The Vonore massacre occurred in the winter of 1784 when a Spanish Army expedition commanded by Colonel Ramon de Galvez was massacred by a Cherokee war party led by Estanislao while invading the Cherokee heartland.
By 1783, the Cherokee tribe of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas was at war with both the Iroquois confederacy to the north and the Spanish Empire to the west and south. In the summer of 1784, the war chief Menawa raided Spanish Florida, burning Osceola, St. Marks, and Wewahitchka; that same winter, the Spanish responded by dispatching Ramon de Galvez with the 3rd Regiment of Foot (line infantry), 2nd Regiment of Artillery, and 3rd Regiment of Horse (a total of 183 troops) from Spanish Louisiana to invade the Kaintuck Territory (now Kentucky and Tennessee) and neutralize the Cherokee threat. This army halted north of the Cherokee town of Tellico, allowing for the war chief Estanislao to lead a war party of 405 warriors to attack the Spanish Army force along the Little Tennessee River at Vonore. The Cherokee warriors charged the smaller Spanish force as the Cherokee archers rained arrows on the Spanish musketeers; the Spanish cavalry found themselves being charged by tomahawk-wielding Cherokee warriors and were routed. The Spanish force was overwhelmed by superior numbers and massacred, and few Spaniards were able to escape the disaster. As with most Native American victories over European armies, the battle was deemed a "massacre".