USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 20
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At the time of the battle the ground was virgin prairie. Half a mile down the Cooley was the cabin and claim of Peter Perean. a Frenchman, who had been killed and his family taken prisoners. A number of other settlers living farther down the stream had been killed and some of their houses burned. The land where the battle was fought belonged to the government and was sub- sequently entered and occupied by William Weiss, from whom it was purchased by the State, in 1896. When Mr. Weiss entered the land. in 1865, the rifle pits dug by the beleaguered soldiers, the bones of the horses killed and other evidences of the fight were plainly visible.
Of a truth the Indians had fallen back from the Lower Agency to Yellow Medicine four days before Major Brown reached Little Crow's village. During the siege of Fort Ridgely Major Gal- braith, the Indian agent, had sent Antoine Frenier, a gallant mixed-blood Sioux scout. from the fort up the valley, and Frenier had gone to a point near the Yellow Medicine and learned that large numbers of the Indians were there. But on his return the seout was ent off by scattering war parties and prevented from entering the fort, and was forced to make his way to Henderson.
When General Sibley arrived at Fort Ridgely he sent two good and wary sconts, George MeLeod and William L. Quin, to reconnoiter and to discover the Indians position. They made the perilous ride to near the Yellow Medicine, discovered that the Indians were there in strong force and returned in safety. Quin had been in charge of Forges' trading house at the Yellow Medicine, and his family were prisoners among the Sioux. Riding in the night in the Minnesota bottom, his horse shied at a dead body which, by the gleam of a flash of lightning, he saw was that of his former elerk, a Frenchman named Louis Constans. Every- thing indicated that there were no hostiles east of the Yellow Medieme.
The Indians had left their villages about the Lower agency in some haste and alarm after their repulse and defeat at Fort Ridgely. With the exception of some seouts left behind to watch the whites, they retired to the Yellow Medicine and the mouth of the Chippewa river, where were the villages of the Wahpeton band, generally composed of Sioux not openly hostile toward the whites. In a few days the scouts reported that Sibley and his command had reached Fort Ridgely and that New Ulm had been evaenated. Very soon the Indians determined to move down on the south side of the Minnesota to New Um, to there eross the river and get in the rear of Fort Ridgely, and then their future operations would be governed by circumstances. At the same time 150 warriors were to go from the Yellow Medicine to the "Big Woods" and harass the country about Forest City and IIntchinson. and seize a large quantity of flour, said to be at the
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C'edar mill, in that quarter. Little Crow took charge of the "Big Woods" expedition in person, sending the rest of his band under Gray Bird, a farmer Indian, but now Little Crow's "head sol- dier, " down the river with the other bands of Wabasha. Wacouta. Hushasha, Mankato. Big Eagle, Shakopee and the rest of the Medawakantons and Wahpakootas. The savage forces left the Yellow Medieine on the thirty-first of August.
When, on the evening of September 1. the advance of the Indians reached Little Crow's village, on the high bluff on the south side of the Minnesota, they saw on the north side, out on the prairie. some miles away, Captain Anderson's company, marching from Beaver creek eastward toward the Birch Cooley. They also saw in the former village signs that white men had been there only a few hours before, and, from the trail made when they left. concluded that these were the men they could see to the northward. Some of the best seonts were soon sent across the valley to follow the movements of the mounted men, "creeping across the prairie like so many ants." A little after sundown the seouts returned with the information that the mounted men had gone into camp near the head of Birch Cooley, and that they numbered about seventy-five men. At this time. and until they attacked, they did not know of the presence of Captain Grant's company.
Hlad the Indians persisted in their original plan to proceed quietly on their way down the south side of the river, unobserved by the whites, and paid no attention to the company of mounted men they had discovered, the result would have been most dis- astrous. But, with their hundreds of warriors, the temptation to fall upon the small and apparently isolated detachment of seventy-five men was too great to the Indian nature to be resisted. It was determined to surround the camp that night and attack it at daylight the next morning. About 200 warriors were selected for the undertaking. These were mainly from the bands of Red Legs. Gray Bird, Big Eagle and Mankato, with some from Wabasha's and the other bands. There were also some Sissetons and Wahpetons present. Little Crow himself, with 150 warriors. was off on the expedition to the Big Woods, towards Forest City and Intehinson.
When darkness had come good and black and sheltering. the Indians crossed the river and valley, went up the bluff's and prairie, and soon saw the camp or corral of the whites. Cau- tionsly and warily they approached the camp and had no ditli- culty in surrounding it, for the sentinels were at such short dis- tanee from it-not more than a hundred yards. The ground was most excellent for a mere camping ground, but badly chosen for a battlefield. On the east was the Birch Cooley with a high bluff bank and fringed with timber: on the north was a smaller
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cooley or ravine running into the main cooley; on the south was a swale much lower than the camp: on the west was a consider- able mound, and all these positions were commanding and within gunshot of the corral. The Indians could fire from concealed and protected sitnation, and nearly all of them had double-barreled shotguns loaded with buckshot and large bullets called traders' balls.
The Indians under Red Legs occupied the Birch Cooley east of the camp. Some of Mankato's warriors were in the cooley and some in the swale to the south. Big Eagle's band was chiefly behind and about the knoll to the west, and Gray Bird's was in the ravine and on the prairie to the north. Big Eagle says that while they were waiting to begin the attack during the night some of the warriors erawled through the prairie grass unob- served to within fifty feet of the sentinels, and it was seriously proposed to shoot them with arrows-making no noise-and to rush the camp in the darkness.
In the dark hour just before dawn Captain Anderson's cook, who was early astir. had his suspicions of danger aronsed by noting that some of the horses with lifted heads were staring intently toward the west and manifesting indications of uneasi- ness. Some fugitive cattle, which had been gathered up and driven along with the command, and which had been lying down south of the corral, rose up one after another and began to move slowly towards the corral, as if retreating from danger. The cook had quietly awakened his captain and was talking to him of what he had seen when the alarm was given.
Sentinel William L. Hart, of Anderson's company, was on duty on the post between the eastern border of the corral and Birch Cooley. He was in conversation with Richard Gibbons, a eomrade in his company. The dawn was coming faintly from the east when, looking in that direction, across the Birch Cooley. Hart saw what he at first thought were two calves galloping through the tall grass of the prairie towards the cooley. In another moment he saw that the objects were two Indians skulk- ing along as fast as they could run and trailing their guns at their sides. "They are Indians!" cried Hart to his companion and fired. As if he had given the signal instantly there was a deadly roar from hundreds of Indians' guns all about the camp, and the battle had begun. In the rain of bullets. Gibbons was mortally wounded, but Hart ran to the corral unhurt, and fought through the battle, living to become an officer on the police force of St. Paul, where he died in 1896.
At the first alarm nearly all of the men instinctively sprang to their feet, and, in obedience to orders, Captain Grant's eom- pany attempted to fall into line, and the swift, well delivered vol- leys of the Indians strnek down thirty men in three minutes. The
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horses, too, tied at the borders of the corral, fell fast. Big Eagle says: "Owing to the white's men's way of fighting they lost many men; owing to the Indian's way of fighting they lost but few." The loss of the whites was twenty men killed, four mor- tally wounded, perhaps sixty wounded more or less severely, and nearly every horse killed. Of the horses of Major Brown's report says : "Every horse belonging to the command was killed except- ing six, which were left at the camp, being wounded and unable to travel." But Heard says that every horse was killed but one. According to the Indians one of their number, named Buffalo Ghost, the eldest son of White Lodge, captured a stampeded horse during the fight. Among the wounded were Major Brown, Cap- tain Anderson, Captain Redfield and Indian Agent Galbraith. The Indian loss was small. According to Big Eagle, endorsed by Heard and sworn to by reliable Indians, it was two killed and "several wounded."
About nine o'clock in the morning of the first day's attack the piekets at Fort Ridgely sent in word that they could hear firing in the distance to the northwest. Investigation made it certain that there was a battle in progress between Major Brown's com- mand and the Indians. Colonel Sibley at once sent a reinforee- ment. He dispatched Colonel Samuel McPhail, of the newly organized command called the Mounted Rangers, with fifty mounted men under the immediate command of Captain J. R. Sterrett and Captain C. S. Potter; three companies of the Sixth Regiment of Infantry (B. D and E) under Captains O. C. Merri- man, J. C. Whitney and Rudolph Schoenemann, and two small eannon, mountain howitzers, under Captain Mark Hendricks.
The infantry and artillery were under the direct command of Major R. N. McLaren, with Colonel MePhail, an old regular army man and an experienced Indian fighter, in command of the whole. In his report Colonel Sibley says that the whole foree numbered 240 men.
The expedition made a forced march to near the Birch Cooley. over the Fort Abercrombie road, guided by the sound of the eon- tinuous firing. On nearing the cooley a large force of Indians appeared to the left, or south, of the advance. A demonstration was made against them by Captain Merriman's company and they fell back. The command moved forward half a mile, when a very strong line of Indians, under Chief Mankato and other noted Indian warriors, appeared in front and on the left flank. Colonel McPhail halted and prepared to fight. Two seouts of Captain Potter's company were sent forward, but soon had their horses shot under theni and were chased back to the column.
The Indians were advancing, and had well nigh surrounded the command, when Captain Hendricks opened on them with his mountain howitzers and drove them back. Colonel MePhail,
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according to his own report, "did not deem it prudent to advance further." Sending two messengers, Lieutenant T. J. Shechan and William L. Quin to Colonel Sibley with a report of the situation, he moved his foree to a commanding position about two miles east of the cooley, where he formed a strong camp, throwing up some rifle pits and awaited the arrival of Sibley with the general command from Fort Ridgely.
As soon as MePhail's messengers, who rode swiftly, reached him, Colonel Sibley formed his men under arms and at once marched to the relief of the now two imperiled commands. He marched during the night, joining Colonel MePhail in the fore- noon of September 3, moved against the Indians and by noon. without any more serious fighting, they had all been driven away from their positions about the cooley. Recrossing the Minnesota. they speedily fell back again to the Yellow Medicine. Colonel Sibley returned to Fort Ridgely.
During the fight at the cooley the wounded whites were given the best surgical and medical aid possible by Dr. J. W. Daniels. assistant surgeon of the Sixth Minnesota and special surgeon of the expedition. He had a hard and trying task. for he was under fire all the time, but he did his duty so faithfully and efficiently as to merit and receive the gratitude of the recipients for his faithful care and the praise of his superiors and of all who knew of his services.
At the close of the contest Colonel Sibley conveyed the wounded in wagons to Fort Ridgely ; the dead were temporarily buried on the battlefield. Subsequently all the bodies were removed by friends, with the exception of one, believed to be that of Peter Boyer (or Pierre Bourrier), a mixed-blood Sioux, serving with Anderson's company. but belonging to the Renville Rangers, who was killed at the first fire while on sentry duty a hundred yards west of the camp. A report that Boyer was killed while attempting to escape to his Indian kinsmen was never proven and is doubtless untrue. The bodies of the two Indians killed were buried during the fight in the Birch Cooley. They both belonged to Husha-sha's band of Wahpakootas; one was named Hotonna, or Animal's Voice, and the other Wan-e-he-ya, or Arrow Shooter.
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CHAPTER XIII.
CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS.
Reminiscences of Minnie Buce Carrigan-Pioneers Arrive-
Dawn at Fatal August Morning-Parents Killed-Sisters Murdered-In the Indian Camp-Meeting Playmates-Scenes of Cruelty-Arrival of Soldiers-Release-Conclusion.
In 1858 my parents, Gottfried and Wilhelmina Buce with their three children, August, Wilhelmina (myself') and Augusta. came from Germany to America and settled at Fox Lake, Wis- consin. My sister, Amelia, was born here.
In the spring of 1860, in company with five other families, two of whom were named Lentz and Kitzman, we came to Min- nesota. Though only five years old at that time, I distinctly remember many incidents of this journey. We all had ox teams and some other live stock with us. All the families were devont Christian members of the Evangelical church and. I remember we never traveled on the Sabbath. At Cannon Falls my mother fell from the wagon and a wheel passed over her foot injuring it so severely that we were compelled to stop. The other fam- ilies remained with us. The men rented land and, possibly with the exception of Mr. Lentz, put in erops of corn and oats. It was too late for wheat. My sister Caroline was born during our stay here. Perhaps it was the intention of the families, at first, to remain at Cannon Falls at least a year. But in six weeks my mother having recovered from her injuries, they decided to re- move farther westward.
The previous year a Mr. Mannweiler, a son-in-law of Mr. Lentz, had settled at Middle Creek in Renville county. my father and Mr. Lentz concluded to settle near him. Mr. Kitzman de- cided to remain at Cannon Falls. I do not know how long we were on the road from Cannon Falls to Middle Creek, but I re- member the evening when we reached Mr. Mannweiler where we remained two days. Then my father took his family to a Mr. Smith. Soon he bought the right to a claim on which some land had been broken and other improvements had been made. Mr. Smith and my father put up some hay for the cattle and father went to Yellow Medicine to work for a month and put up hay for the government cattle at the Indian agency. Mother staid with Mrs. Smith during this time. When father returned he moved his family into an old house on his claim. All the neigh- boring settlers turned out to help us fix up our house so that We could live in it comfortably. I think ours was one of nine families that lived there during the winter of 1860 and '61. In the spring of 1861 twenty families came in one party and joined
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us. Mr. Kitzman came up from Cannon Falls and was the first settler at Sacred Heart Creek.
. Our life on the frontier was peaceful and uneventful. All, or nearly all, of the families of our settlement were Germans- honest, industrious and God-fearing people.
Early in the spring of 1861 arrangements were made to have a German minister hold monthly religious services among us. A Rev. Brill was our first minister. We had no public school, which my father often regretted. On winter evenings our par- ents taught us to read German and we younger children learned to read a little in Sunday school. Religious services and Sun- day school were held at the houses of the settlers. The Indians from across the Minnesota river to the south of us visited us nearly every day and were always very friendly. We younger children could not speak a word of English, but most of us learned a little of the Sioux language and our parents learned to speak it quite well. All the settlers were in moderate. but fairly comfortable circumstances and though they had to under- go many discomforts and some privations, all seemed happy and contented.
In the spring of 1861 my father got a bad scare, but it turned out all right for us, but not so lucky for the Chippewa Indian that came near the Sioux reservation. My father wanted to buy a gun of the Indians, and every old gun they could not use they brought to him to try. They all had guns to sell. The first gun that was brought to him was an old flint lock. Father went to examine it. He was in the house. The gun accidentally dis- charged, and shot a hole through the roof of our house. Father was so frightened he could not speak. I can see his white face yet as the smoke cleared. A few days later another Indian came along with a gun. Father was standing under a tree in front of our house. An Indian eame with a gun and wanted father to shoot at a stick that he stnek in the ground. Father picked up the gun and blazed away at it. He hit the mark all right, but the gun kieked him so hard he fell flat on his back. Mother and the Indian both laughed. This made father so angry he picked up the gun and was going to strike the Indian with it. Mother grabbed his arm, and told him it would cost him his life if he struck that Indian. Father seemed to under- stand her meaning and stood the gun up against the tree and walked into the house. The Indian grinned and took his gun and went away, and mother told father to quit his trading with the Indians.
After that if an Indian came with a gun to sell father would not speak to him. One day soon after father's last gun trade a strange Indian came to our house about four or five o'clock in the afternoon. He asked my mother how far it was to Sacred
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Heart creek. My mother held up three fingers, indicating three miles. He started on his journey. About half an hour after he had gone one of our cows that had a young ealf four weeks old running with her came running up to the house withont her ealf and she acted as though she was crazy. My father was not at home and mother told my brother to go and follow the cow, for she had gone back again, and see what had happened to her calf. My brother followed the cow. Soon after he had gone my father came home and mother told him about it. He, too, went to look for the calf. Soon they both returned bear- ing the dead calf home. The Indian had cut its throat and ent off one hind quarter and left the rest on the ground. Father threw the dead calf on the ground and went to work and skinned it. He remarked that the Indian was good to leave us some of it. The next morning my father eame into the house and said to mother, "I am afraid I got into trouble the other day when I tried to strike that Indian with the gun. There are fifty Indians in our dooryard on horseback, all in war paint." Father sat down by the table. He seemed to be unable to move. Mother went out to see what they wanted. She soon returned laughing and told father they were not after him at all, but they were looking for the Chippewa that had killed our calf, and they wanted him to come and help them to find him. They had tracked him as far as our house. Father went with them as far as to where the ealf was killed, and then came home. He told mother that he would sooner lose a dozen calves than to see the Sioux kill a Chippewa. In the middle of the afternoon they returned, bringing the Chippewa with them. They had over- taken him and got him alive. That suited them better, for they could torture him to death. They wanted father to come over to the killing and the feast, but he refused.
In the spring of 1862 so many people came into the country that we did not know half of our neighbors. The church society was divided into two divisions, called the Sacred Heart and the Middle Creek divisions, and each had religious services twiee a month, being held in dwelling houses nearest the center of the district. I remember the spring of this year that Mr. Schwandt and his family joined our colony. I saw them first at the house of Mr. Lentz.
It was about this time that the conduet of our Indian neigh- bors changed toward us. They became disagreeable and ill- natured. They seldom visited us and when they met us, passed by coldly and sullenly and often without speaking. On one oe- casion some of them eamped in my father's woods and began cutting down all the young timber and leaving it on the ground. My father remonstrated with them. He told them they could have all the timber and tepee poles they wanted for actual use,
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but to let the rest stand. When he had spoken, a squaw caught up a large butcher knife and chased him away. le came to the house and told my mother of the affair, but she only laughed at him for allowing an old squaw to drive him out of his own woods. At another time about a week before the dreadful ont- break. my brother August came home from Mr. Lentz' in great fright. He said that Mr. Lentz had caught a nice string of fish in the Minnesota river and brought them home. An Indian came into the house and demanded some of them. "Go and catch your own fish, " said Mr. Leutz. The Indian How into a rage. and, among other things, said angrily, "You talk most now but wait a while and we will shoot yon with your own gun." Mr. Lentz was the only man who owned a gun in the neighborhood and the Indians knew how defenseless we were. When my brother had related this incident. father seemed strangely af- Tected. He was silent for a while and then remarked to August, "Well, boy. we have all to die some time, and there is but one death, " and then went out.
The peaceful Sunday before the outbreak of the following day, services were held at Mr. Letton's house, a mile and a half from our place. The Sunday school was held before the preach- ing. Mr. Mamweiler was the superintendent. As was his eus. tom, he gave us chiklren little blue cards on each of which a verse in scripture was printed and then, showing us some nice red cards, told us that if we could repeat from memory the Verse on our card the coming Sunday, he would give us each one of them. We were all greatly pleased at this. He closed the school just as the people were assembling for church and directed the children to remain out of doors during the services. for there seemed to be a crowd coming and the house was not very large. I remember that there was so large an attendance that most of the boys and men sat outside in front of the open door. I think there were over a hundred adults and about thirty children at the church that day. Louis Thiele and Mike Zitzloft were sitting on a wagon tongne, while Thiele's little child was playing in front of them. Poor Mike little thought that it was his last day on earth. He was married to Mary JJuni less than a year before. They were both murdered the next day. Mr. Zitz- loff was a brother to Mrs. Inefeld, who was taken prisoner. Mr. Thiele saved his life by jumping From his wagon and hiding in the woods. Within twenty-four hours after that meeting. not more than thirty of those present remained alive. The oth- ers, inehiding Rev. Mr. Seder, had been murdered by the Indians.
That dreadful Monday -- August 18, 1862-my father was put- ting up hay a mile east of our house. I remember that dinner was a little late and father complained. He was in a hurry to finish his haying that he might go to work again at Yellow
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Medicine to put up hay for the government cattle where he could get good wages. When he had started for his work, my brother climbed on the roof to see where our cattle were. We had to keep watch of them as they ran at large on the prairie. Some- times the Indians would stampede them and we would have to hunt for days to find them again. When my brother eame down. he told mother that he heard shooting and some one sereamed at Rosler's and that father was looking toward Mr. Roster's house as far as he could see him. Mother thought maybe the Indians were shooting at a mark and wanted August to go to Mr. Rosler's and borrow some sewing needles. We did all our trading at New Ulm and often had to borrow such articles. When he returned he said, "O mother, they are all asleep. Mrs. and the little boy were lying on the floor and the boy's car was bleeding. The big boy was lying in the clay pit and was all covered with elay."
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