Fort Loudoun ( Tennessee ) Fort Loudoun was a British colonial fort in present - day Monroe County , Tennessee , near the towns of the Overhill Cherokee . The fort was reconstructed during the Great Depression and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 . History . The British colony of South Carolina built the fort in 1756 , naming it for John Campbell , 4th Earl of Loudoun . With the outbreak of the French and Indian War , the Overhill Cherokee were attacked by French - allied Shawnee , and requested the construction of a fort . Fort Loudoun was built a few miles downstream from the Cherokee capital Chota . Its purpose was to defend the Cherokee and British settlers on the frontier , to maintain the Cherokee - British alliance , and to guard against French attempts to gain influence among the Cherokee . It also served as a diplomatic and trading outpost . Mutual suspicions and betrayals repeatedly undermined the Cherokee - British alliance . Relations soured as South Carolina frontiersmen invaded the Lower Cherokee Towns along the headwaters of the Savannah River to procure scalps . Open warfare erupted between the Cherokee and the British in 1759 , when Cherokee warriors returning from raids against the Shawnee killed cattle belonging to Virginian settlers , and were killed in retaliation . A Cherokee war party led by Chief Oconastota laid siege to Fort Loudoun , which fell on August 7 , 1760 . The Cherokee attacked and killed part of the garrison in an ambush two days later , as they were returning to South Carolina . During this period , several Cherokee had apparently traveled to Louisiana to secure French aid . The British response was swift ; South Carolina militia destroyed the Lower Towns , and Virginia threatened to invade the Overhill Towns , forcing the Cherokee to sue for peace . The Cherokee village of Tuskegee grew up around Fort Loudoun . Sequoyah , the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet , was born in this village seventeen years after the destruction of the fort . After Fort Loudoun was burned , the site was abandoned for nearly two centuries . In 1917 , the Colonial Dames of America placed a marker at the site of the fort . With sporadic support from the state , and from the federal government via the Works Progress Administration , preservationists researched the fort ' s history and reconstructed the facility starting in the 1930s during the Great Depression . The reconstructed fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 . The present - day reconstruction of the fort sits on the bank of the Little Tennessee River , but the fort was not originally on the waterfront . When the Tennessee Valley Authority ' s ( TVA ) construction of Tellico Dam threatened to flood the original fort site , preservationists moved the reconstruction . They dismantled the fort , used fill dirt to raise the site 17 feet ( 5m ) , and rebuilt it . The dam brought the river closer to the fort than it was originally . Together with an interpretive center and recreation area , the fort is part of Fort Loudoun State Park . The Tellico Blockhouse site is also part of the park . It features foundations reconstructed based on archaeological investigations . The blockhouse was built on the river opposite the fort by the U . S . Government in 1794 and was in operation until 1805 . Located nearby is the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum . The TVA deeded the land around the museum back to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee . Loudon County , Tennessee ; Loudon , Tennessee ; and Fort Loudoun Dam are named for the fort .