USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 17
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$170.10
Stillwater, -
225.00
Mankato,
52.00
St. Anthony,
49.10
Shakopee,
63.70
Minneapolis,
125.00
St. Cloud,
24.80
Hastings, -
100.00
Miscellaneous,
353.65
Red Wing, -
124.64
Winona, -
55.20
Total,
$1917.72
The people gave with a liberal hand and willing disposition.
Enlistments continued, and regiment after regiment was mustered into the service and sent forward to the seat of war.
It is impossible to mention in detail in a work of this character, the movements of the several regiments, batteries, etc., that went out from Minnesota to take part in the suppression of the great rebellion, but it must be written that from the time the first regiment was engaged in battle, until the final surrender of the rebel cause and rebel army, there was but few engagements in which some one or more of the Minnesota regiments did not engage. It would be a pleasing duty to chronicle the movements of these brave men and their gallant and heroic deeds, but that pleasure is submitted to other and abler pens. It has not been our purpose to write in detail of the heroic offerings and sacrifices of Minnesota's boys in blue, but rather to show the general character and willing and ready disposition of the people of one of the youngest States in the Union, to stand by and defend that Union and maintain its integ- rity with their " lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor."
From first to last the people of this young State, enlisted and sent forward to the field of battle, men as brave, as good, and as true as ever drew a sword or presented a musket. In 1860, according to the U. S. census report, the population of Minnesota was 172,023, thus Minne- sota offered 24,000 of her valiant sons out of this small population, to
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
defend the Union against traitors in arms. What other of the patriotic States of the patriotic North, can show a better record of devotion to the principles of union and freedom ?
The following table embraces a list of the regiments, date of organi- zation, discharge, etc .:
No. of Regiment.
Date of Organization.
Date of Discharge.
First.
. April, 1861,
May 5, 1864.
Second
July, 1861.
July 11, 1865.
Third
October, 1861.
September, 1865.
Fourth
. December, 1861.
August, 1865.
Fifth
May, 1862.
September, 1865.
Sixth
August, 1862.
August, 1865.
Seventh
66
V
Eighth
66
Ninth
66
Tenth
66
Eleventh
. August, 1864.
Infantry Battalion
.May, 1864.
. July, 1865.
ARTILLERY.
First Reg. Heavy Artillery ... ... April, 1865.
September, 1865.
BATTERIES.
.
First
.October, 1861.
. June, 1865.
Second .
December, 1861
July, 1865.
Third.
February, 1863.
February, 1866.
CAVALRY.
Rangers.
March, 1863.
Oct. to Dec., 1863.
Brackett's
Oct. and Nov., 1861 May to June, 1866.
Second Regiment.
January, 1864. . Nov. to June, 1866.
Hatch's. July, 1863. . April to June, 1866
SHARPSHOOTERS.
Company A
1861.
Company B
1862,
The last named company was on duty with the First Regiment in the Army of the Potomac.
The war ended, and, honorably discharged, the survivors of the dan- gers incident to life on war's tented fields, returned to their homes to receive ovations of honor from the people from whose midst they had gone out, and who had eagerly, zealously watched their movements, and marches and battles, from the day they were first borne away towards the South. The welcomes over, the returned volunteers laid aside their soldier's garb, donned the citizen's dress, and fell back upon their old avocations-on the farm, in the shop, at the forge, or whatever else their hands found to do. Brave men are honorable always, and no class of Minnesota's men deserve better than those who offered their lives in defense of their country's honor, not alone because they were
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THIE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
soldiers, but because their daily walk is upright, and their characters without reproach.
Their country first, their glory and their pride ; Land of their hopes-land where their fathers died : When in the right, they'll keep their honor bright; When in the wrong, they'll die to set it right.
INDIAN MASSACRES.
Like all the border States, the early settlers of Minnesota were sub- ject to annoyances and incursions from the Indians, and many an honest, toiling, peaceable, inoffensive pioneer man and woman. intent only on securing a home they could call their own, became victims, in some way or another, to Indian savagery. Some of them were murdered, others met a fate that was worse.
The first of these savage butcheries occurred at Spirit Lake, in the northwestern part of Iowa, close to the Minnesota State line, in March, 1857, and ended at Springfield, in this State, about fifteen or twenty miles north of Spirit Lake.
In the spring of 1856, Red Wing enterprise fitted out a company of men consisting of G. W. Granger, Barttell Snyder and Isaac Harriett, and sent them down to Spirit Lake to select land claims and found a town. In the fall of 1856 there were seven cabins around the lake, all of which were occupied. The occupants were a man named Thatcher and family, Marble and family, Judge Howe and family, Marble and family, Mattox and family, and Isaac Harriett, Barton Snyder and G. W. Granger, the three last named occupying one cabin and keeping " bachelor's hall."
For some years previous to this outrage, a few Dakota Indians and outlaws, under the lead of an excommunicated Dakota named Inkpa- dootah, had been roving through that part of Iowa. They had been driven away from their own people, and were a band unto themselves- insolent, devilish, murderous wretches; and on Sunday, the 8th of March, 1856, they came to Spirit Lake, and almost immediately com- menced their hellish work. Mr. Neill says they* proceeded to a cabin occupied only by men, and asked for beef. Understanding, as they afterwards asserted, to kill one of the cattle, they did so, and com- menced cutting it up, when one of the white men went out and knocked the Dakota down. In retaliation the white man was shot and killed; and surrounding the house, the Indians set fire to the thatched roof and
* The Indians subsequently claimed they had received permission to kill the animal.
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killed the occupants as they attempted to escape from the burning building-eleven in all.
Other authorities say there was no beef demanded by the Indians- no beef killed, and that Inkpadootah was not assaulted by any of the white men, but that the attack was instigated solely and simply by Indian treachery and thirst for blood. This version of the affair is main- tained by Isaac Lauver, W. W. DeKay, George Huntington, and a Mr. Patten, who went down to Spirit Lake from Red Wing about the 31st of March, as soon they heard of the massacre, to bury the remains of the murdered victims, and look after the claim interests.
At about the same time, the murdering wretches went to a cabin occupied by a man named Gardner and his family, and asked for some- thing to eat. Everything in the house was given them. While they were disposing of Gardner's hospitality, his son-in-law, and another man who was there, went out to see if everything was right at the neighboring cabin-the one just mentioned as being set on fire. It was their last mission, for some of the Indians were in ambush, and shot and killed them also. The Indians left Gardner's, after securing all the food the cabin contained, but returned in the latter part of the after- noon and killed Gardner, his wife, two daughters, and his grandchildren, and carried away, as a prisoner, one other, named Abby. That night, or the next morning, they visited the homes of Noble and Thatcher, who had settled there, and carried Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Thatcher pris- oners to their camp. On Monday, a man named Markham, went to Gardner's on some errand, and found the murdered bodies of the entire family. Markham hid himself until darkness came on, and then went to Springfield, and reported the murder.
The following Thursday, March 12, an Indian called at Marble's cabin, three miles above Thatcher's, and told her that the white people down on the lake had been nipped (killed) a day or two before. This intel- ligence alarmed the Marbles, the more so, as the great depth of snow then on the ground had prevented communication with the settlement below for some days; but, fearing the worst, it was impossible for the Marble family to inaugurate any measures for flight, or other means of safety. The next morning, Friday, the 13th, four Indians, with friendly bearing, came to Marble's and bantered him to trade rifles. The trade was made, after which they prevailed on Marble to go out on the lake and shoot at a mark. After a few shots they turned in the direction of the house, and managing to get Marble in advance of them, the Indians shot him, and he fell dead in his tracks. Mrs. Marble, who had been watching the maneuvering of the fiends, saw her husband fall and ran
Oh. pronvold WANAMINGO
THENEW YORK 1 PUBLICI BRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION -
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to him, when the bloody wretches seized her, and told her they would not kill her, but that they would take her with them, and she was car- ried to the camp, where they had previously taken Mrs. Noble, Mrs. Thatcher, and Miss Gardner.
Inkpadootah and his followers next went to Springfield, where, a week or two later, they butchered the entire settlement. The alarm was sent to Fort Ridgely, and a detachment of soldiers was sent out in pursuit. They found and buried two bodies, and the Iowans, who had volun- teered and started out to avenge the murders and outrages, as soon as they heard of their perpetration, found and buried twenty nine others. Besides these thirty-one bodies that were found and buried, others were still missing.
Learning that soldiers were in pursuit of them, the outlaws made haste to leave the vicinity of their depredations, carrying the four women along with them. They were forced to carry heavy burdens by day, and to cut wood, build fires and do other camp duty when night came on.
In consequence of poor health and recent child-birth, Mrs. Thatcher became burdensome, and at Big Sioux River, when attempting to cross on the trunks of trees fallen from the opposite banks, she was pushed off into the deep, cold water by one of the Indians. She swam to the shore, when they pushed her back into the current, and then shot at her as if she were a target, until life was extinct.
" In May, two men from Lac qui Parle, who had been taught to read and write, while on their spring hunt found themselves in the neighbor- hood of Inkpadootah and his party. Having heard that they held some American women in captivity, the two brothers visited the camp- though this was at some risk of their own lives, since Inkpadootah's hand was now against every man-and found the outlaws, and succeeded in bargaining for Mrs. Marble, whom they conveyed to their mother's tent," where she was visited by persons connected with the Hazelwood Mission, and re-clothed in civilized costume. From thence she was conveyed to St. Paul, where the citizens welcomed her, and made up a purse of one thousand dollars with which she was presented.
The rescue of the other two women was now resolved upon, and Flandrau, the Dakota agent, commissioned a "good Indian " named Paul by the whites, to accomplish their redemption. He was fitted out with a wagon, two horses and some valuable presents, and started on his mission. He found Inkpadootah and his iniquitous cut-throats with a band of Yanktons, on the James River. Only Miss Gardner was living. Mrs. Noble had been murdered a few nights before. She had been ordered to go out and be subject to the wishes of the party, and
11
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refusing to go, a son of Inkpadootah dragged her out by the hair of her head and killed her. The next morning a Dakota woman took Miss Gardner out to see the corpse, which had been horribly treated after death.
By perseverance and large presents Paul succeeded in redeeming Miss Gardner, and she was taken to the mission house. From there she was taken to St. Paul, from whence she was sent to her sister in Iowa.
The same year, about the last of June or first of July, Inkpadootah's son, said to have been the murderer of Mrs. Noble, was killed while seeking to escape arrest for that cruel butchery. Reports became current that he was in camp on Yellow Medicine River. Flandrau and a detachment of soldiers from Fort Ridgely, accompanied by some Indian guides, started for the camp to arrest him. As they approached the camp, the alarm was given and the murderer ran from his lodge, and concealed himself in the brush near the river, but was soon uncov- ered and shot by United States soldiers. The rest of the gang managed to escape, and are said to have taken refuge beyond the. Missouri River.
The Red Wing party who went down to Spirit Lake to bury the dead, etc., as already mentioned, found the remains of Granger by the side of the cabin he occupied in common with Snyder and Harriett. Granger had first been shot, and then his head cut off from above the mouth and ears with a broad axe. The remains of Harriett and Snyder were found about forty rods distant, with several bullet holes through their bodies. The presumption was they had started out to defend one of the other cabins, and that they were shot and killed where their bodies were found.
THE SIOUX OUTBREAK.
What is known as the Sioux Outbreak commenced at Acton, in Meeker county, on the seventeenth day of August, 1862. On that day a few young warriors of the Sioux tribe, who had been on an unsuccess- ful hunt along the outer edges of the Big Woods, came to the Acton settlement, and by some means secured whisky enough to make them drunk. They made a demand of a man named Jones for more whisky, which he promptly refused. This refusal infuriated the already excited Indians, and they commenced an indiscriminate slaughter of all within range of their guns, killing five persons-Jones, Webster and Baker, an elderly woman and a young girl. When they grew sober enough to
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 147
realize the enormity of their offence, they became frightened at their own violence, and fearful of the consequence of their hellish and unprovoked murders, they fled to the Sioux camp at the Lower Agency, and asked protection from the punishment due their crimes. The mur- derers belonged to the "first families " of the Sioux tribe, and the affair was discussed in the "Soldiers' Lodge," where it was determined that the several bands should make common cause with the criminals, and to urge a war of extermination against the white settlers within their reach. The next day was fixed for the beginning of the butchery.
Purposely starting the rumor in advance that they were going on the " war path " against the Chippewas, a large number of Sioux warriors appeared at the Lower Agency, in what is now Redwood county, at six o'clock the next morning, the eighteenth, and took up the several posi- tions that had been assigned them in the plan of operations adopted in the " Soldiers' Lodge," the night previous. At a given signal, an attack was made upon the whites at the Agency. With the exception of two or three men, who concealed themselves, and a few of the women and children who were taken prisoners and kept captives, none of the whites escaped instant death but George H. Spencer, who, although twice wounded, was saved from death through the interven- tion of an Indian acquaintance, named Wak-ke-an-da-tah or Red Light- ning. The slaughter extended to the Upper Agency, but through the influence of a Christianized Indian, called Other Day, the missionaries and others, among whom were Messrs. Riggs and Williamson and their families-in all about sixty persons-were rescued from the impending calamity, and were taken in safety through the Indian lines and Indian country to the white settlements beyond.
After the people at the agencies were butchered, the houses and stores pillaged and destroyed, the red fiends were divided into several parties and sent out to fall upon and destroy the settlers on farms and in villages along the entire frontier, covering an area of nearly two hundred miles. How well and faithfully the several savage bands kept their trusts and filled their missions, can never be accurately told. Mr. Neill says :
" The fiends of hell could not invent more fearful atrocities than were perpetrated by the savages upon their victims. The bullet, the tomahawk and the scalping-knife spared neither age nor sex, the only prisoners taken being the young and comely women, to minister to the brutal lusts of their captors, and a few young children. For- tunate, comparatively speaking, was the lot of those who were doomed to instant death, and thus spared the agonies of lingering tortures, and the superadded anguish of wit- nessing outrages upon the persons of those nearest and dearest to them.
" In the short space of thirty-six hours, as nearly as could be computed, eight hundred whites were cruelly slain. Almost every dwelling along the extreme frontier was a
-
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charnel-house, containing the dying and the dead. In many cases the torch was applied, and maimed and crippled sufferers, unable to escape, were consumed with their habita- tions. The alarm was communicated by refugees to the adjacent settlements, and soon the roads leading to St. Paul were crowded by thousands of men, women and children in the wild confusion of sudden flight. Domestic animals, including hundreds and even thousands of cattle were abandoned, and only those taken which could expediate the movements of the terror-stricken settlers.
"The savages, after accomplishing their mission of death, assembled in force, and attempted to take Fort Ridgely by a coup de main. In this they were foiled by the vigil- ance and determination of the garrison, aided by volunteers who had escaped from the surrounding settlements. The attack was continued at intervals for several days, but without success. The town of New Ulm was also assailed by a strong force of the savages, but was gallantly defended by volunteers from the neighboring counties under the command of Colonel C. H. Flandrau. Captain Dodd, an old aud respectable citizen of St. Peter, was among the killed at this point. Fort Abercrombie, on the Red River, also suffered a long and tedious siege by the bands of Sioux from Lac qui Parle, until relieved by a force despatched by Governor Ramsey from St. Paul."
Intelligence of the outbreak and massacre reached St. Paul the next day after the butchery at the Lower Agency, and immediate prepara- tions were made by Governor Ramsey to arrest the progress of the devilish savages. H. H. Sibley. from his long residence among the Indians and his acquaintance with the character and habits of the Indians, was selected as best suited to take command of the expedi- tion, to which he consented, and was commissioned as colonel. At this time the State was greatly deficient of means and appliances for carrying on a war of the proportions this threatened to assume. Full five thousand of the fighting men of the commonwealth were absent from the State as soldiers in the army of the Union. The arsenal was stripped of all the arms that were effective. There was but little ammu. nition on hand and no rations or means of transportation. The allied Sioux could muster from eight hundred to one thousand warriors, and they might be indefinitely reinforced by the powerful divisions of the Prairie Sioux. Those already engaged in hostilities were good marks- men, splendidly armed, and abundantly supplied with ammunition. They had been victorious in several encounters with detachments of troops, and had overwhelming confidence in their own skill. The out- look was dark and threatening. But with all the disadvantages and discouragements, Governor Ramsey acted with promptness and vigor. He telegraphed to the War Department for arms and to the Governors of the adjoining States for all they could spare, and authorized the use of teams belonging to individual citizens for purposes of transporta- tion, and adopted such other measures as the emergency of the occa- sion demanded.
On the morning of the 20th of August, Colonel Sibley left Fort Snelling with four hundred men of the Sixth Regiment Minnesota
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Volunteers. An inspection of the arms and cartridges furnished, showed that the former were worthless Austrian rifles, and that the ammuni- tion was for guns of a different and larger calibre, and the command was detained several days at St. Peter, where the men were engaged in reducing the balls so as to fit the muskets, and in preparing canister shot for the six-pounders. In the meantime a supply of arms of better quality were received, reinforcements arrived, and the march to Fort Ridgely commenced. At Fort Ridgely the troops went into camp, to await the reception of rations and to make final preparations for an advance on the hostiles, who had drawn in their detached parties, and were concentrating for a decisive battle. We quote in full from Neill's account of the further prosecution and termination of the expedition :
" Scouts were dispatched to ascertain the location of the main Indian camp, and upon their return they reported no Indians below Yellow Medicine River. A burial party of twenty men, under escort of one company of infantry and the available mounted force, in all about two hundred men, under command of Major J. R. Brown, was detailed to proceed and inter the remains of the murdered at the Lower Agency, and other points in the vicinity. The duty was performed; fifty-four bodies buried, and the detachment was en route to the settlements on Beaver River, and had encamped for the night near Birch Coolie, a long and wooded ravine debouching into the Minnesota River, when, about dawn the following morning, the camp was attacked by a large force of Indians, twenty-five men killed or mortally wounded, and nearly all the horses, ninety in number, shot down. Providentially, the volleys of musketry were heard at the main camp, although eighteen miles distant, and Colonel Sibley marched to the relief of the beleag- uered detachment, drove off the Indians, buried the dead, and the weary column then retraced its steps to the camp.
" The period spent in awaiting the necessary supplies of men and provisions was made useful in drilling the men and bringing them under discipline. So soon as ten days' rations had been accumulated, Colonel Sibley marched in search of the savages, and on the 23d day of September, 1862, was fought the decisive and severe battle of Wood Lake. The action was commenced by the Indians and was bravely contested by them for more than two hours, when they gave way at all points and sent in a flag of truce, asking permission to remove their dead and wounded, which was refused. A message was sent back to Little Crow, the leader of the hostile Indians, to the effect that if any of the white prisoners held by him received injury at the hands of the sav- ages, no mercy would be shown to the latter, but that they would be pursued and destroyed without regard to age or sex.
" The success at Wood Lake was not achieved without serious loss. Major Welch, of the 3d Minnesota Volunteers, commanding, was severely wounded in the leg; Captain Wilson, of the 6th Regiment, was badly contused in the breast by a spent ball; and nearly forty commissioned officers and privates were killed or wounded. The loss of the enemy was much greater, a half-breed prisoner stating it at thirty killed and a large number wonnded.
" One of the main objects of the campaign, the deliverance of the white captives, was yet to be accomplished, and required the exercise of much judgment and caution. There was good reason to fear that, in the exasperation of defeat, they might fall victims to the savages. Colonel Sibley, therefore, delayed his march towards the great Indian camp until the second day after the battle, to allow time to the friendly element to strengthen itself, and to avoid driving the hostile Indians into desperate measures
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against the prisoners. On the 25th of September the column, with drums beating and colors flying, filed past the Indian encampment, and formed the camp within a few hun- dred yards of it. Colonel Sibley, with his staff and field officers, then proceeded to the lodges of the Indians and directed that all the captives should be delivered up to him, which was forthwith done. A sight was then presented which filled the eyes of strong men with tears. Young and beautiful women, who had for weeks endured the extremity of outrage from their brutal captors, followed by a crowd of children of all ages, came forth from the lodges, hardly realizing that the day of their deliv- erance had arrived. Convulsive sobbings were heard on every side, and the poor crea- tures clung to the men who had come to their relief, as if they feared some savage would drag them away. They were all escorted tenderly to the tents prepared for their recep- tion, and made as comfortable as circumstances would admit. The number of pure whites thus released amounted to about one hundred and fifty, including one man only, Mr. Spencer. The latter expressed his gratitude to Colonel Sibley that he had not made a forced march upon the camp after the battle, stating emphatically that if such a course had been pursued, it was the determination of the hostile Indians to cut the throats of the captives, and then disperse in the prairies. There were delivered also nearly two hundred and fifty half-breeds, who had been held as prisoners.
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