History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 45

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547

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"Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause Bled nobly, and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyre. The Historic Muse, Proud of her treasure, marches with it down To latest times; and Sculpture, in her turn, Gives bond, in stone and ever-during brass, To guard them, and immortalize her trust."

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BATTLE OF BIRCH 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 August, 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 Birch Coolie. The usual precautions were taken, and no imme- diate fears of Indians were apprehended; yet at half-past four o'clock on the morning of the seo- ond of September, one of the guards shouted "Indians!" Instantly thereafter a shower of bul- lets was poured into the encampment. 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 loss 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 man 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 3d 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 quick 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 THIE 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 guard, visited Wabasha'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 this 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, nnder 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 camp of the deserters, to inform them that he expected to be able to pursue 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 camps of savages located within probable striking distance, from which they might be able, by sudden marches, to fall upon 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 Coteau de Prairie, about forty-five miles from Camp Release, found two lodges of straggling Indians. The males of these camps, three young men, were made prison- ers, and the women and children and an old man were directed to deliver themselves up 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 Sioux river. At noon of the 16th, Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall took with him fifty mounted men and the howitzer and started in pur- suit, without 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 about 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 indicated, and at the distance of about 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, came forward and surrendered themselves

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INDIAN SYMPATHISERS.

into our hands The infantry and wagons were met by the returning party about ten miles west of the Big Sioux.

The men of this detachment, officers and pri- vates, evinced to a large degree the bravery and endurance that characterizes the true soldier. They willingly and cheerfully pressed on after the savages, a part of them without food, fire or shel- ter, and all of them knowing that they were thereby prolonging the period of their absence beyond the estimated time, and subjecting them- selves to the certain necessity of being at least one or two days without rations of any kind before the return to Camp Release could be effected.

On the 7th of November, Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall, with a guard of some fifteen hundred men, started for Fort Snelling in charge of other captured Indians, comprising the women and children, and such of the men as were not found guilty of any henious crime by the Military Com- mission, and arrived safely at their destination on the 13th.

From the commencement of hostilities until the 16th day of September the war was carried on almost entirely from the resources of the State alone, and some little assistance from our sister States in the way of arms and ammunition. On this latter date Major-General John Pope, who had been appointed by the President of the United States to take command of the Department of the North-west, arrived and established his headquar- ters in the city of St. Paul, in this state. The principal part of the active service of the season's campaign had previously been gone through with; but the forces previously under the command of of the State authorities were immediately turned over to his command, and the after-movements were entirely under his control and direction.

He brought to the aid of the troops raised in the State the 25th Wisconsin and the 27th Iowa Regiments, both infantry. These forces were speedily distributed at different points along the frontier, and assisted in guarding the settlements during the autumn, but they were recalled and sent out of the State before the closing in of the winter.

It was contemplated to send the 6th and 7th Regiments Minnesota Volunteers to take part in the war against the rebels in the Southern States, and orders to this effect had already been issued, but on the 6th of November, in obedience to the expressed wish of a large portion of the inhab-

itants of the State, these orders were counter- manded. They were directed to remain in the state, and the 3d Regiment was ordered off instead.

All the forces then remaining in the state were assigned to winter quarters at such points as it was thought expedient to keep guarded during the winter, and on the 25th of November Major-Gen- eral Pope removed his headquarters to Madison, in the State of Wisconsin. Brigadier-General Sib- ley then remained in the immediate command of the troops retained in service against the Indians, and established his headquarters in the city of St. Paul.

On the 9th of October the "Mankato Record" thus speaks of this expedition:

"Considering the many serious disadvantages under which General Sibley has labored-a defi- ciency of arms and ammunition, scarcity of pro- visions, and the total absence of cavalry at a time when he could have successfully pursued and cap. tured Little Crow and his followers-the expedi- tion has been successful beyond the most sanguine anticipations. Of the three hundred white cap- tives in the hands of the Indians at the commence- ment of the war, all, or nearly all, have been retaken and returned to their friends. Much pri- vate property has been secured, and some fifteen hundred Indians, engaged directly or indirectly in the massacres, have been captured; and those who have actually stained their hands in the blood of our frontier settlers are condemned to suffer death. Their sentence will be carried into execution, un- less countermanded by authorities at Washington."

CHAPTER XLIIL

INDIAN SYMPATHISERS -MEMORIAL TO THE PRESI- DENT-THE HANGING OF THIRTY-EIGHT-ANNUL- LING THE TREATIES WITH CERTAIN SIOUX-RE- MOVAL OF WINNEBAGOES AND SIOUX TO THE UPPER MISSOURI.

After the campaign of 1862, and the guilty par- ties were confined at Camp Lincoln, near Mendota, the idea of executing capitally, three hundred In- dians, aroused the sympathy of those far removed from the scenes of their inhuman butcheries. President Lincoln was importuned, principally by parties in the East, for the release of these sav- ages. The voice of the blood of innocence crying from the ground, the wailings of mothers bereft of their children was hushed in the tender cry of

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HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.

sympathy for the condemned. Even the Christian ministers, stern in the belief that, "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed," seemed now the most zealous for the par- don of these merciless outlaws, who, without cause had shed the blood of innocent women and chil- dren in a time of peace.

Senator M. S. Wilkinson and Congressmen C. Al- drich and William Windom, made an urgent ap- peal to the President for the proper execution of the sentence in the case of these Indians, From this appeal the following extract will be sufficient to indicate its character:

"The people of Minnesota, Mr. President, have stood firmly by you and your Administration. They have given both you and it their cordial support. They have not violated any law. They have borne these sufferings with patience, such as few people have ever exhibited under extreme trials. These Indians now are at their mercy; but our people have not risen'to slaughter, because they believed their President would deal with them justly.

"We are told, Mr. President, that the committee from Pennsylvania, whose families are living hap- pily in their pleasant homes in that state, have called upon you to pardon these Indians. We protest against the pardon of these Indians; be- cause if it is done, the Indians will become more insolent and cruel than they ever were before, be- lieving, as they certainly will, that their Great Father at Washington either justifies their acts or is afraid to punish them for their crimes.

"We protest against it, because, if the President does not permit the execution to take place under the forms of law, the outraged people of Minne- sota will dispose of these wretches without law. These two people cannot live together. We do not wish to see mob law inaugurated in Minne- sota, as it certainly will be, if you force the peo- ple to it. We tremble at the approach of such a condition of things in our state.

"You can give us peace, or you can give us law- less violence. We pray you, as in view of all we have suffered, and of the danger which still awaits us, let the law be executed. Let justice be done to our people."

The press of Minnesota, without a single excep- tion, insisted that the condemned Indians should expiate their dreadful crime upon the gallows, while the Eastern press, with some few exceptions, gave vent to the deep sympathy of the sentimen- tal philosophers and the fanciful strains of the im-

aginative poets. It seemed to our Eastern neigh- bors that Minnesotians, in their contact with sav- age life, had ceased to appreciate the

* "Poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind;"

that they had looked upon the modern race of sav- ages in their criminal degradation until they had well-nigh forgotten the renoun of Massasoit, and his noble sons Alexander and Philip.

But two hundred years never fails to change somewhat the character and sentiments of a great people, and blot from its memory something of its accredited history. This may have happened in the case of our fellow-kinsmen in the Eastern and Middle States. They may not now fully enter into the views and sentiments of those who witness- ed the outrages of Philip and his cruel warriors in their conspiracies against the infant colonies; in their attacks upon Springfield, Hatfield, Lan- caster, Medfield, Seekong, Groton, Warwick, Marl- borough, Plymouth, Taunton, Scituate, Bridge- water, and Northfield. They seem not fully now to appreciate the atrocities of the savages of these olden times. The historian of the times of Philip was not so sentimental as some of later days.

"The town of Springfield received great injury from their attacks, more than thirty houses being burned; among the rest one containing a 'brave library,' the finest in that part of the country, which belonged to the Rev. Pelatiah Glover."

" This," says Hubbard, "did, more than any other, discover the said actors to be the children of the devil, full of all subtilty and malice." And we of the present can not perceive why the massacre of innocent women and children should not as readily discover these Minnesota savages, under Little Crow, to be children of the devil as the burning of a minister's library two hundred years ago. Minnesotians lost by these Indians SPLEN- DID, not to say brave libraries; but of this minor evil they did not complain, in their demand for the execution of the condemned murderers.

Indians are the same in all times. Two bun- dred years have wrought no change upon Indian character. Had King Philip been powerful enough, he would have killed all the white men inhabiting the New England Colonies. "Once an Indian, always an Indian,", is fully borne out by their history during two hundred years' contact with the white race.

Eastern writers of the early history of the coun-

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MEMORIALS TO THE PRESIDENT.

try spoke and felt in regard to Indians very much as Minnesotians now speak and feel. When Weet- amore, queen of Pocasset, and widow of Alexan- der, Philip's eldest brother, in attempting to es- cape from the pursuit of Captain Church, had lost her life, her head was cut off by those who discov- ered her, and fixed upon a pole at Taunton! Here, being discovered by some of her loving subjects, then in captivity, their unrestrained grief at the shocking sight is characterized by Mather as "a most horrid and diabolical lamentation!" Have Minnesotians exhibited a more unfeeling senti- ment than this, even against condemned murder- ers? Mather lived, it is true, amid scenes of In- dian barbarity. Had he lived in the present day and witnessed these revolting cruelties, he would have said with Colonel H. H. Sibley, "My heart is steeled against them." But those who witness- ed the late massacre could truly say, in the lan- guage of an Eastern poet,

" All died-the wailing babe-the shrieking maid- And in the flood of fire that scathed the glade, The roofs went down!"

Early in December, 1862, while the final decis- ion of the President was delayed, the valley towns of Minnesota, led off by the city of St. Paul, held primary meetings, addressed by the most intelli- gent speakers of the different localities. An ex- tract from a memorial of one of the assemblages of the people is given as a sample of others of similar import. The extract quoted is from the St. Paul meeting, drawn up by George A. Nourse, United States District Attorney for the District of Minnesota:

"To the President of the United States: We, the citizens of St. Paul, in the State of Minnesota, respectfully represent that we have heard, with regret and alarm, through the public press, reports of an intention on the part of the United States Government to dismiss without punishment the Sioux warriors captured by our soldiers; and fur- ther, to allow the several tribes of Indians lately located upon reservations within this State to re- main upon the reservations.

"Against any such policy we respectfully but firmly protest. The history of this continent pre- Bents no event that can compare with the late Sioux outbreak in wanton, unprovoked, and fiendish cruelty. All that we have heard of Indian warfare in the early history of this country is tame in contrast with the atrocities of this late massacre. Without warning, in cold blood, beginning with

the murder of their best friends, the whole body of the Annuity Sioux commenced a deliberate scheme to exterminate every white person upon the land once occupied by them, and by them long since sold to the United States. In carrying out this bloody scheme they have spared neither age nor sex, only reserving, for the gratification of their brutal Just, the few white women whom the rifle, the tomahawk and the scalping-knife spared. Nor did their fiendish barbarities cease with death, as the mutilated corpses of their victims, disemboweled, cut limb from limb, or chopped into fragments, will testify. These cruelties, too, were in many cases preceded by a pretense of friendship; and in many instances the victims of these more than murderers were shot down in cold blood as soon as their backs were turned, after a cordial shaking of the hand and loud professions of friendship on the part of the murderers.

"We ask that the same judgment should be passed and executed upon these deliberate mur- derers, these ravishers, these mutilators of their murdered victims, that would be passed upon white men guilty of the same offense. The blood of hundreds of our murdered and mangled fellow- citizens cries from the ground for vengeance. 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;' and the authorities of the United States are, we believe, the chosen instruments to execute that vengeance. Let them not neglect their plain duty.

"Nor do we ask alone for vengeance. We de- mand security for the future. There can be no safety for us or for our families unless an example shall be made of those who have committed the horrible murders and barbarities we have recited. Let it be once understood that these Indians can commit such crimes, and be pardoned upon sur- rendering themselves, and there is henceforth a torch for every white man's dwelling, a knife for every white man's heart upon our frontier.

"Nor will even the most rigorous punishment give perfect security against these Indians so long as any of them are left among, or in the vicinity of, our border settlements. The Indian's nature can no more be trusted than the wolf's. Tame him, cultivate him, strive to Christianize him as you will, and the sight of blood will in an instant call out the savage, wolfish, devilish instincts of the race. It is notorious that among the earliest and most murderous of the Sioux, in perpetrating their late massacre, were many of the 'civilized Indians,' so called, with their hair cut short, wear-

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HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.

ing white men's clothes, and dwelling in brick houses built for them by the Government.

"We respectfully ask, we demand that the cap- tive Indians now in the hands of our military forces, proved before a military commission to be guilty of murder, and even worse crimes, shall re- ceive the punishment due those crimes. This, too, not merely as a matter of vengeance, but much more as a matter of future security for our border settlers.

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History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 45

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 547

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547