Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 10: The Sioux Outbreak, 1916

Sunday, August 17, 1862, was a beautiful day in western Minnesota. The sun shone brightly, the weather was warm, and the skies were blue. The corn was in the green ear stage; the wild grass was ripe for the hay mowing; the wheat and oats were ready to be harvested.

A large majority of the settlers and pioneers in the Upper Minnesota valley, on the north or east side of the river, were church members. The large German Evangelical settlement, on Sacred Heart creek held religious services on that day at the house of one of the members, and there were so many in attendance that the congregation occupied the dooryard. A great flock of children had attended the Sunday school and received the ninth of a series of blue cards, as evidence of their regular attendance for the nine preceding Sundays. "When you come next Sunday," said the superintendent to the children, "you will be given another blue ticket, making ten tickets, and you can exchange them for a red ticket. ' ' But to neither children or superintendent that "next Sunday" never came.

At Yellow Medicine and Hazelwood there was an unusual attendance at the meetings conducted by Riggs and Williamson. At the Lower Agency Rev. S. D. Hinman, the rector of the station, held services in Sioux in the newly erected but uncompleted Episcopal church and among his most attentive auditors were Little Crow and Little Priest, the latter a Winnebago subject, who, with a dozen of his band, had been hanging about the Agency awaiting the Sioux payments. Little Crow was a pagan, believing in the gods of his ancestors, but he always showed great tolerance and respect for the religious opinions of others.

Altogether there was not the slightest indication or the faintest suspicion of impending trouble before it came. There are printed statements to the effect that a great conspiracy had been set on foot, or at least planned; but careful investigation proves these statements, no matter by whom made, to be baseless and unwarranted. Except the four perpetrators nobody was more startled

The Rice Creek Indians were deserters from the bands to which they rightfully belonged, because they were discontented with conditions and had grievances against their chiefs or others of their fellow-clansmen. They were, too, malcontents generally. They did not like their own people ; they did not like the whites. Not one of them was a Christian, and they had nothing but contempt for their brethren that had become converts. Many of them, however, wore white men's clothing, and a few were good hunters and trappers, although none were farmers. They depended almost altogether for provisions upon their success in hunting and fishing. Detachments from the band were constantly in the big woods, engaged in hunting, although in warm weather the game killed became tainted and nearly putrid before it could be taken home; and from daylight until dark the river bank in front of their village was lined with women and children busily fishing for bullheads.

On Sunday afternoon, August 17, the Rice Creekers held an open council, which was attended by some of Shakopee's band located not far away. It was agreed to make a demonstration to hurry up the payment, and that the next day every able-bodied man should go down to the Lower Agency, from thence to Fort Ridgely, and from thence to St. Paul, if necessary, and urge the authorities to hasten the pay day, already too long deferred. But nothing was said in the council about war. An hour or two later nothing was talked of but war.

About August 12 twenty Lower Indians went over into the big woods of Meeker and McLeod counties to hunt. Half a dozen or more of the Rice Creek band were of the party. One of Shakopee's band, named Island Cloud, or Makh-pea "We-tah, had business with Captain George C. Whitcomb, of Forest City, concerning a wagon which the Indian had left with the captain. Reaching the hunting grounds in the southern part of Meeker county, the party divided, Island Cloud and four others proceeding to Forest City and the remainder continuing in the township of Acton.

On the morning of August 17 four Rice Creek Indians were passing along the Henderson and Pembina road, in the central part of Acton township. Three of them were formerly Upper Indians, the fourth had a Medawakanton father and a "Wahpaton mother. Their names, in English, were Brown Wing, Breaks Up and Scatters, Ghost That Kills, and Crawls Against; the last named was living at Manitoba in 1891. Two of the four were dressed as white men ; the others were partly in Indian costume. None of them was more than thirty years of age, but each seemed older.

As these Indians were passing the house and premises of Robinson Jones, four miles south of the present site of Grove City, one of them found some hen's eggs in a fence corner and proceeded to appropriate them. One of his comrades remonstrated against his taking the eggs because they belonged to a white man and a discussion of the character of a quarrel resulted. To Return I. Holcombe, the compiler of this chapter, in June, 1894, Chief Big Eagle related the particulars of this incident, as follows:

"I will tell you how this was done, as it was told to me by all of the four young men who did the killing. * * * They came to a settler's fence and here they found a hen's nest with some eggs in it. One of them took the eggs when another said: 'Don't take them, for they belong to a white man and we may get into trouble.' The other was angry, for he was very hungry and wanted to eat the eggs, and he dashed them to the ground and replied: 'You are a coward. You are afraid of the white man. You are afraid to take even an egg from him, though you are half starved. Yes, you are a coward and I will tell everybody so.' The other said, 'I am not a coward. I am not afraid of the white man, and to show you that I am not, I will go to the house and shoot him. Are you brave enough to go with me?' The one who had taken the eggs replied: 'Yes, I will go with you and we will see who is the brave.' Their two companions then said : 'We will go with you and we will be brave, too.' Then they all went to the house of the white man." (See Vol. 6, Minn. Hist. Socy. Coll., p. 389; also St. Paul Pioneer Pres, July 1, 1894.)

Robinson Jones was a pioneer settler in Acton township. He and others came from a lumber camp in northern Minnesota, in the spring of 1857, and made claims in the same neighborhood. January 4, 1861, Jones married a widow named Ann Baker, with an adult son, Howard Baker, who had a wife and two young children and lived on his own claim, in a good log house, half a mile north of his step-father. The marriage ceremony uniting Jones and Mrs. Baker was performed by James C. Bright, a justice of the peace. In the summer of 1862 Mr. and Mrs. Jones adopted into their family a deceased relative's two children, Clara D. Wilson, a girl of fifteen, and her half brother, an infant of only eighteen months. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones after their marriage.

Jones was a typical stalwart frontiersman, somewhat rough and unrefined, but well liked by his white neighbors. His wife was a congenial companion. In 1861 a postoffice called Acton was established at Jones' house; it was called for the township, which had been named by some settlers from Canada for their old home locality. In his house Jones kept a small stock of goods fairly suited to the wants of his neighbors and to the Indian trade. He also kept constantly on hand a barrel or more of cheap whiskey which he sold by the glass or bottles, an array of which always stood on his shelves. He seldom sold whiskey to the Indians except when he had traded with them for their furs, but Mrs. Jones would let them have it whenever they could pay for it.

August 10, a young married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Viranus Webster, from Wisconsin, in search of a Minnesota homestead, came to Howard Baker's in their fine two-horse wagon and were given a welcome and a temporary home until they could select a claim. As Baker's rooms were small, the Websters continued to use their covered wagon as a sleeping apartment. Webster had about $160 in gold coin, and some other money, and good outfit, including a fine shotgun.

The Ghost Killer and his three companions went to Jones' house, and according to his statement, made half an hour later, demanded whiskey, which he declined to give them. He knew personally all of the four, and was astonished at their conduct, which was so unusual, so menacing and threatening, that - although he was of great physical strength and had a reputation as a fighter and for personal courage - he became alarmed and fled from his own house to that of his step-son, Howard Baker, whither his wife had preceded him on a Sunday visit. In his flight he abandoned his foster children, Clara Wilson and her baby brother. Reaching the house of his step-son, Jones said, in apparent alarm, that he had been afraid of the Indians who had plainly tried to provoke a quarrel with him.

Although the Jones house, with its stores of whiskey, merchandise, and other articles had been abandoned to them, the Indians did not offer to take a thing from it, or to molest Miss Wilson. Walking leisurely, they followed Jones to the Baker house, which they reached about 11 a. m. Two of them could speak a little English, and Jones spoke Sioux fairly well. What occurred is thus related in the recorded sworn testimony of Mrs. Howard Baker, at the inquest held over the bodies of her husband and others the day following the tragedy :

"About 11 o'clock a. m. four Indians came into our house; stayed about fifteen minutes; got up and looked out; had the men take down their guns and shoot them off at a mark; then bantered for a gun trade with Jones. About 12 o'clock two more Indians came and got some water. Our guns were not reloaded ; but the Indians reloaded theirs in the door yard after they had fired at the mark. I went back into the house, for at the time I did not suspect anything, but supposed the Indians were going away.

' ' The next thing I knew I heard the report of a gun and saw Mr. Webster fall; he stood and fell near the door of the house. Another Indian came to the door and aimed his gun at my hus- band and fired, but did not kill him ; then he shot the other barrel of the gun at him, and then he fell dead. My mother-in-law, Mrs. Jones, came to the door and another Indian shot her ; she turned to run and fell into the buttery ; they shot at her twice as she fell. I tried to get out of the window but fell down cellar. I saw Mrs. Webster pulling the body of her husband into the house; while I was in the cellar I heard firing out of doors, and the Indian immediately left the house, and then all went awar.

"Mr. Jones had told us that they were Sioux Indians, and that he was well acquainted with them. Two of the Indians had on white men's coats; one was quite tall, one was quite small, one was thick and chubby, and all were middle-aged ; one had two feathers in his cap, and another had three. Jones said to us: 'They asked me for whiskey, but I could not give them any.' " (See History of Meeker county, 1876, by A. C. Smith, who presided at the inquest and recorded the testimony of Mrs. Baker.)

In a published statement made a few days later (See communication of M. S. Croswell, of Monticello, in St. Paul Daily Press, for September 4, 1862) Mrs. Webster fully corroborates the statements of Mrs. Baker. She added, however, that when the Indians came to the Baker house they acted very friendly, offering to shake hands with everybody; that Jones traded Baker's gun to an Indian that spoke English and who gave the white man three dollars in silver "to boot," seeming to have more money; that Webster was the first person shot and then Baker and Mrs. Jones; that an Indian chased Jones and mortally wounded him so that he fell near Webster's wagon, shot through the body, and died after suffering terribly, for when the relief party came it was seen that in his death agonies he had torn up handfuls of grass and turf and dug cavities in the ground, while his features were horribly distorted.

Mrs. Webster further stated that she witnessed the shooting from her covered wagon ; that as soon as it was over the Indians left, without offering any sort of indignities to the bodies of their victims, or to carry away any plunder or even to take away Webster's and Baker's four fine horses, a good mount for each Indian. Mrs. Webster then hastened to her dying husband and asked him why the Indians had shot him. He replied: "I do not know; I never saw a Sioux Indian before, and never had anything to do with one." Mrs. Baker now appeared from the cellar, and, with her two children ran into a thicket of hazel bushes near the house and cowered among them. As soon as Webster was dead and his body had been composed by his wife, she, too, ran to the bushes and joined Mrs. Baker.

The two terror-stricken women were considering, as best their mental condition would permit, what they should do, when a half-witted, half-demented fellow, an Irishman, named Cox, came along the road. At once the women entreated him for assistance. The poor imbecile only grinned, shook his head and said to them that they were liars and that there had been no Indians here. When they pointed to the bloody corpses he laughed and said: "Oh, they only have the nose-bleed; it will do them good," and then passed on, crooning a weird song to a weirder tune. A few days later, the report was that Cox was a spy for the Indians and he was arrested at Forest City and sent under guard, via Monticello, to St. Paul, where, on investigation, he was released as a harmless lunatic.

Horrified and half distracted, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster, with the former's two children, made their way for some miles to the house of Nels Olson (who was afterward killed by the Indians), where they passed the night. The next morning they were taken to Forest City and from thence to Kingston and Monticello. Their subsequent history cannot here be given.

Soon after their arrival at Nels Olson's cabin Ole Ingeman heard the alarming story of Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster and galloped away to Forest City with the thrilling news, stirring up the settlers on the way. He reached Forest City at six o'clock in the evening, crying, "Indians on the war-path!" In an hour sixteen of the villagers, with hunting rifles and shotguns, were on their way to Acton. It soon grew dark and nine of the party turned back. The other seven - John Blackwell, Berger Anderson, Amos N. Fosen, Nels Danielson, Ole Westman, John Nelson, and Charles Magnuson - pressed bravely on. Soon they were joined by another party of settlers headed by Thomas McGannon. Reaching the Baker place, the settlers approached the house warily, lest the Indians were still there. In the darkness they stumbled over the bloody bodies of Jones, Webster and Baker, and found the corpse of Mrs. Jones in a pantry.

In the gloom of midnight the pioneers passed on to Acton postoffice, Jones' house. Here they expected to find the Indians dead drunk in Jones' whisky, but not an Indian was there. Prostrate on the floor, in a pool of her virgin blood, and just as she had fallen when the Indian's bullet split her young heart in twain, lay the corpse of poor Clara Wilson. No disrespect had been shown it and she had been mercifully killed outright - that was all. On a low bed lay her little baby brother of two years, with not a scratch upon him. He had cried himself to sleep. When awakened he smiled into the faces of his rescuers, and prattled that Clara was "hurt" and that he wanted his supper. John Blackwell carried him away and the child was finally adopted by Charles H. Ellis, of Otsego, Wright county.

In a corner of the main room of the Jones house stood a halffilled whisky barrel, and on a long shelf, with other merchandise, was an array of pint and half-pint bottles filled with the exhila- rating beverage. The Indians had not touched a drop of the stuff - so they themselves declared, and so appearances indicated. The numerous printed statements that they Avere drunk when they perpetrated the murders are all false. Moreover, Jones' statement that they wanted whisky and "acted ugly" because he would not let them have it, may well be disbelieved. After he had fled from the house, disgracefully abandoning Clara Wilson and her baby brother, who were all that could say them nay, the Indians might have seized enough of the whisky to make the entire Rice Creek band drunk ; and when they returned from Baker's and killed Miss Wilson they could easily have plundered Jones' house, not only of its whisky, but of all its other contents, but this they did not do. Of all Jones' household goods and his tempting stock of merchandise, not a pin was taken and not a drop of whisky drank. At Baker's they were as sober as judges and asked for water. (See Lawson and Tew's admirable History of Kandiyohi county, pp. 18-19; also Smith's History of Meeker county.)

On Monday, August 18, about sixty citizens assembled at Acton and an inquest was held on the bodies of Jones, Webster, Baker, Mrs. Jones, and Clara Wilson. The investigation was presided over by Judge A. C. Smith, of Forest City, then probate judge and acting county attorney of Meeker county. The testimony of Mrs. Baker and others was taken and recorded and the verdict was that the subjects of the inquest were, "murdered by Indians of the Sioux tribe, whose names are unknown." The bodies had changed and were changing fast under the warm August temperature, and were rather hastily coffined and taken about three miles eastward to the cemetery connected with the Norwegian church, commonly called the Ness church, and all five of them were buried "in one broad grave." (See Smith's History, p. 17.) Some years later at a cost of $500, the State erected a granite monument over the grave to the memory of its inmates.

While the inquest was being held at the Baker house, eleven Indians, all mounted, appeared on the prairie half a mile to the westward. They were Island Cloud and his party. The two Indians that had come to Baker's the previous day, while the Ghost Killer and his companions were there, and had left, after obtaining a drink of water, and before the murders, reported to the main party that they had heard firing in the direction of the Baker house. Ghost Killer and the three others had not since been seen, and Island Cloud and his fellows feared that the whites had killed them in a row, while drunk on Jones' whisky. (Island Cloud's statement to W. L. Quinn and others.) They were approaching the Baker house to learn what had become of their comrades when the crowd at the inquest saw them. Instantly a number of armed and mounted settlers started for them, bent on vengeance. The Indians, wholly unaware of the real situation, and believing that their four comrades had been murdered and that they themselves were in deadly peril, turned and fled in terror and were chased well into Kandiyohi county. Both whites and Indians in the vicinity of Acton were at this time wholly unaware and altogether unsuspicious of what a great conflagration was then raging the Minnesota valley and which had been kindled by the little fire at Howard Baker's cabin.

All of the attendant circumstances prove that the murder was solely the work of the five persons that did the deed, and that they had no accessories before or after the fact. It was not perpetrated because of dissatisfaction at the delay in the payment, nor because there were to be soldiers at the pay table ; it was not occasioned by the sale of the north ten-mile strip of the reservation, nor because so many white men had left Minnesota and gone into the Union army. It was not the result of the councils of the soldiers' lodge, nor of any other Indian plot. The twenty or more Indians who left Rice Creek August 12 for the hunt did not intend to kill white people; if they had so intended, Island Cloud and all the rest would have been present at and have participated in the murders at Baker's and Jones' and carried off much portable property, including horses. The trouble started as has been stated - from finding a few eggs in a white man's fence-corner.

After the murder of Clara Wilson - who, the Indians said, was shot from the roadway as she was standing in the doorway looking at them - the four murderers, possibly without entering the Jones house, went directly to the house of Peter Wicklund, near Lake Elizabeth, which they reached about one o'clock, when the family were at dinner. Wicklund 's son-in-law, A. M. Ecklund, who had a team of good young horses, had arrived with his wife, a short time before, for a Sunday visit at her father's One of the Indians came to the door of the house, cocked his gun, and pointed it at the people seated around the dinner table. Mrs. Wicklund rose and motioned to the savage to point his gun in another direction. He continued, however, to menace the party and thus distract their attention while his companions secured and slipped away with Ecklund 's horses. Then, mounted, two on a horse, the four rode rapidly southward. Some distance from Wicklund 's they secured two other horses, and then they proceeded as fast as possible to their village at the mouth of Rice Creek, forty miles from Acton.

They reached their village in the twilight after a swift, hard ride, which, according to Jere Campbell, who was present, had well nigh exhausted the horses. Leaping from their panting and dripping studs they called out: "Get your guns! There is war with the whites and we have begun it!" Then they related the events of the morning. They seemed like criminals that had per- petrated some foul deed and then, affrighted, apprehensive and remorseful, had fled to their kinsmen for shelter and protection. Their story at once created great excitement and at the same time much sympathy for them. Some of their fellow villagers began at once to get ready for war, by putting their guns in order and looking after their ammunition supplies. Ho-choke-pe-doota, the chief of the Rice Creek band - if he really held that position - was beside himself with excitement. At last he concluded to take the four adventurers and go to see Chief Shakopee about the matter. Repairing as speedily as possible to the chief's village, on the south side of the river, near the mouth of the Redwood, they electrified all of its people by their startling story, which, however, many of them had already heard.

Shakopee (or Little Six) was a non-progressive Indian, who lived in a tepee and generally as an Indian - scorning the adjuncts of the white man. The story of the killing stirred him, and the excitement among his band, some members of which were already shouting the war-whoop and preparing to fight, affected him so that, while he declared that he was for war, he did not know what to do. "Let us go down and see Little Crow and the others at the Agency," he said at last. Accordingly Shakopee, the Rice Creek chief, two of the four young men who still smelled of the white people's blood they had spilled, and a considerable number of other Rice Creekers, and members of Shakopee 's band, although it was midnight, went down to consult with the greatest of the Sioux, Tah 0 Yahte Dootah, or Little Crow. Messengers were also sent to the other sub-chiefs inviting them to a war council at Little Crow's house. The chief was startled by the appearance of Shakopee and the others, and at first seemed nonplussed and at a loss to decide. Finally he agreed to the war, said the whites of the Upper Minnesota must all be killed, and he commended the young murderers for shedding the first blood, saying they had "done well." Big Eagle thus relates the incident:

"Shakopee took the young men to Little Crow's frame house, two miles above the Agency, and he sat up in bed and listened to their story. He said war was now declared. Blood had been shed, the annuities would be stopped, and the whites would take a dreadful vengeance because women had been killed. "Wabasha, Wacouta, myself, and some others talked for peace, but nobody would listen to us, and soon the general cry was : 'Kill the whites, and kill all these cut-hairs (Indians and half-bloods who had cut their hair and put on white men's clothes) that will not join us.' Then a council was held and war was declared. The women began to run bullets and the men to clean their guns. Parties formed and dashed away in the darkness to kill the settlers. Little Crow gave orders to attack the agency early next morning and to kill the traders and other whites there.

"When the Indians first came to Little Crow for counsel and advice he said to them, tauntingly, 'Why do you come to me for advice? Go to the man you elected speaker (Traveling Hail) and let him tell you what to do.' But he soon came around all right."

Between 6 and 7 o'clock on the morning of August 18, the first shot was fired and the first white man was killed at the Lower Agency and the dreadful massacre began. James W. Lynd, ex-state senator from Sibley county, was a clerk in Myrick's trading house at the agency. He was standing upon a door step watching the movements of some Indians who were coming along with guns in their hands and acting strangely. Suddenly one of them named Much Hail, or Plenty of Hail (Tan-wah-su Ota). (Until a few years since it was generally understood from the best authorities that the fatal shot was fired by Walks Like a Preacher, who died in prison at Davenport, but in 1901 Much Hail, living in Canada, confessed that he was the one that killed Mr. Lynd.) drew up his gun and pointing it at Mr. Lynd, said: "Now, I will kill the dog that would not give me credit." He fired and Mr. Lynd fell forward and died instantly.

The massacre then became general. The whites were taken quite unawares and were easy victims. No women were killed, but some were taken prisoners; others were allowed to escape. The stores presented such enticing opportunities for securing plunder of a greatly coveted sort that the Indians swarmed into and about them, pillaging and looting, and this gave many whites opportunity to escape and make their way to Fort Ridgely, fourteen miles. The ferryman, Hubert Miller (whose name was commonly pronounced Mauley, and whose name was printed in some histories as Jacob Mayley) stuck to his post and ferried people across to the north side until all had passed; then the Indians killed him.

The Indians in large numbers crossed the Minnesota and began their bloody work among the settlers along Beaver and Sacred Heart creeks and in the Minnesota bottoms. A few settlers - and only a few - were warned in time to escape.

Shakopee's band operated chiefly in this quarter and the chief that night said he had killed so many white people during the day that his arm was quite lame. The other Lower bands went down into Brown county and directly across the river.

The dreadful scenes that were enacted in the Upper Minnesota valley on that dreadful eighteenth of August can neither be described nor imagined. Hundreds of Indians visited the white settlement to the north and east and perpetrated innumerable murders and countless other outrages. Scores of women and children were brought in as prisoners and many wagon loads of plunder were driven into the Indian camps. White men, women, and children of all ages were murdered indiscriminately, and under the most terrible circumstances. The bodies were commonly mutilated - sometimes shockingly - but very few were scalped. Only one mixed blood Indian, Francois La Bathe (pronounced La Bat) a trader at the Lower Agency, was killed. About twenty mixed bloods joined the hostile Indians ; the others who would not join were made prisoners. Many mixed blood women were violated and otherwise misused. That night a large number of the settlers' houses and other buildings were burned, but many houses were spared. Some of the Indians declared that they needed them to live in the coming autumn and winter.

There was no resistance worthy of the name. Very few settlers had fire-arms or were accustomed to them. There were many Germans that had never fired a gun in all of their lives. Then, too, the Indian attacks were wholly unexpected. The savages approached their victims in a most friendly and pleasant manner and slew them without warning. Very often, however, the white man knew that he was to be murdered, but he made no attempt to defend himself. Some who were being chased by the Indians, turned and fired a few shots at their pursuers, but without effect. Though hundreds of white people were murdered by the Indians that day, not a single Indian was killed or severely injured.

Down the Minnesota river on both sides below Fort Ridgley as far as New Ulm, and up the river to Yellow Medicine, the bloody slaughter extended that day. The fiendish butcheries and horrible killings beggar description. Here is one of many like instances : Cut Nose, a savage of savages, with half a dozen other Sioux, overtook a number of whites in wagons. He sprang into one of the vehicles in which were eleven women and children and tomahawked every one of them, yelling in fiendish delight as his weapons went crashing through the skulls of the helpless victims. Twenty-five whites were killed at this point. Settlers were slain from near the Iowa line in Jackson county, as far north as Breckenridge, including Glencoe, Hutchinson, Forest City, Manannah and other places. Fourteen were killed at White Lake, Kandiyohi county. The much greater number of whites were slaughtered, however, within the reservations, and in Renville and Brown counties. During the first week, it is estimated that over 600 whites were killed and nearly 200 women and children taken captive.

The Whites at the Yellow Medicine Agency above the Lower Agency, to the number of sixty-two, among them the family of Indian Agent Galbraith, escaped by the aid of John Otherday, a friendly Indian.

When the news of the outbreak reached Fort Ridgley, Captain John S. Marsh, with forty-six of his men of Company B, Fifth Minnesota, started for the Lower Agency. He was ambushed at

Redwood Ferry, twenty-four of his men were killed and he himself was drowned in attempting to cross the river. The survivors of his command hid in the thickets and worked their way back to the fort at night.

The Indians attacked Fort Ridgley on the twentieth and again on the twenty-second of August, the latter day with 800 warriors. The force in the fort numbered 180 men, commanded by Lieutenant T. J. Sheehan. A small battery under Sergeant John Jones, of the regular army, did effective service. There were 300 refugees in the fort. After many hours' fighting, the Indians retired. Had they charged they could have captured the fort, but Indians do not fight in that manner. The saving of Ridgley was the salvation of the country below, as its capture would have enabled the Indians to sweep the valley. The loss of the garrison was three killed and twelve wounded.

The most momentous engagements of the Indian war were the attacks upon New Ulm, as the fate of more than 1,500 people was at stake. The Sioux first assaulted it on the day following the outbreak, but were driven off. That night Judge C. E. Flandrau, of the Supreme Court, arrived with 125 men, and the next day 50 arrived from Mankato. Judge Flandrau was chosen to command. On August 23 the Indians, some 500 strong, again attacked the little city and surrounded it, apparently determined to capture it. The battle lasted five or six hours. The Indians set fire to the houses to the windward, and the flames swept towards the center of the city, where the inhabitants had barricaded themselves, and complete destruction seemed inevitable. The whites, under Flandrau, charged the Indians and drove them half a mile. They then set fire to and burned all the houses on the outskirts in which the Indians were taking shelter. In all, 190 structures were destroyed. Towards evening the Indians retired. Thirty-six whites were killed, including ten slain in a reconnoissance on the nineteenth. Seventy to eighty were wounded.

Owing to a shortage of provisions and ammunition, the city was evacuated on August 25. The sick and wounded and women and children were loaded into 153 wagons and started for Mankato. No more pathetic sight was ever witnessed on this continent than this long procession of 1,500 people forced to leave their homes and flee from a relentless foe, unless it be the pathetic picture, seen so many times on this continent of the Indians being driven from the lands of their ancestors by the no less relentless whites.

stantly apprehended. Oxen were killed in the streets, and the meat, hastily prepared, was cooked over fires on the ground. The grist mills were surrendered by their owners to the public and kept in contant motion to allay the demand for food. All thought of property was abandoned. Safety of life prevailed over every other consideration. Poverty stared in the face those who had been affluent, but they thought little of that. Women were to be seen in the street hanging on each other's necks, telling of their mutual losses, and the little terror-stricken children, surviving remnants of once happy homes, crying piteously around their knees. The houses and stables were all occupied by people, and hundreds of fugitives had no covering or shelter but the canopy of heaven."

"You can hardly conceive the panic existing along the valley. In Belle Plaine I found sixty people crowded. In this place leading citizens assure me that there are between 3,000 and 4,000 refugees. On the road between New Ulm and Mankato are over 2,000; Mankato is also crowded. The people here are in a state of panic. They fear to see our forces leave. Although we may agree that much of this dread is without foundation, nevertheless it is producing disastrous consequences to the state. The people will continue to pour down the valley, carrying consternation wherever they go, their property in the meantime abandoned and going to ruin."

When William J. Sturgis, bearer of dispatches from Fort Ridgley to Governor Ramsey, reached him at Fort Snelling on the afternoon of August 19, the government at once placed ex-Governor Henry H. Sibley, with the rank of colonel, in command of the forces to operate against the Indians. Just at this time, in response to President Lincoln's call for 600,000 volunteers, there was a great rush of Minnesotans to Fort Snelling, so that there was no lack of men, but there was an almost entire want of arms and equipment. This caused some delay, but Colonel Sibley reached St. Peter on the twenty-second. Here he was delayed until the twenty-sixth and reached Fort Ridgley August 28. A company of his cavalry arrived at the fort the day previous, to the great joy of garrison and refugee settlers.

August 31 General Sibley, then encamped at Fort Ridgley with his entire command, dispatched a force of some 150 men, under the command of Maj. Joseph R. Brown, to the Lower Agency, with instructions to bury the dead of Captain Marsh's command and the remains of all settlers found. No signs of Indians were seen at the agency, which they visited on September 1. That evening they encamped near Birch Coulie, about 200 yards from the timber. This was a fatal mistake, as subsequent events proved. At early dawn the Sioux, who had surrounded the camp, were discovered by a sentinel, who fired. Instantly there came a deadly roar from hundreds of Indian guns all around the camp. The soldiers sprang to their feet, and in a few minutes thirty were shot down. Thereafter all hugged the ground. The horses to the number of 87 were soon killed, and furnished a slight protection to the men, who dug pits with spades and bayonets. General Sibley sent a force of 240 men to their relief, and on the same day followed with his entire command. On the forenoon of September 3 they reached the Coulie and the Indians retreated. Twenty-eight whites were killed and sixty wounded. The condition of the wounded and indeed the entire force was terrible. They had been some forty hours without water, under a hot sun, surrounded by bloodthirsty, howling savages. The dead were buried and the wounded taken to Port Ridgley.

After the battle of Birch Coulie many small war parties of Indians started for the settlements to the Northwest, burning houses, killing settlers and spreading terror throughout that region. There were minor battles at Forest City, Acton, Hutchinson and other places. Stockades were built at various points. The wife and two children of a settler, a mile from Richmond, were killed on September 22. Paynesville was abandoned and all but two houses burned. The most severe fighting with the Indians in the northwestern settlements was at Forest City, Acton and Hutchinson, on September 3 and 4. Prior to the battle at Birch Coulie, Little Crow, with 110 warriors, started on a raid to the Big Woods country. They encountered a company of some sixty whites under Captain Strout, between Glencoe and Acton, and a furious fight ensued, Strout 's force finally reaching Hutchinson, with a loss of five killed and seventeen wounded. Next day Hutchinson and Forest City, where stockades had been erected, were attacked, but the Indians finally retired without much loss on either side, the Indians, however, burning many houses, driving off horses and cattle, and carrying away a great deal of personal property.

Twenty-two whites were killed in Kandiyohi and Swift counties by war parties of Sioux. Unimportant attacks were made upon Fort Abercrombie on September 3, 6, 26 and 29, in which a few whites were killed.

There was great anxiety as to the Chippewas. Rumors were rife that Hole-in-the-Day, the head chief, had smoked the pipe of peace with his hereditary enemies, the Sioux, and would join them in a war against the whites. There was good ground for these apprehensions, but by wise counsel and advice, Hole-in-the- Day and his Chippewas remained passive.

proper supply trains. Early in September he moved forward and on September 23, at Wood Lake, engaged in a spirited battle with 500 Indians, defeating them with considerable loss. On the twenty-sixth, General Sibley, moved forward to the Indian camps. Little Crow and his followers had hastily retreated after the battle at Wood Lake and left the state. Several bands of friendly Indians remained, and through their action in guarding the captives they were saved and released, in all ninety-one whites and 150 half-breeds. The women of the latter had been subjected to the same indignities as the white women.

General Sibley proceeded to arrest all Indians suspected of murder, abuse of women and other outrages. Eventually 425 were tried by a military commission, 303 being sentenced to death and eighteen to imprisonment. President Lincoln commuted the sentence of all but forty. He was greatly censured for doing this, and much resentment was felt against him by those whose relatives had suffered. Of the forty, one died before the day fixed for execution, and one, Henry Milord, a half-breed, had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary; so that thirty-eight only were hung. The execution took place at Mankato, December 26, 1862.

The Battle of Wood Lake ended the campaign against the Sioux for that year. Small war parties occasionally raided the settlements, creating "scares" and excitement, but the main body of Indians left the state for Dakota. Little Crow and a son returned in 1863, and on July 3 was killed near Hutchinson by a farmer named Nathan Lamson. In 1863 and 1864 expeditions against the Indians drove them across the Missouri river, defeating them in several battles. Thus Minnesota was forever freed from danger from the Sioux.

In November, 1862, three months after the outbreak, Indian Agent Thomas J. Galbraith prepared a statement giving the number of whites killed as 738. Historians Heard and Flandrau placed the killed at over 1,000.

On February 16, 1863, the treaties before that time existing between the United States and the Sioux Indians were abrogated and annulled, and all lands and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims then existing In favor of said Indians were declared forfeited to the United States.

These Indians, in the language of the act, had, in the year 1862, "made unprovoked aggression and most savage war upon the United States, and massacred a large number of men, women and children within the State of Minnesota ; ' ' and as in this war and massacre they had "destroyed and damaged a large amount of property, and thereby forfeited all just claims" to their

"monies and annuities to the United States," the act provides that "two-thirds of the balance remaining unexpended" of their annuities for the fiscal year, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars, being two-thirds of the annuities becoming due, and payable during the next fiscal year, should be appropriated and paid over to three commissioners appointed by the President, to be by them apportioned among the heads of families, or their survivors, who suffered damage by the depredations of said Indians, or the troops of the United States in the war against them, not exceeding the sum of two hundred dollars to any one family, nor more than actual damage sustained. All claims for damages were required, by the act, to be presented at certain times, and according to the rules prescribed by the commissioners, who should hold their first sesion at St. Peter, in the State of Minnesota, on or before the first Monday of April, and make and return their finding, and all the papers relating thereto, on or before the first Monday in December, 1863.

The President appointed for this duty, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the Hons. Albert S. "White, of the State of Indiana ; Eli R. Chase, of Wisconsin, and Cyrus Aldrich, of Minnesota.

The duties of this board were so vigorously prosecuted, that, by November 1 following their appointment, some twenty thousand sheets of legal cap paper had been consumed in reducing to writing the testimony under the law requiring the commissioners to report the testimony in writing, and proper decisions made requisite to the payment of the two hundred dollars to that class of sufferers designated by the act of Congress.

On February 21 following the annulling of the treaty with the Sioux above named, Congress passed an act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit. "The money arising from the sale of their lands, after paying their indebtedness, is to be paid into the treasury of the United States, and expended, as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in necessary improvements upon their new reservation. The lands in the new reservation are to be allotted in severalty, not exceeding eighty acres to each head of a family, except to the chiefs, to whom larger allotments may be made, to be vested by patent in the Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation."

These several acts of the general government moderated to some extent the demand of the people for the execution of the condemned Sioux yet in the military prison at Mankato awaiting the final decision of the President. The removal of the Indians from the borders of Minnesota, and the opening up for settlement of over a million of acres of superior land, was a prospective

In pursuance of the acts of Congress, on April 22, and for the purpose of carrying them into execution, the condemned Indians were first taken from the State, on board the steamboat Favorite, carried down the Mississippi, and confined at Davenport, in the State of Iowa, where they remained, with only such privileges as are allowed to convicts in the penitentiary. Many of them died as the result of the confinement.

On May 4, 1863, at six o'clock in the afternoon, certain others of the Sioux Indians, squaws and pappooses, in all about seventeen hundred, left Fort Snelling, on board the steamboat Davenport, for their new reservation on the Upper Missouri, above Fort Randall, accompanied by a strong guard of soldiers, and attended by certain of the missionaries and employes, the whole being under the general direction of Superintendent Clark W. Thompson.

Authority and References. Chapters IX and X are based upon Major Return I. Holcombe's material in Minnesota in Three Centuries. Other works have also been consulted. Among the works which may be read in this connection are :

"The Minnesota Indian Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant and Abel B. Murch, 1863. A variation of this work appears in the "History of the Minnesota Valley," George E. Warner and Charles M. Foote, 1882, as the "History of the Sioux Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant.

All the published histories of Minnesota contain accounts of the massacre, as do many county histories of Minnesota. The collections of the Minnesota Historical Society are rich in material on the same subject. Major Return I. Holcombe, already mentioned, is still pursuing his investigations of the massacre, and Marion P. Satterlee is also doing most excellent work along the same lines.