BRONZE GROUP. (Page 207.)
THE
CHICAGO MASSACRE OF 1812
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
BY
JOSEPH KIRKLAND
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF CHICAGO," "ZURY, THE MEANEST MAN
IN SPRING COUNTY," "THE MC VEYS, AN EPISODE,"
"THE CAPTAIN OF COMPANY K," ETC.
CHICAGO
THE DIBBLE PUBLISHING COMPANY
334 DEARBORN STREET
1893
Joseph Kirkland.
1893.
CHICAGO.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
History is not a snap-shot. Events happen, and thetrue record of them follows at a distance. Sometimesthe early report is too voluminous, and it takes time toreduce it to truth by a winnowing process that divideschaff from grain. This has been the case regardingevery great modern battle. Sometimes, on the otherhand, the event was obscure and became importantthrough the rise of other, later conditions; in which case,instead of winnowing, the historian sets himself to gleaningthe field and making his grist out of scattered bits ofits fruitage. This has been the case regarding the Chicagomassacre of 1812.
It was only a skirmish and a slaughter, involving theloss of three-score lives. But those dead men, womenand children were the fore-runners of all the dwellers inone of the greatest cities of Christendom, the renownedcity of Chicago.
Up to less than twenty years ago it was thought—bythe few who gave the matter any thought—that next tonothing could ever be found out concerning the events whichtook place in and about Fort Dearborn—now Chicago—onAugust 15, 1812, and the time immediately before andafter that day. All that was then known was containedin the artless, non-historic narrative contained in Mrs.Kinzie's amusing and delightful story of her own adventures(1831-1833), into which she wove, as a mere episode,the scattered reminiscences of members of her family whohad taken part in the tragedy of twenty years before.
But in 1881, ten years after the Great Fire had wipedout all old Chicago, and all records of older Chicago, theHistorical Society happily took up the task of erecting a« 6 »"massacre memorial tablet" on the ground where FortDearborn had stood. William M. Hoyt generously gavethe necessary money, and the Hon. John Wentworthably and devotedly set himself about gathering, from allover the land, every item which could be gleaned tothrow light on the dark and dreadful event. How wellhe succeeded is shown by his book, "Fort Dearborn,"published by the Fergus Printing Company as number 16in its admirable Historical Series; a collection o