Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 41663-h.htm or 41663-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41663/41663-h/41663-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41663/41663-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/dearbornmassacr00helmrich [Illustration: _Monument commemorating the Fort Dearborn Massacre_] THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE Written in 1814 by LIEUTENANT LINAI T. HELM One of the survivors With Letters and Narratives of Contemporary Interest Edited by Nelly Kinzie Gordon Rand Mcnally & Company Chicago New York Copyright, 1912, by Nelly Kinzie Gordon [Illustration: _Old Fort Dearborn_] To my Native City Chicago WHOSE MARVELOUS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT I HAVE WATCHED WITH PRIDE AND UNFAILING INTEREST SINCE THE YEAR 1835 I dedicate this book THE CONTENTS PAGE _Introduction_ 5 Judge Woodward's Letter to Colonel Proctor 9 Lieutenant Helm's Letter to Judge Woodward 13 Lieutenant Helm's Narrative 15 The Massacre at Chicago 27 John Kinzie 85 The Capture by the Indians of Little Eleanor Lytle 109 THE ILLUSTRATIONS Monument commemorating the Fort Dearborn Massacre _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Old Fort Dearborn 15 The old Kinzie house 85 Cornplanter, a Seneca chief 109 INTRODUCTION The narrative of Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, one of the two officers who survived the Chicago Massacre, mysteriously disappeared nearly one hundred years ago. This manuscript has lately been found and is now in the possession of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, by whose kind permission it is here presented to the public, together with letters explaining its loss and its recovery. It is the earliest extant account given by a participator in the fearful tragedy of August 15, 1812. It was written by Lieutenant Helm in 1814, at the request of Judge Augustus B. Woodward, of Detroit, and was accompanied by a letter asking Judge Woodward's opinion as to whether the strictures made in the narrative upon the conduct of Captain Heald would result in Helm's being court-martialed for disrespect to his commanding officer.