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Potawatomi chief of the Wabash · Besieger of Fort Wayne, 1812
On the record
Winamac, a Potawatomi chief of the Wabash, co-led with Five Medals the force of roughly five hundred Potawatomi and Miami who besieged Fort Wayne from 5 to 12 September 1812. The fort's orderly book and Indian agent Benjamin Stickney's account preserve his part in the siege's strangest scene: at a parley under flag of truce on 4 September, after wine with Captain James Rhea, Winamac was admitted to the fort on 5 September with thirteen men and drew a hidden knife on Stickney, and was stopped by the trader Antoine Bondie. The final attack came on 11 September; the besiegers withdrew across the Maumee on 12 September ahead of Harrison's relief column. No verified birth or death dates for Winamac were found, and none are printed.
Find them on this page
- § 06 — people of the record
- § 02 — the Story of Fort Wayne section
Sources: Ball State University, Forts of Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne orderly book; Stickney manuscript via Potterf, Old Fort News, fall 1969); Wikipedia, "Siege of Fort Wayne."