Editing Battle of Fort Dearborn (section)

==Background==
{{See also|Origins of the War of 1812}}
[[File:Fort Dearborn 1808.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Plan of Fort Dearborn drawn by [[John Whistler]] in 1808]]
Fort Dearborn was constructed by [[United States]] troops under the command of [[Captain (U.S. Army)|Captain]] [[John Whistler]] in 1803.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pacyga|first=Dominic A.|title=Chicago: A Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/chicagobiography00pacy|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-64431-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/chicagobiography00pacy/page/n21 13]}}</ref> It was located on the south bank of the main stem of the [[Chicago River]] in what is now the [[Loop, Chicago|Loop]] [[Community areas of Chicago|community area]] of downtown [[Chicago]]. At the time, the area was seen as wilderness. In the view of a later commander, Heald, it was "so remote from the civilized part of the world."<ref name="Grossman">{{cite news | title=15 Historic Minutes | work=Chicago Tribune | date=August 12, 2012 |author=Grossman, Ron | page=22}}</ref> The fort was named in honor of [[Henry Dearborn]], then [[United States Secretary of War]]. It had been commissioned after 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 the treaty, a coalition of [[Native Americans in the United States|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 {{convert|6|sqmi|km2}} centered on the mouth of the Chicago River.<ref>{{cite web|author= Charles J. Kappler|title= TREATY WITH THE WYANDOT, ETC., 1795|url= http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/wya0039.htm#mn4|year= 1904|work= U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans|publisher= Oklahoma State University Library|access-date= 2011-12-28|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101108135038/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/wya0039.htm#mn4|archive-date= 2010-11-08|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last=Keating| first=Ann Durkin| title=Fort Dearborn| url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/477.html|encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago| publisher=Chicago History Society| access-date=2011-12-28}}</ref>

The [[British Empire]] had ceded the [[Northwest Territory]], comprising what is now [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], [[Michigan]], [[Wisconsin]], and parts of [[Minnesota]], to the United States at the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783. However, the area had been the subject of dispute between the Native American nations and the United States since the passage of the [[Northwest Ordinance]] in 1787.<ref>Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North-West of the River Ohio</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Willig |first=Timothy D |year=2008 |title=Restoring the Chain of Friendship: British Policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783–1815 |url=https://archive.org/details/restoringchainfr00will |url-access=limited |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln & London |isbn=978-0-8032-4817-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/restoringchainfr00will/page/n223 207]}}</ref> Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh formed a confederation of numerous tribes to block American expansion. The British saw the Native American nations as valuable allies and a buffer to their [[Canada|Canadian]] colonies and provided them arms. Attacks on American settlers in the Northwest further worsened tensions between Britain and the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hitsman |first=J. Mackay |year=1965  |title=The Incredible War of 1812 |page=27 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press}}</ref> The confederation's raids hindered American access to potentially-valuable farmlands, mineral deposits, and fur trade areas.<ref>{{harvnb|Heidler|Heidler|1997|pp=253,392}}</ref>

In 1810, as a result of a long running feud, Captain Whistler and other senior officers at Fort Dearborn were removed.<ref>{{harvnb|Quaife|1913|pp=171–175}}</ref> Whistler was replaced by Captain [[Nathan Heald]], who had been stationed at [[Forts of Fort Wayne, Indiana#Fort Wayne|Fort Wayne, Indiana]]. Heald was dissatisfied with his new posting and immediately applied for and received a leave of absence to spend the winter in [[Massachusetts]].<ref>{{harvnb|Quaife|1913|p=176}}</ref> On his return journey to Fort Dearborn, he visited [[Kentucky]], where he married Rebekah Wells, the daughter of Samuel Wells, and they traveled together to the fort in June 1811.<ref name="HealdJournal">Nathan Heald's Journal, reproduced in {{harvnb|Quaife|1913|pp=402–405}}</ref>

As the United States and Britain moved towards war, antipathy between the settlers and Native Americans in the Fort Dearborn area increased.<ref name="ChicagoMagazine2009">{{cite journal | last=Johnson| first=Geoffrey| title=The True Story of the Deadly Encounter at Fort Dearborn| journal=Chicago Magazine| date=December 2009| volume=58| issue=12| pages=86–89| url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2009/The-True-Story-of-the-Deadly-Encounter-at-Fort-Dearborn/| access-date=2011-12-28}}</ref> In the summer of 1811, British emissaries tried to enlist the support of Native Americans in the region by telling them that the British would help them to resist the encroaching American settlement.<ref name="HarpersPokagon">{{cite journal | last=Pokagon| first=Simon| author-link=Simon Pokagon| title=The Massacre of Fort Dearborn at Chicago| journal=[[Harper's Magazine]]| date=March 1899| volume=98| issue=586| pages=649–656| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9w4wAAAAMAAJ| access-date=2011-12-31}}</ref> On April 6, 1812, a band of [[Ho-Chunk|Winnebago Indians]] murdered Liberty White, an American, and John B. Cardin, a French Canadian, at a farm called Hardscrabble, which was located on the south branch of the Chicago River, in the area now called [[Bridgeport, Chicago|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.<ref name="Quaife212-213">{{harvnb|Quaife|1913|pp=212–213}}</ref> Following the murder, some nearby settlers moved into the fort, and the rest fortified themselves in a house that had belonged to Charles Jouett, a Native American agent. Fifteen men from the civilian population were organized into a militia by Captain Heald and were armed with guns and ammunition from the fort.<ref name="Quaife212-213" />