At the beginning of the French and Indian War, the Cherokee and their British neighbors were close allies, but that changed after tragic events in 1758. Several hundred Cherokee warriors took part in the Forbes Campaign to capture Fort Duquesne, and as many as forty Cherokee were murdered by Virginia militiamen, sparking a chain of events that led to war between the former allies. In 1759, Cherokee warriors carried out revenge raids on the Catawba and Yadkin settlements. In response, South Carolina Governor William Lyttleton raised an army to intimidate the Cherokee into surrendering the raiders, and during a negotiation he took 21 Cherokee chiefs hostage, destroying Cherokee trust. In 1760, the Cherokee renewed attacks on the western settlements, driven by the murders of the Cherokee hostages held in South Carolina. The British Army sent Col. Archibald Montgomery to lead a combined British and Provincial army against the Cherokee, but the June 27 Battle of Etchoe Pass forced him to withdraw, and during the retreat five Cherokee towns were razed. The Cherokee then attacked and captured Fort Loudoun in modern Vonore, TN. In 1761, a second British expedition under Lt. Col. James Grant devastated the Cherokee towns and defeated the Cherokee at the second Battle of Etchoe Pass on June 10. A joint North Carolina and Virginia Provincial army assembled on the Holston River, threatening the Cherokee Overhill towns, and just before winter peace treaties ended the war. By then, twenty-three Cherokee towns and more than 1500 acres of crops had been destroyed, the dead on both sides numbered in the hundreds, and the Cherokee faced massive land losses, embargoes, and an estimated 4000 refugee men, women, and children.