From September, 1821, until June, 1823, the commander of Fort Dearborn was Lieutenant-colonel John McNeil.[700] Colonel McNeil was a man of interesting personality in many ways. Physically he was the rival of General Scott for being the tallest and heaviest man in the army, and the equal in size of "Long John" Wentworth, Chicago's well-known editor, mayor, and congressman.[701] He was a soldier of the War of 1812, during the course of which he was twice brevetted for gallant conduct, the first time in the battle of Chippewa and the second in the battle of Niagara.[702] Mrs. McNeil was a half-sister of Franklin Pierce, later President of the United States. She was described over half a century later, by one who as a young soldier had come under her influence, as a "most estimable woman," whose kindness and wise counsels had had a beneficial influence on his whole life.[703] For a daughter born to Mrs. McNeil at Fort Dearborn the father subsequently claimed the distinction of having been the first child born in the new fort.[704] Their only son, Lieutenant J. Winfield Scott McNeil, who died in 1837 of wounds received in a battle with the Seminole Indians,[705] was a young boy during the time his father was stationed at Fort Dearborn.
[700] Drennan Papers, Fort Dearborn post returns.
[701] Wentworth, Early Chicago, 24-25. In 1857 Wentworth was said to be the tallest man in Chicago, measuring about six feet and a half and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds (Chicago Magazine, I, 399).
[702] Heitman, Dictionary of the United States Army, I, 679.
[703] Van Cleve, Three Score Years and Ten, 31.
[704] Wentworth, Early Chicago, 24.
[705] Ibid., Heitman, op. cit., I, 679.
James Watson Webb, who later acquired national renown as editor, politician, and diplomat, was stationed at Fort Dearborn as a young Heutenant during a part of the period of McNeil's incumbency as commander. The descendant of an old New York family, Webb ran away from home at the age of seventeen, and going to Washington secured as the result of a personal interview with Calhoun, then Secretary of War, a commission in the army. In October, 1821, he joined the Fort Dearborn garrison and remained here until the following June. Webb's service at Fort Dearborn was marked by a bold and arduous exploit. Toward the end of January, 1822, John Kinzie, who was then acting as sub-Indian agent, communicated to Colonel McNeil information which he had received from a friendly Chippewa chief of a plot on the part of the Sioux and Fox Indians to overwhelm the garrison at Fort Snelling on the upper Mississippi the following spring.[706] It was desirable to send word to Fort Armstrong of the plot, from which place the news could be forwarded up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling. Lieutenant Webb, though barely twenty years of age, volunteered for this service. Accompanied by a sergeant and a Pottawatomie guide, he set out on February 4, intending to proceed to the post of a French trader on the Rock River and there secure a Winnebago guide for the remainder of the trip. Upon reaching there, however, he found the Winnebagoes celebrating their war dance. To secure a guide from them was out of the question. During the night Webb and his companion set out, ostensibly to return to Chicago, but in reality to make their way across the prairie to Fort Armstrong. The weather was bitterly cold and they were exposed to the double danger of death from freezing and of being intercepted by the Indians. Neither materialized, however, and in due time Webb's message was delivered to the commander at Fort Armstrong.
[706] For Webb's account of the affair see his letter to John Wentworth, October 31, 1882, in Chicago Historical Society library, and Andrews, Biographical Sketch of James Watson Webb, 11-15. For Kinzie's report of the plot to Cass, February 1, 1822, see Indian Department, Cass correspondence.
In May, 1823, an order was issued from Washington for the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the following autumn the garrison departed.[707] Doctor Alexander Wolcott, who had succeeded Jouett as Indian agent at Chicago, continued to serve in this capacity until his death in 1830. In July, 1823, he married Ellen Marion, the eldest daughter of John Kinzie's second family,[708] and upon the removal of the garrison took up his residence in the fort. The circumstances of Wolcott's marriage well illustrate the primitive conditions which prevailed at Chicago in this period. There was no justice of the peace, minister of the gospel, or other person at Chicago authorized to solemnize marriages. It chanced that William S. Hamilton, son of the famous statesman, Alexander Hamilton, who had adopted a roving life in the wilderness of northern Illinois, had taken a contract to supply the garrison at Fort Howard with beef cattle. John Hamlin, one of the early residents of Peoria who held a commission as justice of the peace, had accompanied Hamilton on a trip to Green Bay with a drove of cattle. On the return journey he reached Chicago about July 20, and advantage was taken of his presence by the prospective bride and groom to have their marriage ceremony performed.