Show forgotten HEROES by ELMO SCOTT WATSON s s ils mans friend of the districts in the forest ONE preserve system of cook county illinois bears the name of and that Is virtually the only to an indian chieftain whom chicago has good reason to remember with gratitude sauganash Sau ganash or billy aid well was born in canada in 1780 the son of an irish officer in the british army and a woman of the ale tribe among whom he became a leader on the day of the fort dearborn massacre in 1812 a little group of ter stricken women was gathered in the home of john kanzle the trader not knowing how soon their fate would be the same as that of members of the garrison who had marched to their deaths among the sand dunes along lake michigan that morning three friendly black partridge ban see and kee po tah were on guard outside the door but a group of from the wabash river country who had arrived too late for the massacre had entered the house and their sullen countenances were a threat of trouble to come suddenly another party of indians appeared and black partridge met the leader with the demind who are you 1 I am a sauganash Sau ganash english man was the reply and this told black partridge that his tribesman came as a friend if he had replied 1 I am a pottawatomie it would have meant that he intended to stand by his indian brethren no matter what they did then hurry to the house ex claimed black partridge your friend shawnee aw lee sliver man john kanzle Is in danger and you alone can save him so entered the attle house threw down his weapons and greeted the lowering tribesmen how now my friends I 1 I 1 was told were here but I 1 am glad to find only friends why have you blackened your faces Is it that you mourn for friends you have lost in battle or Is it that you are fasting if BO ask our friend here and he will give you to eat lie Is the indians friend and never yet refused them what they had need of the savages were taken aback at cool daring and his reference to kanzle s friendship for the in made them ashamed to ac knowledge their real purpose they hastily declared that they had come only to obtain from kanzle some cloth in which to wrap their dead before burying them and as soon as this and some other presents were given them they filed silently out of the house so the courage or diplomacy of the halfbreed chieftain saved the massacre of the kanzle family from being added to the horrors of fort dearborn that day his sacrifice was in vain was his name RICHARD and he was a lieutenant under commodore preble in the expedition against tripoli in 1804 one of those I 1 youthful officers whom that irascible old sea dog had characterized as a d d parcel of schoolboys when they reported tor duty to him at gibraltar but without exception those schoolboys showed themselves to be men size fighters and finally when it seemed that the attempt to capture the city of tripoli must fall unless the large number of enemy vessels which lay at anchor in the harbor under the guns of the town could be destroyed it was somera who went to preble with a daring scheme plan was to fit up as a fire ship the ketch intrepid take it into the harbor and explode it among the fleet to make this floating infernal machine a success it was necessary to pour a hundred bar aels of gunpowder into her hold besides this the intrepid carried a large stock of splintered wood and about two hundred shells with prepared fuses to hy on her deck preble besl bated but somers was insistent and final ly preble consented on the night of september 4 somers accompanied by two and ten picked men took the intrepid into the harbor under the cover of darkness outside the remainder of the fleet were watching in bently the black shadow of the ketch as she crept in among the rocks sud denly one of them cried out look 1 see the light 1 for a bright spot like a lantern was seen to move across the intrepid s deck the neit moment a roar shook the harbor and rocked the ships at their moorings A red glare illumined the sea and the americans saw timbers and sills of the intrepid rise up in the burning air for a mo ment and then plunge hissing into the water the cause of the explosion Is still a mystery hetler somers blew the ship up too soon or whether the pow der was ignited hn never boen learned ahe next morning teen blackened bodies united at tripoli not the slightest diange had been done to the or forts so bomer had been in jiin out in the records of the navy there Is written after Ms name and the names of the died with honor in the service september 4 1804 artt union |