The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical DocumentsKirkland, Joseph
History
The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical Documents
Kirkland, Joseph
Chicago (Ill.) -- History; Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, Ill., 1812
The "statue" was pierced to form the base of a fountain, and was set up
as one of the curiosities of the great Sanitary Commission Fair, held
in 1865, in Dearborn Park, in aid of the sick and wounded in the war
for the Union. In 1856 it was adopted as a relic by the Hon. Isaac N.
Arnold--member of Congress during the war and one of the staunchest and
ablest of patriots, and most devoted of friends to the soldiers--who
moved it to his home, in Erie street. Mr. Arnold's house was burned
with the rest in the great fire of 1871, and old "Waubansa" passed
through the flames with the same unmoved look he had preserved through
his earlier vicissitudes. Afterward numerous fire relics were grouped
about him and a photograph taken, wherein, for the first time, he looks
abashed, as if conscious of the contrast between his uncouthness and
the carvings which surround his antique lineaments. The stone stands
open to the public view in the grounds adjoining the new home (100 Pine
Street), which Mr. Arnold built after the fire, and in which he lived
up to the time of his lamented death, in April, 1884.
* * * * *
Who were the victims of August fifteenth, 1812? What were the names of
the killed, the wounded, the tortured, the missing? This is a question
to which only the merest apology for an answer can be given. In tens
of thousands of cases the very act of dying for one's country forbids
the possibility of becoming known to fame. Nameless graves dot our
land from north to south, and from east to west, especially from the
Susquehanna to the Rio Grande and from the Ohio to the Gulf. Heaven
knows who were those dead, and who they might have become if they had
not died when and where they did. Let us hope that somewhere in the
universe they have their record--on earth they are forgotten.
I have aimed at recording every surviving name of the dwellers in
Chicago up to the massacre. As an effort toward that end, I give, on
the next page, the last muster and pay-roll of the troops at the old
fort, as shown by existing records. It is headed:
"Muster roll of a company of Infantry under the command of Captain
Nathan Heald, in the First Regiment of the United States, commanded by
Colonel Jacob Kingsbury, from Nov. 30, when last mustered, to December
31, 1810."
It concludes with a certificate in the following form, identical, by
the way, with the formula in use in our army to this day (1893):
Recapitulation.--Present, fit for duty, 50; sick, 5; unfit for
service, 3; on command, 1; on furlough, 1; discharged, 6. Total, 67.
We Certify on honor that this muster-roll exhibits a true statement
of the company commanded by Captain Nathan Heald, and that the
remarks set opposite their names are accurate and just.
J. Cooper, S. Mate.
Ph. O'Strander, Lieutenant commanding the Company,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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