On the morning of January 26, 1856, the "Battle of Seattle" began when Native Americans raided the settlement of Seattle. Previously warned of the attack, most settlers had barricaded themselves in a blockhouse. The attackers were driven off by artillery fire and by Marines from the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay. Although there were relatively few casualties on both sides, 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. The "war" ended with the November 1856 wrongful arrest and later execution of a central figure of the war, Nisqually Chief Leschi (1808-1858).

This handwritten account of the "Battle of Seattle" was written by participant Dr. Henry Allen Smith (1830-1915), a physician who had settled in Seattle in 1853 at the north end of Elliott Bay, at what is now known as Smith Cove or Interbay.

Nearly all the male population of the region who were capable of military service was involved in some capacity during the period, many of serving in the Washington Territorial Militia, Company A, Territory Foot Volunteers, from January 29 to July 29, 1856. Dr. Smith mentions several of these individuals in his manuscript: C. H. Hewit (Christopher Charles Hewitt, 1809-1891, later Chief Justice of the Washington Territorial Supreme Court); Sergeant John Henning (John Henning, b. 1829); Henry Vanassell (Henry Van Asselt, 1817-1902, the longest surviving original settler of King County); Mr. Bell (William Nathaniel Bell, 1817-1887, namesake of Seattle's Belltown neighborhood); Mr. Hanford (Edward S. Hanford, 1807-1884, founding member of Seattle's First Baptist Church); Captain Landin (Edward Lander, b. 1827, judge and aide to Acting Territorial Governor Charles Mason); A. A. Denny (Arthur Armstrong Denny, 1822-1899, one of the founders of Seattle); and Lieutenant Slaughter (William Slaughter, 1827-1855, original namesake of the town of Auburn).

Caption information source: "Native Americans attack Seattle on January 26, 1856," by Walt Crowley and David Wilma, HistoryLink.org Essay 5208.
Caption information source: "Smith, Henry A. (1830-1915)," by Junius Rochester, HistoryLink.org Essay 2965.
Caption information source: https://www.mil.wa.gov/uploads/pdf/history/fields_vol_ii.pdf