Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828Poinsatte, Charles R.
History
Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828
Poinsatte, Charles R.
Fort Wayne (Ind.) -- History
The lives of these residents of Fort Wayne in 1814 were never without
some fear of possible attack from the Indians, even though the danger
had diminished. That Major Whistler expected just such an attack is
evident by his letter of July 1 to Brigadier General Duncan McArthur, in
which he asked for additional men or permission to reconstruct the fort.
Said he “The Indians show a bad disposition to attend the Treaty [This
treaty was held at Greenville]. I have Received an Account from Mr.
Johnston that the Potawatomies and Taways and the Other Indians
Bordering on Lake Michigan are intending to join the British and take
Detroit, Malden and this Place this Moon.”[38]
The conduct of Chief Richardville had been especially annoying to Major
Whistler. At the outbreak of the war, Richardville hurriedly gathered
his effects and fled with his family to the British lines and there
remained, without taking an active part in the trouble, until 1814. When
he returned to his home six miles east of Fort Wayne, Major Whistler
invited him to a conference. He responded, but he appeared reluctant to
attend the conference at Greenville. Finally he came, in company with
Chief Chondonnai, a participant in the Fort Dearborn massacre, and
placed his signature to the treaty.
In May, 1815, Major Whistler again informed General McArthur of his
intention to rebuild the fort, provided he could receive permission from
the War Department. Permission was granted and in the fall of 1815,
Major Whistler directed the construction of the new fort to take the
place of the one erected by the troops of Colonel Hunt fifteen years
before. Thus it fell to the lot of the builder of the first Fort
Dearborn to become in turn the builder of the last Fort Wayne. Although
the troops were destined to remain in this fort only four more years,
parts of it remained standing until 1852, and for a long time after the
garrison evacuated it, the fort served the government agencies and some
of the citizens as a useful shelter.
The best source of information in regard to this last fort is in the
record of John W. Dawson, who, in 1858, gathered information from the
early settlers and wrote a series of articles for the local paper.[39]
According to Dawson, the fort enclosed an area about 150 feet square.
The pickets were ten feet high, and set in the ground, with block houses
at the southeast and northwest corners, which were two stories high. The
second floor projected and formed a bastion in each blockhouse where the
guns were rigged; that on the southeast corner commanding the south and
east sides of the fort, and that on the northwest corner, the north and
west sides. The officers’ quarters, commissary department and other
buildings located on different sides formed part of the walls, and in
the center stood the liberty pole from which the flag flew.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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