[27]IHC, IX, Harrison’s Messages and Letters, ed. Logan Esarey, p. 70.
[28]What is believed to be the grave of Little Turtle was discovered in 1912 at the home of Dr. George Gillie in the Spy Run section.
[29]M. M. Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, p. 225.
[30]Ibid., p. 217.
Chapter IV
The Siege of Fort Wayne
At last the savages had struck their long deferred blow. The little garrison of eighty-five men at Fort Wayne received with alarm the first account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn. The news was conveyed by one of the friendly Miamis who had accompanied Wells to Fort Dearborn. Unknown to the garrison at this date was the fact that Detroit—the protecting center of the other northwestern posts—had been ingloriously surrendered on August 16 to a British-Indian force by General William Hull. Mackinac had already fallen to the British. Tecumseh and the British now turned their attention to the reduction of Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute, Indiana), as the principal remaining obstacles to prevent them from driving the white inhabitants beyond the Ohio river. After their success at Dearborn, a council was held by the Indian tribes and British officers at the Potawatomie villages. Here it was determined that the Potawatomies together with the Ottawas were to be assisted in the proposed siege of Fort Wayne by a British force under Major Muir. Meanwhile the Winnebagoes and Miamis would direct their attention toward Fort Harrison.
When the people of Fort Wayne became aware of the gravity of their situation, it was determined to send the women and children to a safe refuge, the closest being Piqua, Ohio. In order to accomplish this, Captain John Logan, a Shawnee Indian, was sent by John Johnston from Piqua to conduct the group which numbered close to twenty-five. Among Logan’s charges on the hundred-mile journey were Ann, Rebecca, and Mary Wells, and the wives and children of Antoine Bondie, William Bailey, and Stephen Johnston. This was but the first of many acts of heroism on the part of the Shawnee brave, John Logan, during the war.[1]
None too soon were the women and children removed to a place of safety, for in a short time about five hundred warriors began to gather quietly about Fort Wayne, encamping in the forest and seeking to avoid open evidence of hostility. Theirs was a waiting game, as the British had promised troops and artillery within a period of twenty days.
Fortunately for the garrison and the people remaining near Fort Wayne, the Indian plan to attack the fort was discovered beforehand in much the same manner as Pontiac’s famous plan to capture Detroit had been revealed to the British at an earlier date in history. On the night of August 20, Metea, a Potawatomie chief, made his way under cover of darkness to the cabin of Antoine Bondie outside of the fort enclosure and there revealed to Bondie the plans of attack in order that Bondie and his Indian wife might escape death. Antoine Bondie, a French trader, was then about fifty years old and had lived with the Indians since he was twelve near the vicinity of Fort Wayne. Metea naturally thought that Bondie would join them and when the Frenchman did not decline the chief’s offer, he suspected nothing.
However, Bondie accompanied by Charles Peltier, another French trader, went to Benjamin Stickney the following morning and informed the agent of the plot.[2] Stickney, who at a later date wrote his account of the siege, gave himself most of the credit for the turn the events then took.[3] At first, he relates, he was inclined to reject Bondie’s information as false, since a mistake in a matter of so much importance would have proved ruinous to his character and would have resulted in his disgraceful ejection from office. However, he informed Captain Rhea of the situation, and despite the fact that the Captain discredited Bondie’s story on the grounds that the latter was untrustworthy, Stickney determined to send an express to Harrison at Cincinnati and another to Captain Taylor at Terre Haute informing them of the state of affairs.