It Wasn't the Fort Dearborn Massacre-- Part 1

From the August 12th Chicago Tribune by Patrick T. Reardon.

"What happened two centuries ago on August 15, 1812, on the Lake Michigan shore near what is now 18th Street has long been called the Fort Dearborn Massacre.

But it wasn't a massacre.

It was a battle in two simultaneous wars."

Some 500 Indians surrounded 110 men, women and children who had marched out of Fort Dearborn at the mouth of the Chicago River that morning and heading for Fort Wayne in Indiana Territory.  When the Indians were spotted,the soldiers formed a line and advanced.

Sixty-eight of the Americans died as did 15 of the enemy.

It was part of a series attacks planned by the Indians on U.S. forts in Indian territory in late summer 1812 to pushh back white settlers.

It was also one of the early battles in the American-declared War of 1812 against Britain.  The British found natural allies among the Indians.  After the war, they even gave Blackbird, who ked the Fort Dearborn attack, a gold medal.

All this is put forth in Anne Durkin Keating's new book "Rising Up From Infian Territory: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago."

Brock-Perry