Battle of Seattle (1856)
| Battle of Seattle | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Puget Sound War, Yakima War | |||||||
Map of Seattle during the battle, drawn by Lieutenant Phelps of the USS Decatur | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| United States | Native Americans | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Guert Gansevoort | Chief Leschi (allegedly) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3 killed (includes Jack Drew, a deserter from the ship, killed by a settler) | Unknown, possibly 28 killed | ||||||
The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856, attack by Native American tribesmen upon Seattle, Washington. At the time, Seattle was a small, four-year-old settlement in the then-Washington Territory. It had recently named itself after Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound. The settlement was already made the seat of King County in 1852.
European-American settlers were backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay (Seattle's harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay). They suffered two fatalities. It is not known if any of the Native American raiders died. The contemporary historian T. S. Phelps wrote that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded. The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War or Yakima Wars (1855–1858), lasted a single day.