USA > Iowa > Howard County > Lime Springs > History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Ia. gathered by the old settlers > Part 10
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The summer of 1862 had been rather wet and hence all veg- etation had grown luxuriantly. As in all western villages, the houses of New Uhu, except a few stores and shops in the center, were quite scattering, each surrounded with an acre or two of land fenced in and overgrown with grass tall and thick. In almost every back yard were one or more small stacks of hay and barns or sheds for cattle. On the river side of town there were springs coming out of the bluff here and there causing boggy places where the grass and weeds grew especially rank. All this afforded the Indians a fine opportunity for their mode of fighting. Fixing turbans of grass on their heads the braves would crawl like snakes through the grass until close to town- pour a volley into it, then wiggle back without exposing them- selves in the least to the aim of the whites. The whites, now determined to burn all the town outside of the four center blocks. Soon after sundown the Indians withdrew after their custom to their camp which they pitched on the open prairie in plain view on the northwest side of town. The garrison at the wind-mill now set the mill on fire and retired into town. Men sallied forth and set all the outside buildings on fire. In all 192 houses, besides barns, sheds, haystacks and fences were consumed.
A portion of the South Bend company-among them Wmn. Jones and David and John S. Davies-had started back to New Ulm this Saturday. When they reached the bluffs of the Big Cottonwood they saw the smoke and flames of the houses burnt in the afternoon, and concluiding the town had been captured beat a hasty retreat to South Bend.
Other Welshmen, who had gone up to Cambria to care for their stock, also, noticed the smoke in the afternoon and from the bluffs on D. J. Davis' farm the flames of the burning houses were plainly visible. They at once hastened to South Bend and Mankato with the report that New l'im had been taken by the Indians and was being sacked and burned by them. The terrified people, who had been stopping four or five families together in farm houses along Minneopa Creek and elsewhere hastened with all speed to South Bend and Mankato. In South
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Bend the women and children, numbering some hundreds were all packed into the second story of the stone mill of Evans & Price, which still stands in that village, while all the men were pressed into service to defend the town. Hardly half of them had guns of any kind, the rest were armed with pitch forks, axes and seythes which had been procured from the stores. It was an awful night. The red glow of the burning city reflected upon the clouds was plainly visible from South Bend, Mankato and St. Peter. More than half the families in these three towns had husbands, sons of brothers among the New Chu defenders and their sorrow and anxiety was pitiful. Then the wildest rumors prevailed. adding to the anguish and dread. For instance, it was authentically stated that night that so and so had seen the Indians kill John Shields and the last he saw of his comrade, Thos. Y. Davis, he was running for his life with a dozen savages close at his heels. At Mankato a young man came rushing up Front street with his hair literally standing on end shouting that the Indians had come. That his father had just seen fifty canoes of them come down the river and land below the levee. As his father was a cool headed man and the Indians were expected, the story was not doubted and the wildest terror and panic ensued. The marshall, A. N. Dukes. with John C. Wise, present editor of the Review, C. K. Cleve- land and others hastily mustered about two dozen of the militia together ( the rest were too busy just then, inspecting their cel- lers, barns and other dark retreats for fear the Indians may have hid there, to hear the call to arms, ) and marched quickly to the place and then crawled through the brush and behind wood piles, expecting every moment to hear the crack of Indian guns and feel the sting of their bullets. until at last they reached the river's bank and it was discovered to the great relief of all that the fifty canoes of Indians consisted of only a half submerged log, over which the swashing of the current at regu- lar intervals made a noise suggestive of the dipping of oars. These rumors had all the force, however, of realities for the time being. It was fully expected that the Sioux flushed with their victory over New Ulm and Ft. Ridgely ( for there was no question then but both had fallen into their hands, ) were on their way to attack South Bend and Mankato and would be joined by the hordes of the Winnebagoes. It was a time to try men's souls, and many a man renowned for courage in time of peace, lost it all now, while others unknown for bravery dis- closed heroic hearts.
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The first news of the outbreak reached St. Paul late Tues- day afternoon and Governor Ramsey, after reading the dis- patches sent him by Lieut. Gere, and Agent Galbraith at once went to Mendota and commissioned Ex-Governor II H. Sibley, commander-in-chief of all the forces with rank of colonel, to form an expedition against the Indians. The companies, which had enlisted at Ft. Snelling the day before, had. for the most part, started home for short furloughs. except those of the Sixth Regiment. Col. Sibley immediately proceeded to the fort to prepare for the expedition. Word was sent directing the fur- loughed men to report for duty forthwith. The majority of Company E of the Ninth Regiment. containing a number of the Welsh volunteers from Blue Earth County, had reached Shako- pee Tuesday evening, where the report of the massacre reached them. They were ordered to Carver and there await their arms and ammunition. They were obliged to wait for these until Thursday morning. They then took up their march for Man- kato where they arrived Friday afternoon and went into camp on Van Brunt's North Row addition on the westerly side of town. They had with them sealed orders, which were opened and found to instruct them to impress all the horses they needed and report for duty at Lake Crystal, to guard the Indian trail leading between the Winnebago and Sioux Agencies, which passed by the lake, and prevent a junction of the two tribes at New Ului. The "boys" immediately sallied out and took pos- session of all the horses they could find in Mankato and vicinity, and all thus provided went with Capt. Dane to Lake Crystal Saturday morning. The rest of the company supplied them- selves with horses during this day and under Lieutenants Key- sor and Roberts reported at the lake Sunday afternoon. Late in the afternoon of the same Friday (August 22) that Capt. Dane's company reached Mankato, Col. Sibley, with four com- panies of the Sixth Regiment arrived at St. Peter after a tedious march through the Big Woods, where the roads were in a terri- ble condition, owing to the continual rains. Sibley at once dis- patched Lieut. E. St. Julian Cox, with seventy-four volunteers, and Lieut. Adam Buck, with forty-eight Henderson volunteers. to the relief of New Um. Many not being armed, fifty new Austrian rifles were issued to them.
Leaving St. Peter in the afternoon of Saturday they reached their destination Sunday afternoon. In the meantime the Indians had resumed their attack on New Um early Sunday morning. Finding the whites, however, well entrenched and
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concentrated in the four center blocks of town, with all the other buildings around burned to the ground, so they must approach over the open ground to make their attack, they soon retired. and gathering a large drove of cattle, found grazing in the river bottom, they drove them up towards town and tried to approach in their shelter. As soon as they came within range the whites fired a volley into the cattle which caused them to stampede and the Indians stampeded with them. Three times the Indians tried the cattle breastwork experiment and each time with the same result. Discouraged of all hope to capture the town and doubtless learning through their scouts that large re-enforcements for the whites were coming close at hand, the savages, after a short consultation about 11 a. m., gave up the fight and withdrew in a body up the Minnesota Valley whence they came. A few of the whites sallied out a short distance after them and cheered but the Indians hurried briskly forward driving the cattle before them. In a short time Jim Hooser rode into town with messages from Capt. Dane, and the defend- ers first learned that their families at South Bend and Mankato were safe. Jim was a daring fellow, and that morning had volunteered to enter New Ulm or die. The loss of the whites at the battle of New Ulm was 29 killed and about 50 wounded. This does not include citizens killed in the outskirts of town. The Indian loss is not known, as only two or three of their dead fell into the hands of the whites. They probably lost nearly as many as the whites. They made use of a building on the ridge southwest of town as a hospital for their wounded and kept a white sheet floating over it as a flag all day Saturday. Within an hour or two after the Indians departed the re-enforcements under Lieutenants Cox and Buck were seen approaching the town from the opposite direction. At first the people feared they might be Indians, but their orderly march soon con- vinced them to the contrary. Upon consultation held that afternoon it was found that both food and ammunition were nearly exhausted and the re-enforcements availed little without these necessities. There were nearly 2,000 people then at New Ulin, the great majority of whom were women and children, and all were packed into the few buildings left stand- ing in the center of town. Then there were a large number of wounded and sick for whom it was impossible to properly care. In view of all these facts and the probability that the Indians would soon return, perhaps in larger numbers, to renew the attack, it was decided to evacuate the town carly on the morrow
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and go to South Bend aud Mankato. All were notified to be ready for the march and every team in town was put in requisi- tion. Contrary to instructions the people piled all manner of personal property on the wagons until there was no room for half the women and children, so next morning the officers were obliged to dump from the wagons into the street, trunks. feather-beds, and all manner of household goods. The road for two or three miles from town was in fact lined with goods thrown from the too heavily loaded wagons and many a tear was shed by the thrifty German house-wives at the loss of their valuables. Before starting the stores were all thrown open and the people invited by the proprietors to take whatever they wished as it was supposed the Indians would get all there was left. Strychnine was placed in three barrels of whiskey and some flour and brown sugar for the benefit of the savages. At nine o'clock this Monday morning the barricades were thrown down and the procession started. There were 153 wagons in line and about 2,000 people. Only the women and children and the wounded and sick were allowed to ride. The defenders marched some in front, some in the rear, and the rest on both sides of the train with their guns ready to defend the women and children in any emergency, There was great fear of an ambush in the wooded ravines of the Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood and Cambria Creek and much precaution taken in crossing them. About a mile beyond Cambria Creek the train was joined by David J. and William J. Williams and their mother, whose home then was in an out of the way place in the wooded valley of the Minnesota, so they had not known of the outbreak until that day, though New Uhn was only about five miles away and people had been murdered in Nicollet, much nearer than that. As there were hundreds of refugees in South Bend already, the town could not accommodate this vast host and as many as could be induced to do so were sent on to Man- kato. To feed the hungry multitude, two large oxen were killed in the street just back of D. P. Davis' present store and their llesh cut up and boiled in four large iron kettles set over camp fires. John D. Evans, David D. Evans and Thos. J. Jones, (Bryn Llys) had charge of this out door meat shop. Just across the street in the big hotel still standing, Miss Elizabeth Davis (now Mrs. Richard Jones of Cambria) had charge of the bread department and four barrels of flour were converted into biscuits before the crowd were satisfied.
At Crisp's store in Judson ( where Mrs. Robert Roberts now
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lives ) the rear guard consisting of the companies of Lieutenants E. St. Julian Cox and Adam Buck and a part of the Le Sueur company, under acting Lieutenant J. B. Swan, halted for the night to guard the rear in case the Indians should follow the retreat.
It was a very dark, rainy, cold night. Late after midnight one of the sentries noticed some object move ahead of him in the tall grass. He challenged it, but, instead of answering, it came straight toward him. He raised his gun and pulled the trigger but the rain had wet the cap so it did not fire. A weak, tremb- ling feminine voice fell on his ear begging him not to shoot. It proved to be a poor woman, Mrs. Harrington by name, who eight days before had started to flee from her home on the Big Cottonwood with a number of neighbors, but being overtaken by the Indians nearly all were murdered. She jumped from the wagon with her little babe- a year old boy in her arms. An Indian bullet sped through her babe's little hand, which was resting on her shoulder, and passed into her body. She ran into the brush and hid. Even the little babe was conscious of danger and kept as still as a mouse, though its little hand had been fearfully lacerated by the cruel bullet. Since then she had spent the days hiding in bushes and swamps and the nights wander- ing over the prairies, subsisting on roots, berries and raw vege- tables, until this Monday night weak from hunger, loss of blood and pain, wet and shivering with the cold and her clothes torn ahnost to shreds, her feet cut by the grass, she saw the camp fires and determined to approach them rather than perish from ex- posure in the slough. The men kindly cared for her and her babe, and next morning took them to the hospital at Mankato and there the glad husband, who happened to be cast at the time of the massacre, found them.
Judge Flandreau and some of the other officers, now that the women and children and wounded had been disposed of, and supplies of food and ammunition obtained, tried to induce the companies who had remained at Crisp's farm to return to New Ulm and thus hold the Indians in check, but the men were anxious to go home and refused,
This same Monday Col. Sibley sent Capt. Anderson from St. Peter with forty mounted men of the St. Paul Cullen Guards and twenty foot soldiers in wagons to succor New Ulm.
They reached the town Tuesday morning and finding it deserted they returned at once to St. Peter,
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Col. Sibley had left St. Peter this Tuesday afternoon (Aug- ust 26) with all his force for Ft. Ridgely and Wednesday this company followed him. The advance consisting of 175 volun- teer citizen horsemen under Col. MePhaill and Col. Win. R. Mar- shall made an all night march and reached the fort carly Wed- nesday morning, being the first to arrive since the battle. Col. Sibley with the infantry entered the fort Thursday, August 28. In the meantime Judge Flandrau had been assigned to the command of all the military organizations in Blue Earth County and points south and west, with headquarters at South Bend. Commissaries had been established at St. Peter, Mankato and South Bend to feed the fugitives there gathered.
At the last named place John D. Evans' shoe shop was the location of the commissary and Geo. Owens was in charge, under Sheriff D. Tyner. Martial law was everywhere in vogue, and private ownership of property little respected. Every horse that could be found was immediately seized and pressed into service by the soldiery. Cattle were taken by the authorities without compensation to the owners and slaughtered for food as the pub- lic necessity required. Threshing crews were also formed and the stacks of the farmers threshed and the grain taken and ground, without asking the owner's leave, to supply the common need.
On Tuesday, August 26, while Capt. Dane's company were in their camp at Robinson's place, at the out-let of Crystal Lake, they discovered a wagon coming from the west by Buffalo Grove. A detachment went out to meet it. The occupants proved to be refugees from Lake Shetek - Messrs. Everett, Chas. D. Hatch and Edgar Bentley and a Mrs. Meyers and her four little children. Mrs. Meyers had been carried from her home on her sick bed and her husband had left the party two days ago, when near New UIm, to get help. He managed to elude the Indians and get into town but could not get out. As he failed to return the party pushed on until they saw the soldiers coming and thinking them to be Indians. Hatch and Bentley Hled into Buffalo Grove Lake and hid in the grass. Everett and the Mrs. Mevers could not flee and the fright threw the woman into convulsions. After much trouble the soldiers made the two men understand they were friends and they came out of the slough. Messrs. Everett and Hatch had been badly wounded. All were taken to the hospital at Mankato, where Mrs. Meyers died the next day. The hardships she had undergone proving too much for her enfeebled constitution.
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THE WELSH IN MINNESOTA.
On Friday, August 29, Capt. Dane's company were ordered from Lake Crystal to occupy New Ulm, which had been deserted since Monday, and presented a very desolate appearance. The houses were all burnt except a few in the center. The streets were littered from end to end with household goods of every descrip- tion, and here and there were the bloated carcasses of horses and cattle which had been killed in the fight, emitting a horrible stench. Little mounds of earth were frequent in the streets, where the dead had been hastily deposited in shallow graves. Barricades were left in several places across the streets, and the few buildings left were all loop-holed for musketry, and both barricades and buildings were riddled and splintered with bullets. Everywhere were evidences of the desperate con- fliet of Saturday and Sunday, and it was several days before the company could restore the town into any appearance of order.
Col. Sibley was now at Ft. Ridgely with a force of between 1,500 and 1,600 men-but all were raw recruits, who had received no military training, and were armed for the most part with rejected muskets, which the government had sent north to be used only in drilling new regiments. There was, scarcity of ammunition also, and much they had did not fit the guns. Then rations had to be gathered to feed the army. Camping outfits and means of transportation had to be procured. To secure all these necessaries at once for the expedition taxed Col. Sibley's ability to the utmost.
Sunday, August 31, Col. Sibley detailed as a burial party, under Capt. HI. P. Grant, Company A of the Sixth Regiment, and two volunteers from each of the other companies of the sixth, and sent the Cullen guards, a small detachment of citizen cavalry under Capt. Joe Anderson, with them to act as scouts.
In all there were one hundred and fifty-three men including infantry, cavalry and teamsters and ninety-six horses including twenty teams to carry luggage. They were instructed to inter the remains of Capt. Marsh and his command killed at the ferry and proceed to the Agency and bury all bodies found there and in that vicinity. Major Joseph R. Brown, the famous Indian trader, went with this expedition, perhaps nominally as its com- mander, though Grant seems to have been in actual command.
During the first day they buried over fifty persons and camped about five miles up the river on the Renville county side. Early Monday morning, dividing the command, Capt. Anderson and the mounted men were sent across the river to explore the country toward the Yellow Medicine, while Capt. Grant and the
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infantry continued to march up the north side of the river to Beaver Creek. Every little while they had to stop to bury entire families of women and children who had been massa- cred. In the morning Capt. Grant noticed what he supposed was an Indian hiding in a slough near the road. Surrounding the spot they found a white woman. Thirteen days before, her husband and three little children were butchered before her eyes. The Indians then told her to run and just as she was starting they fired on her and put ning buckshot into her back. The fiends then took a knife an I ripped her clothing all off, and in so doing cut a deep gash over her stomach and left her for dead. She revived but the shock had affected her brain and she had wandered over the prairies in a nude and demented con- dition subsisting on roots and water until then. A blanket was wraped about her and a bed of hay made for her in one of the wagons, while Dr. Daniels dressed her wounds.
Every little while two or three wagons would be seen standing in the road, and always in and around them would be found the remains of entire families, men women and children horribly mutilated. Among others they found the half burnt remains of Mrs. Henderson and her infant. She was sick, confined to her bed, on the awful morning of the outbreak. Her husband and friends carried her out on the bed to the wagon and while on the way to the fort, the Indians overtook them and killed nearly all the party. Mrs. Henderson and her babe were tossed out of the wagon on the prairie by the wretches, the bed thrown over them and a match applied to it and thus the mother and child horribly perished. Burying all these remains the expedition pressed on to Beaver Creek where thirty more remains were buried. It was now too late to return to the fort that night, so they concluded to get back as far as Birch Cooley, a small stream, which empties into the Minne- sota, from the north twelve miles west of Fort Ridgely. The camp was fixed on the bluff overlooking the Minnesota Valley where the cooley entered it. Capt. Anderson soon joined them with the mounted troops. Both he and Major Brown declared there were no Indians within twenty five miles. Five hundred hostile savages, on the way to attack South Bend and Mankato had caught sight of the expidition that morning as it marched on the side of the bluff and all day their spies had watched it and at this very moment their eyes were fixed on the devoted little band as they pitched their camp in fancied security. The wagons were arranged in a circle about the tents and ropes
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stretched from wagon to wagon and the horses tethered to them forming a circle about the tents. Pickets were posted outside and the tired command turned in for a good night's rest. About four o'clock in the morning one of the pickets discovered some object crawling toward him in the grass. He challenged it and then fired. Immediately an awful vell from five hundred Indian throats rent the air and in the gloom five hundred Indian guns lit a circle of deadly flame round about the camp. The guards rushed in, firing at the enemy as they came. The startled sol- diers rushed out of their tents in a half dazed condition and for a few moments there was much confusion. The soldiers mis- took the command to "fall down" for "fall in" and so exposed themselves for a few minutes to the deadly aim of the foe, whose bullets whistled thick through the camp from every direction. The men soon got in the shelter of the wagons and dead horses and blazed back at the ememy with all their might. It was a fearful struggle at short range, but the whites fought with des- peration, well knowing they could hope for no quarter from such a foe. After an hour of furious fighting the Indians were forced back to long range. The forty rounds of ammunition apiece which the soldiers had brought in their cartridge boxes were now about exhausted. 3,000 extra rounds had been brought in the wagons, but, on opening the boxes, it was found that through some error all the balls were 62 caliber, while the guns were only 58 caliber. The soldiers were at once set to work whittling bullets and all took care to fire only when absolutely necessary. Fortunately, however, the Indians did not attempt another charge, but contented themselves with lying concealed in the ravines and tall grass around and firing the instant a soldier showed himself.
In the first encounter nearly one-fourth of the entire com- mand had been killed or wounded, and all the horses had been killed save two or three. Another serious trouble now arose, there was not a drop of water in the camp and none could be had nearer than the bottom of the cooley, but this was full of Indians. Then the two day's rations, which they had brought, was all gone. The suffering of the men, especially of the wounded and dying, was terrible as they lay on that bluff all day in the hot sun. But how long was it to continue? Fortun- ately the guards at Fort Ridgely heard the firing in the early morning, and Col. Sibley dispatched Col. McPhaill with two hundred and forty men and two cannons to their aid. About four o'clock in the afternoon, to the great joy of the beleaguered
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