USA > Minnesota > Illustrated history of Minnesota, a hand-book for citizens and general readers > Part 8
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The Indians of the Lower Agency organized the " Sol- dier's Lodge,"1 or council of young warriors. They were ripe for conflict. "Have we not been forbidden to fight with our enemies the Ojibwas ? Have we not been robbed of our money and deprived of our lands ? Is there not a great war in the south that takes the Great Father's strength ? Have not all the young men gone to fight and left the old men and boys at home ? Did not Inkpadoota escape, and shall not we ? Will not the English help us? See the small garrisons at Ridgely and Abercrombie !" With these and other arguments the Soldier's Lodge urged the tribes to take the war path.
The golden harvest had just fallen before the settler's
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sturdy stroke, and he was about to gather in its bounteous sheaves, when another reaper stood suddenly beside the
THE SETTLER'S FATE.
cabin door "with his sickle keen," and the harvest that fell before his withering stroke was the happiness and hopes
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of years, the purity of womanhood, the innocence of child- hood, and life itself.
Early in August, a party of warriors belonging to Shako- pee's band, whose village was situated on Rice Creek about seven miles from the falls2 at the Redwood, started on a foray or hunt in the Big Woods.3 They were ac- companied by four warriors of the Lower Agency. The latter having gotten into an altercation with the former over some trivial matter, the two parties separated, each eager for an opportunity to refute the taunting statement of the other that they were cowards.
The four Agency Indians proceeded to the tavern of Robinson Jones, at Actont near the present town of Litch- field. He refused their demand for liquor, and accused them of keeping a gun previously borrowed from him. They next went to the house of Howard Baker.5 Jones and his wife followed them, and the quarrel was renewed. Exasperated by this treatment, the taunts of the Rice Creek Indians still ringing in their cars, they lost all control and shot Jones and his wife, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Webster a newly arrived settler. Then, returning to Jones's house, they completetl their bloody work by killing Miss Clara D. Wilson.
After their passion had somewhat cooled, they were ter- rified by thoughts of retribution, and fled to the home of Little Crow two miles above the Lower Agency. Here a council was held, and the Indians resolved to stand by the culprits. Little Crow, while not unmindful of the perils which might result to himself and people from such a course, nevertheless, determined to lead them on the war path. This was the 17th of August. The following morning, swift and sudden as a whirlwind, they fell upon
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the Lower Agency, and with hands unstaid by thoughts of mercy, massacred the traders and government employes, plundered the stores, and applied the torch to the dwell- ings, warehouses, and mission.
Before noon, news of the outbreak had reached Fort
ACTON MONUMENT.
Ridgely, a post situated on a commanding position fourteen miles below on the opposite side of the Minnesota. Capt. Marsh, with forty-eight men of the garrison, immediately started for the scene of slaughter, and, with a bravery that
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could not be intimidated by the stories of the fugitives whom he met by the way, pushed resolutely forward. He fell into an ambuscade at the Redwood ferry opposite the Agency. Half of his party were killed, and he himself lost his life by drowning in attempting to retreat across the stream.
Meanwhile, Little Crow had sent messengers to apprise all the bands of the beginning of hostilities, and the whole country on both sides of the Minnesota from the Big Cot- tonwood to the Yellow Medicine, especially in the vicinity of Beaver and Sacred Heart creeks, was the field of count- less scenes of murder and devastation. And when the shades of night had fallen, the horrible work still went on. For countless miles, the prairies and fringing forests of the river were lit up by lurid flames of burning habitations, now the funeral pyres of once happy families. The flow- ers and grasses of the prairie were everywhere steeped in the blood of the dying and the dead, and every thicket shrouded a ghastly horror.
In vain did the friendly Other-day strive to persuade the Yanktons, Sissetons, and Wahpetons of the Upper Agency to shun the war path, but with daring bravery led a party of sixty men, women, and children from their midst to the safety of the settlements. Among those who escaped from the vicinity of the Upper Agency, were the missionaries Riggs and Williamson with their families.
Little Crow and his exultant warriors then moved to at- tack Ft. Ridgely. But some trouble, it is said, having arisen among them, the chief and only part of the band secretedo themselves near the fort. The delay caused by this dispute gave an opportunity for a relief party under Agent Galbraith to enter the post.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
In the meantime, the other faction of the band attacked New Ulm with terrible effect, and it was only saved from utter destruction by the advent of the vanguard of a relief party from St. Peter. The squad was commanded by Sheriff Boardman. At nine o'clock in the evening, the main body a hun- dred strong, led by Judge Charles E. Flandrau, safely entered the be- sieged town. The day following this their number was doubled by volun- teers from Man- kato and Le Sueur. The Indians, who had withdrawn, returned to Little Crow. The forces thus reunited sud- denly attacked the fort on the after- noon of Wednes- day. The two suc- ceeding days they OTHER-DAY. made furious on- set, but all their attempts to dislodge its gallant inmates were fruitless.
Like the waves of an angry flood they swept down the valley, and once more laid siege to New Ulm. Its defend- crs themselves applied the torch to the outlying buildings
-
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that they might not shelter their fierce enemies, and with a courage born of desperation repelled every savage attack.
While these events were passing, other warriors rode swiftly and far on their bloody forays. Near Forest City, the wild war-whoop of the savage and the despairing wail of his victim rang out together in the clearings; and by the shores of far off Shetek, the chiefs Lean Bear, White Lodge, and Sleepy Eyes? laid waste the settlement, and the names of many of its inhabitants were added to the still lengthening roll of the dead.
So closed a week of terror. More than eight hundred settlers were lying mutilated and dead, and others were suffering the horrors of a cruel captivity. Thousands of crazed fugitives were fleeing for safety, and for hundreds of miles the frontier was a scene of desolation where once had reigned peace and prosperity.
When news of the outbreak reached St. Paul, Gov. Ramsey immediately appealed to the national government and the neighboring states for assistance. Private property was appropriated to the use of the hard-pressed State, and a hastily equipped force of 1400 men, including four com- panies of the 6th Minnesota temporarily stationed at Ft. Snelling, was soon under way to the seat of conflict, Col. II. H. Sibley8 commanding. After some delay at St. Peter, Col. Sibley reached Ft. Ridgely and threw up strong entrenchments. From this point many of the citi- zens returned to their homes; but shortly, Lieut, Col. W. R. Marshall with a portion of the 7th Regiment joined the command.
The Indians, according to the report of the scouts, had retired with their families above the Yellow Medicine.
SCENES AF FT. RIDGELY.
THE INDIANS' RAVINE.
WITHIN THE QUADRANGLE.
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But hearing that New Ulm was now deserted, and hoping to find plunder there and successful conquests in the settle- ments farther down the valley, a large war party once more began the descent of the Minnesota.
At this stage of affairs, Maj. J. R. Brown with a mixed detachment of mounted men and infantry, about one hun- dred fifty in all, marched to the Lower Agency, and buri- ed those who had been killed both there and in the neigh- boring country. At evening, Sunday, August 31st, they pitched camp on a level, low-lying summit near where Birch Coolie debouches into the Minnesota opposite the Agency. Here it was that the descending warriors fell upon the unsuspecting camp in the gray of early dawn. Twenty of the detachment of soldiers were killed, sixty wounded, and ninety of their horses slaughtered by the deadly rain of lead pouring ceaselessly down upon them from a higher eminence. For thirty-one hours, without food or water, these heroic troops, lying behind the dead animals and the low mounds which they had thrown up with their knives and bayonets, kept their savage foes at bay.
The sound of the musketry9 was heard at the fort four- teen miles away, and a detachment of fifty cavalry under Col. Sam. McPhaill, over a hundred infantry under Maj. McLaren, and a howitzer in charge of Capt. Mark Hen- dricks hastened to the relief. They engaged the enemy three miles from the coolie. The muffled voice of the howitzer, long continued, soon gave to the silent but anxious inquiries at the fort answer of an ineffectual attack. At sunset, a messenger confirmed it, and Col. Sibley with the remainder of the garrison hastened forward in the uncer- tain darkness of the night. The following morning, with
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
a storm of shot and shell, the foe were driven from the be- sieged camp and over the river. The dead were buried, and the wounded carried back to the fort.
September 3d, Ft. Abercombie, which had been for some days in a state of siege, was again vigorouly assaulted. The same day, a body of citizens, on the way to defend Forest City, accidentally fell in with a large war party on the slopes near Long Lake two miles from the Baker homestead at-Ac- ton. Little Crow led the Indians, and Capt. Strout the whites. A severe but brief battle ensued, and Strout's forces carrying twenty - three wounded fled before the hotly pur- suing Sioux to Hutchin- son. The people of that LITTLE CROW. town were gathered in a strongly fortified stockade in the public square, and having been partially beleaguered before this, they were upon the alert. Ninety able bodied, courageous men, officered by W. W. Pendergast, Lewis Harrington, Andrew Hopper and Oliver Pierce, made a sortie from four sides and held the new assailants successfully at bay.
As soon as supplies were obtained for the campaign, Sibley's troops once more moved forward in force, and the 23d of September encountered the enemy on the high prairies near Wood Lake, not far from the Upper Agency at the ford of the Yellow Medicine. The conflict was des- perate. The Sioux were badly defeated, their hopes van-
16.01 FORD OF THE YELLOW MEDICINE. RUINED WAREHOUSE. UPPER AGENCY HOUSE. 151
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
ished in the smoke of battle, and the more savage of their number fled with Little Crow toward the British Posses- sions, leaving the rest in camp with one hundred fifty white captives.
The troops encamped at the site of the Hazlewood Mis- sion, and Col. Sibley treated with the friendly Indians to secure the freedom of the captives. This was accomplished at a place to this day called Camp Release in commemora- tion of the event. It was situated, as old rifle pits still show, at the mouth of the Chippewa in the present county of Lac qui Parle.
Several hostile warriors were found lurking in the camp, expecting clemency or hoping to avoid detection of their crimes. To these were added many at first thought to be innocent, and others belonging to small bands pur- sued and captured by the soldiers.
All were tried before a military commission, and over three hundred condemned to death. President Lincoln forbade the carrying out of the sentence save in the case of thirty-eight, who were hung at Mankato on the 26th of December.10 Thus closed one of the most mournful pages of Indian history. Who that did not see shall fitly depict the sufferings of those August and September days, the fortitude of mothers bereft of their children, the self sacri- fice of kindred for kindred, and the heroic courage of citi- zen and soldier in desperate siege and on weary marches by night and day ? Alas for Minnesota ! The Star of the North, which had so lately and proudly arisen, suddenly waned and lingered wavering on the clouded horizon of future events.
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THE STATE.
III .- RAMSEY-SWIFT ADMINISTRATION.
Ramsey's Re-election .- In the fall of 1862, Gov. Ramsey was re-elected, but the fifth state legislature before whom he delivered his annual address January 7th, 1863, conferred upon him the United States senatorship pre- viously held by H. M. Rice.
Gov. Swift .- When Gov. Ramsey took his seat in the Senate, Lieut-Gov. Henry A. Swift became the chief executive. He was born at Ravenna, Ohio, March 23d, IS23, and in due time gradu- ated from the Western Re- serve1 College. He afterward studied law in his native town, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. A few years later, he settled in St. Paul, but finally removed to St. Peter. Between the years 1861 and IS65 he served with honor in the State Senate. His death occurred February 26th, 1869, but his memory lives as that of a noble GOV. SWIFT. man and officer faithful to the trusts of his fellow citizens.
Sully-Sibley Campaign .- In the summer of IS63, Gen. Sully commanding a large force of cavalry moved up the Missouri river, while Gen. Sibley with a regiment of cavalry, three of infantry, and two batteries of light artillery ascended the Minnesota. Both commands were to meet at Minne Wakan,1 or Devil's Lake, in North Da- kota; but it was hoped that the savage bands of Sioux who had the previous season fled to the northwest might
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
be encountered and severely punished, thus preventing their return to the settlements.
Sibley having learned of the whereabouts of the In- dians, left part of his troops in a fortified camp on the Sheyenne, and with the rest continued the pursuit. Sev- eral brisk engagements ensued near the Missouri Coteaus, and the tribes, broken spirited by loss of lives and plunder, sought safety beyond the Missouri. Yet, at this very time small marauding parties had stealthily slipped through the lines of frontier fortifications, and were preying upon the sparse settlements of Minnesota, The famous Little Crow, who had thus ventured back, was shot by a young settler named Chauncy Lampson2 near one of the Scat- tered Lakes in the Big woods six miles from Hutchinson.
Military Record of 1863 .- The Minnesota regiments won marked distinction during this year. The 4th de- parted from Memphis on the Ist of March, and after a series of movements by way of Yazoo Pass, Grand Gulf, and Port Gibson, took part in the battle of Raymond, the 10th of May, and four days later, in that of Jackson. On the 16th, it captured one hundred aud eighteen prisoners at the battle of Champion Hill, and on the 22d, having taken position in the rear of Vicksburg, Lieut .- Col. Tourtellotte commanding, it gallantly assisted in the assault which Gen. Grant had ordered should that day be made upon the enemy's works.
The 5th Regiment, attached to the 15th Corps under Sherman, participated in several important movements of the campaign of Vicksburg and its culminating siege. In particular, it was active in the engagements at Jackson and the assault of May 22d.
The Ist Regiment was at the second battle of Fredricks-
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burg, May 3d, and later hastened from Falmouth, Vir- ginia, to take part in the great conflict at Gettysburg, Penn- sylvania. Hancock's corps formed a curved line of battle from Cemetery Hill to Sugar Loaf Mountain, and this regiment was attached to Gibbon's division which held the very centre of the line. In the terrible onsets of July 2d and 3d, bravest among the brave were these Min- nesotians, and many a mound on that consecrated field to-day tells the mute but eloquent story of their heroic deeds. Less than a hundred remained unscathed out of about three hundred thirty privates and officers who in re- sponse to Hancock's despairing order threw themselves in a Balaklava-like charge against the whole force of Long- street's army. And yet, in the month of October, this shat- tered host was again in the forefront at Bristow Station, Virginia.
The 2d Regiment, commanded by Col. George, on the 19th of September, rendered active service at Chica- mauga, and, November 25th, helped to storm the enemy's works on the crest of Mission Ridge.
In November, the 3d Regiment was ordered to Little Rock, Arkansas.
But not alone in the South did the Minnesota troops show their fidelity and gain renown. This year the Inde- pendent Battalion of Cavalry was stationed at Pembina; the Sth infantry was also in garrison on the frontier; the 6th, 7th, 9th, and ioth infantry, the 3d Battery, and the Mountain Rangers were with Sibley on the Indian expe- dition, and fought in the battles of Big Mound, Dead Buf- falo Lake, Stony Lake aud the Missouri, the 24th, 26th, 2Sth, and 29th of July.
In October. the 7th and 10th were ordered to St. Louis.
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HISTOY OF MINNESOTA.
IV .- MILLER'S ADMINISTRATION.
Gov. Miller .- Stephen Miller was chosen governor in the fall of 1863, and was inaugurated January 11th of the following year. He was born at Perry, Cumberland county, Pa., January 7th, IS16. At one time he served as clerk of courts for Dauphin county, at another, was flour inspector of Philadelphia. In IS5S, he made Minnesota his future home. During the re- bellion, he served first as lieu- tenant-colonel of the 7th. For meritorious conduct in battle, he was commissioned brigadier- general, the 26th of October, IS63. This brave old soldier and loyal governor, in whose GOV. MILLER. life were some dark pages of misfortune, passed away from earth at Worthington, Nobles county, August ISth, ISSI.
Military Record of 1864 .- Early in this year, the war-scarred veterans of the regiments and batteries that had enlisted in the beginning of the struggle came home for a furlough, most of them having re-enlisted.
The ist Battery and the 2d, 3d, and 4th Regiments were veteranized in January, and the 5th Regiment in July. Two new regiments were organized this year, the 2d Cavalry in January and the 11th Infantry in August.
In January, the 5th Regiment took part in the disas- trous Red River expedition led by Gen. Banks, and fought at Ft. DeRussy in the movement against Shreveport.
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THE STATE.
The 3d Regiment, moving southward from Little Rock with Gen. Steele's army to co-operate with Banks on the Red River, engaged March 30th in the battle of Fitz- hugh's Woods near Augusta. The next month it was ordered to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
The Independent Cavalry was ordered in May to Ft. Abercrombie, Dakota, and remained in garrison there throughout the year.
The gallant Ist Regiment was mustered out in May, the remnant of what it had once been. Most of its survivors were formed into a body called the Infantry Battalion, and again joined the Army of the Potomac to add to their roll of honor such names as Petersburg, Plank Road, Deep Bottom, Ream's Station, and Hatcher's Run.
The 6th Regiment, which had been ordered south to Helena, Arkansas, after the close of the Indian campaigns of 1863, was incorporated in June with the 16th Army Corps. The 7th, 9th, and Ioth Regiments were likewise at this time assigned to the same body.
The 5th Regiment, commanded by Maj. Becht and be- longing to Hubbard's brigade, contended with the forces of Gen. Marmaduke at Lake Chicot, Arkansas.
Parts of the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Regiments, in the command of Gen. A. J. Smith, helped to defeat Forest at the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, July 13th. After this, they fought at Tallahatchie, and pursued the retreating rebels under Price.
Both the 2d Regiment and Ist Battery were engaged in battles of the Atlanta campaign; the former at Resaca, June 14th, 15th, and 16th, and Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th; the latter at Kenesaw Mountain, and at Atlanta July 22d.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
In the North, the 2d Cavalry, Brackett's Cavalry, the 3d Battery, and Sth Regiment were with the Sully expe- dition in pursuit of the hostile Sioux. They participated in a fierce engagement with the enemy in the Bad Lands, Dakota, and took part in some skirmishing before the pur- suit was abandoned at the Yellowstone. It had been Sul- ly's purpose to proceed to Devil's Lake, where he had sought to make a junction with Sibley's troops the previ- ous year; but it was reported that no enemy remained in that quarter. Moreover, his horses were jaded by the toil- some and fruitless expedition just ended. These reasons impelled him to break camp at Ft. Union, Montana, and order the return march.
From the date of its organization to the end of the year, the 11th Regiment was engaged in guarding railroads.
After a series of movements through Missouri, the 5th Regiment was ordered to Nashville in September.
In October, the 3d Regiment was ordered to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, where it remained until the close of the war.
The 4th Regiment formed a portion of Gen. Corse's troops that routed the enemy under Gen. French in the severe contest of Altoona, October 15th.
December 7th, the Sth Regiment in Gen. Milroy's com- mand, shared in the victory of the Cedars near Murfrees- boro.
In the memorable contest of Nashville, December 15th and 16th, between the armies of Thomas and Hood, the 2d Battery and all the regiments previously at Tupelo were again actively engaged. Cols. Hubbard and Marshall, both commanding brigades, rendered such distinguished service in the great assault on the last day of the conflict
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that each was honored with the rank of brigadier-general.
The Ist Battery and the 2d and 4th Regiments accom- panied Sherman on his march to the sea.
Military Record of 1865 .- In the months of March and April, the regiments mentioned as present at the bat- tle of Nashville were active in the siege of Mobile, notably in the attacks on Spanish Fort and Blakely.
In January, the Sth Regiment with the rest of Scho- field's command, hitherto with Thomas in the West, was ordered by Gen. Grant to report at Wilmington and New Berne, North Carolina, and from thence to co-operate with Sherman at Goldsboro.
Northward from Savannah with Sherman endeavoring to unite with Grant against Lee, strong and courageous came the Minnesota troops who had marched from Atlanta to the sea; and when Johnston surrendered April 26th, they went to Washington to fill an honored place in the line of the last grand review.
The Infantry Batallion, too, the heroes in the first bat- tles for national unity, were fittingly present in that last great struggle with the Army of North Virginia which ended with Lee's surrender at Appomatox.
The days of civil strife, so full of mournful and heroic deeds, were now at an end, and the tattered, war-stained banners of the Minnesota troops were furled forever. Twenty-five thousand and fifty-two, all told, they had numbered with their faces turned toward the foc. A few came home with bronzed cheeks and rugged frames; some crippled and scarred; many weary and sick; while thou- sands slept in the quiet cemeteries of the State where loving hands had borne them, or perchance still on the desolate fields of conflict, far in the South, where to this day no eye
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has marked their place of rest, save the compassionate eye of the Father whose cause they fought in redeeming the brotherhood of man.
Material Progress .- This administration, like the two preceding it, was not marked in the material advancement of the Commonwealth; it was rather a time of retrogression, the great massacre at home and the prolonged struggle in the South having depleted the State of men and means and brought on other disastrous results which only the patient labor of years could heal.
V .- MARSHALL'S 1st ADMINISTRATION.
Gov. Marshall .- William Rainey Marshall, the fifth governor of Minnesota, was born October 17th, 1825, in Boone county, Missouri. His early ancestors were Scotch- Irish Presbyterians who settled near Carlisle Pennsylvania. The family moved to Bourbon county, Kentucky, soon after the Revolution. His grand- fathers both served in the War for Independence, and his fa- ther in that of 1812. The fam- ily removed to Quincy, Illinois, in 1830, where W. R. received GOV. MARSHALL. a common school education. At the age of sixteen, Marshall went to the Galena lead mines with his brother, and having acquired some capital there, settled in the St. Croix valley, Minnesota, in IS47.
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He was elected to the first Wisconsin state legislature, but on account of trouble arising from a change of boundaries, was not allowed to take his seat. Two years later, he went to St. Anthony Falls, and started the first store in what is now Minneapolis. While engaged as a surveyor, he plat- ted St. Anthony and part of the west side, the Minneapolis of that day. For more than ten years subsequent to 1851, he was successively engaged at St. Paul in mercan- tile affairs, banking, and newspaper publishing.
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