page_title: Fort Dobbs (North Carolina)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Dobbs (North Carolina) / Background
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Arthur Dobbs (1689-1765)
context_page_description: Fort Dobbs was an 18th-century fort in the Yadkin–Pee Dee River Basin region of the Province of North Carolina, near what is now Statesville in Iredell County. Used for frontier defense during and after the French and Indian War, the fort was built to protect the British settlers of the western portion of what was then Rowan County, and served as a vital outpost for soldiers, traders, and colonial officials. Fort Dobbs' primary structure was a blockhouse with log walls, surrounded by a shallow ditch, and by 1761, a palisade. It was intended to provide protection from French-allied Native Americans such as the Shawnee and Delaware, and French raids into North Carolina.
  The fort's name honored Arthur Dobbs, the colonial Governor of North Carolina from 1755 to 1765, who played a role in designing the fort and authorized its construction. Between 1756 and 1761, the fort was garrisoned by a variable number of soldiers, many of whom were sent to fight in Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley during the French and Indian War. On February 27, 1760, the fort was the site of an engagement between Cherokee warriors and Provincial soldiers that ended in a victory for the Provincials.
caption: Portrait of Governor Arthur Dobbs by William Hoare, from the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
exif: {}