USA > Minnesota > Freeborn County > History of Freeborn County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 44
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With the departure of these noble bands went not only the wishes and prayers of wives, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children for success, but with them all, or nearly all, the able-bodied citizens capable of bearing arms, together with all the guns and ammunition St. Peter could muster. For one moment we follow these little bands of soldiers, the hope of the Minnesota Valley. Their march is rapid. To one of these parties thirty weary miles intervened between them and the burning town of New Ulm. Expecting to meet the savage foe on their route, flushed with their successful massacre at New Ulm, the skirmishers-a few men on horseback-were kept in advance of the hurry-
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HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
ing footmen. Before dark, the entire force des- tined for New Ulm reached the crossing of the Minnesota at the Red Stone Ferry. Here, for a moment, a halt was ordered: the field of ruin lay in full view before them. The smoke of the burn- ing buildings was seen ascending over the town. No signs of life were visible. Some might yet be alive. There was no wavering in that little army of relief. The ferry was manned, the river was crossed, and soon New Ulm was frantic with the mingled shouts of the delivered and their deliv- erers. An account of the hard-fought battle which terminated the siege is to be found in another chapter of this work. Such expedition has seldom, if ever, been chronicled, as was exhib- ited by the deliverers of New Ulm. Thirty miles had been made in a little over half a day, travel- ing all the time in the face of a motley crowd of panie-stricken refugees, pouring in through every avenue toward St. Peter.
The other party, by dusk, had reached Fort Ridgely, traveling about forty-five miles, crossing the ravine near the fort at the precise point where one hundred and fifty Indians had lain in ambush awaiting their approach until a few moments he- fore they came up, and had only retired for the night; and, when too late to intercept them, the disappointed savages saw the Renville Rangers enter the fort.
But let us now return to St. Peter. What a night and a day have brought forth! The quiet village of a thousand inhabitants thus increased by thousands, hal become full to overflowing. Every private house, every public house, every church, school-house, warehouse, shed, or saloon, and every vacant structure is full. The crowd throng the public highways; a line of cooking- stoves smoke along the streets; the vacant lots are occupied, for there is no room in the houses. All is elatter, rattle, and din. Wagons, ponies, mules, oxen, cows and ealves are promiscuously distrib- uted among groups of men, women and children. The live stock from thousands of deserted farms surround the outskirts of the town; the lowing of strange eattle, the neighing of restless horses, the crying of lost and hungry children, the tales of horror, the tomahawk wounds undressed, the bleeding feet, the cries for food, and the loud wailing for missing friends, all combine to burn into the soul the dreadful reality that some ter- rible calamity was upon the country.
But the news of the rapid approach of the
savages, the bodies of the recently-murdered, the burning of houses, the admitted danger of a sudden attack upon St. Peter, agitated and moved that vast multitude as if some voleano was ready to engulf them. The overflowing streets were crowded into the already overflowing houses. The stone buildings were barricaded, and the women and children were huddled into every conceivable place of safety. Between hope and fear, and prayer for suceor, several weary days and nights passed away, when, on the 22d day of August, the force under Colonel Sibley, fourteen hundred strong, arrived at St. Peter.
Now, as the dread of immediate massacre was past, they were siezed witlra fear of a character en- tirely different. How shall this multitude be fed, elothed and nursed? The grain was unthreshed in the field, and the flour in the only mill left standing on the Minnesota, above Belle Plaine, was almost gone. The flouring mill at Mankato, twelve miles above, in the midst of the panic, bad been burned, and fears were entertained that the mill at St. Peter would share the same fate. Nor had this multitude any means within themselves to support life a single day. Every scheme known to human ingenuity was canvassed. Every device was suggested, and every expedient tried. The multitude was fearfully elamoring for food, rai- ment, and shelter. The sick and wounded were in need of medicine and skillful attention. Between six and seven thousand persons, besides the eiti- zens of the place, were already erowding the town; and some thousand or fifteen hundred more daily expected, as a proper quota from the two thousand now compelled to abandon New Ulm. The gath- ering troops, regular and irregular, were moving, in large numbers, upon St. Peter, now a frontier town of the State, bordering on the country under the full dominion of the Annuity Sioux Indians, with torch and tomahawk, burning and murdering in their train.
A committee, aided by expert elerks, opened an office for the distribution of such articles of food, clothing and medical stores as the town eould furnish, on their orders, trusting to the State or General Government for pay at some fu- ture day. So great was the crowd pressing for relief, that much of the exhausting labor was per- formed while bayonets guarded the entrance to the building in which the office of distribution was held. A bakery was established, furnishing two thousand loaves of bread per day, while many pri-
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REFUGEES AT ST. PETER.
vate houses were put under requisition for the same purpose, and, aided by individual benevo- lence throughout the town, the hungry began to be scantily fed. A butcher-shop was pressed into the needed service, capable of supplying ten thon- sand rations a day over and above the citizens' ordinary demand. Still, there was a vast moving class, single persons, women, and children, not yet reached by these well-directed efforts. The com- mittee, feeling every impulse of the citizens, to satisfy the demand for food fitted up a capacious soup-house, where as high as twelve hundred meals were supplied daily. This institution was a great success, and met the entire approval of the citizens, while it suited the conditions of the pe- culiar population better than any other mode in which relief could be administered. Soup was al- ways ready; and its quality was superior. The aged and the young could here find relief, singly or in families; the well relished it, and the sick found it a grateful beverage. In this way the committee, aided by the extreme efforts of private charity, ever active and vigilant, continued for weeks to feed the refugees at St. Peter, taxing every energy of body and mind from twelve to sixteen hours per day. The census of the population was never taken; but it is believed that, after the arri- val of the refugees from New Ulm, and a portion of the inhabitants from Le Sueur county, east of the town, excluding the fourteen hundred troops under Colonel H. H. Sibley, who were here a part of the time, the population of St. Peter was at least nine thousand. This was an estimate made by the committee of supplies, who issued eight thousand rations of beef each day to refugees alone, estimating one ration to a person. The ra- tion was from a half-pound to a pound, varied to meet the condition of persons and families.
But the task of feeding the living did not stop with the human element. The live stock, horses and oxen, with an innumerable herd of cattle from a thousand prairies, ruly and unruly, furious from fright, so determined on food that in a few days not a green spot could be protected from their vo- racious demands. Fences offered no obstruction. Some bold leader laid waste the field or garden, and total destruction followed, until St. Peter was as barren of herbage, with scarce an exception, as the Great American desert. The committee could not meet successfully this new demand. The sixty tons of hay cut by their order was only an aggravation to the teams of the Government and
the necessary demands of the gathering cavalry. Some military power seemed needed to regulate the collection and distribution of food in this de- partment. This soou came in an official order from Col. H. H. Sibley to a member of the com- mittee, assigning him to the separate duty of col- lecting food for Government use at St. Peter. A wider range of country was now brought under contribution, and such of the live stock as was re- quired for constant use was amply supplied. The cattle not required by the butchers were forced to a still wider extent of country.
Not only food, such as the mill, the bakery, the butcher-shop, and the soup-house could furnish was required among this heterogeneous multitude, but the infirm, the aged and the sick needed other articles, which the merchant and druggist alone could furnish. Tea, coffee, sugar, salt, soap, can- dles, wine, brandy, and apothecaries' drugs, as well as shoes, boots, hats, and wear for men, women and children, and articles of bedding and hospital stores, were demanded as being abso- lutely necessary. The merchants and druggists of the town honored the orders of the committee, and this demand was partially supplied. In all these efforts of the town to meet the wants of the refugees, it was discovered that the limit of sup- ply would soon be reached. But the demand still continued inexorable. The fearful crisis was ap- proaching! Public exertion had found its limit; private benevolence was exhausted; the requisite stores of the merchant and the druggist were well- nigh expended. It was not yet safe to send the multitude to their homes in the country. The fierce savage was yet in the land, thirsting for blood. What shall be done? Shall this vast crowd be seut to other towns, to St. Paul, or still further, to other States, to seek relief from public charity ? or shall they be suffered to perish here, when all means of relief shall have failed ?
On the 13th of September, 1862, after a month had nearly expired, a relief committee, consisting of Rev. A. H. Kerr and F. Lange, issued an ap- peal, approved by M. B. Stone, Provost Marshal of St. Peter, from which we make a few extracts, showing the condition of things at the time it bears date. Previous to this, however, a vast number had left for other places, principally for St. Paul, crowding the steamboats on the Minnesota river to their utmost capacity. The appeal says:
"FRIENDS! BRETHREN! In behalf of the suf- fering, the destitute, and homeless-in behalf of
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HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASS.ICRE.
the widow, the fatherless, and the houseless, we make this appeal for help. A terrible blow has fallen upon this frontier, by the uprising of the Sioux or Dakota Indians. All the horrors of an Indian war; the massacre of families, the aged and the young; the burning of houses and the wanton destruction of property; all, indeed that makes an Indian war so fearful and terribly appalling, are upon the settlements immediately west and north- west of ns.
"In some cases the whole family have been mur- dered; in others the husband has fallen; in others the wife and children have been taken captive; in others only one child has escaped to tell the sad story. Stealthily the Indians came upon the set- tlements, or overtook families flying for refuge. Unprotected, alarm and terror siezed the people, and to escape with life was the great struggle. Mothers clasped their little ones in their arms and fled; if any lagged behind they were overtaken by a shot or the hatchet. Many, many thus left their homes, taking neither food nor elothing with them. The Indians immediately commenced the work of pillaging, taking elothing and bedding, and, in many instances giving the house and all it con- tained to the flames. Some have lost their all, and many, from comparative comfort. are left nt- terly destitute. A great number of cattle have been driven back into the Indian country, and where a few weeks ago plenty abounded, desolation now reigns. * * * *
-
"Friends of humanity-Christians, brethren, in your homes of safety, can you do something for the destitute and homeless? We ask for east-off elothing for men, women and children -- for shoes and stockings; caps for boys, anything for the lit- tle girls and infants; woolen underclothing, blankets, comfortables; anything, indeed, to alle- viate their sufferings. Can not a church or town collect such articles, fill a box and send it to the committee? It should be done speedily."
Cireulars, containing the appeal from which we have made the above quotations, were sent to churches in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and throughout the towns and cities of New England. And similar appeals, from other places, were made, and met with universal re- sponse, worthy of men and women who honor the Christian profession. By these efforts, the refugees throughout the state were greatly relieved. In reply to these circulars about $20,000
were received, to which was added $25,000 by the state, for general distribution.
Other places on the frontier, such as Henderson, Chaska, Carver, and even Belle Plaine, Shakopee, and St. Paul, felt, more or less, the crushing weight of the army of refugees, as they poured across the country and down the Minnesota Val- ley; but no place felt this burden so heavily as the frontier town of St. Peter.
One reflection should here he made. Had New Ulm and Fort Ridgely fallen on the first attack, Mankato and St. Peter would have been taken he- fore the state troops could have offered the proper assistance. Hal New Ulm fallen on the 19th, when it was attacked, and Fort Ridgely on the 20th, when the attack was made on that place, Mankato and St. Peter could easily have been reached by the 21st, when the state troops were below, on their way to St. Peter. The successful defense of these places, New Ulm and Fort Ridge- ly, was accomplished by the volunteer citizens of Nicollet, Le Suenr, and BIne Earth counties, who reached New Ulm by the 19th of August, and the Renville Rangers, who timely succored Fort Ridge- ly, by a foreed march of forty-five miles in one day, reaching the fort previons to the attack or that post. Whatever ere.lit is dne to the state troops, for the successful defense of the frontier and the rescue of the white captives, should be gratefully acknowledged by the citizens of Min nesota. Such aets are worthy of lasting honor to all who were participants in those glorious deels. But to the brave men who first advanced to the defense of New Uhm and Fort Ridgely, higher honor and a more lasting debt of gratitude are due from the inhabitants of the valley of the Min- nesota. Let their names be honored among men. Let them stand side by side with the heroes of other days. Let them rank with veteran brethren who, on Southern battle-fields, have fought nobly for constitutional freedom and the perpetuity of the Union of these states. These are all of them worthy men. who like
"Patriots have toiled, and in their country's eanse Bled nobly, and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyrc. The Historic Muse, Proud of her treasure, marches with it down To latest times; and Sculpture, in her turn, Gives bond, in stone and cver-during brass, To guard them, and immortalize her trust."
249
BATTLE OF BIRCHI COOLIE.
CHAPTER XLII.
BATTLE OF BIRCH COOLIE-BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE -CAMP RELEASE -- MILITARY COMPANIES-SUC- CESS OF THE EXPEDITION UNDER GENERAL SIBLEY.
The massacre being the main design of this his- tory, the movement of the troops, in the pursuit and punishment of the Indians connected with the atrocious murders initiated on the 18th of Angust, 1862, must especially, in this abridgement, be ex- ceedingly brief.
On the day after the outbreak, August 19th, 1862, an order was issued by the commander-in-chief to Colonel H. H. Sibley, to proceed, with four com- panies, then at Fort Snelling, and such other forces as might join his command, to the protec- tion of the frontier counties of the State. The entire force, increased by the separate commands of Colonels Marshall and McPhail, reached Fort Ridgely, August 28th, 1862. A detachment made up of Company A, 6th Regiment Minnesota Volunteers, under Captain H. P. Grant, some sev- enty mounted men under Captain Joseph Ander- son, and a fatigue party, aggregating in all a force of over one hundred and fifty men, were sent in advance of the main army, to protect the set- tlements from further devastation, and at the same time collect and bury the dead yet lying on the field of the recent slaughter. On the first of Sep- tember, near the Beaver Creek, Captain Grant's party found Justina Krieger, who had escaped alive from the murders committed near Sacred Heart. Mrs Krieger had been shot and dread- fully butchered. During this day this detachment buried fifty-five victims of savage barbarity, and in the evening went into camp at Bireh Coolie. The usual precautions were taken, and no imme- ciate fears of Indians were apprehended; yet at half-past four o'clock on the morning of the sec- ond of September, one of the guards shouted "Indians!" Instantly thereafter a shower of bul- lets was poured into the eneampment. A most fearful and terrible battle ensued, and for the num- bers engaged, the most bloody of any in which our forces had been engaged during the war. The less of men, in proportion to those engaged, was extremely large; twenty-three were killed out- right, or mortally wounded, and forty-five so se- verely wounded as to require surgical aid, while scarce a mau remained whose dress had not been pierced by the enemies' bullets. On the evening of the 3d of September the besieged camp was
relieved by an advance movement of Colonel Sib. ley's forces at Fort Ridgely.
This battle, in all probability, saved the towns of Mankato and St. Peter from the destruction in- tended by the savages. They had left Yellow Medicine with the avowed object of attacking these towns on the Minnesota. The signal defeat of the forces of Little Crow at Birch Coolie, not only saved the towns of Mankato and St. Peter, but in effect ended his efforts in subduing the whites on the borders.
After the battle of Birch Coolie all the maraud- ing forces under the direction of Little Crow were called in, and a retreat was ordered up the valley of the Minnesota toward Yellow Medicine; and on the 16th day of September Colonel Sibley ordered an advance of his whole column in pursuit of the fleeing foe; his forces now increased by the 32 Minnesota Volunteers, paroled prisoners returned from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, under command of Major Abraham E. Welch.
On the evening of the 22d Colonel Sibley ar- rived at Wood Lake. On the morning of the 23d, at about seven o'clock, a force of three hundred Indians suddenly appeared before his camp, yell- ing as savages only can yell, and firing with great rapidity. The troops under Colonel Sibley were cool and determined, and the 3d Regiment needed no urging by officers. All our forces engaged the enemy with a will that betokened quiek work with savages who had outraged every sentiment of hu- manity, and earned for themselves an immortality of infamy never before achieved by the Dakota nation. The fight lasted about two hours. We lost in killed four, and about fifty wounded. The enemy's loss was much larger; fourteen of their dead were left on the field, and an unknown number were carried off the field, as the Indians are accustomed to do.
The battle of Wood Lake put an end to all the hopes of the renowned chief. His warriors were in open rebellion against his schemes of warfare against the whites. He had gained nothing. Fort Ridgely was not taken. New Ulm was not in his possession. St. Peter and Mankato were intact, and at Birch Coolie and Wood Lake he had suffered defeat. No warrior would longer follow his fortunes in a war so disastrous. On the same day of the battle at Wood Lake a deputation from the Wapeton band appeared under a flag of truce, asking terms of peace. The response of Colonel Sibley was a demand for the delivery of all the
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HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
white captives in the possession of these savages. Wabasha, at the head of fifty lodges, immediately parted company with Little Crow, and established a camp near Lac qui Parle, with a view of sur- rendering his men on the most favorable terms. A flag of truce announced his action to Colonel Sibley, who soon after, under proper military gnard, visited Wabaslia's camp. After the formal- ities of the occasion were over, Colonel Sibley re- ceived the captives, in all, then and thereafter, to the number of 107 pure whites, and about 162 half-breeds, and conducted them to his headquar- ters. The different emotions of these captives at their release can easily be imagined by the reader. This place well deserved the name given it, "Camp Release."
A MILITARY COMMISSION was soon after inau- gurated to try the parties charged with the mur- der of white persons. The labors of tliis commis- sion continued until about the 5th of November, 1862. Three hundred and twenty-one of the sav- ages and their allies had been found guilty of the charges preferred against them; three hundred and three of whom were recommended for capital punishment, the others to suffer imprisonment. These were immediately removed, under a guard of 1,500 men, to South Bend, on the Minnesota river, to await further orders from the United States Government.
PURSUIT OF THE DESERTERS .- After the disaster met with at Wood Lake, Little Crow retreated, with those who remained with him, in the direc- tion of Big Stone Lake, some sixty miles to the westward. On the 5th of October, Colonel Sibley had sent a messenger to the principal eamp of the deserters, to inform them that he expected to be able to pursne and overtake all who remained in arms against the Government; and that the only hope of mercy that they need expect, even for their wives and children, would be their early re- turn and surrender at discretion. By the 8th of October the prisoners who had come in and sur- rendered amounted to upwards of 2,000. On the 14th of October, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, with 252 men, was ordered to go out upon the fron- tier as a scouting party, to ascertain whether there were any hostile eamps of savages located witliin probable striking distance, from which they might be able, by sudden marches, to fall npon the set- tlements before the opening of the campaign in the coming spring. About this time, Colonel Sib- ley, hitherto acting under State authority, received
the commission of Brigadier General of Volun- teers from the United States.
The scouting party under Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall followed up the line of retreat of the fugi- tives, and near the edge of the Cotean de Prairie, about forty-five miles from Camp Release, found two lodges of straggling Indians. The males of these eamps, three young men, were made prison- ers, and the women and children and an old man were directed to deliver themselves np at Camp Release. From these Indians here captured they received information of twenty-seven lodges en. camped near Chanopa (Two Wood) lakes. At these lakes they found no Indians; they had left, but the trail was followed to the north-west, to- wards the Big Sionx river. At noon of the 16th, Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall took with him fifty muounted men and the howitzer and started in pur- suit, withont tents or supplies of any kind, but leaving the infantry and supply wagons to follow after. They crossed the Big Sioux river, passing near and on the north side of Lake Kampeska.
By following closely the Indian trail, they ar- rived at dark at the east end of a lake some six or eight miles long, and abont eight miles in a north- westwardly direction from Lake Kampeska. Here they halted, without tents, fire or food, until near daylight, when reconnoitering commenced, and at an early hour in the morning they succeeded in surprising and capturing a camp composed of ten lodges, and thirteen Indians and their families. From those captured at this place information was received of another camp of some twelve or fifteen lodges, located at the distance of about one day's march in the direction of James river.
Placing a guard over the captured camp, the re- maining portion of the force pressed on in the di- rection indieated, and at the distance of abont ten miles from the first camp, and about midway be tween the Big Sioux and James rivers they came in sight of the second party, just as they were moving out of camp. The Indians attempted to make their escape by flight, but after an exciting chase for some distance they were overtaken and captured, without any armed resistance. Twenty- one men were taken at this place. Some of them had separated from the camp previous to the cap- ture, and were engaged in hunting at the time. On the return march, which was shortly after com- menced, six of these followed the detachment, and, after making ineffectual efforts to recover their families, eame forward and surrendered themselves
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