Hostile Cherokees attacked the fort's garrison at camp during its return to South Carolina, killing more than two dozen and taking most of the survivors prisoner.

Based on the detailed descriptions of the fort's design by De Brahm and Demeré, and excavations conducted by the Works Progress Administration, the facility was reconstructed in the 1930s.

Glen believed such a fort could also be a stepping stone to expand British control into the interior of the North American continent, where France had some colonies along the Mississippi and Ohio tributaries in Illinois Country, and south in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.

This structure, known as the "Virginia Fort", was square in shape, measuring 105 feet (32 m) on each side, with walls consisting of earthen embankments topped by a 7-foot (2.1 m) palisade.

[5] Although Governor Glen's political foes ousted him in May 1756, his successor, William Henry Lyttelton, was committed to the fort's completion.

[6] An advance party led by William Gibbs crossed the mountains and arrived at Great Hiwassee in early August.

[6] The main body, consisting of 80 British regulars commanded by Captain Raymond Demeré and two provincial companies of 60 men each, departed from Fort Prince George on the South Carolina frontier on September 21, 1756.

Accompanied by 60 pack horses, the group made the roughly 100-mile (160 km) trek in ten days, arriving in Tomotley on October 1.

[6] John William Gerard de Brahm, a German-born engineer who had overseen the repair of the fortifications of Charleston, was tasked with designing the fort.

The bastions were named for the King George II, the Queen of Great Britain, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Cumberland.

De Brahm argued that the construction work was nearly complete and the provincials no longer needed, and Demeré disagreed, stating the fort was still uninhabitable.

On December 24, 1756, De Brahm, stating the fort was essentially finished, abruptly left for South Carolina, drawing a strong rebuke from Demeré.

The interior of the fort covered approximately 2 acres (0.81 ha) and included a powder magazine, a blacksmith shop, barracks and officers' quarters, and supply buildings.

[5] Governor Lyttelton named the fort after John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, who had recently been appointed commander-in-chief of British forces in North America.

[5] In June 1757, a 36-man contingent of the garrison, led by Lieutenant James Adamson and Ensign Richard Coytmore, attacked a band of hostile Indians who were threatening the Cherokee at Great Tellico.

During the Forbes Expedition, a group of Cherokee warriors, who had been tasked with fighting northern Indians who were allied with the French, scalped and killed one or more white settlers.

[6] Fearing the situation would dissolve into open warfare, Governor Lyttelton placed an embargo on the sale of guns and ammunition to the Cherokee in August 1759.

In early September, a soldier from Fort Loudoun, an English merchant and British parkhorseman were killed and their scalps exchanged for French ammunition.

During the same period, a force led by William Byrd III marched down the Holston River valley from Virginia with plans to relieve the fort, but their progress was very gradual.

[10] Henry Timberlake and Thomas Sumter, soldiers in Byrd's expedition, visited the Overhill towns in 1761–62 as part of a peace mission.

Louis Phillipe, the future King of France, visited the blockhouse while in exile in the United States in 1797 and noted that Fort Loudoun was mostly rubble and brush.

[6] After the Cherokee relinquished control of the area with the signing of the Calhoun Treaty in 1819, ownership of the fort's ruins changed hands several times.

At a contentious public meeting on the proposed dam in 1964, judge Sue K. Hicks, the Fort Loudoun Association's president, engaged in a verbal confrontation with TVA Chairman Aubrey Wagner.

Because the flooding would submerge known historic and prehistoric sites, including several Cherokee towns, the agency funded a survey and extensive archaeological excavations in the valley.

[6] Researchers also investigated the area south of the fort, uncovering artifacts from the Archaic (7500 BC), Woodland, and Southern Appalachia Mississippian culture (1000-1500CE) periods.

[6] TVA provided 250,000 cubic yards of landfill to raise the site of the fort 8 metres (26 ft), bringing it above the reservoir's operating levels.

Shortly after this was completed, the palisade, powder magazine, blacksmith shop, two troops quarters, a temporary barracks, a storehouse, one of the gun platforms, and a Cherokee house (representing Tuskegee) were reconstructed there.

It was in this area that excavators discovered evidence of the only structure in the fort built with stone walls, consistent with the design of contemporary powder magazines.

Excavators noted the only structure in the fort with a double chimney was an elongate building adjacent to the east gate, a position consistent with guardhouse placement at the time.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, which is operated by the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, stands just west of the fort, on the other side of Highway 360.