Accompanied by 60 pack horses, the group made the roughly trek in ten days, arriving in Tomotley on October 1. They were greeted by the Cherokee leader Old Hop and 200 Indians. The herculean task of moving the fort's cannons over the mountains was accomplished by a contractor named John Elliott. John Stuart, an officer and future Indian agent who had accompanied the garrison, negotiated a purchase of corn from the Cherokee that helped the garrison avoid starvation. 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. De Brahm and Demeré constantly bickered over the fort's location and design. Demeré favored a site selected earlier that year by a scout named John Pearson, but De Brahm rejected the site as too exposed. He favored a site further upstream that offered a commanding view of the river, but Demeré disagreed, saying the site lacked suitable land for the garrison to grow crops. Demeré reported that De Brahm, incensed, took out his pistol and offered it to Demeré to shoot him in the head. The two eventually agreed on the current site of the fort as a compromise. Construction of the fort began on October 5, 1756. De Brahm's design was more elaborate than a typical frontier fort. The fort was diamond-shaped with bastions at the corners, each of which contained three cannons. As the fort was built on a hill slope, two of the bastions were atop the hill, and two were closer to the bottom, with the walls sloping downward. The bastions were named for the King of England, the Queen of England, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Cumberland. The walls were in length, and surrounded by a ditch, a yard deep and wide, which was planted with a honey locust hedge. Throughout November and December 1756, Demeré and De Brahm continued to squabble over the fort's design. Demeré disliked De Brahm's original design for outer and inner palisades, and thought De Brahm's plans for two smaller auxiliary fortresses near the river were too complex. The two also disagreed on whether or not to discharge the provincials, with De Brahm arguing the construction work was nearly complete and the provincials no longer needed, and Demeré disagreeing, 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.