USA > Iowa > Howard County > Lime Springs > History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Ia. gathered by the old settlers > Part 8
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Reaching the village about sunrise they began killing the people, and plundering, and burning the government ware- house and the private stores and houses and stealing the horses from the barns. So sudden and wholly unexpected was the at- tack that no resistance could be made, and in a few minutes about twenty persons were murdered. The rest of the inhabi- tants taking advantage of the short respite the Indians spent in pillaging, fled hurriedly toward Ft. Ridgely, thirteen miles distant. Forty-one of them reached the fort in safety, but many fell victims to savage vengeance along the way. Among the latter were Dr. Humphreys, the government physi- cian of the Lower Agency, and his family, consisting of wife and three children, a little girl and two boys, the oldest only 12 years old.
The wife was sick and after going three or four miles she became so exhausted that they had to turn into a house to rest. The doctor sent the oldest boy to a spring at the foot of the bluff close by after some water to drink. As the boy was return- ing he heard the report of the gun that killed his father, and hiding he saw the fiends chop off his father's head with an ax and set fire to the house and burn his sick mother and little brother and sister in it.
The first news of the outbreak reached Ft. Ridgely about 10 o'clock a. m. . The long roll was sounded and the garrison imme- diately put under arms. A mounted messenger was at once dis- patched after Lieutenant Shechan and his men, who had left
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the day before, requesting them to return to Ft. Ridgely forth- with. Within thirty minutes after the first alarm Capt. Marsh with Quinn, the interpreter, and forty-six soldiers started for the Agency. The road was full of fugitives fleeing for their lives. They also met a soldier who had been home on a fur- lough, John Magill, by name, at whose house Dr. Humphreys and family had stopped. He joined the command making forty- seven soldiers beside Capt. Marsh. Six miles out they began to come upon dead bodies of men, women and children, lying in the road, some horribly mutilated, while the smoke and flames of burning houses rose near and far over all the country before them showing the appalling extent of the dreadful massacre then being enacted.
In spite of every warning Capt. Marsh and his little band of soldiers pressed resolutely on, by the body of Dr. Humphrey and the burning pile where his wife and two children perished. Near this place the oldest boy coming from his hiding place joined them, and they hurried on across the wide valley of the Minnesota with the tall grass on each side of the road until finally about noon they reached the ferry at the Agency crossing. The brave French ferryman had stood by his post like a hero that morning and had crossed over all the fleeing fugitives from the Agency until at last he fell a martyr to duty. His body disembowelled, with head and hands chopped off and inserted into the cavity, lay now by the road-side a horrible sight. The ferry lay unfastened on the fort side of the river. The water at the ford was very riley as though recently disturbed and a troop of Indian ponies were noticed standing a little ways off in the grass. There were bushes and tall grass all around. The soldiers formed in line facing the river and two of their number went a few feet above the ford for water. They returned saying they had seen the heads of many Indians peering over the logs by the Agency saw mill just across the river. Just then White Dog, who had been president of the farmer, or civilized Indians, appeared on the other side of the river and shouted to the soldiers to come over. It was the plan to get the soldiers on the ferry anu then murder them all in mid-stream. Seeing the soldiers were about to with- draw instead of crossing White Dog fired his gun as a signal of attack and instantly a volley was fired from across the river by a hundred or more Indians lying there in ambush.
Interpreter Quinn fell dead pierced by twelve bullets. Most of the shots, however, passed fortunately over the soldiers' heads.
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The captain ordered a retreat to the ferry house near by, but in- stantly, before the order was hardly given, hundreds of painted savages with demoniac yells rushed from the ferry house and barns and leaped out of the brush and grass all around, and poured a murderous fire at close range into the devoted little band. There was a terrible struggle for a few minutes and twenty-four soldiers and a few Indians lay dead on that fatal field. Captain Marsh and fifteen of his men managed to gain a thicket, which lay down the river a few rods, and from its shel- ter kept the Indians at bay all that afternoon until 4o'clock when the lower end of the strip of wood was reached. Here the In- dians had concentrated their force to receive the soldiers as they emerged from the timber. Discovering their intention Capt. Marsh concluded to cross the river with the hope thus to elude the foe. Going ahead of his command the brave officer waded into the stream and getting beyond his depth began to swim when, probably seized by cramps, he threw up his arms and cried for help and immediately sank beneath the waves and, in spite of heroic efforts to save him, was drowned.
The soldiers now gave up the attempt to cross the river and passed down the north bank. The Indians, in the meantime, supposing the soldiers had crossed the river, had hurried away to a ford and thus the little band eluded them and escaped. Sergeant Bishop, on whom the command devolved after Marsh was drowned, was wounded and one of the men was so badly shot he had to be carried. Two men were then detailed to hasten on to bear tidings to the fort where Lieutenant Gere had been left with only twenty-two men fit for duty.
All day long the territied people had been pouring into the fort from the country round, until by night there were gathered within it fully 200 helpless, horror-stricken people, mostly women and children. Many were crazed with griet over the loss of dear ones, butchered before their eyes, others were wildly anxious for missing friends and relatives, while all trembled as to what their own fate might be, expecting every moment to hear the savage war whoop and the crack of Indian guns. The few extra fire arms in the fort were placed in the hands of those who could best use them. About noon the long expected Sioux annuity of $71,000.00 in gold had arrived at the fort in charge of C. J. Wykoff, clerk of the Indian Superintendent, and four others. About 8 o'clock at night the two messengers dis- patched ahead by Sergeant Bishop reached the fort, bringing the first report of the terrible disaster which had befallen Capt.
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Marsh and his men. Two hours later Bishop and the twelve men with him arrived. Before morning eight more men of Marsh's command, who had managed to hide in the brush near the ferry until dark, came straggling in, and with them, having escaped all the peril, was Dr. Humphrey's little son. Five of the twenty-three men of Marsh's command who escaped were wounded, leaving only eighteen available for military service.
At once on learning the fate of Capt. Marsh and his com- pany, Lieutenant Gere sent a mounted messenger with dis- patches to the commanding officer at Ft. Snelling and to Gov. Ramsey acquainting them with the condition of things and ask- ing immediate aid. After plundering and burning the Lower Agency a portion of the Indians under the command of Little Crow went to meet Capt. Marsh and his men and were engaged in that battle all the afternoon as we have stated, others scat- tered in small bands all over the country, a distance of forty or fifty miles along the Minnesota river on both sides, butchering the surprised and defenseless people, without regard to age or sex, and pillaging and burning their homes.
Awful was the carnage-shocking were the horrors of that day's outrages. At night the Indians, for the most part, re- turned to their villages-the squaws laden with plunder, the braves with the gory scalps of their victims dangling at their belts-the gray hair of age and silken locks of childhood min- gled together. The night was spent in celebrating with wild orgies their success.
Early in the morning the Indians had sent couriers on swift horses to inform the Sioux of the Upper Agency of the outbreak and to urge their co-operation in the war against the whites. Couriers were also dispatched in haste to all the various bands scattered through the length and breadth of the reservation, and within six hours after the first gun had been fired at the Lower Agency there was not an Indian between Little Rock river and Lake Traverse but knew that the massacre of the whites had begun and had been invited to participate in the glory and booty it would bring. The news reached Yellow Medicine about noon and was so unexpected to the Indians themselves that at first they hesitated to believe it. Later couriers soon followed con- firming the report and showing how wonderfully successful the Indians had been.
They had captured the Lower Agency and utterly destroyed it and its inhabitants without the loss of a single Indian. They had met, defeated and would soon annihilate the soldiers from F't.
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Ridgely. A council was summoned at once and met that after- noon to determine what action they, the Upper Sioux, would take. The council was divided in opinion. The heathen party were enthusiastic to join in the massacre, while the Christian Indians and some of the others were opposed toit. As fresh re- ports came continually of the success of the Lower Indians it became evident to the friendly Christian Indians that they could not long stem the rising tide of war. So toward evening, on the 18th, John Otherday. a full-blooded Indian, an influential mem- ber of Dr. Williamson's church, and one of the bravest, truest and noblest men that ever lived, with a number of his Christian companions at once notified the whites of the Upper Agency and gathered them into a warehouse, and with their guns stood guard outside all night determined to die in defense of their white friends.
Early on the morrow the hostiles broke into the stores and houses and shot two or three persons, who had failed to heed the warning, and began the work of plundering. While their attention was thus absorbed Otherday seized the opportunity to load the white people into wagons, and, well-knowing the terri- ble chances he ran, placed himself at the head of the caravan, which comprised twenty men and forty-two women and children, and piloted them out of the very jaws of death, and across the trackless prairie to Hutchinson and thence by St. Cloud to Shak- opee, where they all arrived safely the following Friday. Other Christian Indians went the same Monday evening ( August 18) and warned Dr. Williamson and Dr. Riggs at their respective mis- sion stations. With them were a number of young ladies teach- ing in the mission schools. Through the protection and aid of the faithful Christian converts, all were saved. Dr. Riggs and his company were taken at midnight to an island in the Minne- sota, three miles away, and next morning being supplied with some food and a wagon they started for Ft. Ridgely, and on the way were joined by Dr. Williamson and his family and a few settlers, making in all forty-two souls. Unable to enter the fort because of the siege they passed around it, and in hearing of the Indian guns and in sight of the burning houses they jour- neyed all day through Nicollet county on the road which lay next to and parallel with the one on which the Indians were massacreing the people, and finally reached Henderson in safety. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the work of the Christian Indians. Were it not for them there is every rea- son to believe that the bloody designs of Little Crow would have
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been fully consumated. First, by refusing to join in the massa- cre themselves they greatly diminished the number of hostiles; Second, by their voice and influence in the councils and every- where they restrained and thwarted the ardour and plans of the hostile party; and Third, by their warning and aid hundreds of people were enabled to escape. Ft. Ridgely, New Ulm. Man- kato, St. Peter and in short the entire state owed its preserva- tion at that great massacre to the missionary cause more than any other one thing. The years of consecrated, self-sacrificing labors of Dr. Williamson and Dr. Riggs among the Indians bore rich fruit not only in saving souls, but also in the saving of thousands of precious lives during the terrible days of the Sioux war.
It was Little Crow's plan to attack Ft. Ridgely at once be- fore re-enforcements could arrive, but the Indian's utter want of organization and discipline made it hard to concentrate his forces for the purpose.
The warriors were scattered all over the country too much engrossed in personal plunder and rapine to join in a united, intelligent campaign necessary to the capture of strong holds. The open and secret opposition of the Christian Indians de- stroyed united action at the Lower Agency and deterred the ex- pected aid from the Upper Sioux.
By 9 o'clock Tuesday morning Little Crow managed to gather between one and two hundred warriors. They assem- bled on the open prairie two miles west of the fort and were there addressed by Little Crow and other chiefs.
There were only about thirty soldiers and twenty citizens available for service at the fort, and it would have then been an easy matter to capture it and massacre its garrison and the nearly three hundred non-combatant refugees. At this perilous crisis Lieutenant Sheehan, with his fifty men of Company C, entered the fort to the unbounded joy of the terror stricken peo- ple. The message sent by Capt. Marsh had found them the even- ing before, and by an all night forced march they had retraced the entire distance it had taken them two days to make. They were the first re-enforcements to enter the fort.
Against the advice of Little Crow, the Indians, however, most fortunately, if not providentially, decided not to attack the fort then, but to pass by it and capture New Ulm first, as that place had no soldiers or cannon to defend it, and by its cap- ture they thought communications between the fort and the cast
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would be cut off. Accordingly the Indians crossed the river and passed down along its north bank toward New Ulm.
On the morning of the 18th a recruiting party of twenty- five, in five teams, had left New Ulm for the west: when six or seven miles out, and when near the "Travelers Home" they came upon a man who had been shot lying in theroad. A little way ahead were four or five Indians in the road. Three of the teams were immediately turned around to head for town. A number of the men jumped into the other two wagons and, though wholly unarmed, gave chase after the Indians, who soon turned and fired upon them. Three of their number were killed and two wounded, one mortally. The rest abandoned their two teams and ran back to the other wagons and so escaped to New Ulm, where some French traders, who had also been attacked when going to the Agency, had preceded them a short time before with news of the outbreak.
Refugees soon began to pour in from the west with direful tales of the awful massacre then being enacted by the Indians all over the country. The little German town was thrown into the wildest confusion and terror, and the fresh tales of horror which each fleeing fugitive brought, increased the panic more and more.
Wm. Banke was dispatched at once to Nicollet and St. Peter after aid and scattered the report among the farmers along the road as he went. He reached St. Peter about 6 o'clock and there overtook Maj. Galbraith and Lieutenant Culver with the Renville Rangers, who had left New Ulm that morning for Ft. Snelling. About 2 o'clock two men in a buggy from New Ulin, warning the settlers along the Little Cottonwood, reached the residence of Robert Jones ( Indiana). Evan Jones and John J. Shields, who were harvesting in Mr. Jones' field, immediately hurried through the Welsh settlement of Cambria spreading the startling news. Most of the people were harvesting and did not believe the report. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon three men in a light wagon, drawn by two horses, were seen going at full speed down the Mankato road, through the Welsh towns. They proved to be Germans from New Ulm. Two sat on the driver's seat with their guns in their hands, loaded and cocked, the other, a large fleshy person, sat on the bottom of the wagon-bed, face backwards, holding a cocked revolver pointed in each hand and trembling.like a leaf. "The Indians are killing and burn- ing all west of New Ulm and we are going to Mankato after help," was all they had time to say.
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The settlers hurried home to their families and the old oxen were soon hitched to the wagon, the wife and children with a bundle of clothing and bedding and some provisions were quickly stowed away in it. The door of the log cabin was locked and leaving the stock to care for itself the majority of the people congregated together, four or five families in one cabin, to pass an anxious night. A few fled at once to South Bend. Some had their tables spread for supper when the news came, and leaving the dishes and food untouched they fled for their lives.
The Welsh people of Eureka, in Nicollet county, heard of the outbreak the same afternoon through Wm. Paddock, of Man- kato, who had just come from New Ulin with Joe Robert to Nic- ollet, and walked thence to Evan Bowen's house. Bowen took Mr. Paddock in his wagon and hurried through Judson to South Bend and Mankato with the report. About 10 o'clock in the morning of that same day-only about six hours before the news arrived-eight or ten Sioux warriors had passed through South Bend going west. They were all decked in war paint and went along the street in marching order, beating an Indian drum. It was also noticed that they carried themselves much more defiantly than usual and never saluted any of the whites with the custo- mary "Ho-Ho."
The people, however, thought they were simply mimicing white soldiers. Where these Indians came from and whither they went is a mystery to this day, for no one saw them after they left the village. Whether they had been on a visit to the Winnebagoes or elsewhere, and were returning home ignorant of the outbreak, or whether they were messengers which Little Crow had sent to the Winnebagoes to inform them of the out- break and request their co-operation is not known.
So unexpected was the attack that the people everywhere at first discredited all the reports, until fully confirmed.
The messenger which Sergeant Bishop had sent Monday night reached St. Peter before daylight Tuesday morning and reported at once the condition of things to Lieut. Culver and Maj. Galbraith. Having found some Harper's Ferry rifles at St. Peter they armed the Renville Rangers, and with only three rounds of ammunition apiece they started back for the fort at 6 a. m., which they reached after 12 hours hard march, completing its list of defenders.
St. Peter, Mankato, South Bend, Nicollet and all the vil- lages were in a turmoil of excitement all Monday night, and for many days and nights thereafter for that matter.
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Public meetings were held, volunteers were called for, mili- tary organizations were formed. arms and ammunition procured. A company of eighteen, of which A. M. Bean was chosen cap- tain, was formed at Nicollet Tuesday morning and proceeded at once to New Ulm, where they arrived about 1 o'clock p. m. The town seemed paralyzed with fear. Hundreds of refugees had come in from the country round and confusion and terror reigned supreme.
Captain Bean's company was the first help to arrive. There were two Welshmen from the Eureka settlement in this com- pany, namely Griffith Williams and his brother Thos. D. Wil- liams, who rendered splendid service at all the New Ulm bat- tles. Two other Welshmen, Win. J. Jones and Edward Dack- ins, reached New Uhn from Judson this afternoon in time to participate in the battle, where they did gallant work, both be- ing well armed and good shots. They joined the South Bend company later. Barricades of wagons and boards were thrown across the street near the center of town. About 4o'clock in the afternoon Little Crow and his warriors arrived near the village and began the attack. -
Five houses on the outskirts of town were soon captured and burned by them, and their bullets began to whistle thick even into the center of town. One ball glanced from the side of a brick building and hit a young woman, named Pauli. in the forehead, killing her instantly. Another stray bullet killed a butcher in his shop. John Nix had succeeded in organ- izing a few New Ulm people into a company and they with Capt. Bean's company formed the only defense. The great bulk of the people were in a frenzy of fear, hiding in cellars and closets.
The little handful of defenders, though most of them were but poorly armed, returned the enemy's fire with vigor and held them in check for about an hour, when L. M. Boardman with sixteen men, mounted and well armed, arrived, and with this re-enforcement the Indians were, after a sharp engagement, driven back and at dusk retired from the field.
ยท Had the savages known the true state of affairs at New Ulm they might have taken the town easily that afternoon and mas- sacred all the 1,200 to 1,500 people, including refugees that it then contained.
Little Crow's army seemed to have diminished greatly since it left Fort Ridgely in the morning. The temptation to murder and plunder the defenseless farmers proved too much for most
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of the warriors and they had scattered over the country for that purpose. The Indians supposed the houses at the center of town were full of men ready to fire upon them if they entered and con- cluded that their number was too small to attempt it. So that evening Little Crow and his warriors returned toward the Lower Agency to hold another council, gather together again their scattered forces and to see if the large re-enforcements expected from the Upper Agency had yet arrived.
On the morning of this same Tuesday a number of the men who had fled to New Ulm the night before from the settlements on the Big Cottonwood and a few miles to the west, organized themselves into a company and went back to their homes in quest of missing relatives and friends. They spent the day in burying the dead and picking up the wounded and those in hiding, whom they sent by team to New Ulm, and late in the afternoon as they themselves were returning in two divis- ions they were ambushed by a part of Little Crow's army at a place where the road passed a slough within a mile of town and eleven of their number killed.
At St. Peter the people had been busy all day organizing a company for the relief of New Ulm.
At 4 o'clock in the morning word was sent to Chas. E. Flan- dreau, then judge of the supreme court, who lived at Traverse, about a mile from St. Peter, requesting him to come and help form a company.
He immediately complied, and by noon, Sheriff Boardman was sent ahead with sixteen mounted men, who reached New Ulm just in time to help save it at the first battle. Judge Flan- dreau followed with the main body of the company numbering over a hundred. They were also accompanied by a squad from Le Sueur under Capt. Tousley, making in all about 125 men. They reached New Ulm between 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening in a pouring rain. A company was also formed at Mankato the same day and another at South Bend. The Man- kato company numbered about eighty men, and Win. Bierbauer was their captain. The South Bend company comprised about as many men and J. D. Zimmerman was captain and Jehile Cheney and Minor Porter were lieutenants. More than half of this company were Welshmen.
Tuesday morning the people of the Upper Welsh settlement (then known as Cottonwood or Butternut Valley, now Cambria ), who had spent the night four or five families together in a house, were in much uncertainty as to what to do. Some favored
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fleeing to South Bend or Mankato, others thought the report of the outbreak to be a false rumor, or at most an exaggerated ac- count of some drunken brawl. Thos. Y. Davis, John Shields and one or two others concluded to go up toward New Ulm and ascertain the truth about the matter. When near the Little Cottonwood river they met some refugees who said the Indians were coming close by, killing and burning everything before them.
Returning at once on the full run they warned the settlers. The very smoky condition of the atmosphere that morning seemed to corroborate the story. Never were horses or oxen hitched to wagons more quickly than then. and in a few seconds the road was lined with teams all on the full gallop, the ox- teams vieing with the horse-teams in the wild race for South Bend, while the excited drivers plied their whips to urge their speed up hill and down hill, fearing at every turn to see the In- dians or to hear the crack of their guns and their savage war- whoop. In a short time the whole country was evacuated. Most of the people went to South Bend and Mankato, filling these towns to overflowing. A number of the Cottonwood fam- ilies, however, took refuge in the houses of Hugh Edwards, Win. J. Roberts and John I. Jones, on Minneopa creek.
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