USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 25
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a deep ravine some distance from the fort, twenty-four-pound shells were dropped, and bursting, made sad havoc among them.
The din of battle was terrific. There was the rattle of musketry, the roar of cannon, the shriek of shell and the explosion, accompanied by the yells of the charging Indians and the shouts of the officers and men. In the midst of the battle it was found that the ammunition for the muskets was short, and with that exhausted there would be no hope. Powder was obtained by opening the ammunition of the artillery. Iron rods were cut into slugs to take the place of bullets, and the women took up the work of making cartridges. At night the Indians again retired, defeated, but the siege continued five days longer. It was raised on the 27th by the arrival of William R. Marshall and Colonel Samuel McPhail with one hundred and seventy-five mounted citizen soldiers, and the next day General Henry H. Sibley reached Fort Ridgeley with twelve hundred men.
ATTACK UPON FORT ABERCROMBIE
August 19th, Mr. Russell and three employes engaged in building a hotel at Breckenridge, Minn., were killed. Charles Snell, the mail driver, was also killed about the same time. Mrs. Scott who lived at Ottertail crossing, was shot in the breast, and her son killed. She literally crawled sixteen miles on her hands and knees to Breckenridge, which had been abandoned, and took refuge in the saw mill, where she was found and while being conveyed to Fort Aber- crombie, Dakota, where the citizens had taken refuge, the team was captured by the Indians and the driver was killed. The settlers, however, recaptured the team and she was sent to the fort without further injury.
Fort Abercrombie, consisting of three buildings, the barracks, officers' quar- ters, and commissary, was garrisoned by Company D, Fifth Minnesota Regiment Infantry, commanded by Capt. John H. Vander Horck. The settlers were organized by Capt. T. D. Munn, and about seventy teamsters who had taken refuge at the fort were commanded by Captain Smith. The teamsters were en route from St. Paul to Red Lake with annuity goods for the Indians, and barrels of pork, corned beef, sugar and other provisions were used for a barricade. Three hundred head of stock which were corralled near the fort were a constant temptation to the Indians, who set fire to the straw stables. Walter S. Hill, volunteered to go to St. Paul for re-enforcements; escorted by thirty-two men he passed safely through the Indian lines, but on the return of the escort Edward Wright and Mr. Schultz of the party were killed. In a later sortie Mr. Lull met his death.
The attack was made on Fort Abercrombie at 5 A. M. on the 3rd of Sep- tember. Captain John H. Vander Horck, when visiting the picket line that morning, having been mistaken for an Indian by one of the guards, was painfully wounded. Lieutenant Groetch was therefore in command during the attack, which was carried on with desperation until about noon, when the Indians, retired. At the close of this engagement it was found that there were but 350 rounds of ammunition left for the muskets, but there being an abundance of ammuni- tion for the artillery, cartridges were manufactured from that and an ample supply provided for the next attack, which occurred September 6, at day-
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break. The fighting was hot and furious, but the Indians were again repulsed with heavy loss. During the two engagements Company D lost five men, one killed and four wounded, and there were several among the citizens and teamsters who met with casualties. The Indians hovered about the fort until September 23d, when the siege was raised by the arrival of re-enforcements.
THE BATTLE OF BIRCH COULEE
August 31st, a burial party was sent from Fort Ridgeley to bury the dead at Redwood Agency and such other bodies as might be found. The condition of the dead, exposed to the summer sun for ten days, was horrible. After burying a large number, they camped at Birch Coulee on the night of September Ist, in an extremely unfavorable position, and were surprised by the Indians at daybreak, September 2d, the battle lasting all day and until late in the evening. The com- mand numbered 150 men, exclusive of seventeen teamsters, commanded by Maj. Joseph R. Brown, whose wife and children were then captives in the hands of the Sioux, who had put a price upon his head. The troops were Company A, Sixth Minnesota, under Capt. Hiram A. Grant, and the Cullen Guards under Capt. Joseph Anderson. There were seventeen wagons parked about the camp, which, with the exception of the one which contained a wounded refugee,-Mrs. Justina Kreiger, who had reached the camp the previous evening,-were turned over for a barricade. Ninety horses connected with the camp were shot within fifteen min- utes after the battle commenced, and the wagon in which Mrs. Kreiger lay during the battle, was literally shot to pieces, the box and running gear being splintered into a thousand fragments. Some of the spokes were shot away, the blanket in which she was wrapped contained over two hundred bullet holes, and a dose of medicine she was attempting to take was shot from her lips, and yet she had but five slight wounds. The story of her sufferings, of her family murdered, and of her own wounds, will be found near the close of this chapter.
The camp at the beginning of the attack was completely surrounded by several hundred Indians, whose whooping and yelling while firing at close range with deadly effect, spread consternation in the ranks of the small army of defenders. The war cries of the Indians, the beating of their tom-toms, the groans of the wounded, the neighing and struggling of the wounded horses, the storm of bullets, the smoke of battle, the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry, and the desperate efforts of the soldiers to throw up entrenchments :- using the one spade and three shovels, all the tools they had in camp, supplemented, however, by swords and bayonets, pocket knives and tin plates,-were memorable incidents of the battle. At the close of the engagement 26 soldiers lay dead, and 45 wounded were suffering in fearful anguish for want of attention, and especially for water, which there had been no means of procuring. The next morning it was found that the ammunition was practically exhausted, and in another hour the whole command would have been killed by bullet, bludgeon or tomahawk, but re-enforcements were approaching and the Indians fled.
FIDELITY OF THE FRIENDLY INDIANS
Notwithstanding the fidelity of the Sissetons and Wahpetons living in the vicinity, the buildings of the Yellow Medicine Agency were burned on the 24th
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of August. On the evening of August 18th, Chaska, one of the noblest of his race, and another Indian, warned the missionaries, Rev. Stephen R. Riggs and Rev. Thomas Williamson and associates,-who were devoting their lives to the Indians, working for their good, and residing about six miles away,-of their danger, and urged them to flee. Other Indians joined in piloting them to a place of safety for the night, and through their aid and guides, their party numbering thirty-five, reached a point near Fort Ridgeley August 22d, during the progress of the battle at that place. Their trail was discovered, but fortunately was obliterated by the severe rainstorm of the previous night. During the night after the battle, one of the party succeeded in reaching the fort, but was advised that there was little hope for it to hold out against another Indian attack, and that provisions were becoming low, and it was decided that it was better for the missionaries to try to reach the settlements, which they were successful in doing after four days and nights of weary traveling, guided all the way by their faithful Indian friends. The Renville family, honored in North Dakota as well as in Minnesota, were among the helpers of this party to escape.
The family of the Indian agent and others from the Yellow Medicine Agency, sixty-two in all, were guided to a place of safety by Other-Day and other Indian friends, reaching Shakopee August 22d, after intense suffering. Ah-kee-pah literally camped with Little Crow, and in the vicinity of his captives, originally numbering 26, but finally increased to 270, including the family of Maj. J. R. Brown,-threatening him and his hostile band with dire vengeance if injury was done to them. Even Little Crow endangered his life by yielding to the demands of the friendly Indians in behalf of the captives.
THE BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE
September 23d, the last of the series of battles during the uprising, was fought. A large force, consisting of parts of the Third, Sixth and Seventh Minnesota, and the Renville Rangers, supported by artillery, gained a decisive victory over the Indians, resulting in the surrender of two hundred and seventy captives, on Sep- tember 26th, just forty days from the beginning of the outbreak. Here sixteen Indians were buried from those killed in the battle, but many of the dead and most of the wounded were carried away.
SUDDEN CONVERSION OF HOSTILES
After the battle of Wood Lake the fighting spirit took its departure from the greater portion of the Indians in the hostile camp, and as the soldiers advanced, every man, woman and child old enough to walk, displayed flags of truce. White rags were fastened to the tepee poles, tied to cart and wagon wheels, attached to sticks in all conceivable places, and in the most ludicrous manner. One Indian having thrown a white blanket over his horse, tied a bit of white cloth to its tail, and wrapped an American flag about his body, sat on his war steed, calmly waiting for the troops to pass.
ATROCITIES OF THE SIOUX
The wounded in the hands of the Sioux were tortured by every conceivable device to make death one of prolonged agony. Wives were compelled to witness
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the torture of their husbands until death ended their suffering, and were then carried away captive. Mothers were compelled to witness the murder of their little ones, and to hear their screams and shrieks under the pains of torture pre- ceding their death. Helpless infants were left to starve by the side of their murdered mothers, or to be consumed in the homes that were burned. Little chil- dren wandered for days, terrified and ahungered, before they reached a place of safety, and women, wounded, bleeding, and nearly crazed, wandered for weeks, before they were found and given care.
UNSPEAKABLE OUTRAGES
Neither tongue nor pen can tell of the sufferings of the refugees, nor faithfully report the tales they told, nor picture the terrors encountered by them in their flight for safety. At one point they came upon twenty-seven bodies of settlers, overtaken in their flight and murdered, and mutilated, some put to outrage unspeakable. Two settlers on the way to the Redwood Agency came upon the bodies of a woman and two children. They went to the nearest home and to the home of several neighbors. The result was the same. There were dead bodies at each. At one the father, mother and two children were all murdered. They returned hastily to their own settlement and spreading the alarm the settlers assembled to determine what to do.
Starting for Fort Ridgeley, they were met by a band of marauders, the leader of which was well known to one of the settlers, who had hunted with him, and they were always great friends. The Indian appeared glad to see his friend, greeting him cordially and kissing him, claiming that the murders had been committed by the Chippewas and promising the protection of the Sioux, prevailed upon them to return to their homes. They traveled some distance together, and at noon stopping to feed their cattle and lunch, their Indian escort accepted food from them, and, after lunch, motioned them to go on, but soon followed and robbed them of their valuables. Another party coming up fired upon them, killing all but three of the men of the party at the first volley.
Mrs. Justina Kreiger, the wounded woman mentioned in connection with the battle of Birch Coulee, told her story to the Sioux Commission as follows :
"Mr. Foss, Mr. Gottleib Zable, and my husband were yet alive. The Indians asked the women if they would go along with them, promising to save all that would go, and threatening all that refused, with instant death. Some were willing to go; others refused. I told them that I proposed to die with my husband and children. My husband urged me to go with them, telling me that they would probably kill him and perhaps I could get away in a short time. I still refused, preferring to die with him and the children. One of the women who started off with the Indians turned around, halloed to me to come up with them, and taking a few steps towards me, was shot dead. At the same time two of the men left alive and six of the women, were killed, leaving of all the men only my husband alive. Some of the children were also killed at the last fire. A number of the children yet remained around the wagon ; these the savages beat with the butts of their guns until they supposed they were dead. Some, soon after, rose up from the ground, with blood streaming down their faces, when they were again beaten and killed.
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"I stood yet in the wagon, refusing to get out and go with the murderers ; my own husband, meanwhile, begging me to go, as he saw they were about to kill him. He stood by the wagon, watching an Indian at his right, ready to shoot, while another was quite behind him with a gun aimed at him. I saw them both shoot at the same time. Both shots took effect in the body of my husband, and one of the bullets passed through his body and struck my dress below the knee. My husband fell between the oxen and seemed not quite dead, when a third ball was shot into his head, and another into his shoulder, which probably entered his heart.
"Now I determined to jump out of the wagon and die beside my husband, but as I was standing up to jump, I was shot ; seventeen buckshots, as was afterwards ascertained, entering my body. I then fell back into the wagon box. I had eight children in the wagon-bed and one in a shawl. All of these were either my own or else my step-children. What would now become of the children in the wagon I did not know, and what the fate of the baby I could only surmise.
"I was seized by an Indian and very roughly dragged from the wagon, and the wagon was drawn over my body and ankles. I suppose the Indians left me for a time, how long I do not know, as I was for a time quite insensible. When I was shot the sun was still shining, but when I woke up it was dark. My baby, as the children afterwards told me, was, when they found him, lying about five yards from me, crying. One of my step-children, a girl of thirteen years of age, took the baby and ran off. The Indians took two of the children with them. These were the two next to the youngest. One of them, a boy four years old, taken first by the Indians, had got out of the wagon, or in some way made his escape, and came back to the dead body of his father. He took his father by the hand, saying to him, "Papa, papa, don't sleep so long." Two of the Indians came back and one of them, getting off his horse, took the child away. The child was afterward recovered at Camp Release. The other one I never heard of. Two of the boys ran away on the first attack, and reached the woods, some eighty rods distant. One climbed a tree ; the youngest, age 7, remaining below. This eldest boy, 8 years of age, witnessed the massacre of all who were killed at this place. He remained in the tree until I was killed,-he supposed. He then came down and told his brother what he had seen and that their mother was dead. While they were crying over the loss of their parents, August Gest, a son of a neighbor, cautioned them to keep still, as the Indians might hear them and come and kill them, too."
Here these children remained in hiding three days, and then spent eight days and nights of terror in reaching the fort. Once when they saw a team with a family coming toward them, and were about to rush to them in joy, a party of Indians concealed from view captured the family and drove off. They could hear the screams of the woman until they disappeared in the distance.
Mrs. Kreiger, recurring to the scene of the massacre of their party, said:
"My step-daughter, aged 13, as soon as the Indians had left the field, started off for the woods. In passing where I lay, supposing me dead, and finding the baby near, crying, she hastily took it up, and brought it off the field of death in her arms. The other girl, my own child, six years old, arose out of the grass and two of the other children that had been beaten over the head and left for dead,
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now recovered, and went off towards the woods and soon rejoined each other there. I was still lying on the field.
"The three other children returned to the place of the massacre, leaving the boy in charge of the 6-year-old girl. As they came to the field they found seven children and one woman evincing some signs of life. *
* * All these were covered with blood, and had been beaten with the butts of the guns and hacked by the tomahawks, excepting a girl whose head had been severed by a gunshot. The woman was Anna Zable. She had received two wounds,-a cut in the shoulder and a stab in the side. They were all taken to the house of my husband by these three girls. They remained in the house all night doing all they could for each other. This was a terrible place, as hospital for invalid children, with no one older than thirteen years of age to give directions for the dressing of the wounds, nursing of the infant children, and giving food to the hungry, in a house that had already been plundered of everything of value."
Early next morning Mrs. Zable and the children who had rescued the wounded children, went to the scene of the massacre to look after Mrs. Kreiger who was supposed to have been killed, but being frightened, they hid in the grass, and while there the Indians drove up with the ox team belonging to their party and stripped the clothing from the dead. They plundered other houses, and fired the building in which the wounded children had been placed, and all of the seven little ones were burned. Mrs. Zable and the five children lingered in the vicinity three days, and then spent eleven days and nights before reaching Fort Ridgeley. When the party went back to the scene of the massacre, they left the baby asleep in a house, but they could not return to it and never afterwards heard of it. The 6-year-old child fell exhausted on the way, but the children cared for it, until it gained strength, a little nourishment having been obtained from a melon rind found in the road. When they came in sight of Fort Ridgeley, Mrs. Zable, crazed with grief and wounds, and exhausted by exposure and want, insisted that the fort was a camp of Indians and fled as a party advanced to their rescue.
Mrs. Kreiger lay where she fell August 18th, until the next night about mid- night. At this time two Indians approached to ascertain if life was extinct. "The next moment a sharp pointed knife was felt at my throat," said Mrs. Kreiger, passing downward, cutting not only the clothing entirely from my body, but actually penetrating the flesh." She saw one of these inhuman wretches seize Wilhelmina Kitzman, who was her niece, and the child cut and mangled, was thrown on the ground to die. The other child of Paul Kitzman was taken along with the Indians, crying most piteously.
After this experience Mrs. Kreiger again became unconscious, but when she revived she found her own clothing, which the Indians had thrown away, and covering herself as best she could, made her way to Fort Ridgeley, wandering about, hiding in the grass and the timber until September Ist, when she was rescued by the soldiers, and next day lay in the only wagon that was not turned bottom upwards for defense at the Battle of Birch Coulee, as related in that connection.
The number of citizens killed during the outbreak was 644, 32 of whom were in Dakota. The number of soldiers killed at the several battles was 93, making a total loss of life of 737. To this list of casualties must be added the many wounded. Two hundred and seventy captives were surrendered.
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TIIE COST OF THE OUTBREAK TO THE INDIANS
The property of the two Indian agencies belonged to the Indians and was paid for out of their appropriation. The crops growing on the agency farms were for their support, and whatever injury came to these was an injury to them. All of the dwellings ( excepting two Indian homes), stores, mills, shops, and other buildings, with their contents, and the tools, implements and utensils upon the Yellow Medicine Agency were destroyed or rendered useless. The value was $425,000.
At the lower or Redwood Agency, the stores, warehouses, shops and dwellings of the employes, with their contents, were destroyed, together with eight houses belonging to the Indians and occupied by them, and a new stone warehouse nearing completion. The value was $375,000. Adding to this the destruction of fences, loss of crops, and of lumber and supplies, the loss to the Indians on the reservation alone was not less than $1,000,000.
The fund of $2,748,000 on which the Government had agreed to pay them five per cent per annum, was forfeited, and they lost the interest thereon from that time forward. The treaty of 1851 was abrogated by the act of February 16, 1863 (vol. 12, Federal Statutes at Large, p. 652). They had received under the treaty $2,459,350, less the sum paid for depredations. They also lost $300,000 deposited to their credit under the treaty of 1837.
Four hundred and twenty-five Indians were tried by a military commission on the charge of murderous participation in the massacre. Three hundred and twenty- one were convicted and 303 were sentenced to death. President Lincoln commuted the sentence of all but thirty-nine. Thirty-eight of these were hanged at Mankato, Minnesota, December 26, 1862. One was pardoned by the President. Two were later hanged at Fort Snelling, and still another at Mankato. Among those hanged was a negro half-blood. Two others convicted were released after three years' imprisonment.
Little Crow was killed July 3, 1863, by Chauncey Lampson, near Hutchinson, Minnesota. It must be said to the credit of Little Crow that it was through his efforts that the captives in his camp escaped massacre. He saved them, even at times when his own life was threatened on that account, but it was because he feared the vengeance of the Sissetons and Wahpetons who were persistently demanding their release, or at least that no harm should come to them.
THE COST TO THE SETTLERS
The loss of property and crops destroyed belonging to the settlers was even greater.
The $71,000 in gold, which arrived at Fort Ridgeley on the day the outbreak commenced, was paid under act of Congress to the settlers as part payment for Indian depredations. The amount so paid included, also, other items appropriated for their benefit amounting in the aggregate to $204,883.90.
The burning of Sioux Falls, the death of Joseph W. Amidon and Edward B. Lamoure, an elder brother of Hon. Judson Lamoure, of Pembina, in the attack on Sioux Falls are mentioned in another chapter. The garrison at Fort Randall, the activity of the settlers and the "preparedness" shown at Yankton, where the
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settlers in that section of Dakota assembled for defense, doubtless prevented an outbreak among the Yanktons inhabiting that region.
These are only striking incidents of Indian warfare, followed by a long list of bloody affairs, in which the Indians gained nothing. Other incidents have been mentioned in other chapters. The story of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearney and the Custer massacre will be told in subsequent chapters. Today the whole world realizes what War is. Now (October, 1916) 14,000,000 soldiers of Christian nations are at war. The "beasts" come out of the land, and from under the sea-and from the air-all engaged in the destruction of human beings, sparing not innocent children, weak women, decrepit old men, or the sick and wounded in hospitals. And for what? Anarchists, in their warfare on all forms of govern- ment, killed a son of royalty, and the war of August, 1914, began, coming like a storm from a clear sky, sweeping over and involving nations in no way responsible for its beginning, and making the hymn of H. W. Baker-No. 199 of the Episcopal Prayer Book-appropriate for every opening day :
"O God of love, O King of Peace ! Make wars throughout the world to cease, The wrath of sinful man restrain, Give peace, O God ! give peace again."
CHAPTER XIV
IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY
BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS-THE OLD HAND-PRESS- THE FIRST DAKOTA NEWSPAPER-THE FIRST PERMANENT NEWSPAPER-THE TREATY OF 1851-THE MASSACRE OF LIEUTENANT GRATTAN AND HIS MEN-THE VERMILION SETTLEMENT-HARNEY'S PUNITIVE EXPEDITION-FORT PIERRE AS A MILITARY POST-THE BATTLE OF BLUE WATER OR ASH HOLLOW-FIRST ORGAN- IZED SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH DAKOTA- FOUNDING OF SIOUX FALLS-DAKOTA CHRISTENED-BIG SIOUX COUNTY ORGANIZED-TOWNSITES ON THE SIOUX-THE TREATY OF 1858 CAPT. JOHN B. S. TODD-FORTS RANDALL AND ABERCROMBIE ESTABLISHED-THE BON HOMME SETTLEMENT-THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE-ELK POINT-CHARLES MIX COUNTY- THE PONCA AGENCY-DAKOTA TERRITORY PROCLAIMED-CHARLES F. PICOTTE-FIRST DAKOTA POSTOFFICES.
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