This well-written, well-documented historical narrative offers a "comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the beginnings of Chicago and its place in the evolution of the old northwest." It tells the "story of early Chicago, concluding at the point where the life of the modern city begins." Chapters include: The Chicago Portage, Chicago in the Seventeenth Century, The Fox Wars: A Half-Century of Conflict, Chicago in the Revolution, The Flight for the Northwest, The Founding of Fort Dearborn, Nine Years of Garrison Life, The Indian Utopia, The Outbreak of War, The Battle and Defeat, The Fate of the Survivors, The New Fort Dearborn, The Indian Trade, War and the Plague, and The Vanishing of the Red Man. Appendices include: Journal of Lieutenant James Strode Swearingen, Sources of Information for the Fort Dearborn Massacre, Nathan Heald's Journal, Captain Heald's Official Report of the Evacuation of Fort Dearborn, Darius Heald's Narrative of the Chicago Massacre (as Told to Lyman C. Draper in 1868), Lieutenant Helm's Account of the Massacre, Letter of Judge Augustus B. Woodward to Colonel Proctor concerning the Survivors of the Chicago Massacre, Muster-Roll of Captain Nathan Heald's Company of Infantry at Fort Dearborn, and, The Fated Company: A Discussion of the Name and Fate of the Whites Involved in the Fort Dearborn Massacre. A bibliography and an index to full-names, places and subjects complete this work.