FORT DEARBORN, a fort built in 1804 by the United States government on the south bank of the Chicago•River near its mouth and on the site of the present city of Chicago. At that time the river took a sharp turn to the south just east of the fort and flowed into the lake over a heavy sandbar, which was not ca pable of being crossed by anything larger than a small boat, and all large vessels bringing sup plies to the garrison were compelled to anchor outside and land their passengers and cargoes in small boats. The site of the fort was on a reservation of six square miles which by Wayne's treaty with the Indians, made at Green ville in 1795, had been set aside from the United States. It was named in honor of Gen. Henry Dearborn (q.v.), then Secretary of War.
The fort consisted of a stockade with two block-houses, built in the fashion of all military posts of that period which were situated on the frontier in the vicinity of Indian tribes. The quarters of the garrison were inclosed within the stockade and the first garrison consisted of one company of infantry (of the First regi ment).
The growth of the settlement at Fort Dear born was not rapid until of ter the War of 1812, owing to the numerous depredations of the In dians upon the white settlers and to the fact that it was so far in the wilderness, being reached from Detroit by a trail through the woods and from Mackinac by lake schooners, generally one in the spring and one in the fall.
Fort Dearborn owes its notoriety, however, to the massacre which occurred near there on 15 Aug. 1812. The second war with Great Britain had broken out and in the beginning in the Northwest all the advantage lay with the British forces and their Indian allies. Mackinac had been captured, thus securing control of the upper lakes to the British, and the American government, apprehensive that a post among the Indians, so far from the frontiers, could not be successfully maintained, thought best to aban don it. Accordingly, Gen. William Hull, in
command at Detroit, issued orders to Capt. Nathan Heald, in command of the garrison, to evacuate the fort and that the surplus stores should be divided among the Indians. These orders were executed and on 15 August the garrison and a body of supposedly friendly Miami Indians, escorting a number of women and children, marched out of the fort and set out for Detroit by' a road which wound along the lake shore. At a point among the sandhills about two miles from the fort an ambushed band of about 500 Potawatomie Indian savages, in conjunction with the party of Miami who ac companied the troops, attacked the little expe dition and the whole body of whites were either captured or killed. Two of the women and 12 children were butchered during the fight, and a number of the wounded men were killed after ward, but some were fortunate enough to be ransomed later. The Indians then sacked the fort and burned it.
In 1816 after peace was concluded the fort was rebuilt under Captain Bradley and its out lines were much extended, under the protection of its larger garrison a small village springing up. In 1823 the fort was again evacuated, but continued to be occupied from 1828 to 1837 when, the Indians having left the country, it was again abandoned, and finally, in 1856, de stroyed. Consult Quaife, 'History of Fort Dearborn' (1913).