Defense - Michigan Avenue Bridge - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 41° 53.309 W 087° 37.476
16T E 448181 N 4637583
This relief is located on one of the towers on the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago, IL.
Waymark Code: WMBTVG
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/20/2011
Views: 9
The relief depicts the massacre that occurred near here at Fort Dearborn during the War of 1812. The artist is Henry Hering and the work is dated 1925...although it was installed in 1928. The piece is entitled "Defense".
An inscription below the relief reads (copied from the Smithsonian Inventory: (
visit link) :
"DEFENSE/FORT DEARBORN STOOD ALMOST ON THIS SPOT./AFTER AN HEROIC DEFENSE IN EIGHTEEN/HUNDRED AND TWELVE, THE GARRISON TOGETHER/WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN WAS FORCED TO EVACUATE/THE FORT LED FORTH BY CAPTAIN WELLS. THEY/WERE BRUTALLY MASSACRED BY THE INDIANS/THEY WILL BE CHERISHED AS MARTYRS IN/OUR EARLY HISTORY/ERECTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE /B.F.FERGUSON MONUMENT FOUND/1928. signed"
The inventory also describes the work thusly:
"This relief depicts a scene from the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812. Inhabitants are being led to safety by an Indian scout after being forced to evacuate the Fort in fear of a British attack. An allegorical classical female figure floats above the more boldly carved, Beaux-Arts style figure group. The relief is one of four installed on the Michigan Avenue Bridge pylons."