Chapter IV
The Siege of Fort Wayne

At last the savages had struck their long deferred blow. The little garrison of eighty-five men at Fort Wayne received with alarm the first account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn. The news was conveyed by one of the friendly Miamis who had accompanied Wells to Fort Dearborn. Unknown to the garrison at this date was the fact that Detroit—the protecting center of the other northwestern posts—had been ingloriously surrendered on August 16 to a British-Indian force by General William Hull. Mackinac had already fallen to the British. Tecumseh and the British now turned their attention to the reduction of Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute, Indiana), as the principal remaining obstacles to prevent them from driving the white inhabitants beyond the Ohio river. After their success at Dearborn, a council was held by the Indian tribes and British officers at the Potawatomie villages. Here it was determined that the Potawatomies together with the Ottawas were to be assisted in the proposed siege of Fort Wayne by a British force under Major Muir. Meanwhile the Winnebagoes and Miamis would direct their attention toward Fort Harrison.

When the people of Fort Wayne became aware of the gravity of their situation, it was determined to send the women and children to a safe refuge, the closest being Piqua, Ohio. In order to accomplish this, Captain John Logan, a Shawnee Indian, was sent by John Johnston from Piqua to conduct the group which numbered close to twenty-five. Among Logan’s charges on the hundred-mile journey were Ann, Rebecca, and Mary Wells, and the wives and children of Antoine Bondie, William Bailey, and Stephen Johnston. This was but the first of many acts of heroism on the part of the Shawnee brave, John Logan, during the war.[1]

None too soon were the women and children removed to a place of safety, for in a short time about five hundred warriors began to gather quietly about Fort Wayne, encamping in the forest and seeking to avoid open evidence of hostility. Theirs was a waiting game, as the British had promised troops and artillery within a period of twenty days.

Fortunately for the garrison and the people remaining near Fort Wayne, the Indian plan to attack the fort was discovered beforehand in much the same manner as Pontiac’s famous plan to capture Detroit had been revealed to the British at an earlier date in history. On the night of August 20, Metea, a Potawatomie chief, made his way under cover of darkness to the cabin of Antoine Bondie outside of the fort enclosure and there revealed to Bondie the plans of attack in order that Bondie and his Indian wife might escape death. Antoine Bondie, a French trader, was then about fifty years old and had lived with the Indians since he was twelve near the vicinity of Fort Wayne. Metea naturally thought that Bondie would join them and when the Frenchman did not decline the chief’s offer, he suspected nothing.

However, Bondie accompanied by Charles Peltier, another French trader, went to Benjamin Stickney the following morning and informed the agent of the plot.[2] Stickney, who at a later date wrote his account of the siege, gave himself most of the credit for the turn the events then took.[3] At first, he relates, he was inclined to reject Bondie’s information as false, since a mistake in a matter of so much importance would have proved ruinous to his character and would have resulted in his disgraceful ejection from office. However, he informed Captain Rhea of the situation, and despite the fact that the Captain discredited Bondie’s story on the grounds that the latter was untrustworthy, Stickney determined to send an express to Harrison at Cincinnati and another to Captain Taylor at Terre Haute informing them of the state of affairs.

Why Captain Rhea should have refused and Stickney should have hesitated to believe that an attack was imminent even though they knew of the massacre at Fort Dearborn is difficult to understand. It can be said in their defense that when Bondie revealed to them the plot of the red men, they had not yet heard of the surrender of Detroit; consequently, did not realize their position was so precarious. Lt. Curtis in his account of the siege of Fort Wayne states that many attempts were made to send messages through to Detroit, but that they all failed.[4] Earlier in the same day that Metea informed Bondie of the coming attack on Fort Wayne, Captain Rhea expressed the rather naive belief that the Potawatomies gathering about the fort intended to proceed to Piqua for a conference with the U. S. commissioners, and requested Governor Meigs of Ohio to send him instructions concerning the matter. At the same time Captain Rhea asked for information in regard to General Hull’s movements at Detroit, which indicated he knew nothing of the surrender.[5]

Four days later it was becoming increasingly apparent that the information furnished by Antoine Bondie was no mere fiction. Stephen Johnston, who served as a clerk at the Fort Wayne factory after the departure of his older brother, described conditions surrounding the fort in a letter written August 24, 1812, to his wife at Piqua:

“We have about four hundred Indians here. Their intentions are very suspicious. I have moved all the public goods into the garrison, so that I am now unincumbered by the business, and if it were not for Mr. Stickney’s illness, and having to attend to his department, I would leave the place for the present, as the trading establishment is at an end for the time being.”[6]

On the 24 or 25 of August, Captain Rhea dispatched a message to General Worthington and Governor Meigs of Ohio, stating that he expected the fort to be attacked that night.[7] This was the last communication received from the garrison prior to the start of the siege. It is fortunate that these appeals for aid were sent by Benjamin Stickney and Captain Rhea as they served to hasten Harrison’s army of relief in time to save the fort. By August 28, Harrison, realizing the gravity of the situation, wrote to the Secretary of War, “The relief of Fort Wayne will be my first object.”[8]

Meanwhile at Fort Wayne, both parties wished to delay the final conflict, the garrison in order to give time to Harrison to bring the necessary relief, and the Indians, from daily expectation of the arrival of the British force which had been promised them. Within the fort, the situation was rendered highly embarrassing and hazardous by the condition of Captain Rhea who began to drink heavily and was incapable of handling any duties. It is evident also that ill-feeling between Benjamin Stickney and the two lieutenants, Curtis and Ostrander, was not lacking. In his account, Stickney wrote, “The commanding officer was drunk nearly all the time, and the two lieutenants were inefficient men, entirely unfit to hold commissions of any grade.”[9] This last statement must be taken with some allowance, as Philip Ostrander was later made temporary commander of Fort Wayne with Harrison’s approval, and Daniel Curtis rose to the rank of captain after creditable service during the war.

By August 28, the post was definitely in a state of siege. About ten o’clock that night Stephen Johnston, accompanied by Peter Oliver and a recently discharged soldier set out for Piqua, as Johnston was eager to join his wife there. When the three men had arrived at a point a short distance south of the fort, near what was the Hanna homestead, they were fired upon by the Indians. Johnston was killed instantly. The other two men fled back to the fort. A reward of twenty dollars, offered by Antoine Bondie the next day for the return of Johnston’s body to the fort—a work performed by a young chief, White Racoon—revealed the fact that Johnston had been scalped and tomahawked in a most brutal manner.

No further proof of the attitude of the Indians was needed; however the next morning an Indian approached the fort and asked Stickney for a white flag in order that some of the chiefs might come and speak with him. The flag was granted under a promise of its being returned that day, but the Indians kept it several days during which time they were constantly plundering the gardens and cornfields and were killing and carrying away the cattle and hogs. This they did right under the guns of the fort, and comments Lt. Curtis, “we poor soldiers, either from cowardice or some other agency in our captain, were not suffered to fire a gun but obliged their repeated insults to pass with impunity.”[10]

On one occasion a party of soldiers left the fort to check the Indians. For this the lieutenants were rebuked by Captain Rhea in an official order.[11] Finally the Indians bearing the flag before themselves approached the fort in large number, hoping evidently to be allowed to enter in such force as to be able to overpower the occupants. But only a few were admitted by Stickney, who designated thirteen chiefs who would be welcomed. Each chief was disarmed on entering the stockade and the party followed the agent to his quarters. At the request of Stickney the troops were paraded during the council which followed. When the council pipes were finished, Winamac addressing the agent disclaimed any part in the death of Johnston. “But,” he added, “if my father wishes for war, I am a man.”[12] With this expression he struck his hand upon a knife that was concealed under his blanket. Stickney at the time did not understand the language, but Antoine Bondie who was present and understood the whole force of what was said, sprang to his feet and, striking his own knife, shouted in Potawatomie, “I, too, am a man.”[13] His dramatic action, together with the appearance of the soldiers, fully armed, brought the plot to a finish. The Indians had hoped through the murder of Stickney and the officers, to be able to control the situation within the fort, even to the opening of the gates to allow the entrance of their warriors. However, they filed back to their encampment disappointed.

The garrison was cheered on September 1 by the arrival of William Oliver who brought news of the approach of Harrison’s army. Oliver, who was then twenty-five years of age, had been connected with the fort as a sutler. While the Indians were gathering about the fort he was absent in Cincinnati purchasing supplies, and there he learned of the state of affairs at Fort Wayne. He enlisted with the Ohio troops and offered his services to General Harrison with the proposition that the general allow him to proceed from St. Mary’s, Ohio, to Fort Wayne with a small company as an advance detachment of the army of relief. This he did, but when the group of ninety-four men came within twenty-four miles of Fort Wayne, they ascertained the size of the besieging forces to be larger than they could safely meet in an open encounter. Oliver continued on, however, with three Shawnees—Captain John Logan, Captain Johnny, and Brighthorn. Well mounted and well armed, they eluded the vigilance of the besiegers and succeeded in reaching the Maumee river at a point one and a half miles east of the fort. Here they left their horses in order to make a preliminary reconnoiter. The enemy was conferring on a strategem for the capture of the garrison and had gathered on the west and south sides of the fort. Returning to their horses, the four messengers rode stealthily along the Maumee and up the bank to the east wall of the fort. No member of the garrison was in sight. In despair, they rode down the river bank and skirted the shore as they turned their horses to the west to follow the St. Mary’s river. Then, in full view of the Indians, they dashed up the river bank and made straight for the north gate of the fort, at a moment when Winamac and four other chiefs were rounding the northwest corner of the fort with a flag of truce to hold another conference with the commandant. The sudden appearance of the riders disconcerted the besiegers who believed them to be the advance of a large relieving force. Winamac retired after a mere handshake. Lt. Curtis later stated, “The safe arrival of Mr. Oliver at that particular juncture may justly be considered most miraculous. One hour sooner or one hour later would no doubt have been inevitable destruction both to himself and escort.”[14]

Once within the fort Oliver announced the approach of Harrison’s army and immediately dispatched a note to Harrison by John Logan and his companions, who succeeded in evading the besiegers once again.

In the meantime Harrison’s force had reached Piqua on September 1. Here he found the whole “country in dreadful alarm on account of the fall of Detroit and Chicago and the supposed investiture of Fort Wayne by the Indians.”[15] A body of 700 volunteers for the relief of Fort Wayne was unwilling to go beyond Shane’s Crossing on the St. Mary’s without reinforcements. On September 4, Harrison received information that a British and Indian force was advancing toward Fort Wayne from Malden. Actually, the British detachment under Major Muir did not leave Malden until September 16, four days after the siege was abandoned by the Indians. This delay by the British was occasioned by the temporary armistice arranged between General George Prevost and General Dearborn. Had the British sent support to the besieging Indians sooner, or had not Harrison been so prompt in bringing relief, the outcome of the siege of Fort Wayne might have been far different. As it was the garrison being well supplied with provisions was able to withstand the attacks made by the Indians.

Nevertheless, the situation at Fort Wayne was fairly critical from September 3, to September 12. On September 3, Captain Rhea published his final garrison order, saying, “It is earnestly hoped by the Commanding Officer that for this night every man will be at his post,—relief is at hand but means may be taken to cut us off from that relief. Should any man be found inattentive to his duty, punishment ensues; For on this night, our fame, our honor and every thing that is near & dear depends. —be therefore Cautious and brave—“[16] For the following twenty-seven days no entry was placed in the Orderly Book. The next morning, despite his dramatic order, Captain Rhea, inwardly disheartened and apprehensive of the doom of the garrison and its occupants, took to drink to bolster his despairing nature.

On the same day the chiefs again approached the fort with a flag of truce, and being asked whether they wished war or peace, Winemac replied, “You know that Mackinaw is taken, Detroit is in the hands of the British, and Chicago has fallen; and you must expect to fall next, and that in a short time! Immediately”, Lt. Curtis continues, “our great captain invited the savage over to his headquarters and after drinking three glasses of wine with him rose from his seat and observed: ‘My good friend, I love you; I will fight for you; I will die by your side. You must save me!’ and then gave him a half dollar as a token of friendship, inviting him at the same time to come and breakfast with him the next morning.”[17]

Winamac failed to accept the Captain’s invitation to breakfast, but instead sent five warriors who secreted themselves behind a small building and shot two members of the garrison. From then on the siege became active. That night the Indians made a general attack, but were driven off by the four howitzers of the fort. Almost continuous firing was kept up day and night until September 10; several times the buildings were set on fire by flaming arrows, but the vigilance of the garrison prevented a conflagration.

During this time, Captain Rhea continued “drunk as a fool, and perfectly incapable of exercising rationality on any subject whatsoever, but was constantly abusing and illtreating everyone that came in his presence.”[18] The disorder and confusion he created among the men was one of the greatest dangers of the siege. At one time Lieutenants Curtis and Ostrander considered placing him under arrest in order to silence his clamor. The captain would frequently talk of surrendering if the Indian attacks grew stronger and particularly if they or the British would bring up the cannon they had captured at Chicago. When Captain Rhea was told by Lt. Ostrander that the largest piece at Chicago was a three-pounder and that the first person in the garrison who should offer to surrender at the approach of no heavier piece than a three-pounder should instantly be shot, he remained silent on the subject.

Meanwhile, instead of waiting at Piqua for the arrival of General James Winchester, who had been assigned to the command of the northwestern army, Harrison issued the following call:

Mounted Volunteers! I requested you, in my late address to rendezvous at Dayton on the 15th instant. I have now a more pressing call for your services! The British and Indians have invaded our country and are now besieging (perhaps have taken) Fort Wayne. Every friend to his country, who is able to do so, will join me as soon as possible, well mounted, with a good rifle and twenty or thirty days provisions.[19]

Although Harrison was eager to press forward, the army was detained at Piqua for lack of flints and did not move until September 6. Two days later it reached Girty’s Town, now St. Mary’s, Ohio. By that time the army numbered 2,200 men, and the scouts sent out by the Indians returned to their camp with the report that “Kentuck is coming as numerous as the trees.”[20]

At Fort Wayne comparative calm had set in, according to Lt. Curtis’ account. “After the 10th we rested in tranquility, but could see large bodies of Indians between that time and the 12th running in great haste across the prairies and many without arms.”[21] On the night of the 11th, while still seventeen miles from Fort Wayne, Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War that he fully expected a major engagement the following day. The Indians were prepared to give battle at a swamp five miles southeast of the fort, but finding Harrison’s army too strong to attack, they kindled extensive fires to create the impression within the fort that a battle had occurred. They hoped thereby to draw the troops out of the fort, but his final ruse failed, and the Indians withdrew, some only a few minutes before the arrival of Harrison’s advance guard.

The arrival of the army around three o’clock that afternoon was an occasion of great joy to the troops and people who had taken refuge within the fort. Harrison’s men encamped outside the walls of the fort where, McAfee relates, “a few days previous there had been a handsome little village; but it was now in ruins.”[22] The government factory had been burned by the Indians as well as the large council house. Captain Wells’ farm had been overrun and laid waste, while all the outlying homes were destroyed. The corn which had been cultivated by the villagers was nearly all gone and the remainder served as forage for Harrison’s cavalry.

Fort Wayne was described by McAfee as:

Delightfully situated on an eminence on the south bank of the Miami of the Lake [Maumee river] immediately below the formation that river by the junction of the St. Marys with the St. Josephs ... It is well constructed of block houses and picketting, but could not resist a British force, as there are several eminences on the south side, from which it could be commanded by a six or nine pounder.[23]

After referring to the proximity of the Wabash river to that of the St. Mary’s, McAfee added, “A canal at some future day will unite these rivers and thus render a town at Fort Wayne, as formerly, the most considerable place in all that country.”[24]

From a military viewpoint, Fort Wayne had successfully withstood the siege, but the destruction of the village and trade must be considered as a major setback to the community. McAfee indicated this even though he foresaw a more promising future. As late as 1821, Thomas Teas wrote after visiting Fort Wayne, “The village before the late war was much larger than at present.”[25] Many of the families who left Fort Wayne in 1812 never returned.

On the day following Harrison’s arrival, detachments, using Fort Wayne as their base of operations, commenced the destruction of the Indian villages of the entire region. The men who remained at Fort Wayne proceeded to remove all the underbrush surrounding the fort. The land was cleared on both sides of each river for a mile in every direction.

After arranging his camp, Harrison summoned the officers and agent of the fort and there, from Lieutenants Curtis and Ostrander, with Benjamin Stickney as a corroborative witness, heard the charges preferred against Captain Rhea. Rhea was placed under arrest and after a careful consideration of the charges, Harrison was in favor of having him brought before a court martial. However, on account of his age and his having a young family, Rhea was allowed to resign. He was given until December 20 to return home, at which time his pay and emoluments ceased.

On September 18, General James Winchester arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the army. It was only after the troops had been promised that Harrison would soon be re-appointed commander that they consented to march toward Detroit under Winchester.

General Winchester chose to follow the usual route to Detroit by moving down the north bank of the Maumee. The American army left Fort Wayne on September 22. Meanwhile unaware that the siege of Fort Wayne had been lifted, the British commander at Detroit, Colonel Proctor, dispatched two hundred British regulars under Major Muir together with a thousand Indians under Captain Elliot to assist in taking Fort Wayne. Having brought their baggage and artillery up the Maumee as far as Fort Defiance, the British discovered the approach of Winchester’s stronger army. A hasty retreat on the part of the British followed. Their cannon and heavy equipment were thrown into the river.

As pointed out previously the British had delayed sending this expedition because of the temporary armistice. Had the force under Major Muir reached Fort Wayne before Harrison’s army, it is likely that the fort would have fallen, which would have rendered the recapture of Detroit much more difficult. General Brock in writing to his superior, Sir George Prevost, expressed the belief that Fort Wayne would surely fall to Major Muir and added, “The Indians were likewise looking to us for assistance. They heard of the Armistice with every mark of jealousy, and had we refused joining them in the expedition it is impossible to calculate the consequences.”[26] That the British troops were prepared to batter down the palisades of Fort Wayne is shown by the official report of Major Muir to Colonel Proctor. Some of his officers endeavored to induce Major Muir to hold his position at Defiance and use their cannon to prevent the advance of Winchester’s troops. “I told them”, Major Muir wrote, “that the guns were brought for the purposes of battering Fort Wayne, but would not answer to fight in the woods.”[27] Colonel Proctor, in turn explaining the movement to General Brock, wrote, “The delay occasioned by the armistice prevented the attainment of the object of our expedition, which was destruction of Fort Wayne.”[28]

After the departure of Captain Rhea, Lt. Philip Ostrander was left in temporary charge of Fort Wayne for a period of nine weeks. During October, Ostrander reported that over half the garrison was sick. For these men there was no medicine, while all the men were destitute of clothing and blankets. Concerning the Indian menace, the situation had improved, but the danger from attack had not passed. Lt. Ostrander issued a stern warning to his men not to leave the fort without permission.[29]

Word that the Indians were again collecting around Fort Wayne induced Harrison to send Colonel Allen Trimble and five hundred mounted volunteers to the fort. A battalion of Ohio infantry was also sent to Fort Wayne with much needed provisions. While at Fort Wayne this group collected firewood since the garrison was unable to do so with the hostile Indians lurking in the woods.

On November 22, 1812, Captain Hugh Moore arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the post. Little is known about Captain Moore. He had been with Harrison from the outbreak of the war. At Fort Wayne he served as commander until the summer of 1813 when he was succeeded by Major Joseph Jenkinson. Captain Moore’s first order was the appointment of Antoine Bondie as issuing agent at the post. This was obviously in recognition of Bondie’s service during the siege. This position enabled Bondie to support his family, as his trading establishment was all but ruined. Later Bondie was also appointed captain of the scouts which were sent out occasionally from the fort.

On April 28, 1813, Captain Moore issued an order placing Lt. Philip Ostrander under arrest and prohibiting any member of the garrison from communicating with the younger officer. Lt. Ostrander was never brought before a military court, but died on July 13, 1813, while still imprisoned. There is no reason given for the arrest in the orderly book, other than the statement, “circumstances have transpired within this garrison of a most destructive, injurious and dangerous nature to the service.”[30] Brice in his short history of Fort Wayne says: “Lieutenant Ostrander ... who had unthoughtfully fired upon a flock of birds passing over the fort, had been reprimanded by Captain Ray [Rhea], and because of his refusal to be tried by courtmartial, was confined in a small room in the garrison, where he subsequently died.”[31]

This account is rendered impossible from the fact that Ostrander acted as commandant from the time of Rhea’s departure in disgrace, until the arrival of Captain Moore. As late as January 5, 1813, Lt. Ostrander was a member of a court martial, which found Alexander Scott guilty of contemptuous conduct to one of the officers, possibly Ostrander himself. After that date his name does not appear in the record until April 27, 1813, the day prior to his arrest, when the same Alexander Scott was tried and acquitted on a charge of traducing Lt. Ostrander’s character.[32] In what manner Scott supposedly slandered Lt. Ostrander is not stated in the proceedings of the trial; however, it is possible to surmise that there was some connection between the charge and Lt. Ostrander’s arrest the following day.

During the year 1813, Fort Wayne became the natural center for supplies used by the American armies operating in northern Ohio and eastern Michigan. In May of that year, Harrison addressed the Secretary of War, saying:

“I am persuaded that a demonstration in the direction of Fort Wayne by a body of mounted men would be attended by very happy effects. I am not entirely at ease on the subject of the garrisons in that direction. The enemy, if they understood their business will certainly make an attempt to carry some of our weak posts where we have large deposits ... I have always been partial to the assembling a body of Troops in the Vicinity of Fort Wayne. It is in the immediate line of communication between the Indians of the Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, and the South and West sides of Lake Michigan and Malden.”[33]

Following this logic, Harrison ordered Colonel Richard M. Johnson to proceed to Fort Wayne and from thence to scour the northwestern frontiers. After a difficult journey over the swollen St. Mary’s river and flooded countryside, Johnson’s men reached Fort Wayne on June 7. Grim excitement greeted their arrival. One of the ten flatboats bringing provisions to Fort Wayne had struck on a bar within sight of the fort. Before help could arrive, the three crewmen were killed by Indians lurking near the fort. Johnson’s cavalry pursued the red men, but nightfall and rain ended their endeavor.

Leaving their heavy baggage at Fort Wayne, the regiment moved across the St. Mary’s and established their camp in the present Spy Run district of Fort Wayne. After a day’s rest, Johnson’s men began a march two hundred miles in the region to the northwest of Fort Wayne. They returned to the fort on June 14. The result of this excursion was important, for never before had this land been traversed by such a large body of white men. The knowledge gained at this time, together with the information published by Capt. McAfee, played a significant part in the development of the northwestern part of Indiana.

After spending a few days at Fort Wayne, Johnson’s regiment proceeded down the Maumee to join Harrison’s army, and aid in the recapture of Detroit. On October 5, 1813, the British and Indian forces were routed at the battle of the Thames by the American army under Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and in effect, the Indian power was broken forever in the old Northwest. This battle, following closely upon Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, brought the war to an unofficial close in this region.

The danger of Indian hostilities at Fort Wayne was never again critical, but the safety of the people about the fort was still menaced by occasional attacks. Such a one occurred late in 1813, when Major Joseph Jenkinson arrived to succeed Captain Hugh Moore as commander of Fort Wayne. On the march from Newport, Kentucky, three companies of militia which accompanied Major Jenkinson found it convenient, in the latter part of their journey, to convey their supplies by flatboats on the St. Mary’s river. At a sharp bend in the stream about a mile from the fort, the Indians ambushed the last of the boats and killed the men who were guiding it.

Major Jenkinson’s period of service at Fort Wayne was brief. His family did not accompany him to the post, and after six months he chose to return to Kentucky where he was appointed adjutant of the state militia. The only existent letter of Major Jenkinson while he was stationed at Fort Wayne, throws some light on the attitude of the local French people toward slavery. The major, writing to his wife, complained that some of the French men living near Fort Wayne had thoroughly “corrupted Ephraim [the major’s slave] by their ideas”; so much so that it was necessary “to cool the fellow off, by two very hard whippings.”[34]

In May, 1814, the command of Fort Wayne was given to Major John Whistler of the First United States Infantry. Major Whistler was not a stranger to Fort Wayne. As a lieutenant he had accompanied Wayne on his western campaign, and was here to assist in the building of the original fort. He remained as a special officer to oversee the maintenance of the forts of the surrounding region. Later, his wife joined him at Fort Wayne, and it was here that their son, George Washington Whistler was born in 1800.[35] Following Major John Whistler’s early service at Fort Wayne, he was transferred to Detroit, and from thence to Chicago, where he built Fort Dearborn and became its first commandant.

Major Whistler was chronically in debt. In fact, his financial outlook was almost hopeless. With a salary, as a captain, of $40.00 a month, he had a family of fifteen children to maintain. To make matters worse, the visits of the government paymaster were highly irregular. On one occasion, he wrote to a creditor that he had received no pay in a period of more than two years. “I hope you will not think I complain against my government for detaining my pay,” he added, “No, but necessity forces me to make the real statement to satisfy my creditor.”[36] It is distinctly to Major Whistler’s credit that even in the act of pressing for payment his creditors frequently paused to express confidence in his honesty and sympathy for his lot.

The year 1814, which marked the return of the Whistler family also marks the re-establishment of family life in and about Fort Wayne. While the Maloch and Peltier families remained at Fort Wayne throughout the war, the other Fort Wayne families had taken refuge mainly in the more settled areas along the Ohio river. Some of the families never did return, but among those who did was the Louis Bourie family. Bourie as early as 1786 maintained a profitable enterprise at the portage by keeping pack-horses and a warehouse for the deposit and transportation of merchandise and peltries. During the war, he moved to Detroit with his wife and two children. Soon after his return to Fort Wayne in 1814, Bourie was given a contract to provide bread for the soldiers, and in 1815, he built a bakery at the corner of the present Clinton and Columbia streets. A short time later he established a general store and erected a log residence adjoining the building.

George Hunt, who had served as a sutler prior to the war, also returned to Fort Wayne in 1814. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Hunt, the third commander at Fort Wayne. With George Hunt came his younger brother, John Elliott Hunt.

Lt. Daniel Curtis, to whom we are indebted for the best account of the siege, was still connected with the post in 1814. Other residents of the fort in that year included Benjamin Stickney, who remained as Indian agent; Benjamin Berry Kercheval and Peter Oliver, clerks of the agent; Charles Peltier a fur trader; John P. Hedges, who had first visited the fort in 1812 and who was now stationed at the fort as a storekeeper; Dr. Daniel Smith, the post surgeon; Robert Forsythe, who later became a paymaster in the United States army; and a French blacksmith, Louisaneau, who had a government appointment to do work for the troops as well as the Indians about the fort.

One of the new arrivals at Fort Wayne at this time was William Suttenfield. Suttenfield had first visited Fort Wayne in 1811, at which time he was in Colonel John Johnston’s employ, being in charge of a pack train hauling military and Indian stores from Piqua, Ohio, to the fort. In 1814, he brought his wife, formerly Laura Taylor, and his infant son, William F. Suttenfield, to Fort Wayne by way of the St. Mary’s river, the route used most frequently by travelers from southwestern Ohio. Suttenfield was for many months after his arrival employed in bringing provisions to the fort from Piqua and other points. He was short, slender, and very active and agile. For these reasons he boasted that the Indians could not catch him while he was bringing in supplies. Soon after their arrival, the Suttenfields built a log house outside the fort. This was the first home erected beyond the protecting walls of the fort, following the siege. It stood near the river to the south of the fort.

Mrs. Laura Suttenfield lived until 1886. Before her death, she left an impressive description of a 4th of July celebration in 1814. The isolation and quietude of Fort Wayne in that year is suggested by her account:

The fort at that time contained sixty men of the regular army, all patriotic and anxious to celebrate one day in the year. They made three green bowers, 100 feet from the pickets of the fort ... one bower for the dinner table, one for the cooks and one for the music. Major Whistler had two German cooks and they prepared the dinner.... Our dinner consisted of one fine turkey, a side of venison, boiled ham, vegetables in abundance, cranberries and green currents. As for dessert, we had none. Eggs were not known here for three years from that time. There were but three bottles of wine sent here from Cincinnati; but one was made use of. Then there were a few toasts, and, after three guns and music, they went into the fort and the ladies changed their dresses. Then Major Whistler called for the music, which consisted of one bass drum, two small ones, one fife, violin and flute. There was a long gallery in the fort; the musicians took their seats there.... A french four passed off very well for an hour. Then the gates of the fort were closed at sundown, which gave it a gloomy appearance. No children, no younger persons for amusement, all retired to their rooms. All was quiet and still. The sentinel on his lonely round would give us the hour of the night. In the morning we were aroused by the beating of the reveille.[37]

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.

The plaza, in the enclosure was smooth and gravelly. The roofs of the houses all declined within the stockade after the shed fashion, to prevent the enemy from setting them on fire, and if fired, to protect the men in putting it out. The rainwater was carried along by wooden troughs, just below the surface of the ground to the flagstaff, and from thence led by a sluiceway to the Maumee.

Dawson believed that when Major Whistler rebuilt the fort, he did not include all of the ground covered by the fort built under Colonel Hunt’s direction. This conviction is substantiated by the fact that before building the new fort, Whistler expressed the opinion that the old fort was too large for the number of troops he had to defend it.[40]

Writing to General McArthur on October 17, 1815, Major Whistler reported that the new fort was almost completed. Only one section of the old fort needed to be taken down and replaced by the new. Whistler expressed the belief that the new fort was the most substantial in the West. “The pickets”, he wrote, “were 12½ feet long and were put in sets of six, with a cross-piece two feet from the top, set in and spiked, and a trench dug 2½ feet deep, into which they were raised.”[41] The major added that he was anxious to complete the work as he expected difficulties with the Indians, who declared their intention to continue the war against the United States. Benjamin Stickney, also writing from Fort Wayne, expressed the same belief.[42]