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 Potawatomi victory
Belligerents
Potawatomi	United States
Commanders and leaders
Chief Blackbird	Nathan Heald {w}
Strength
400–500	66 military + 27 dependents
Casualties and losses
15	Military 38 killed 28 captured Civilian 14 killed 13 captured

The Battle of Fort Dearborn was an engagement between United States troops and Potawatomi Native Americans 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 about 15 minutes and resulted in a complete victory for the Native Americans. Fort Dearborn was burned down and those soldiers and settlers who survived were taken captive. Some were later ransomed. After the battle, 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.

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 frontiersmen, 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.

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