10 Facts About George Ronan

Ensign George Ronan was a commissioned officer of the United States Army.

Just over one year later Ronan was killed in combat in the Battle of Fort Dearborn.

George Ronan was the first member of the West Point Corps of Cadets to perish in battle.

George Ronan attended the United States Military Academy for almost three years, from June 1808 to March 1811.

At the time George Ronan matriculated, the fledgling institute of military education was six years old, and he accepted his commission in the academy's ninth year.

George Ronan is described by survivors as a high-spirited young ensign who did not get along well with his commanding officer, fort commander Captain Nathan Heald.

Heald, possibly in retaliation, ordered George Ronan to undertake a series of increasingly dangerous operations outside the fort walls in ultimately futile efforts to knit together the tiny band of French-speaking, English-speaking, and Native American-speaking farmers and traders who lived in cabins scattered up and down the Chicago River.

Witnesses saw George Ronan continuing to struggle even after suffering a mortal wound, and he allegedly accounted for two hostile warriors before his death.

Survivors believed that the spot where Ensign George Ronan was struck down was at or close to what later became the intersection of 21st Street and Indiana Avenue, located in the Prairie Avenue neighborhood of Chicago's Near South Side.

George Ronan was the first West Point graduate to be killed in action.