On the morning of January 26, 1856, the "Battle of Seattle" began when Native Americans raided the white settlement in what is now known as Seattle. Previously warned of the attack, most settlers had barricaded themselves in a blockhouse. The attackers were driven off by artillery fire. The battle was the penultimate event in a series of armed conflicts, known as the Puget Sound War, which stemmed from Washington Territory Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens' (1818-1862) forced treaties with local tribes during 1854 and 1855, and the government's later refusal to honor the treaties. The "war" ended with the November 1856 wrongful arrest and later execution of a central figure of the war, Nisqually Chief Leschi (1808-1858).

In 1882 a Navy Lieutenant and Navigator of the Decatur during the time of the battle, Thomas Stowell Phelps (1822-1901), published "Reminiscences of Seattle: Washington Territory and the U. S. Sloop-of-War 'Decatur' During the Indian War of 1855-56," which probably included his hand-drawn map of Seattle at the time of the battle. The map pictured here is the 1930 revision of Mr. Phelps' map by local historian Clarence Booth Bagley (1843-1932), who added the location of some major streets as well as a list of the Decatur's officers at the time of the 1856 battle.

Caption on recto: Plan of Seattle, 1855-6, Showing the position occupied by the Decatur's crew, Jany 26, together with the line of Barricades erected and roads constructed. Thos S. Phelps, Commodore U.S.N.

Caption information source: "Native Americans attack Seattle on January 26, 1856," by Walt Crowley and David Wilma, HistoryLink.org Essay 5208.