The Fort Dearborn Massacre

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[Illustration: Monument commemorating the Fort Dearborn Massacre]

THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE

Written in 1814 by

LIEUTENANT LINAI T. HELM

One of the survivors

With Letters and Narratives of Contemporary Interest

Edited by Nelly Kinzie Gordon

Rand Mcnally & Company Chicago New York

Copyright, 1912, by Nelly Kinzie Gordon

[Illustration: Old Fort Dearborn]

To my Native City Chicago

WHOSE MARVELOUS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT I HAVE WATCHED WITH PRIDE AND UNFAILING INTEREST SINCE THE YEAR 1835

I dedicate this book

THE CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction 5

Judge Woodward's Letter to Colonel Proctor 9

Lieutenant Helm's Letter to Judge Woodward 13

Lieutenant Helm's Narrative 15

The Massacre at Chicago 27

John Kinzie 85

The Capture by the Indians of Little Eleanor Lytle 109

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Monument commemorating the Fort Dearborn Massacre Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Old Fort Dearborn 15

The old Kinzie house 85

Cornplanter, a Seneca chief 109

INTRODUCTION

The narrative of Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, one of the two officers who survived the Chicago Massacre, mysteriously disappeared nearly one hundred years ago. This manuscript has lately been found and is now in the possession of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, by whose kind permission it is here presented to the public, together with letters explaining its loss and its recovery. It is the earliest extant account given by a participator in the fearful tragedy of August 15, 1812. It was written by Lieutenant Helm in 1814, at the request of Judge Augustus B. Woodward, of Detroit, and was accompanied by a letter asking Judge Woodward's opinion as to whether the strictures made in the narrative upon the conduct of Captain Heald would result in Helm's being court-martialed for disrespect to his commanding officer.

Judge Woodward evidently advised Lieutenant Helm not to take the risk, for the manuscript was found many years later among the Judge's papers. That Lieutenant Helm was a soldier rather than a scholar is evidenced by the faulty construction of his narrative. Its literary imperfections, however, in no way detract from its value as a truthful account of the events he describes.

In the records of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, volume 12, page 659, is a letter concerning the survivors of the Chicago Massacre, written October, 1812, to Colonel Proctor by Judge Woodward, in which he says:

"First, there is one officer, a lieutenant of the name of Linai T. Helm, with whom I had the happiness of a personal acquaintance. His father is a gentleman, originally of Virginia, and of the first society of the city, who has since settled in the State of New York. He is an officer of great rank, and unblemished character. The lady of this gentleman, a young and amiable victim of misfortune, was separated from her husband. She was delivered up to her father-in-law, who was present. Mr. Helm was transported into the Indian country a hundred miles from the scene of action, and has not since been heard of at this place."