[TABLE OF CONTENTS.]
PART I.
Saturday, August Fifteenth, 1812.
Scene at dawn; page [19]:—Mothers and children; Captain Wells and his Miamis; his niece, Rebekah Heald; why he blackened his face; the Dead March; the Fort cattle; Indian follies; [20]:—Margaret Helm, the authority for Mrs. Kinzie's narrative in Wau-Bun; [21]:—Ensign Ronan's insubordination; Rebekah Heald's version as reported by her son, Darius; [22]:—Evacuation of the fort; Captain Heald's force; Kinzie family; they take boat; [23]:—To-pee-nee-be's warning; line of march; [24]:—Pottowatomie "escort;" [25]:—Wau-Bun narrative begins; the attack; [27]:—Surgeon Van Voorhees; [28]:—Black Partridge rescues Mrs. Helm; scene portrayed in bronze group; [29]:—John Kinzie reports safety of Lieutenant Helm; Captain Wells's scalp; Indians are kind to Mrs. Helm; she learns details of the struggle; a squaw tortures a wounded soldier; [30]:—English blamed for Indian alliance; Mrs. Heald's narrative begins; similar to Mrs. Helm's; the sand-ridges; [31]:—Captain Wells orders and leads the charges; the battle thus foolishly lost; signal for surrender; [32]:—The twelve militia-men; Captain Heald's wound; [33]:—Mrs. Heald's six wounds; particulars of Wells's death; Indians cut out his heart and eat it; [34]:—"Epeconier!"; his noble self-sacrifice; relics in the Calumet Club; [35]:—Mrs. Heald fights for her blanket; [36]:—Stripped of her jewelry; what became of it; articles redeemed and still in existence; [37]:—Chandonnais saves the Healds' lives; wounded prisoners tortured to death; [38]:—Fatal blot on the Indian race; Mrs. Helm's report goes on at second hand; variance with Captain Heald's; [39]:—The latter casts no slurs; [40]:—One Indian kills twelve children in the baggage-wagon; Mrs. Helm's incredible account of Wells's death; [41]:—True-seeming tale of the Kinzies' escape; doubtful statement about Mrs. Heald; [42]:—Kinzies again in the old house; Indians burn the fort; they guard the Kinzies, Wabash hostiles come; [44]:—Peril and panic; [45]:—Saved by Billy Caldwell, the Sau-ga-nash; [46]:—Sukey Corbin's fate, as told by Mrs. Jouett; [48]:—Possibility that a narrative by Lieutenant Helm may exist, Indian traits; [49]:—What is next to be shown; [50].
PART II.
HOW THE FORT AND CITY WERE BEGUN AND WHO WERE THE BEGINNERS
Chapter I. The Dark Before the Dawn.—The French period reluctantly passed over; Chicago reappears in 1778, after 100 years of oblivion; J. B. Pointe de Saible; [53]:—Various spellings of Chicago; meaning of the word; [54]:—Treaty of 1795; building of the "Old Kinzie House" in 1778; [55]:—Who was here then? Astor fortunes; [56]:—50,000 square miles of solitude; Gurdon Hubbard's observations in 1816; Ouillemette, now Wilmette; Gen. Dearborn orders the fort built; [57]:—John Whistler's company of the First Infantry comes in 1804 and builds it; John Whistler; [58]:—The schooner Tracy arrives, the "big canoe with wings;" the account given, in 1875, by Mrs. Whistler; the pioneer, John Kinzie, arrives in 1804; [60]:—State of things for the next eight years; [61]:—Charles Jouett; [62]:—Joe Battles and Alexander Robinson; the Indians and Indian traders; whisky; Munsell's History of Chicago; [63].