plished without
any Indian atrocities, the success of that day was to precipitate a
massacre, long to rankle in the minds of the pioneers of the West.
Immediately upon hearing of the capture of the fort, General Hull wrote
to Captain Heald in command at Fort Dearborn ordering the evacuation of
that post. On the morning of August 15th, as the small garrison
of fifty-five regulars and twelve militia were leaving the fort with
their women and children, they were fallen upon by a force of five
hundred Indians. Twenty-six regulars, all the militiamen, two women, and
twelve children were murdered on the spot. An unknown number of wounded
prisoners were that evening victims at what the Indians termed a
"general frolic".[24]

In the meantime Robert Dickson, who for many years had been a Prairie du
Chien fur trader, was continuing his activities as recruiter of Indians
for British service. This was the same Dickson who had in 1802 received
an American commission as a justice of the peace,[25] and had later
entertained Pike and his men "with a supper and a dram", impressing the
American explorer as a man of "open, frank manners."[26] Now, in
January, 1813, he was appointed by Great Britain "agent for the Indians
of the several Nations to the Westward of Lake Huron".[27]

By June 23, 1813, he had already sent eight hundred Indians to Detroit
and had collected six hundred at Mackinac.[28] The summer of 1813 was
spent in operations about Detroit, but in the winter he was again active
in the West.[29] Great alarm was felt at St. Louis when rumors came
telling of the great force he was collecting.[30] Accordingly, late in
the spring of 1814, Governor William Clark of Missouri Territory
proceeded up the Mississippi and at Prairie du Chien built a stockade
named Fort Shelby. It was garrisoned by about sixty men.[31] News
of this movement soon came to Mackinac, and prompted the British
commandant to prepare a counter-expedition. On the seventeenth of July
the force composed of five hundred and fifty men, of whom four hundred
were Indians, arrived outside the post. Immediately a summons to
surrender was sent. The American commander at first refused, but two
days later agreed to capitulate providing the Indians would be kept in
check. The surrender took place on July 20th, and the captor christened
the stockade Fort McKay in honor of himself.[32]

Thus, the Indians about the Mississippi had been present at the
surrender of two posts a