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again debauched the Indians, and a great chieftain named Tecurnseh had built up a fedomtion of tribes bigger than Pontiac-,‘s fever was and designed for The oxpuUion, it not the slaughter. of the entire white p-*nulaUon; and. as th6 American outposts in Michigan had fallen. It seemed raah to maintain the now perilously isolated Outpost at Chicago But. Hull's instructions left altogether too much to Heald’s discretion.Wlnnemog. the Indian who had brought the letter, urged him to stick It out and wait for reinforcements. But sr was a ticklish situation. Although his Indian neighbors, the Pottawatomie*, had not yet cast In their lot with Terumseh. Hen Id realized that at any moment they might do so. On the whole it svemed wiser to go. He told Wlnnemes as much, and Wlnn^mes replied that in that ease HeAld and the garrison must get out in a hurry, leaving the Indians no time in which to pat their heads together and agree, on a plan of action. But it was a long way overland from Chicago to Detroit and. with women and children to look alter, the expedition could not be lUted out over night. Heaid hesitated: then, resolving to go, had a ;ong powpow with the Indians. There were plenty of them on hand now. For daya they had been pouring Into the region around Ft. Dearborn, nor had li appviLred that they were in any too genial a mood. The powpow wound up with the striking of a bargain, Heald to divide Undo Ham’s belongings at Ft Dearborn among the Pottawatomlcs, the Fotmwatomles to lot Heald and his command depart in peace. As the Indians understood it, the properly to be divided Included gunoowdc-r and whisky.Next cay Captain TVells. Indian agent at Ft- Wayne, arrived at Ft. Dearborn with thirty Miamis. who were to escort HeaJd’a column eastward. The captain thoroughly understood Indians—was, in fact a good deal of an Indian himself, having been kidnapped by the Miamis when a child and adopted hr Diitle Turtle, their chief. Hearing of He aid's bargain with the PottawalomScs, he insisted that they must not have either whisky or gunpowder. Heald gave in, and that night' there was a wholesale outpouring of whisky and a general denaturing of am-muntion. When the Indians caught on they were furious.Black Partridge, one of their chiefs, wore a medal General Wayne had given him. Now he came to .Heald and said: “Father. I cnmo to deliver up to you the medal I wear. Our young men are resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of the whites: I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as» an enemy.”From bravado or despair—110 one knows which—the Ft. Dearborn band played the “Dead March” as Ileald and his party set forth at 9 o’clock the morning of August 15. With fifteen Miamia, Captain Wells led. his face daubed with war paint. Then cumc a string of wagons carrying women and children and ailing soldiers. After them marched Heald’s able bodied troops, numbering barely forty. Fifteen additional Miamis brought up the rear.Ostensibly as escort, five hundred Pottawatomes followed the doleful column as It proceeded along an Indian trail noxc the lake- For thn rirst quarter of a mile nothing alarming developed. But now a string of low sand duties intervened between the beach trail and the prairie. There the Pottawatomles, instead of continuing along the shore, took the other side of the dunes.After a mile and a quarter march j Captain Heald, who had ridden ahead to reconnolter. Came back at a gallop with nows that the PottawatDmlos were about, to give bottle from behind tlie dunes. The Miami* deserted. Tho A inert can a charged. Both sides opend lire. Captain Wells fell, mortally wounded. Captain Heald, though wounded, kept on. Then, helpless because overwhelmingly outnumbered. Heald’s men saw the Pottawatomie* swoop down on the women and chlldren. Twelve children and two women were massacred. Mrs. Heald received six wounds and was taken prisoner. A Mrs. Helm dodged the stroke of a. tomahawk and while reaching for her assailant’s knife was seized by another Indian and thrown into the lake—it was Black Partridge. trying to aave her life and succeeding. Of the soldiers, thirty-eight perished. And Ft. Dearborn wag looted and burned.A hideoug vengeance overtook the Fot-tawatomiea. At Ft. Wayne and at the hatllc of the Thames they paid many times over for the Ft. Dearborn outrage, and punitive expeditions carried Are and sword through the Indian villages of Illinois.
Newspaper Details
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne, Indiana, US
Wed, Dec 18, 1918
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Carolyn M.
CO, USA 09 Jul 2019
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