Battle of Fort Dearborn

Battle of Fort Dearborn
Part of the War of 1812
The Battle of Fort Dearborn is commemorated on the site of Fort Dearborn with Defense a sculpture by Henry Hering that adorns the south eastern tender's house of the Michigan Avenue Bridge
Date August 15, 1812 Location Present-day Chicago, Illinois Result Indian victory
Belligerents
Potawatomi	United States
Commanders and leaders
Chief Blackbird	Nathan Heald
Strength
400–500	66 military + 27 dependents
Casualties and losses
15	Military 28 killed 38 captured Civilian 14 killed 13 captured

The Battle of Fort Dearborn (also known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre) was an engagement between United States troops and Potawatomi Indians that occurred on August 15, 1812 near Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois, but was then part of the Illinois Territory. The battle, which occurred during the War of 1812, followed the evacuation of the fort as ordered by William Hull, commander of the United States Army of the Northwest.

Background

See also: Origins of the War of 1812

Plan of Fort Dearborn drawn by John Whistler in 1808

Fort Dearborn was constructed by United States troops under the command of Captain John Whistler in 1803. It was located on the south bank of the Main Stem of the Chicago River in the part of downtown Chicago now known as the Loop community area. The fort was named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. It had been commissioned following the Northwest Indian War of 1785–1795, and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville at Fort Greenville (now Greenville, Ohio), on August 3, 1795. As part of the terms of this treaty, a coalition of Native Americans and Frontiers men, known as the Western Confederacy, turned over to the United States large parts of modern-day Ohio, and various other parcels of land including 6 square miles (16 km²) centered at the mouth of the Chicago River.

The British Empire had ceded the Northwest Territory—comprising the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—to the United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. However the area had been the subject of dispute between the Indian Nations and the United States since the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. The Indian Nations followed Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet and the brother of Tecumseh. Tenskwatawa had a vision of purifying his society by expelling the "children of the Evil Spirit", the American settlers. Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh formed a confederation of numerous tribes to block American expansion. The British saw the Indian nations as valuable allies and a buffer to its Canadian colonies and provided arms. Attacks on American settlers in the Northwest further aggravated tensions between Britain and the United States. The Confederation's raids hindered American expansion into potentially valuable farmlands in the Northwest Territory.

In 1810, as a result of a long running feud, Captain Whistler and other senior officers at Fort Dearborn were removed. Whistler was replaced by Captain Nathan Heald, who had been stationed at Fort Wayne, Indiana. Heald was dissatisfied with his new posting and immediately applied for leave of absence to spend the winter in Massachusetts. On his return journey to Chicago he visited Kentucky where he married Rebekah Wells, the daughter of Samuel Wells and niece of William Wells; together with his new wife, he arrived back in Chicago in June 1811.

As the United States and Britain moved towards war, antipathy between the settlers and Indians in the Chicago area increased. In the summer of 1811 British emissaries tried to enlist the support of Indians in the region, telling them that the British would help them to resist the encroaching American settlement. On April 6, 1812 a band of Winnebago Indians murdered Liberty White, an American, and John B. Cardin, a French Canadian, at a farm called Hardscrabble that was located on the South Branch of the Chicago River in the area now called Bridgeport. News of the murder was carried to Fort Dearborn by a soldier of the garrison named John Kelso and a small boy who had managed to escape from the farm. Following the murder some residents of Chicago moved into the fort while the rest fortified themselves in a house that had belonged to Charles Jouett, an Indian Agent. Fifteen men from the civilian population were organized into a militia by Captain Heald, and armed with guns and ammunition from the fort.

Battle

Map of Chicago in 1812 showing the site of the battle and Fort Dearborn (west is up)

On June 18, 1812 the United States declared war on the British Empire, and on July 17 British forces captured Fort Mackinac. On July 29 General William Hull received news of the fall of Fort Mackinac and immediately sent orders to Captain Heald to evacuate Fort Dearborn, fearing that it could no longer be adequately supplied with provisions. In his letter to Captain Heald, which arrived at Fort Dearborn on August 9, General Hull ordered Heald to destroy all the arms and ammunition and give the remaining goods to friendly Indians in the hope of attaining an escort to Fort Wayne.

On August 13, Captain William Wells arrived at Fort Dearborn from Fort Wayne with a group of about 30 Miami Indians to act as an escort. On August 14 Captain Heald held a council with the Potawatomi leaders and informed them of his intention to evacuate the fort. The Indians believed that Heald told them that he would distribute the fire-arms, ammunition, provisions and whiskey amongst them, and that, if they would send a band of Potawatomis to escort them safely to Fort Wayne, he would pay them a large sum of money. However, Heald ordered all the surplus arms, ammunition and liquor destroyed "fearing that [the Indians] would make bad use of it if put in their possession." On August 14, a Potawatomi chief called Black Partridge warned Captain Heald that the young men of the tribe intended to attack, and that he could no longer restrain them.

On August 15, Captain Heald led out the garrison, comprising 54 U.S. regulars, 12 militia, 9 women and 18 children, intending to march to Fort Wayne. However, about 1+¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) south of Fort Dearborn, at about what is now 18th Street and Prairie Avenue, a band of Potawatomi warriors ambushed the garrison. Heald reported the American loss at 26 regulars, all 12 of the militia, two women and twelve children killed, with the other 28 regulars, seven women and six children taken prisoner. The Indians intended to sell the prisoners to the British as slaves. The British purchased the captives and released them immediately afterwards.^{[citation needed]}

Fort Dearborn was burned to the ground, and the region remained empty of U.S. citizens until after the war had ended.^{[citation needed]}

Survivors' accounts differed on the role of the Miami warriors. Some said they fought for the Americans, while others said they did not fight at all. Regardless, William Henry Harrison claimed the Miami fought against the Americans, and used the Fort Dearborn massacre as a pretext to attack the Miami villages. Miami chief Pacanne and his nephew, Jean Baptiste Richardville, accordingly ended their neutrality in the War of 1812 and allied with the British.

Three active battalions of the current 3rd Infantry (1-3 Inf, 2-3 Inf and 4-3 Inf) perpetuate the lineage of the old 1st Infantry Regiment, which had a detachment at Fort Dearborn.^{[citation needed]}

The historical accounts of details of the conflict are discrepant. Juliette Magill Kinzie's Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest, which was first published in 1856, provides the preeminent account of of the conflict. However it is based on family stories and is regarded as historically inaccurate. Nonetheless, it is popular acceptance was surprisingly strong.

Monuments

Fort Dearborn Massacre Monument beside the Pullman Residence

In 1893, George Pullman had a sculpture he had commissioned from Carl Rohl-Smith erected near his house. It portrays the rescue of Margaret Helm, the stepdaughter of Chicago resident John Kinzie and wife of Lt. Linai Thomas Helm, by Potawatomi chief Black Partridge, who led her and some others to Lake Michigan and helped her escape by boat. The monument was moved to the lobby of the Chicago Historical Society in 1931. In the 1970s, however, American Indian groups protested the display of the monument, and it was removed. In the 1990s, the statue was reinstalled near 18th Street and Prairie Avenue, close to its original site, at the time of the revival of the Prairie Avenue Historic District. It was later removed for conservation reasons by the Office of Public Art of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. There are some efforts to reinstall the monument, but it is meeting resistance from the Chicago American Indian Center.

On Saturday August 15, 2009, the Chicago Park District, the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance and other community partners dedicated "Battle of Fort Dearborn Park" on the site of the event at 18th Street and Calumet Avenue.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time (volume 1). http://www.archive.org/details/historyofchicago01inandr. Retrieved 2011-12-28. 
• Helm, Linai Taliaferro (1912). Gordon, Nelly Kinzie. ed. The Fort Dearborn Massacre. Rand, McNally & Company. http://www.archive.org/details/fortdearbornmass00lchelm. Retrieved 2011-12-28. 
• Heidler, David S.; Heidler, Jeanne T., eds (1997). Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591143624. 
• Quaife, Milo Milton (1913). Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835. The University of Chicago Press. http://www.archive.org/details/chicagooldnorthw00quai. Retrieved 2011-12-28.