
would be a great way to get some practical experience at a
historic site.
Since November of last year, Rachel has regularly
volunteered at Fort Dobbs most Saturdays and events.
Rachel said that “My favorite part of volunteering at Fort
Dobbs is the constant opportunity to learn. I learn
something new every day I volunteer, whether from the
visitors, staff, or other interpreters.” The staff of Fort
Dobbs State Historic Site are very appreciative of all of
Rachel’s hard work and dedication to the site.
Thank you Rachel for all that you do!
Page 7
FORT DOBBS GAZETTE
March 2016
FRIENDS OF FORT DOBBS ROLL CALL
The Friends of Fort Dobbs supports the mission of Fort Dobbs State Historic Site:
“To preserve and interpret the history of Fort Dobbs and North Carolina's role in the French and Indian War.”
THANK YOU NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS!
Lieutenant
Robert and Susan Tolle
Statesville, NC
Ken and Brenda Wilson
Statesville, NC
Sergeant
Ralph and Caroline Bentley
Statesville, NC
Zachary Gordon
Davidson, NC
Sam and Janet Hall
Statesville, NC
Robert and Cheryl Maner
Statesville, NC
David and Tammy Pressly
Statesville, NC
Keith Rhyne
Statesville, NC
Joseph and Melanie Schwarz
Chapel Hill, NC
Capital Campaign Contributions
Doug and Laurel Eason in honor
of Ralph and Caroline Bentley
Statesville, NC
Jim and Lynn Lawton
Statesville, NC
Shaver Wood Products
Cleveland, NC
Richard Shaver
Cleveland, NC
Bill and Becky Pope
Statesville, NC
Education Fund
George Brawley
Mooresville, NC
Elizabeth Cannon
Statesville, NC
Jane T. Getsinger
Barium Springs, NC
Phil Hazel
Statesville, NC
Irving and Martha Boyles
Statesville, NC
Abigail Jennings and
Randolph Lewis
Cornelius, NC
Barbara Perzel
Davidson, NC
The Norris Family Foundation
Statesville, NC
Tom Kincaid
Statesville, NC
Sonny and Page Rankin
Statesville, NC
Corporal
Recruit and Senior
Larry and Nancy Babits
Greenville, NC
Drew Bentley
Boone, NC
Peter Simon in honor of
Ruth Hope
Statesville, NC
To Our 2016
Sponsors—
Benfield Sanitation
Courtyard Marriott
Country Legends WAME
Design Detail
Hampton Inn
Iredell County Sheriff’s
Department
Statesville Record &
Landmark
—and to the
Many Other
Friends of the Fort:
THANK YOU!
JOIN OR RENEW
On-Line at
WWW.FortDobbs.Org!
Visit Fort Dobbs
on Face Book!
Fort Dobbs State Historic Site
438 Fort Dobbs Rd.
Statesville, NC 28625
704/873-5882
Thank you to the Friends of Fort
Dobbs for funding the printing of
The Fort Dobbs Gazette
Support Fort Dobbs through your Friends membership!
Please mail application with your check or credit card information to:
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PO Box 241
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The Friends of Fort Dobbs welcomes additional tax-deductible
contributions. For giving memorials, honoraria or matching
gifts from employers, call the Friends of Fort Dobbs, at
704-873-5882 or e-mail at info@fortdobbs.org
Your membership benefits include:
10% discount in store
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