The first real historical place my family and I visited on our trip was Fort Dobbs in Statesville, North Carolina. Since my sister and her family live right in Statesville, we took time to stop by this historical site. Construction began on Fort Dobbs in the spring of 1756 to protect North Carolina's settlements on the frontier from Indians who were friendly to the French during the French and Indian War.
The French and Indian War is not well known but it took place between Britain and France during the years of 1754-1763. England and France were enemies a long time before their empires claimed parts of the New World. Beginning in 1754, France attempted to connect her territories of Canada and Louisiana by taking land claimed by England in Virginia. They also began to build military posts from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley. North Carolina was the first colony to respond to Virginia's call for military assistance by sending troops.
In 1755, Gov. Arthur Dobbs persuaded the legislature to fund a fort on what was then North Carolina's frontier vulnerable to attacks. Only one attack happened at Fort Dobbs in 1760 when a band of Cherokees was repelled by the soldiers. By the end of 1761, the British had virtually won the war. Colonial leaders disbanded the troops, and the fort was in ruins by 1766. Overall, the French and Indian war had a large impact on America. It led the British to impose more and more taxes on the colonies to pay for the war. These actions led up to the American Revolution a few years later.
My family and I had fun looking around the site. We looked at the museum, and then our guide, who was dressed in a period costume, led us out to the site and told us all about Fort Dobbs and the war. The reconstruction of the fort is currently taking place. We saw the fort's outline, replicas of its defenses, barracks and indoor well. We also went on a small hike in woods around it. My favorite part was when we all jumped with surprise when the guide shot his replica musket for another group when we first arrived!
The next post of his series will be about Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolution. This was our next step on our journey in American history.
Links to Learn More:
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Fort Dobbs, North Carolina
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 Comments:
Hi Rebecca,
First off I would like to congratulate you on the 1st anniversary of your Blog.You have a very interesting site.Loved the Birthday celebration video, much luck and success in the future.
Secondly I wish to thank you for your story on Fort Dobbs. I am very glade you and your family were able to stop by and that you enjoyed your visit.Looking at the pictures you posted you picked a beautiful but very quiet day to stop in. Hopefully you will be able to make it back one day when more of the garrison members are on site. Seeing as you are a history buff I do believe that you would appreciate one of our large weekend events. The people you would meet are all volunteers who work very hard to give an accurate portrayal of soldier life in the 1750's. If you are interested in seeing more please take a look at the pictures and videos posted by past visitors on the web. You can go to Photobucket or YouTube and search Fort Dobbs. They both have videos from our last big event War for Empire 1759.
Once Again Thank You for your wonderful write up.
Take care
Tom
A soldier in the service of His Royal Majesty King George II
and your most humble servant.
Tom,
Thank you for stopping by! We really enjoyed Fort Dobbs, and we got to see it on a beautiful day. I'd love to go back and see a Living History program there on a weekend. Unfortunately, I live so far away, and there's not a lot of events like that out in Idaho. My sister and her family live right in the town though, so they are able to go there more. In fact, she said that they drive by and see events happening there quite often.
Well, I will definitely try to take a look around the web for some pictures and videos from Fort Dobbs! Thanks for the comments and I'm glad you enjoyed my blog!
Rebecca
Rebecca, here's more info from the historical marker for Fort Dobbs, if you're interested:
http://www.stoppingpoints.com/north-carolina/sights.cgi?marker=Fort+Dobbs&cnty=Iredell
Bill,
Thank you for the link!
Post a Comment
I love getting feedback on my posts and I appreciate your thoughts, opinions and questions. However, any comments that are of a perverse nature or include obscene language will not be published. Any comments that contain links to another site will be deleted unless it adds to the discussion. Please read the full Comments Policy before posting. Thanks for visiting!