USA > Minnesota > Freeborn County > History of Freeborn County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 17
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Forty years ago, the means of communication between Fort Snelling and the civilized world were very limited. The mail in winter was usul- ally carried by soldiers to Prairie du Chien. On the 26th of January, 1826. there was great joy in the fort, eaused by the return from furlough of Lieutenants Baxley and Russell, who brought with them the first mail received for five months. About this period there was also another excite- ment, eause by the seizure of liquors in the trad" ing house of Alexis Bailey, at New Hope, How Mendota.
During the months of February and March. in this year, snow fell to the depth of two or three feet, and there was great suffering among the Indians. On one occasion, thirty lodges of Sisse- ton and other Sioux were overtaken by a snow storm on a large prairie. The storm continued for three days. and provisions grew scarce, for the party were seventy in number. At last, the stronger men, with the few pairs of snow-shoes in their possession, started for a trading post one hundred miles distant. They reached their des- tination half alive, and the traders sympathizing sent four Canadians with supplies for those left behind. After great toil they reached the scene of distress. and found many dead. and, what was more horrible, the living feeding on the corpses of their relatives. A mother had eaten her dead child and a portion of her own father's arms. The shock to her nervous system was so great that she lost her reason. Her name was Paslı- mno-ta, and she was both young and good look- ing. One day in September, while at Fort Snell- ing, she asked Captain Jouett if he knew which was the best portion of a man to eat, at the same time taking him by the collar of his coat. IIe replied with great astonishment. "No!" and she then said. "The arms." She then asked for a piece of his servant to cat, as she was nice and fat. A few days after this she dashed herself from the bluffs near Fort Snelling, into the river. IIer body was found just above the month of the Minnesota, and decently interred by the agent.
The spring of 1826 was very backward. On the 20th of March snow fell to the depth of one or one and a half feet on a level, and drifted in
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NEGRO SLAVES AT FORT SNELLING.
heaps from six to fifteen feet in height. On the - 5th of April, early in the day, there was a violent storm, and the ice was still thick in the river. During the storm flashes of lightning were seen and thunder heard. On the 10th, the thermome- ter was four degrees above zero. On the 14th there was rain, and on the next day the St. Peter river broke up, but the ice on the Mississippi re- mained firm. On the 21st, at noon, the ice began to move, and carried away Mr. Faribault's houses on the east side of the river. For several days the river was twenty feet above low water mark, and all the houses on low lands were swept off. On the second of May, the steamboat Lawrence, Captain Reeder, arrived.
Major Taliaferro had inherited several slaves, which he used to hire to officers of the garrison. On the 31st of March, his negro boy, William, was employed by Col. Snelling, the latter agree- ing to elothe him. About this time, William at- tempted to shoot a hawk, but instead slot a small boy, named Henry Cullum, and nearly killed him. In May, Captain Plympton, of the Fifth Infantry, wished to purchase his negro woman, Eliza, but he refused, as it was his intention, ultimately, to free his slaves. Another of his negro girls, Har- riet, was married at the fort, the Major perform- ing the ceremony, to the now historic Dred Scott, who was then a slave of Surgeon Emerson. The only person that ever purchased a slave, to retain in slavery, was Alexis Bailly, who bought a man of Major Garland. The Sioux, at first, had no prejudices against negroes. They called them " Black Frenelnnen," and placing their hands on their woolly heads would laugh heartily.
The following is a list of the steamboats that had arrived at Fort Snelling, up to May 26, 1826 :
I Virginia, May 10, 1823; 2 Neville ; 3 Put- nam. April 2, 1825 ; 3 Mandan ; 5 Indiana ; 6 Law- renee, May 2, 1826 ; 7 Sciota ; 8 Eclipse; 9 Jo- sephine ; 10 Fulton: 11 Red Rover: 12 Black Rover; 13 Warrior; 14 Enterprise ; 15 Volant.
Life within the walls of a fort is sometimes the exact contrast of a paradise. In the year 1826 a Pandora box was opened, among the officers, and dissensions began to prevail. One young officer, a graduate of West Point, whose father had been a professor in Princeton College, fought a duel with, and slightly wounded, William Joseph, the talented son of Colonel Snelling, who was then 7
twenty-two years of age, and had been three years at West Point. At a Court Martial convened to try the officer for violating the Articles of War, the accused objected to the testimony of Lieut. William Alexander, a Tennesseean, not a gradu- ate of the Military Academy, on the ground that he was an infidel. Alexander, hurt by this allu- sion, challenged the objector, and another duel was fought, resulting only in slight injuries to the clothing of the combatants. Inspector Gen- eral E. P. Gaines, after this, visited the fort, and in his report of the inspection he wrote: "A defect in the discipline of this regiment las ap- peared in the character of certain personal con- troversies, between the Colonel and several of liis young officers, the particulars of which I forbear to enter into, assured as I am that they will be developed in the proceedings of a general court martial ordered for the trial of Lieutenant Hun- ter and other officers at Jefferson Barracks.
" From a conversation with the Colonel I can have no doubt that he has erred in the course pursued by him in reference to some of the con- troversies, inasmuch as he has intimated to his officers his willingness to sanction in certain cases, and even to participate in personal contlicts, con- trary to the twenty-fifth, Article of War."
The Colonel's son, William Joseph, after this passed several years among traders and Indians, and became distinguished as a poet and brilliant author.
IIis "Tales of the Northwest." published in Boston in 1820, by Hilliard, Gray, Little & Wil- kins, is a work of great literary ability. and Catlin thought the book was the most faithful picture of Indian life he had read. Some of his poems were also of a high order. One of his pieces, deficient in dignity, was a caustic satire upon modern American poets, and was published under the title of " Truth, a Gift for Scribblers."
Nathaniel P. Willis, who had winced under the last, wrote the following lampoon :
". Oh, smelling Joseph ! Thou art like a cur. I'm tokl thon onee did live by hunting fur : Of bigger dogs thon smellest, and, in sooth, Of one extreme, perhaps, can tell the truth.
'Tis a wise shift, and shows thon know'st thy powers,
To leave the ' North West tales,' and take to smelling ours."
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
In 1:32 a second edition of " Truth " appeared with additions and emendations. In this ap- peared the following pasquinade upon Willis :
"I live by hunting fur. thou say'st. so let it be. But tell me. Natty ! Had I hunted thee. Had not my time been thrown away, young sir. And eke my powder ? Puppies have no fur.
Our tails : Thou owness thee to a tail. I've scanned thee o'er and o'er But, though I guessed the species right. I was not sure before.
Our savages, authentic travelers sy. To natural fools, religious homage pay. Eadst thou been born in wigwam's smoke, and died in.
Vat ! thine apotheosis had been certain."
Snelling died at Chelsea. Mass .. December six- teenth. Ists. a victim to the appetite which en- enslaved Robert Burns.
In the year 1-26. a small party of Ojibways Chippeways came to see the Indian Agent. and three of them ventured to visit the Colum- bia Fur Company's trading house, two miles from the Fort. While there, they became aware of their danger, and desired two of the white men attached to the establishment to accompany them back. thinking that their pres- ence might be some protection. They were in error. As they passed a little copse. three Dal- kotahs sprang from behind a los with the speed of Licht. tired their pi ces into the face of the fore- most. and then ded. The guns must have been double loaded. for the man's head was literally blown from his shoulders, ant bis white com- panions were spattered with brains art blood. The survivors gained the Fort without further molestation. Their comrade was buried on the spot where he fell. A staff was set up on his grave. which became a landmark. and received the name of The Murder P le. The murderers boasted of their achievement and with impunity. They an I their tribe thought that they had struck a fair blow on their ancient enemies. in a becom- ing manner. It was only sail. - ba: T. punkab Zeze of the village of the Bourne wer Fierns. and two others, had each acquired a right to wear skunk skins on their heels and war-eagles" feathers on their heads.
EVENTS OF A. D. IS2".
On the twenty-eighth of May, 1$27, the Ojib- way chief at Sandy Lake. Kee-wee-zais-hish called by the English, Flat Mouth with seven warriors and some women and children, in all amounting to twenty-four. arrived about sunrise at Fort Snelling. Walking to the gates of th garrix n. they asked the protection of Colonel Snelling and Taliaferro, the Indian agent. They were toll, that as long as they remained under the United States dag. they were secure, and were ordered to encamp within musket shot of the high stone walls of the fort.
During the afternoon. a Dahkotah. Toopunkah Zeze. from a village near the first rapids of the Minnesota, visited the Ojibway camp. They were cordially received, and a feast of meat and corn and sugar, was soon made ready. The wooden plates emptied of their contents, they engaged in conversation, and whitfed the peace pipe.
That night. some odivers and their friends were spending a pleasant evening at the head-quarters of Captain Clark, which was in one of the stone houses which used to stand outsile of the walls of the fort. As Captain Cruger was walking on the porch, a bullet whizzed by, and rapid firing was heard.
As the Dahkotahs, or Sioux. left the Ojibway camp, notwithstanding their friendly talk. they turned and discharged their guns with deadly aim upon their entertainers, and ran off with a shout of satisfaction. The report was heard by the sentinel of the fort, and he cried. repeatedly. "Corporal of the guard "" and soon at the gates. were the Ofibways, with their women ant the wounded. telling their tale of woe in will and in- coheren: language. Two had been killed and six wounded. Am _ others, was a little girl about seven years oll. who was pierced through boch thir & with : bullet. Surgeon MeMahon made every effort to save her life, but without avail.
Flat Month. the chief, reminded Colonel Szel- ling that he had been attacked while under the protection of the United States da _. and early the next morning. Captain Clark, with one hundred collier. proceeded towards Lan's Enl. a tra- dine-post of the Columbia Fur Company. on the Minnesota, a mile above the former residence of
TRAGIC SCENE UNDER THE WALLS OF THE FORT.
Franklin Steele, where the Dahkotahs were sup- posed to be. The soldiers had just left the large gate of the fort, when a party of Dalıkotals, in battle array, appeared on one of the prairie hills. After some parleying they turned their backs, and being pursued, thirty-two were cap- tured near the trading-post.
Colonel Snelling ordered the prisoners to be brought before the Ojibways, and two being pointed out as participants in the slaughter of the preceding night, they were delivered to the aggrieved party to deal with in accordance with their customs. They were led out to the plain in front of the gate of the fort. and when placed nearly without the range of the Ojibway guns, they were told to run for their lives. With the rapidity of deer they bounded away. but the Ojib- way bullet flew faster, and after a few steps, they fell gasping on the ground, and were soon lifeless. Then the savage nature displayed itself in all its hideousness. Women and children danced for joy, and placing their fingers in the bullet holes. from which -the blood oozed, they licked them with delight. The men tore the scalps from the dead, and seemed to luxuriate in the privilege of plunging their knives through the corpses. After the execution, the Ojibways returned to the fort, and were met by the Colonel. He had prevented all over whom his authority extended from wit- nessing the scene, and had done his best to con- fine the excitement to the Indians. The same day a deputation of Dahkotah warriors received andience, regretting the violence that had been done by their young men. and agreeing to deliver up the ringleaders.
At the time appointed. a son of Flat Mouthi. with those of the Ojibwa party that were not wounded. escorted by United States troops. marched forth to meet the Dahkotah deputation, on the prairie just beyond the old residence of the Indian agent. With much solemnity two more of the guilty were handed over to the assaulted. One was fearless. and with firmness stripped himself of his clothing and ornaments. and distributed them. The other could not face death with composure. Ile was noted for a hid- eous hare-lip, and had a bad reputation among his fellows. In the spirit of a coward he prayed for life, to the mortification of his tribe. The same opportunity was presented to them as to the
first, of running for their lives. At the first fire the coward fell a corpse; but his brave compan- ion, though wounded, ran on, and had nearly reached the goal of safety, when a second bullet killed him. The body of the coward now became a common object of loathing for both Dahkotabs and Ojibways.
Colonel Snelling told the Ojibways that the bodies must be removed, and then they took the scalped Dahkotahs. and dragging them by the heels, threw them off the bluff into the river, a hundred and fifty feet beneath. The dreadful scene was now over ; and a detachment of troops was sent with the oldt chief Flat Mouth, to escort him out of the reach of Dalikotah vengeance.
An eyewitness wrote : " After this catastrophe, all the Dahkotahs quitted the vicinity of Fort Snel- ling, and did not return to it for some monthis. It was said that they formed a conspiracy to de- inand a council, and kill the Indian Agent and the commanding officer. If this was a fact. they had no opportunity, or wanted the spirit, to exe- cute their purpose.
" The Flat Mouth's band lingered in the fort till their wounded comrade died. Ile was sensi- ble of his condition, and bore his pains with great fortitude. When he felt his end approach, he desired that his horse might be gaily caparisoned. and brought to the hospital window. so that he might touch the animal. Ile then took from his medicine bag a large cake of maple sugar. and held it forth. It may seem strange, but it is true. that the beast ate it from his hand. Ifis features were radiant with delight as he fell back on the pillow exhausted. Ilis horse had eaten the sugar. he said, and he was sure of a favorable reception and comfortable quarters in the other world. Half an hour after, he breathed his last. We tried to discover the details of his superstition. but could not succeed. It is a subject on which Indians unwillingly discourse."
In the fall of 1826, all the troops at Prairie du Chien had been removed to Fort Snelling, the commander taking with him two Winnebagoes that had been confined in Fort Crawford. After the soldiers left the Prairie, the Indians in the vicinity were quite insolent.
In June, 1827, two keel-boats passed Prairie du Chien on the way to Fort Snelling with provis- ions. When they reached Wapashaw village, on
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA ..
the site of the present town of Winona, the erew were ordered to come ashore by the Dahkotahs. Complying, they found themselves surrounded by Indians with hostile intentions. The boatmen had no fire-arms, but assuming a hold mien and a defiant voice, the captain of the keel-boats ordered the savages to leave the decks; which was sie- cessful, The boats pushed on, and at Red Wing and Kaposia the Indians showed that they were not friendly, though they did not molest the boats. Before they started on their return from Fort Snelling, the men on board, amounting to thirty-two, were all provided with muskets and a barrel of ball cartridges.
When the descending keel-boats passed Wapa- shaw, the Dahkotas were engaged in the war dance, and menaced them, but made no attaek. Below this point one of the boats moved in ad- vance of the other, and when near the mouth of the Bad Axe, the half-breeds on board descried hostile Indians on the banks. As the channel neared the shore. the sixteen men on the first boat were greeted with the war whoop and a vol- ley of rifle balls from the excited Winnebagoes, killing two of the erew. Rushing into their ca- noes, the Indians made the attempt to board the boat, and two were successful. One of these stationed himself at the bow of the boat, and fired with killing effect on the men below deck. An old soldier of the last war with Great Britain, called Saucy Jack, at last despatched him, and began to rally the fainting spirits on board. Du- ring the fight the boat had stuck on a sand-bar. With four companions, amid a shower of balls from the savages, he plunged into the water and pushed off the boat, and thus moved out of reach of the galling shots of the Winnebagoes. As they floated down the river during the night, they heard a wail in a canoe behind them, the voice of a father mourning the death of the son who had scaled the deck, and was now a corpse in possession of the white men. The rear boat passed the Bad Axe river late in the night, and escaped an attack.
The first keel-boat arrived at Prairie du Chein, with two of their crew dead, four wounded, and the Indian that had been killed on the boat. The two dead men had been residents of the Prairie, and now the panic was increased. On the morn- ing of the twenty-eighth of June the second
keel - boat appeared, and among her passengers was Joseph Snelling, the talented son of the colonel, who wrote a story of deep interest, based on the faets narrated.
At a meeting of the citizens it was resolved to repair old Fort Crawford, and Thomas McNair was appointed captain. Dirt was thrown around the bottem logs of the fortification to prevent its being fired, and young Snelling was put in com- mand of one of the block-houses. On the next day a voyageur named Loyer, and the well-known trader Duncan Graham, started through the in- terior. west of the Mississippi, with intelligence of the murders, to Fort Snelling. Intelligence of this attack was received at the fort, on the evening of the ninth of July, and Col. Snelling started in keel boats with four companies to Fort Crawford, and on the seventeenth four more companies left under Major Fowle. After an absence of six weeks, the soldiers, without firing a gun at the enemy, returned.
A few weeks after the attack upon the keel boats General Gaines inspected the Fort, and, subsequently in a communication to the War Department wrote as follows ;
" The main points of defence against an enemy appear to have been in some respects sacrificed, in the effort to secure the comfort and conven- ience of troops in peace. These are important considerations, but on an exposed frontier the primary object ought to be security against the attack of an enemy.
" The buildings are too large, too numerous, and extending over a space entirely too great, enclosing a large parade, five times greater than is at all desireable in that elimate. The build- ings for the most part seem well constructed, of good stone and other materials, and they contain every desirable convenience, comfort and securi- ty as barracks and store houses.
" The work may be rendered very strong and adapted to a garrison of two hundred men by re- moving one-half the buildings, and with the ma- terials of which they are constructed, building a tower sufficiently high to command the hill be- tween the Mississippi and St. Peter's [Minnesota], and by a block house on the extreme point, or brow of the cliff, near the commandant's quarters, to secure most effectually the banks of the river, and the boats at the landing.
101
DEATH OF COL. JOSIAH SNELLING.
"Much credit i: due to Colonel Snelling, his officers and men, for their immense labors and excellent workmanship exhibited in the construc- tion of these barracks and store houses, but this has been effected too much at the expense of the discipline of the regiment."
From reports made from 1823 to 1826, the health of the troops was good. In the year ending Sep- tember thirty, 1823, there were but two deaths; in 1824 only six, and in 1825 but seven.
In 1823 there were three desertions, in 1824 twenty-two, and in 1825 twenty-nine. Most of the deserters were fresh recruits and natives of America, Ten of the deserters were foreigners, and five of these were born in Ireland. In 1826 there were eight companies numbering two hun-
dred and fourteen soldiers quartered in the Fort.
During the fall of 1827 the Fifth Regiment was relieved by a part of the First, and the next year Colonel Snelling proceeded to Washington on bus- iness, where he died with inflammation of the brain. Major General Macomb announcing his death in an order, wrote :
"Colonel Snelling joined the army in early youth. In the battle of Tippecanoe, he was distinguished for gallantry and good condnet. Subsequently and during the whole late war with Great Britain, from the battle of Brownstown to the termination of the contest, he was actively employed in the field, with credit to himself, and honor to his country."
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOT.1.
CHAPTER XVII.
OCCURRENCES IN THE VICINITY OF FORT SNELLING. CONTINUED.
Arrival of J. N. Nicollet-Marriage of James Wells-Nicollet's letter from Falls- of St. Anthony-Perils of Martin MyLeod-Chippeway treachery-Sioux Re venge-Rinn River and Stillwater battles-Grog shops near the Fort.
On the second of July 1836. the steamboat Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its passengers was the distinguished French as- tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicolay). Major Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote ; " Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific research, and at present in my family, has shown me the late work of Henry R. Schoolcraft on the discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the twenty-seventh, Nicollet, ascended the Mississippi on a tour of observation.
James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre in the Minnesota Valley.
Nicollet in September returned from his trip to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the earliest letter extant written from the site of the city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and one of the finest avenues of that city bears his name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia- tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows that he had not mastered the English language : "ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS, 27th September, 1836.
DEAR FRIEND :- I arrived last evening about dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, happy and a very successful journey. But I done exhausted. and nothing can relieve me, but the pleasure of meeting you again under your hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the garrison who have been so kind to me.
" This letter is more particularly to give you a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with me. The day before yesterday I met them again at Swan river where they detained me one day. I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. All terminated by their own resolution that they ought to give you the hand, as well as to the Guinas of the Fort ( Colonel Davenport. ) 1 thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be- forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit they pay you. Please give them a good welcome until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven- port all that has taken place during my stay among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not trespassed and that I have behaved as would have done a good eitizen of the U. S. As to Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will have full and complete satisfaction from Flat Month himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. NICOLEY."
EVENTS OF A. D. 1837.
On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar- rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has given his name to a county.
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