USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Oelwein > The Telegraph-herald's abridged history of the state of Iowa and directory of Fayette County, including the city of Oelwein, with a complete classified business directory; > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
"That night we slept but very little, every man being at the barricades all night, each third man being allowed to sleep at intervals. In the morning the attack was renewed, but not with much vigor, and subsided about noon."
Mr. Heard relates the following incidents connected with the attack at New Ulm:
While the fight was going on, a heavy firing was kept up from a woodpile. The defenders were astonished to see a warrior standing upright and in full view. Again and again he was fired upon, but he seemed to enjoy some strange protection, for none of the best marksmen could bring him down. After the battle, as he still kept his position, some of the whites went out to investi- gate. It was then discovered that he had been dead from the first, his body being repeatedly pierced by bullets. The others had propped him up for the purpose of drawing the fire of the whites.
One of the most desperate of the half-breeds crept up close in the high grass from which he kept up a deadly fire. He held his place after the advance was made. when he discharged his gun and started off on a run, crouching down as he did so. Several bullets were sent after him, and one cut the great artery in his shoulder from which blood spurted in a stream. He sank down and was quickly decapitated and scalped.
A man was seen walking off with a featherbed over his shoulder. He was near by, but as he moved in the direction of the Indians, the spectators re- marked the foolish risk he was running. When he had gone a considerable
215.
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
distance, he threw down the bed and uttered a triumphant shout. He was one of the hostiles, that had escaped by this clever ruse.
It would require volumes to tell of the individual outrages during the Sioux outbreak. The revolt extended throughout the entire frontier of Minnesota and into Iowa and Dakota. During the first week, more than seven hundred peo- ple were killed and over two hundred made captive. As stated in another place, the women, and even children of tender years, were subjected to inde- scribable mutilation at the hands of their captors. Many succumbed under the awful treatment and welcomed death for the blessed relief it brought.
Fortunately, there were several thousand armed men in the State, sum- moned by President Lincoln's recent call for volunteers to serve in the Civil War. These were hurried to the frontier, and mounted soldiers were called out by the governor to join in punishing the savages. Governor Ramsey has- tened to Mendota on receipt of the news of the outbreak, and requested the Hon. H. H. Sibley to take command with the rank of colonel, of an expedition intended to move up the Minnesota Valley. He complied and started as quickly as possible with four companies of the Sixth Regiment for St. Peter's, where he arrived on the day of the last battle at the fort. On Sunday, two hundred men, under the command of W. J. Cullen, came in. These, with a hundred more, were placed in charge of Colonel Samuel McPhail. Other arrivals followed un- til Sibley's command was increased to fourteen hundred men.
Knowing the character of the foe before him, Colonel Sibley advanced cau- tiously. He met continuous streams of fugitives, while Shakopee, Belle Plain, and Henderson were overrun with the terrified people, who were in constant terror of attacks by the Indians. Detachments were sent to New Ulm, which was known to be surrounded by the savages and in great danger of capture. These detachments, after many stirring experiences, returned to St. Peter's, where they found that Colonel Sibley had left that morning for Fort Ridgely and had ordered them to follow on their return. They learned that the people of New Ulm on Monday, August 25, had abandoned the place. They numbered two thousand, including the women, children, sick and wounded, with a train of a hundred and fifty-three wagons. They had gone to Mankato, led to do so by the exhaustion of their ammunition, the isolatlon of the town, and their inability to hold out against a determined attack of the Indians.
Colonel Sibley reached Fort Ridgely, and all danger of attack at that place and New Ulm (where really there was nothing to attack), was ended. On Sun- day, August 31, a hundred and fifty men, under command of Major Joseph R. Brown, were sent to the Lower Agency to bury the dead and learn, if possible, what had become of the enemy.
Many of the victims of Indian atrocity were found to be shot with arrows of peculiar construction; worthy the genius of an American Indian. Along the reed, from the head to the father tip, ran a gutter, cut in the wood and winding irregularly around it. The object of this is to prevent the clotting of the blood in a wound inflicted by the missile. If it entered a few inches into a person's body, and was of the ordinary pattern, the wound might be closed by the clot- ting of the blood, but this gutter furnishes such a free outlet that the flow con- tinues until the victim dies from weakness.
Some of the citizens who went with Major Brown came back the following evening, and told Colonel Sibley that on that morning the cavalry and a few of the infantry had crossed the river at the agency, buried the dead, and scouted some distance above. They could find no evidence that any Indians had been
216
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
there for several days. Captain Grant, with the infantry, buried the dead on the Fort Ridgely side, including those at Beaver Creek, and going into camp on the same side of the river, was joined by Major Brown and his command.
Colonel Sibley was relieved to be informed that no signs of Indians had been discovered by Major Brown who was an old campaigner and ought not to be deceived. But on Wednesday morning, the sentries heard firing in the di- rection of the agency. The wind was blowing toward the point whence the noise came, but by lying on the ground, the anxious listeners plainly caught the rapid discharge of firearms. There could be no mistake as to the meaning of this. The battle was "on once more,' and relief must be dispatched at once to their imperilled comrades.
Colonel M'Phail with fifty horsemen, Major McLaren with a hundred and five infantry, and Captain Mark Hendricks with a mountain howitzer, were hurried off to their relief. The anxious listeners at the fort still heard the rifle filing, and by and by, resounding boom of the howitzer told that the relief party were also fighting. Colonel Sibley ordered all the tents to be struck and taken into the fort, and just as night was closing in the entire command set out to the help of the two detachments.
The night grew intensely dark, but the men marched forward for thirteen miles. Then the bright afish of the montain howitzer told them they were close upon the second detachment. It was found that when within a few miles of where they believed Major Brown to be, they were attacked by Indians. Se. curing the best position attainable, they decided to wait for re-enforcements. The howitzer was fired to guide the main body to the spot.
No further attack was made that night, and at early dawn the whole force was in motion. Not far off they came in sight of Birch Coolie, and saw through the trees the gleam of tents, but whether they belonged to Major Brown or the hostiles could not be determined without a closer approach.
A few minutes later, the Indians appeared in the belt of wood, waving their blankets and emitting taunting shouts in the hope of drawing the soldiers in pursuit. Failing in this, they sheltered themselves as best they could and opened a brisk but poorly aimed fire on the soldiers, who speedily drove them back. The shells from the cannon hastened their flight, and running down Birch Coolie, they crossed the river at the agency.
The tents discerned through the trees proved to be those of Major Brown and his command. They had encamped on the spot two nights before, choos- ing the place because of its accesibility to wood and water and under the belief that nothing was to be feared from the Indians. A worse place in that respect could not have been chosen and the savages, who were on the watch, assailed them suddenly and with the utmost fierceness. The men made a brave de- fense under most unfavorable circumstances, but suffered fearfully. When relieved by Colonel Sibley, they had been more than thirty hours without food or water, twenty-three were killed or dying and forty-five were badly wounded. Out of the ninety horses only one was alive, and he was wounded. Among the wounded were Major Brown, Captain Anderson, Agent albraith and Captain Redfield. Wiliam Irvine of West St. Paul, had been shot in the head and his brains were oozing over his face, but he lived for several hours.
On the 7th of November, Colonel Marshall started for Fort Ridgely. Des- clation reigned supreme.
Major Brown was right in his conclusion that the Indians had left the Lower Agency several days before. Learning of Sibley's march to the relief
217
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
of Fort Ridgely, they had moved up the Yellow Medicine River to place their families out of danger. Ascertaining further that New Ulm had been aban- doned, a war party was sent thither to procure what plunder they could, after which it was intended to attack Mankato and St. Peter's. The discovery of Major Brown's - approach created a diversion, which though resulting in a dreadful disaster, undoubtedly saved the towns named, as well as New Ulm.
A curious complication now followed. On Monday, Little Crow's party traveled thrity miles and encamped near Acton. The leader rode in a wagon, with a half-breed acting as his driver and secretary. A few of the Indians were mounted on stolen horses, and all went well until noon of the next day, when the Indians got into a wrangle, the result of which was that Little Crow and thirty-four others started for Cedar Mills to get supplies after which they meant to return to Yellow Medicine. They went into camp about a mile from Acton. The other party was bent on a raid through the country toward St. Cloud, and encamped within a half mile of Little Crow's band, without either party suspecting their proximity to each other.
At the same time a company of twenty-five white men, volunteers, under Captain Strout, were in camp near by in Acton, all three being ignorant of each other's location. During the night several scouts canie into Acton from Forest City with news that Captain Whitcomb had been attacked the morning before near that place, and the town was in such danger that they were begged to go at once to its defense.
The start was made early the next morning for Forest City by way of Hutchinson. The volunteers passed the camp of the larger band of Indians undetected, but one of Little Crow's warriors discovered them, and the hostiles hastily prepared for battle. Almost at the same moment the larger body of Indians had discovered them, and came whooping and yelling at their heels. Thus the whites found their enemies in front and rear, but they charged through those in front, and continued to Hutchinson. The savages closely followed them for several miles, killing three men, wounding fifteen, capturing nine horses, and several wagons containing arms, ammunition, and supplies.
During the running fight, Little Crow's son, about fifteen years old, shot Mr. Edwin Stone, a well known merchant of Minneapolis. He was wounded while walking beside a wagon, and was unable to climb into it. A second Indian dashed out his brains with a tomahawk. The wadding from the boy's gun set the clothing of the merchant on fire, so that his death was frightful.
The volunteers were attacked the next day in the fort at Hutchinson. Most of the town was burned. One of the Indians called out in English, daring the soldiers to come out in the open plain and fight like men. The troops accepted the invitation, and scattered their assailants without receiving any loss. Skirmishing continued until night, when the Indians drew off and encamped near Cedar Mills. They were then joined by a band of fifty, that had attacked Forest City the previous day, burning a number of buildings and securing much plunder. The following morning the Indians divided and went home, Little Crow and his men by way of the Lower Agency, where he arrived that night.
Mr. Heard tells the following : One of the scouts while riding along was starteled by his horse jumping aside. Looking for the cause, he saw a white man lying in a pile of grass which he had pulled up and piled about him for
218
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
·concealment. Several cars of green corn partly eaten lay around him. He was a young man, with small hands, long, fair hair, but his garments were tattered and torn with long journeyings, and the face was haggard and pale. He was asleep, with his cheek resting on his hand; so soundly asleep, so intensely engaged, perhaps, in happy dreams that the trampling of the Indian's horse did not arouse him. "What do you here, my friend?" called the savage in a loud voice. The sleeper raised his head and gazed with startled appre- hension in the painted face before him. Before that expression had time to change, the whirling ax dashed out the brains which gave it life. Then the murderer, dismounting, with his knife cut off the head; but even then that startled look did not change, for death had frozen it there, and nothing but corruption's effacing hand could sweep it away.
The panie which reined in Minnesota at this time, resulting from the attacks on New Ulm, Fort Ridgely, Birch Coolie, Acton, Hutchinson, Forest City and the massacres that had taken place within Colonel Sibley's lines, was shown by the fact that people living on the outskirts of St. Paul hurriedly moved into the interior of the city. General Sibley's family, in Mendota, took refuge one night in Fort Snelling.
CHAPTER XLIV.
Little Crow, although the most prominent leader in the Sioux outbreak, saw the inevitable end from the beginning. His people must be conquered, and, although he had been forced into the fight, he only awaited the oppor- tunity to make overtures of peace to the military authorities. He opened communication withi Colonel Sibley at Fort Ridgely, where that officer was detained by lack of ammunition and supplies. This was during the first week in September, and while the correspondence was going on something like a cessation of massacre and outrage took place. The Indians had a large number of captives, who were in danger of massacre, and the object of Colonel Sibley was first to secure the safety of these and to bring the outrages to an end.
The correspondence developed the fact that the hostiles were divided among themselves. They held frequent councils, and the debate over the course to be followed became so violent that more than once the Indians were on the point of flying at each other. "Had such a wrangle taken place, every one of the two hundred and more captives would have been massacred.
A considerable minority of the Indians were in favor of the surrender of the prisoners as preliminary to peace, but others were so fiercely opposed that they threatened to kill those who took the first step looking to that end. With Little Crow were associated a number of chiefs who wished to make terms with the authorities. They maintained a clandestine correspondence with Colonel Sibley, Wabashaw and Taopee being the most prominent. It was this couple that managed to keep up an "underground" correspondence with Colonel Sibley in the effort to effect their object. They were accused in their own camp of doing this, but, of course, denied it, for had it been known they would have been instantly killed.
Colonel Sibley left fort Ridgely September 18 to hunt the hostiles. The route was over a country still smoking hot with the blood of the victims of Indian atrocity. The Sioux scouts were continually in sight, taunting the whites and scurrying before them as they advanced over the prairie, but taking care to keep ont of rifle range.
219
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
Sibley camped near Wood Lake on the 22d of September. The following morning a number of foraging teams were fired on by the Indians. The Third Regiment hurried out and was soon engaged with the enemy. They appeared in large numbers on all sides, gathering in the ravines between the Third Regiment and the camp. Colonel Sibley opened fire, making good use of the howitzer, and an impetuous charge into the grove drove out the Indians. The fight lasted more than an hour, eight hundred being engaged on each side. The whites lost four killed and about fifty wounded. Little Crow's plan was to ambuscade the soldiers while marching through the ravine, but the taunts of the "Friendly Indians," as they were known, caused the attack to be made in the open plain.
This is known as the battle of Wood Lake. Colonel Sibley remained long enough to bury his dead, and then marched to the Indian camp near Lac qui Parle. This was reached on the 26th of September, and was found to contain about a hundred tepees. Little Crow and two hundred warriors and their families had fled northward after the battle of Wood Lake.
Sibley's camp was within a quarter of a mile of the Indian camp, which was commanded by his cannon. He soon rode over with his staff and bodyguard and took formal possession. The Indians, many of whom had conducted them- selves like demons, were profuse in their professions of friendship, each insisting that he was a good Indian and all the ontrages were committeed by the other fellows.
Colonel Sibley's formal demand for the captives was promptly obeyed. They numbered two hundred and fifty, who for days had undergone the most agonizing suspense conceivable, for, beyond question, they were repeatedly within a hair's breadth of death. Sometimes it looked as if the friends of peace would prevail and the anguish end by their restoration to their friends, but the fiery warriors, implacable in their hostility, conquered, and the torture of hope deferred continued. Now, however, it was over, and they were safe beyond any harm from their painted foes. The ragged, gannt, famished women and children wept with joy, and many an eye among the soldiers was moistened by the touching sight. There was only one white man, George Spencer, among the restored captives. He said that if Colonel Sibley had done as many of his friends had urged, attacked the Indians at certain times, every one of the captives would have been killed.
A military commission of inquiry was organized and testimony taken to ascertain the guilt of accused parties. Some thirty or forty were arrested, and the rest were sent down to the Yellow Medicine Agency under charge of Agent Galbraith. Indians continually came in and surrendered, for all saw the end had come.
Colonel Crook, by direction of the commander, stealthily surrounded the second camp at night, disarmed the men and placed them in a log jail erected in the middle of the camp. The same thing was done at Yellow Medicine, by bringing all the braves into the agency building under the pretense of holding a council.
CHAPTER XLV
Colonel Sibley broke camp on the 23rd of October, having been joined by Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, with a number of prisoners captured upon Wild Goose Nest Lake. The other captives were taken in at Yellow Medicine, and
220
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
the march continued through one of the fiercest wind storms ever encountered in that section. It cleared, however, and the sun was shining from a calm sky when camp was made in the valley of the Redwood.
Several weeks were spent at the Lower Agency, during which the investi- gation and trials were continued. Parties sent out still found victims of the massacre. Mr. Heard states that, on the 29th, a foraging party crossed the river, and eleven miles above discovered the remains of twelve persons. In one house a skull lay upon the bed, and in the same room was stretched a dead hog that had probably bcen feeding on the bodies. Close to the house the party were saluted by two howling, half-starved dogs.
The next day they came upon the remains of thirteen more bodies. One skull, evidently that of a powerful man, was fractured to bits. Cattle were running around almost as wild as buffalo. An ox was writhing on the ground in agony, and frothing at the mouth, apparently with hydrophobia. Many of the dogs had gone mad. Desolation reigned supreme.
On the 7th of November Colonel Marshall started for Fort Snelling with the inmates of the Indian camp, numbering about 1,500, mostly women and children. While passing New Ulm the inhabitants, who were engaged in dis- interring and reburying their dead attacked the prisoners with the command. The sight of the authors of their desolation and woe inspired the men, women, and children to madness. Catching up hoes, brickbats, clubs, knives, guns, and anything upon which they could lay their hands, they assailed the cowering wretches in the wagons. One woman broke the jaw of an Indian, and, had they not been restrained, more than one savage would have been killed.
Ariving at Mankato, Camp Lincoln was established, and a number of Winne- bagos were tried. The military commission, organized to try summarily the mulattoes, mixed blood, and Indians engaged in the Sioux raids and massacres, consisted at first of Colonel Crook, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, Captains Grant and Bailey and Lieutenant Olin. Mr. Isaac V. D. Heard, the historian of the outbreak, acted as recorder. Before the trial was concluded, Major Bradley was substituted for Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, who was called away by other duties.
The prisoners were arraigned upon written charges specifying the crimin- taing acts. These charges were signed by Colonel Sibley or his adjutant general, and in nearly every case were based upon information by Rev. S. R. Riggs, who assembled those that had the means of knowing the truth by themselves, and closely questioned them. The names of the witnesses were attached to the charge. Mr. Riggs's long residence among the Indians, his full knowledge of their habits and characteristics, and his thorough acquaintance with the accused made his help invaluable in fixing the guilt upon the right parties.
As an example of the manner in which this famous trial was conducted, we give Mr. Heard's account of the proceedings in the case of the first person tried. He was Godfrey, a negro.
"Charge and Specifications Against O-ta-kle, or Godfrey, a Colored Man Connected with the Sioux Tribe of Indians.
CHARGE-MURDER.
"Specification 1 .- In this, that the said O-ta-kle, or Godfrey, a colored man, did, at or near New Ulm, Minnesota, on or about the 19th day of August, 1862,
221
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
join a war party of the Sioux tribe of Indians against the citizens of the United States, and did with his own hand murder seven white men, women, and children (more or less), peaceable citizens of the United States.
"Specification 2 .- In this, that the said O-ta-kle, or Godfrey, a colored man, did, at various times and places between the 19th of August, 1862, and the 28th day of September, 1862, join and participate in the murders and massacre committed by the Sioux Indians on the Minnesota frontier. By order of
"Col. H. H. Sibley, Com. Mil, Expedition
"S. H. Fowled, Lt. Col., State Militia, A. A. A. G.
"Mary Woodbury,
"David Faribalt, Sr.,
Witnesses.
"Mary Swan,
"Bernard La Batte,
"Godfrey denied the grave accusation, insisting that he had been forced into the fight on the side of the Indians, and had done nothing which was not justified by the situation and circumstances.
"Mary Woodbury testified that she saw him two or three days after the outbreak at Little Crow's village with a breech clout on and his legs and face painted for a war party, and that he started with one for New Ulm; that he appeared very happy and contented with the Indians; was whooping around and yelling, and apparently as fierce as any of them. When they came back, there was a Wahpeton, named Hunka, who told witness that the negro was the bravest of all; that he led them into a house and clubbed the inmates with a hatchet; and that she was standing in the prisoner's tent door and heard the Indians asking him how many he had killed, and he said only seven; and that she saw him once, when he started off, have a gun, a knife, and a hatchet.
"Mary Swan and Mattie Williams testified that when the war party took them captive, though the prisoner was not armed, he appeared to be as much in favor of the outrages as any of the Indians, and made no intimation to the contrary in a conversation the witnesses had with him.
"La Batte knew nothing about him.
David Faribault, Sr., a half-breed, testified as to his boasting of killing seven with a tomahawk, and some more children; but these, he said, didn't amount to anything, and he wouldn't count them. Witness saw him at the fort and at New Ulm, fighting and acting like the Indians, and he never told him (Faribault) that he was forced into the outbreak.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.