vacancies. In 1758, Timberlake successfully applied for a commission in Colonel William Byrd's recently formed 2nd Virginia Regiment. Commissioned as an ensign, the entry rank, Timberlake accompanied the regiment on its march to Fort Duquesne (site of the future city of Pittsburgh), but illness kept him from proceeding. In 1759, he took part in several minor operations in the present-day Pittsburgh area, mostly overseeing the construction of defensive works. In 1760, British relations with the Cherokee, which had been moderately friendly for several decades, grew sour after South Carolina authorities killed 22 Cherokee chiefs captured in battle and held as prisoner hostages at Fort Prince George. In early 1760, the Overhill Cherokee laid siege to Fort Loudoun, a remote British outpost on the lower Little Tennessee River east of its tributary Telloquo River (now known as the Tellico River, in what is now Tennessee. (See the map "Draught of the Cherokee Country" below.) They were trying to expel the British from this area. The garrison held out until August of that year, but was forced to surrender due to lack of provisions. A relief column under Archibald Montgomerie failed to reach the fort after burning the Cherokee Lower Towns along the Savannah River in South Carolina and being stopped at the Battle of Echoee. In spite of the garrison's leaving Fort Loudoun under a flag of truce, the Cherokee killed 22 of its members on their march back across the mountains, in retaliation for the colonists' earlier killing of 22 Cherokee in South Carolina. In 1761, Jeffery Amherst, the British commander in North America, directed a larger invasion force against the Cherokee Middle Towns, sending James Grant with forces. These were located along the upper Little Tennessee River valley in North Carolina. William Byrd was assigned to threaten the Overhill towns, which were located on the other side of the Appalachian mountains, along the lower Little Tennessee and upper Tennessee rivers, in what is now Tennessee. While Grant proceeded to destroy the Cherokee Middle towns in North Carolina, William Byrd dispatched Colonel Adam Stephen into the Holston River valley to attack the Overhill towns. Timberlake accompanied Stephen to Long Island of the Holston (in modern-day Sullivan County, Tennessee), where they began building a base known as "Fort Robinson", and made preparations for a march south. Journey to the Overhill country On November 19, 1761, as Fort Robinson was nearing completion,