Battle of Fort Dearborn 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 . The battle lasted only about 15 minutes and resulted in a complete victory for the Indians . Fort Dearborn was burned down and those soldiers and settlers that survived were taken captive . Some were later ransomed . After the war , however , settlers continued to seek to enter the area , the fort was rebuilt in 1816 , and settlers and the government were now convinced that all Indians had to be removed from the territory , far away from the settlement . Background . 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 what is now the Loop community area of downtown Chicago . At the time , the area was seen as wilderness ; in the view of later commander , Heald , " so remote from the civilized part of the world . " 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 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 , mineral deposits and fur trade areas 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 they traveled together to 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 . 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 . Hull also sent a copy of these orders to Fort Wayne with additional instructions to provide Heald with all the information , advice and assistance within their power . In the following days the sub - Indian agent at Fort Wayne , Captain William Wells , who was the uncle of Heald ' s wife Rebekah , assembled a group of about 30 Miami Indians . Wells , Corporal Walter K . Jordan , and the Miamis traveled to Fort Dearborn to provide an escort to the evacuees . Wells arrived at Fort Dearborn on August 12 or 13 ( sources differ ) , and on August 14 Captain Heald held a council with the Potawatomi leaders to inform 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 Heald that the young men of the tribe intended to attack , and that he could no longer restrain them . At 9 am on August 15 the garrison — comprising , according to Heald ' s report , 54 U . S . regulars , 12 militia , 9 women , and 18 children — left Fort Dearborn with the intention of marching to Fort Wayne . Captain Wells led the group with some of the Miami Indian escorts , while the rest of the Miamis were positioned at the rear . About south of Fort Dearborn a band of Potawatomi warriors ambushed the garrison . Heald reported that , upon discovering that the Indians were preparing to ambush from behind a dune , the company marched to the top of the dune , fired off a round , and charged at the Indians . This maneuver separated the cavalry from the wagons , allowing the overwhelming Indian force to charge into the gap , divide , and surround both groups . During the ensuing battle some of the Indians charged at the wagon train that contained the women and children , as well as the provisions . The wagons were defended by the militia , as well as Ensign and the fort physician Van Voorhis . The officers and militia were killed , along with two of the women and most of the children . Wells disengaged from the main battle and attempted to ride to the aid of those at the wagons . In doing so , he was brought down ; according to eyewitness accounts he fought off many Indians before being killed , and a group of Indians immediately cut out his heart and ate it to absorb his courage . The battle lasted about 15 minutes , after which Heald and the surviving soldiers withdrew to an area of elevated ground in the prairie . They then surrendered to the Indians who took them as prisoners to their camp near Fort Dearborn . In his report Heald detailed 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 . 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 . Aftermath . Following the battle the Indians took their prisoners to their camp near Fort Dearborn and the fort was burned to the ground , and the region remained empty of U . S . citizens until after the war had ended . Some of the prisoners died in captivity , while others were later ransomed . The fort , however , was reestablished and rebuilt in 1816 . Seen from the perspective of the War of 1812 and the larger conflict between Britain and France which precipitated it , this was a very small brief 15 minute battle , but it ultimately had larger consequences in the territory . Arguably , for the Indians , it was an example of " winning the battle but losing the war " : the U . S . later pursued a policy of removing the tribes from the region , resulting in the Treaty of Chicago , which was marked at its culmination in 1835 by the last great Indian war dance in the then nascent city . Thereafter , the Potowatomie and other tribes were moved further west . Accounts of the battle . The recollections of a number of the survivors of the battle have been published . Heald ' s story was recorded on September 22 , 1812 by Charles Askin in his diary , Heald also wrote brief accounts of events in his journal and in an official report of the battle . Walter Jordan recorded his version of events in a letter to his wife dated October 12 , 1812 . Helm wrote a detailed narrative of events ; but , because of his fear of being court marshalled due to his criticism of Heald , delayed publication until 1814 . John Kinzie ' s recollections of the battle were recorded by Henry Schoolcraft in August 1820 . These accounts of details of the conflict are discrepant , particularly in their attribution of blame for the battle . Juliette Magill Kinzie ' s " Wau - Bun : The Early Day in the Northwest " , which was first published in 1856 , provides the traditional account of the conflict . However it is based on family stories and is regarded as historically inaccurate . Nonetheless , its popular acceptance was surprisingly strong . Location of the battle . Eye - witness accounts place the battle on the lake shore somewhere between south of Fort Dearborn . Heald ' s official report said the battle occurred south of the fort , placing the battle at what is now the intersection of Roosevelt Road ( previously known as , 12th Street ) and Michigan Avenue . Juliette Kinzie , shortly before her death in 1870 , stated that the battle had started by a large cottonwood tree , which at that time still stood on 18th Street between Prairie Avenue and the lake . The tree was supposed to have been the last remaining of a grove of trees that had been saplings at the time of the battle . The tree was blown down in a storm on May 16 , 1894 and a portion of its trunk was preserved at the Chicago Historical Society . Historian Harry A . Musham points out that the testimony relating to this tree is all second hand and came from people who settled in Chicago more than 20 years after the battle . Moreover , based on the diameter of the preserved section of trunk ( about ) he estimated the age of the tree at the time that it was blown over at no more than 80 years , and therefore asserts that it could not have been growing at the time of the battle . Nevertheless , the site at 18th Street and Prairie Avenue has become the location traditionally associated with the battle , and on the battle ' s 197th anniversary in 2009 , the Chicago Park District , the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance and other community partners dedicated " Battle of Fort Dearborn Park " near the site at 18th Street and Calumet Avenue . Monuments . 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 . The battle is also memorialized with a sculpture by Henry Hering called " Defense " that is located on the south western tender ' s house of the Michigan Avenue Bridge ( which partially covers the site of Fort Dearborn ) . There are also memorials in Chicago to individuals who fought in the battle . William Wells is commemorated in the naming of Wells Street , a north - south street and part of the original 1830 58 - block plat of Chicago , while Nathan Heald is commemorated in the naming of Heald Square . Ronan Park on the city ' s Far North Side honors Ensign George Ronan , who was the first West Point graduate to die in battle .