At the conclusion of the conflict between the French and the British, and after hostilities between the provincials and Cherokee ended with the rolling back of Cherokee boundaries in western North Carolina, the fort quickly became obsolete.
Settlers west of the Yadkin River were subjected to regular attacks so that between 1756 and 1759, even after the construction of Fort Dobbs, the population of settlers in the area declined from approximately 1,500 to 800.
The engagement at Fort Dobbs and settlements in the North Carolina Piedmont led the government of North Carolina to join South Carolina and Virginia in their campaign against the Cherokee in their own settlements in North and South Carolina, known as the "Middle" and "Lower Towns".
After construction was completed, Fort Dobbs was the only military installation on the colonial frontier between Virginia and South Carolina.
Several colonies, including Virginia and South Carolina, promised the Cherokee that they would build forts near their lands to protect them from hostile attack in exchange for warriors that had been supplied for the war effort.
That same year, the owners of the parcel of land on which the Fort Dobbs site was located donated 1,000 square feet (93 m2) containing the fort's remains to the Fort Dobbs Chapter.
Waddell described the action in an official report to the Governor on February 29, 1760: At around the same time as this attack occurred, Cherokee war parties attacked Fort Loudoun, Fort Prince George, and Ninety-Six, South Carolina.
By comparison, Fort Stanwix in New York, begun in 1758 in a then-modern star fort style, cost ₤60,000 to erect, while the construction of Fort Prince George in South Carolina cost that province's House of Commons ₤3,000.
