[From Niles' Weekly Register, 4th June, 1814.]
Chicago.—Among the persons who have recently arrived at this place, says the Plattsburg [N. Y.] paper of the 21st ultimo, from Quebec, are: James Van Horn, Dyson Dyer, Joseph Knowles, Joseph Bowen, Paul Grummond, Nathan Edson, Elias Mills, James Corbin, Phelim Corbin, of the First Regiment of U. S. Infantry, who survived the massacre at Fort Dearborn, or Chicago, on the 15th August, 1812. It will be recollected that the commandant at Fort Chicago, Captain Heald, was ordered by General Hull to evacuate the fort and proceed with his command to Detroit; that having proceeded about a mile and a half, the troops were attacked by a body of Indians, to whom they were compelled to capitulate.
Captain Heald, in his report of this affair, dated October 23d, 1812, says: "Our strength was fifty-four regulars and twelve militia, out of which twenty-six regulars and all the militia, with two women and twelve children, were killed in the action.
"Lieut. Linai T. Helm, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and eleven women and children, were prisoners when we separated." Lieut. Helm was ransomed. Of the twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and the eleven women and children, the nine persons above mentioned are believed to be the only survivors. They state that the prisoners who were not put to death on the march were taken to the Fox River, in the Indian territory, where they were distributed among the Indians as servants. Those who survived remained in this situation about nine months, during which time they were allowed scarcely a sufficiency of sustenance to support nature, and were then brought to Fort Chicago, where they were purchased by a French trader, agreeable to the directions of General Proctor, and sent to Amherstburg, and from thence to Quebec, where they arrived November 8th, 1813.
John Neads, who was one of the prisoners, formerly of Virginia, died among the Indians between the 15th and 20th of January, 1813.
Hugh Logan, an Irishman, was tomahawked and put to death, be not being able to walk from excessive fatigue.
August Mott, a German, was killed in the same manner for the like reason.
A man by the name of Nelson was frozen to death while a captive with the Indians. He was formerly from Maryland.
A child of Mrs. Neads, the wife of John Neads, was tied to a tree to prevent its following and crying after its mother for victuals. Mrs.. Neads perished from hunger and cold.
The officers who were killed on the 15th of August had their heads cut off and their hearts taken out and boiled in the presence of the prisoners. Eleven children were massacred and scalped in one wagon.