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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:12:28 GMT -5
Author: Heard, Isaac V. D., 1834- Title: History of the Sioux War and massacres of 1862 and 1863.: by Isaac V. D. Heard. Publication Info: Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library 2005 Availability: These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please go to www.umdl.umich.edu/ for more information. Print source: History of the Sioux War and massacres of 1862 and 1863.: by Isaac V. D. Heard. Heard, Isaac V. D., 1834-, Whipple, Henry Benjamin, 1822-1901. New York: Harper & brothers, 1864. Subject terms: Dakota Indians -- Wars, 1862-1865 URL: name.umdl.umich.edu/ACK0828.0001.001 History of the Sioux War and massacres of 1862 and 1863.: by Isaac V. D. Heard. Heard, Isaac V. D., 1834-, Whipple, Henry Benjamin, 1822-1901. List of all pages | Add to bookbag Page i I Page ii GNERAL SIBLEY. ;~,- l- c Page iii HISTORY OF THE SIOUX WAR iatotrtor nf 1862 ago 1863. BY ISAAC V. D. HEARD. WITH PORTRATTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1864. AND Page iv Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. Page v PREFACE. THE writer of the following pages has resided in the State of Minnesota twelve years, commencing at a time anterior to the removal of the Sioux from their ancient possessions to their reservations upon the Minnesota River. He was a member of General Sibley's expedition against the savages in 1862, from its arrival at St. Peter's in August until its return in November, and acted as the Recorder of the Military Commission which tried some four hundred of the participants in the outbreak. During that time and since, he devoted particular attention to obtaining from Indians, half-breeds, traders, white captives, fugitives from massacres, and others, particulars of the various outrages and the causes of the massacre. He has also carefully read the public treaties and other documents connected with Indian affairs, and the various newspaper articles pertinent thereto. From the information thus derived, he has endeavored to form a connected and reliable history. He regrets that the haste required to place it before the public, while attention is directed to the subject, has militated against the symmetry of arrangement and finish of composition which should accompany such a \~~~ ~ -- eeAt Page vi PREFACE. work. It was his cesire that portraits of Colonel Crooks, Colonel Miller, Major Brown, Major Forbes, the Rev. S. R. Riggs, and other noted men connected with the war, accompanied by personal notices, should have a place in the volume, but the publishers were not willing to incur the addititional expense. He avails himself of this opportunity to acknowledge his great indebtedness to Mr. Antoine Frenier, the Sioux interpreter, for his patient interpretation of the many interviews he found it necessary to hold with the Indians. HIe now submits the result of his labors to the charitable perusal of the reader. New York City, September 30,1863. vi 4 Page vii CONT E NTS. CHAPTER I. THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. The Actors.-Travelers and Traders.-Treaties.-Condition of the Indians.-Little Crow.-The Reservations.................... Page 13 CHAPTER II. CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. Predisposition to Hostility.-Extortion of the Traders.-Corruptions in the Indian Department.-Red Iron and Governor Ramsey. Lean Bear.-Sufferings of the Indians.-Intense Excitement. Visit of the Sissetons and Wahpetons to the Upper Agency.-The Lower Agency.-The Lower Reservation.-The "Soldiers' Lodge." -Council at Rice Creek.................................................. 31 CHAPTER III. A SPARK OF FIRE. A Quarrel.-A Murder.-The Alarm given............................ 52 CHAPTER IV. COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRES AND THE BATTLE OF RED WOOD FERRY. Council at Crow's House.-The "Signal-gun" and the Attack.-Es cape of Rev. Mr. Hindman.-Burning of "the Agency."-Flight on all sides.-Captain Marsh and the Fifth Minnesota Volunteers. -Battle at the Ferry.-Council of Upper Indians.-Other Day 59 CHAPTER V. THE ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. The Alarm given at St. Peter's.-Re-enforcement of Fort Ridgely. Fight at New Ulm.-Attack on Fort Ridgely by Little Crow. Arrival of the Upper Indians.-General Engagement at New Ulm. — Repulse of the Indians................................................. 78 Page viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF THE OUTBREAK. Murders at Yellow Medicine Agency.-Lean Bear, White Lodge, and Sleepy Eyes at Lake Shetek Settlement.-Horrible Outrage. -Lady Captives.-Story of Mrs. Hurd.-Tidings of the Massacre reach St. Paul.-Exciting Rumors............................... Page 96 CHAPTER VII. FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. Sibley moves up the Valley.-Arrival of Troops at New Ulm and Fort Ridgely.-No Indians found..................................... 117 CHAPTER VIII. BIRCH COOLIE. Major J. R. Brown dispatched to the Lower Agency.-Fate of the Expedition.-Battle of Birch Coolie................................. 131 CHAPTER IX. THE WAR PARTY TO THE BIG WOODS. Pursuit of Captain Strout's Force by Little Crow.-Fort Abercrombie besieged..................................................................... 138 CHAPTER X. THE CAPTIVES. Little Crow disposed to Peace.-Troubles between Upper and Lower Indians.-Paul's Speech to the Lower Indians.-Little Crow writes to Colonel Sibley.-Disputes as to Delivery of Prisoners....... 143 CHAPTER XI. UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. Breaking up of Camp at Fort Ridgely.-Battle of Wood Lake.-Oth er Day's Pledge................................................... 167 CHAPTER XII. CAMP RELEASE. Need of Cavalry.-Release of Captives.-Military Commission ap pointed.-Godfrey................................................. 181 CHAPTER XIII. GODFREY'S STORY. Godfrey's personal History.-Painted by the Indians.-What Godfrey did and what he saw............................................. 191 viii Page ix CONTENTS. p CHAPTER XIV. CAPTIVITY OF THE FAMILY OF JOSEPH R. BROWN. Narrative of Samuel Brown.-The Warning.-Encounter with the Indians.-Cut-nose.-Little Crow's Protection............. Page 202 CHAPTER XV. MRS. HIUGGINS'S STORY. A sad Birthday.-Alarm at Lac qui Parle.-The Flight.-Walking Spirit.-Sacred Nest.-Good Day's Proposition.-A Fright.-A long Journey.............................................................. 209 CHAPTER XVI. HOMEWARD BOUND. A Hurricane.-Homeward March.-Trials at the Lower Agency. The Prairie Fire.-Attack on the Prisoners at New Ulm.-Esti mate of Losses in 1862.-Incomplete Preparation.-Loss of the In dians......................................................................... 231 CHAPTER XVII. TRIALS OF THE PRISONERS. Trial of Godfrey.-Punishment commuted.-Manner of Proceeding. -Excuses of the Prisoners.-Humors of the Court-room.-Cut nose. -Sentences given and their Justice. -Instances of New England "Barbarity".................................................. 251 CHAPTER XVIII. EXECUTION. Reading of the President's Order to the sentenced.-Regulations. Statements of the Prisoners.- Death-dance and Song.-Ascent of the Scaffold.-The Execution and Burial....................... 272 CHAPTER XIX. DEATH OF LITTLE CROW. Devil's Lake.-Little Crow at St. Joseph.-Renewed Massacres. Little Crow shot by Mr. Lampson and "done up" for the Historical Society.-Son'of Little Crow.......................................... 296 CHAPTER XX. THRILLING AND FATAL ADVENTURE OF MESSRS. BRACKETT AND FREEMAN. Mr. Brackett's Narrative.-Encounter with the Indians,-Freeman shot.-Lone Prairie Grave.............................................. 313 A2 ix Page x CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. THE BATTLES ON THE MISSOURI. The Battle of Big Mound.-Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake.-Battle of Stony Lake.- Skirmish on the Missouri..................... Page 321 CHAPTER XXII. THE FUTURE. Continuance of Hostilities.-Disaffection among the Tribes.-Danger of War with the Chippeways.-Cost of the Sioux War.-Some practical Suggestions..................................................... 337 APPENDIX. AN APPEAL FOR THE RED MAN. By Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota..................................... 343 X Page xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PA'z Portrait of General Sibley...................................... Frontispiece. Indian Tepees................................................................ 15 House of Chaska, a civilized Indian.................................... 19 Dr. Williamson's House................................................... 23 Squaws winnowing W h e a t................................................ 29 Little C r o w................................................................... 60 The Captive saved......................................................... 63 Other D a y..................................................................... 75 Charles E. Flandreau.................................................... 79 Escape of the Missionaries................................................ 87 Mrs. Estlick and Children................................................ 110 Hole-in-the-Day............................................................. 114 Red Iron...................................................................... 155 Standing Buflalo............................................................ 160 Little Paul......................................... 166 W. R. Marshall..........................1..................... 174 Indian Camp taken by Colonel Sibley................................ 180 Old Bet z....................................................................... 182 Camp Release................................................................ 183 Indian B o y................................................................... 185 Cu t-nose....................................................................... 204 Wild-Goose-Nest Lake.................................................... 230 Indian Camp at Red-Wood.............................................. 233 'The Court-house of the Military Commission....................... 238 Prairie on F i r e............................................................... 241 The Attack at New Ulm.................................................. 245 Camp Lincoln................................................................ 249 Interior of Indian J a i l..................................................... 273 One of the executed Indians............................................. 292 Devil's Lake.................................................................297 St. Joseph, from Pembina................................................. 301 Fort Garry.................................................................... 305 Lone Prairie Grave......................................................... 320 Page xii I Page 13 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. CHAPTER I. THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. IN the month of August, 1862, the Indians of the UTpper Minnesota initiated a massacre which stands prominent in the bloody drama which attends the advance of the white race across the continent. The atrocities by which it was attended-the attempt of the actors to enlist other savage tribes on their behalf -the mysterious part enacted by the negro Godfrey, who received from the Indians the name of" Otakle," or "he who kills many"-the course of their great orator and chief, Little Crow, who was not second to Philip, Pontiac, or Tecumseh-the perilous condition of the captive whites, their shameful treatment, and the peculiar manner in which their deliverance was accomplished-the trial of over four hundred of the accused, and the simultaneous execution of thirtyeight of their number, are full of thrilling interest. Those engaged in the massacre were, with but few exceptions, members of the M'dewakanton, Wahpekuta,Wahpeton, and Sisseton tribes of the great Sioux, or Dakota nation. They formerly occupied the northeastern portion of Iowa, part of the western border of Wisconsin, the southwestern half of the State of Minnesota, and adjoining possessions in Dakota; a vast,
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:14:15 GMT -5
Page 14 14 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. fertile, and beautiful land, with great undulating plains, over which herds of buffalo roamed; with groves and woodlands in which the deer found a hiding-place; with countless lakes, and streams, and mighty rivers filled with choicest fish, and swarming with myriads of wild-fowl, the duck, the goose, the swan, and the brant; and their shores alive with the otter, the mink, and the beaver. Their existence, customs, and manner of life have long been familiar to the whites. A hundred years before the American Revolution, the adventurous IHennepin, the first man who gave to the world a drawing of the cataract of Niagara, visited them, and on his return published a narrative of his adventures. Carver, Nicollet, Long, Schooleraft, Cass, Fremont, Marryatt, and other travelers of repute, followed afterward. Catlin, the great Indian painter, has preserved the faces of their prominent chiefs on his immortal canvas, and Schiller and Longfellow have sung of them in their melodious verse. As early as 1700 Dakotas visited Montreal, and Wabashaw, their head chief, was received at Mackinaw with greater honors than the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and-Ojibeways, who were also present. The British officer in command wrote a song in honor of his coming, of which the following is the last refrain: "Hail to great Wabashaw! Soldiers! your triggers draw! Guards! wave the colors, and give him the drum; Choctaw and Chickasaw, Whoop for great Wabashaw, Raise the portcullis, the king's friend is come." Quickly following the earliest traveler came the
Page 15 > -!i I ~ ~ _______ IN1)IAN TEPEE I". "I.'l,
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Page 17 THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. traders, to exchange the commodities of civilization for furs, and, intoxicated with the wild and romantic life, and supplied by their principals at home with luxuries, intermarried with the natives, and established themselves permanently in the country. At first they were received unwillingly, and occasional difficulties arose; but so necessary were they to supply the increased wants of the Indian, that when the English withdrew their traders from the country on account of the murder of one of their number, and refused to allow their return until the guilty parties were delivered for punishment, Wabashaw, the grandfather of the present chief of that name, to relieve the distress of his people, worked his toilsome way to Quebec, and gave himself up to be punished in the place of the murderer, who could not be found. So, too, when the war of 1812 broke out, these tribes, although they had made a treaty of peace with the United States, and ceded a tract of land at the mouth of the Minnesota for the establishment of a military post, were easily induced by the traders, who were English subjects, to act as the allies of their government, and they composed a portion of the forces which compelled the surrender of the post at Mackinaw and besieged Fort Meigs. Some time after peace was declared our own traders gained a foothold, and in 1825 a convention was entered into at Prairie du Chien between the tribes and the United States, by which it was agreed that every act of hostility committed by either of the contracting parties against the other should be mutually forgotten and forgiven, and that perpetual peace and amity should thereafter exist between them. In 1830 and 17
Page 18 18 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. 1836 they ceded part of their lands in Iowa, and in 1837 all that portion lying east of the Mississippi River. In 1849 Minnesota was organized as a territory, and the emigration rapidly settling upon the eastern shore of the Mississippi soon began to require and encroach upon the more fertile country opposite. So in 1851 the Indians were induced to sign treaties by which they transferred to the,United States over thirty millions of acres, embracing all their lands in Iowa, Dakota, and Minnesota, except a tract along the Upper Minnesota, which they reserved for their future occupancy and home. This commenced just below Fort Ridgely, and extended 150 miles to Lake Traverse, with a width of ten miles on each side of the river. The Senate in 1852 approved the treaty, provided that the Indians would agree to an amendment by which the reservation should also be ceded, and they be located in such land as the President should select; and to this the Indians assented. The President never having made the selection contemplated, and the Indians having moved upon the reservation made in the first treaties, the government recognized their right to its possession, and in 1858, by treaties which were approved in 1860, purchased from them all that portion of the tract on the north side of the river. They continued to reside on the remainder until the outbreak, the M'dewakantons and Wahpekutas occupying in common all below the Yellow Medicine River, which was called the "Lower Reservation," and the other two tribes the part above the river, which was styled the "Upper Reservation." Pursuant to the various treaties, large amounts of
Page 19 ilOUJbE OF CIIASKA, A CIVILIZED INDIAN.
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Page 21 THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. money and goods were annually delivered to them, and labor performed for their benefit. For the superintendence of these matters, an agent resided among them, and two places for the transaction of business were established, one fourteen miles above Fort Ridgely, on the Minnesota River, and known as the "Lower" or "Redwood Agency," and the other at the mouth of the Yellow Medicine, and designated as the "Upper" or" Yellow Medicine Agency." The habitations of the Indians were of a very comfortable character. Some lived in low circular houses, made by themselves from wood, and covered with bark; others in brick houses a story and a half high, constructed by the government; and others in tepees of canvas,- resembling the Sibley tent now in use in our army, which was modeled after their tepees by the rebel General Sibley when stationed in Minnesota. The different bands, under their hereditary chief, occupied separate villages, with the exception of some hundred families who had been induced by divers considerations to become "white men," and who lived together without distinction of bands. They had their hair cut short, wore coats and pantaloons, attended church and schools, cultivated the soil, elected their president or chief after the manner of a republic, were married by a clergyman, and buried their dead in the ground. The others remained Indians, left their hair unshorn, wore the breechcloth, blanket, and leggins, married as many wives as they pleased, after their own fashion, placed their dead on scaffoldings in the open air, made themselves brave with paint and with the feathers of the eagle, went upon the war-path against the Chippeways, and tortured, killed, scalped, and mu 21
Page 22 22 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. tilated men, women, and children. In addition to the Indian population were many half-breeds or mixedbloods, and a large number of whites, consisting of traders, employes of the government, and others. Around the agencies were churches, and schools, and warehouses, and stores, and residences, and shops, forming thriving villages. A few miles above the Yellow Medicine were the churches and schools of the Rev. S. R. Briggs and Dr. Williamson, long missionaries among the Sioux. At Lac qui Parle there was the dwelling-house and school of another missionary, the Rev. Mr. Huggins, and a store-house and blacksmith-shop belonging to the government; and on Big Stone Lake, at the upper extreme of the reservation, and at other points, trading-posts were established. The reservation was fertile and well adapted to farming purposes. There was an excellent road through it, upon which had recently been placed, over the sloughs and streams, eighteen well-constructed bridges, two of them fifty and one sixty-seven feet in length. About three thousand acres had been plowed, fenced, and planted, and which, as was afterward estimated, would have yielded, had the Indians remained and made a proper harvesting, over one hundred thousand bushels of corn, potatoes, and turnips, besides five hundred bushels of wheat, and large quantities of beans, peas, pumpkins, and other vegetables. At both agencies were saw - mills and corn - mills, and at the upper agency a brick-yard, where was manufactured a fine article similar to that made from the Milwaukee clay; also at both agencies were blacksmith and carpenter shops, where wagons, sleds, and farming utensils were made, and other ordinary work done. The
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Page 25 THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. Indians had plows, hoes, scythes, cradles, ox-gear ing, harness, carts, wagons, and the usual farming im plements, and oxen, cows, calves, and sheep, and horses.* Large quantities of hay had been cut and partially cured, and the materials for the erection of some seventy or eighty new buildings prepared. The "Farmer" Indians had coats, pants, shirts, coffee, tea, salt, sugar, candles, soap, vinegar, molasses, rice, and lard, and tubs, buckets, churns, hardware, and queensware, and other household articles. New blacksmith shops were being put in operation at different points, and at the "Lower Agency" a bed of clay suitable for the manufacture of brick, and similar to the one at Yellow Medicine, had,been discovered, and work commenced upon it for the purpose. The agent, Mr. Galbraith, who was energetic and faithful, visited the whole reservation shortly before the outbreak, and congratulated himself on the thriving appearance of affairs. A conversation which he had with Little Crow, their head chief, three days before the fatal 18th of August, furnished no indication of what was about to transpire. Being aware of Crow's influence among the Blanket Indians, Mr. Galbraith had previously promised to build him a good house if he would aid in bringing around the idle young men to habits of industry and civilization, and would abandon the leadership of the Blanket Indians. Crow assented to this, and the carpenter-work had been ordered and nearly completed; and in the conversation before alluded to, Little Crow selected a location for it, and seemed to be well pleased with its position. IHe had shortly before been defeated for the *See Agent Galbraith's Report. B 25
Page 26 26 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. speakership of the Lower Indians, but he said he cared nothing about this, for, if elected, the other Indians would be jealous of him. He stated he had a store, a yoke of oxen, a wagon, and plenty of corn and potatoes, and was now living more comfortably than ever before. He said he had just been grinding his scythe to cut hay, and that two or three of his young relatives were coming to help him, and that they would soon cure enough for winter. There was a young Indian of his band present who, Crow said, could make good gunstocks, and he showed a well-finished stock which he had made, and requested that he should have sent to him a set of tools with which to work. Crow had spoken of this before, and Galbraith told him he had sent for a complete set, and that they would soon arrive. These, he said, were all the requests he had to make, and believed they would be complied with. So far removed from the agent's thoughts was the terrible tragedy which afterward ensued, that the day before its occurrence, leaving his family at Yellow Medicine among the Indians, he started for Fort Snelling with some forty-five men whom he had recruited on the reservation, consisting of half-breeds, employes of the government, and went as far as St. Peter's. Over the soil which Indians had sold civilization had made rapid strides. From Ireland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, and many another country of the Old World, and from every part of the New, had come a quarter of a million of people, and made the land their home. Through the once quiet waters of Lake Pepin, past the tall cliff from which Winona had taken her death-leap, countless steam-boats puffed their way,
Page 27 THE SCENE AND THE ACTORS. and within earshot of the cave where Carver heard the Dakotas moaning and weeping for their departed, the locomotive uttered its harsh scream. At St. Anthony's Falls, over which the canoe of Scarlet Dove dashed when she sung her last song, and to which the trembling Indian brought "Belts of porcelain, pipes, and rings, Tributes to be hung in air To the fiend presiding there," prosperous villages had sprung up, and its mad waters whirled industry's vast machinery in obedience to the voice of man. Far and wide, where the buffalo roamed, herds of cattle and the quiet sheep-flock grazed, and the plowman turned the glebe. The scaffolding on which the Indian placed his dead passed away, and the cemetery, with its cross and whitened marbles, took its place. Almost within stone's-throw of the reservation was the prosperous town of New Ulm, and emigrants even crowded upon the land invacated by the treaty of 1858. Every where appeared those works by which the great Caucasian mind asserts itself supreme. Nor did the whites fear the Indians. It is true that Inkpaduta and eight of his band, in 1858, had killed some forty persons, but they were outlaws from their tribe, their acts were discountenanced by their nation, and one of them fell by the hand of Other Day, a native Dakota. The weird religion of the savage, his mad dances, his antique traditions, his strange attire, attracted attention and interest, which were increased by the certainty of his not very distant extinction, and the fact that he would never be forgotten while river, and lake, and hill, and state, and county, and city, and town 27
Page 28 28 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. should owe to his language their beautiful and harmonious names. He passed unmolested on his hunting excursions through the settlements, and was entertained at the homes of the whites, and bartered with them the game which he killed. He battled with the Chippeways in view of the town of Shakopee, and danced his scalp-dance, and swung the reeking trophy of his victim within sound of the steam printing-press of St. Paul. The people of the state, and even strangers from abroad, crowded unarmed and fearless to the agencies when the payments were made, although a thousand armed warriors, in their plumes and paint, were present. How many prophecies of danger there were the following chapter shall disclose.
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:17:02 GMT -5
Page 31 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. CHAPTER II. CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. THE Indians were predisposed to hostility toward the whites. They regarded them with that repugnance which God has implanted as an instinct in different races for the preservation of their national integrity, and to prevent the subjection of the inferior in industry and intelligence to the superior. When they first caught sight of HIennepin they saluted him with a discharge of arrows. This inborn feeling was increased by the enormous prices charged by the traders for goods, by their debauchery of their women, and the sale of liquors, which were attended by drunken brawls that often resulted fatally to the participants. Death to the whites would have followed years ago had not commercial dealings with them, as before stated, become a matter of necessity. The prohibition by our government of their sanguinary wars upon the Chippeways was another source of grievance. To them it appeared a tyrannical act. When upbraided during last summer for evading this command, they answered with this home thrust: "Our Great Father, we know, has always told us it was wrong to make war, yet now he himself is making war and killing a great many. Will you explain this to us? we don't understand it." this prohibition was not only distasteful on account of its im 31
Page 32 32 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. puted unreasonableness and tyranny, but because it also closed up the main avenue to distinction. The imagination of the Indian can not exercise itself in painting, sculpture, and literature, or in any of the arts or sciences which gain renown in civilized climes. His crown comes from the red hand of war. As their agent correctly says, " The young Indian from childhood is taught to regard'killing' as the highest of virtues. In the dance and at the feasts, the warriors recite their deeds of theft, pillage, and slaughter as precious things, and, indeed, the only ambition of the young Indian is to secure the'feather,' which is but the record of his having murdered, or participated in the murder of some humar being-whether man, woman, or child is immaterial; and after he has secured his first feather, his appetite is whetted to increase the number in his hair, as an Indian brave is estimated by the number of his feathers. Without the feather the young Indian is regarded as a squaw, and, as a general rule, can not get a wife, and is despised, derided, and treated with contumely by all. The head-dress filled with these feathers and other insignia of blood is regarded as'wakan' (sacred), and no unhallowed hand of man nor any woman dare touch it." If you enter an Indian encampment you will notice the little boys engaged in shooting arrows, or in hurling miniature spears; and over the platform upon which bleaches the bones of one of their heroic dead you will find suspended the scalp of some slaughtered foe. Honorable wounds are considered a sure passport to "the happy hunting grounds,2' and the slaughter of an enemy by a friend of a dead warrior is regarded as a powerful propitiation to the Deity on his
Page 33 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. behalf. By his side, in his last resting-place, are laid the weapons of the fray, and friends periodically visit it to recite his gallant deeds. The hostility arising from these causes was but trivial in comparison with that which arose out of the sale of their lands and the treaties therewith connected. The cession of their territory is necessarily enforced upon the Indians by the advance of the white race. Hunting and farming can not exist together, and the Indian can not and will not change his mode of life in a day, if ever. The whites cut down the trees; their steam-boats frighten the beaver and the wild-fowl, and their presence drives the deer and the buffalo far. to the west Were the treaties fairly obtained, and all their stipulations fully carried out, regrets for the homes they had lost, and the narrow limits, soon destitute of game, into which they are crowded, would soon bring repentance of their bargain, and force a bloody termination of the conflict of the races. But the treaties are born in fraud, and all their stipulations for the future are curtailed by iniquity. The traders, knowing for years before that the whites will purchase the lands, sell the Indians goods on credit, expecting to realize their pay from the consideration to be paid by the government. They thus become interested instruments to obtain the consent of the Indians to the treaty; and by reason of their familiarity with their language, and the assistance of half-breed relatives, are possessed of great facilities to accomplish their object. The persons deputed by the government to effect a treaty are compelled to'procure their co-operation, and this they do by providing, that their debts shall be paid. The traders obtain B2 33
Page 34 34 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. the concurrence of the Indians by refusing to give them farther credit, and by representing to them that they will receive an immense amount of money if they sell their lands, and thenceforth will live at ease, with plenty to eat and plenty to wear, and plenty of powder and lead, and of whatever else they may request. After the treaty is agreed to, the amount of ready money is absorbed by the exorbitant demands of the traders and the expenses of the removal of the Indians to their reservation. After that, the trader no longer looks to the Indian for his pay; he gets it from their annuities. iHe therefore does not use the same means to conciliate their good will that he did when he was dependent on their honesty. Claims for depredations upon white settlers are also deducted out of their moneys before they leave Washington, on insufficient testimony; and these are always, when based on fact, double the actual loss, for the Indian Department is notoriously corrupt, and the hand manipulating the machinery must be crossed with gold. The "expenses" of obtaining a claim enter into the amount demanded and allowed. The demand is not only generally unjust, but, instead of its being deducted from the moneys of the wrong-doer, it is taken from the annuities of all. This course punishes the innocent and rewards the guilty, because the property taken by the depredator is of more value than the slight percentage he loses. Many of the stipulations as to establishing schools, and furnishing them with farming utensils, are never carried out. Building and supply contracts are entered into at outrageous prices, and goods belonging to the Indians are put into the traders' stores, and sold
Page 35 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. to their owners, and the moneys realized shared by the trader and the agent. About four hundred thousand dollars of the cash payment due the Sioux under the treaties of 1851 and 1852 were paid to the traders on old indebtedness. So intense was the indignation of the Indians that there was serious apprehension that they would attack the government officials and traders. The opposition of Red Iron, the principal chief of the Sissetons, became so boisterous that he was broken of his chieftainship by Governor Ramsey, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and one of the commissioners who made the treaties. An eye-witness has sketched the appearance of the chief on that occasion, and the interview between him and the governor, and what afterward transpired. It took place in December, 1852. The council was crowded with Indians and white men when Red Iron was brought in guarded by soldiers. Hle was about forty years old, tall and athletic; about six feet high in his moccasins, with a large, well-developed head, aquiline nose, thin, compressed lips, and physiognomy beaming with intelligence and resolution. Hle was clad in the half military, half Indian costume of the Dakota chiefs. He was seated in the council-room without greeting or salutation from any one. In a few minutes, the governor, turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless silence, by the aid of an interpreter opened the council. Governor Ramsey asked, "What excuse have you for not coming to the council when I sent for you?" The Dakota chief rose to his feet with native grace and dignity, his blanket falling from his shoulders, and purposely dropping the pipe of peace, he stood 35
Page 36 36 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. erect before the governor with his arms folded and right hand pressed upon the sheath of his scalpingknife. With the utmost coolness and prepossession, and a defiant smile playing upon his thin lips, and his eyes sternly fixed upon his excellency, with firm voice he replied, "I started to come, but your braves drove me back." GOVERNOR. "What excuse have you for not coming the second time I sent for you?" RED IRON. "No other excuse than I have given you." GOVERNOR. "At the treaty I thought you a good man; but since, you have acted badly, and I am disposed to break you-I do break you." RED IRON. "You break me! My people made me a chief. My people love me. I will still be their chief. I have done nothing wrong." GOVERNOR. "Red Iron, why did you get your braves together, and march around here for the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and prevent their coming to the council?" RED IRON. "I did not get my braves together; they got together themselves to prevent boys going to council to be made chiefs to sign papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council at night to be bribed to sign papers for money we have never got. We have heard how the M'dewakantons were served at Mendota- that by secret councils you got their names on paper and took away their money. We don't want to be served so. My braves wanted to come to council in the daytime, when the sun shines, and we want no councils in the dark. WVe want all
Page 37 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. our people to go to council together, so that we can all know what is done." GOVERNOR. "Why did you attempt to come to council with your braves when I had forbidden your braves coming to council?" RED IRON. "You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the braves come too. This is not the way we have been treated before; this is not according to our customs, for, among Dakotas, chiefs and braves go to council together. When you first sent for us there were two or three chiefs here, and we wanted to wait till the rest would come, that we might all be in council together, and know what was done, and so that we might all understand the papers, and know what we were signing. When we signed the treaty the traders threw a blanket over our faces, and darkened our eyes, and made us sign papers which we did not understand, and which were not explained or read to us. We want our Great Father at Washington to know what has been done." GOVERNOR. "Your Great Father has sent me to represent him, and what I say is what he says. lHe wants you to pay your old debts in accordance with the paper you signed when the treaty was made, and to leave that money in my hands to pay these debts. If you refuse to do that I will take the money back." RED IRON. "You can take the money back. We sold our land to you, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the money I will be glad, and all our people will be glad, for we will have our land back if you don't give us the money. That paper was not interpreted or explained to us. We are told it gives about 300 ($300,000) boxes of our money to 37
Page 38 38 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. some of the traders. We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all our debts. We want our Great Father to send three good men here to tell us how much we do owe, and whatever they say we will pay, and (pointing to the Indians) that's what all these braves say. Our chiefs and all our peQple say this." All the Indians present responded " Ho, ho." GOVERNOR. "That can't be done. You owe more than your money will pay, and I am ready now to pay your annuity and no more, and when you are ready to receive it the agent will pay you." RED IRON.' "We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no papers for any thing else. The snow is on the ground, and we have been waiting a long time to get our money. We are poor; you have plenty. Your fires are warm; your tepees keep out the cold. We have nothing to eat. We have been waiting a long time for our moneys. Our hunting season is past. A great many of our people are sick for being hungry. We may die because you won't pay us. We may die, but if we do, we will leave our bones on the ground, that our Great Father may see where his Dakota children died. WVe are very poor. We have sold our hunting-grounds and the graves of our fathers. We have sold our own graves. We have no place to bury our dead, and you will not pay us the money for our lands." The council was broken up, and Red Ir6n was sent to the guard-house, where he was kept till next day.Between thirty and forty of the braves of Red Iron's - band were present during this arrangement before the governor. When he was led away they departed in sullen silence, headed by Lean Bear, to a spot a quar
Page 39 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. ter of a mile from the council-house, when they uttered a succession of yells, the gathering signal of the Dakota. Ere the echoes died away, Indians were hurrying from their tepees toward them prepared for battle. They proceeded to an eminence near the camp where mouldered the bones of many warriors. It was the memorable battle-ground where their ancestors had fought, in a Waterloo conflict, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, thereby preserving their lands and nationality. Upon this field stood two hundred resolute warriors ready to do battle for their hereditary chief. Lean Bear, the principal brave of Red Iron's band, was a large, resolute man, about thirty-five years of age, and had great influence in his nation. The Dakotas gathered close to hear what he had to communicate. Throwing his blanket from his shoulders, he grasped his scalping-knife, and, brandishing it in his right hand, he recounted to his comrades the warlike deeds of their imprisoned chief, Red Iron (Maza - sha), to which they all responded "HIo, ho" many times, and in their most earnest tones. He then addressed them in a wartalk as follows: "Dakotas, the big men are here; they have got Maza-sha in a pen like a wolf. They mean to kill him for not letting the big men cheat us out of our lands and the money our Great Father sent us." "Ho, ho" frequently repeated the auditors. The orator continued: "Dakotas, must we starve like buffaloes in the snow? Shall we let our blood freeze like the little streams? Or shall we make the snow red with the blood of the white braves?" 39
Page 40 40 TIHE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. "I o, ho," repeated by almost every voice with sav age ferocity, and the war-whoop was yelled by the whole band. "Dakotas, the blood of your fathers talk to you from the graves where we stand. Their spirits come up into your arms and make you strong. I am glad of it. To-night the blood of the white man shall run like water in the rain, and Maza-sha shall be with his people. [' Hio, ho.'] "Dakotas, when the moon goes down behind the hills, be ready [' Hlo'], and I will lead you against the Long Knives and the big men who have come to cheat us, and take away our lands, and put us in a pen for not helping them to rob our women and children. "Dakotas, be not afraid; we have many more braves than the whites. When the moon goes down, be ready, and I will lead you to their tepees." [" Hio, ho."] The above talk was obtained from an educated halfbreed, who was present during the scene described. By the influence of the half-breeds and white men opposed to the payment, Lean Bear was induced to abandon his meditated attack. Other Indians were also deprived of their chieftainship. It was doubtful for a long time whether they would receive annuities and abandon the lands: and this was accomplished only through their distress, for many had come hundreds of miles, and were starving in the dead of winter; by the release of those imprisoned for making war upon the Chippeways; and by means of large presents, and the creation of chiefs to act in the place of those who had been deposed. Even the chiefs did not reap the benefits they expected. $2900 were paid to the chiefs of the Lower
Page 41 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. Indians, and placed before them on a table; and in two instances at least, those of Wabashaw and Wahkoo-ta, it was picked up from the table by a halfbreed and given to a white man, and that was the last they ever saw of it. Little Crow afterward testified, on the investigation of the charges against Governor Ramsey in reference to the treaties,* that one of the traders promised that if he would sign a receipt for the moneys that were paid the traders he should have seventy horses, and double-barreled guns and pistols for many of his band, but that he never received them. Over $55,000 of the moneys paid under this treaty for debts of the Indians went to one Hugh Tyler, a stranger in the country, for getting the treaties through the Senate, and for "necessary disbursements" in securing the assent of the chiefs. In 1857, a trader, pretending that he was getting them to sign a power of attorney to get back the money which had gone to the traders under the treaty of 1851 and 1852, obtained their signatures to vouchers, by which he swindled them out of $12,000. Shortly afterward, this trader secured the payment of $4500 for goods which he claimed (falsely, it is said) to have been stolen. About the same time, a man in Sioux City was allowed a claim of $500Q for horses which he also alleged to have been stolen. In 1858 the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to the treaties before referred to for the cession of all their reservation north of the Minnesota * The Senate decided unanimously that, whatever might have been done by traders and others, Governor Ramsey's conduct was not only free from blame, but highly commendable. 41
Page 42 42 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. River, under which, as ratified by the Senate, they were to have $166,000; but of this amount they never received a penny until four years afterward, when $15,000 in goods were sent to the Lower Sioux, and these were deducted out of what was due them under former treaties. The Indians, discovering the fraud, refused to receive them for several weeks, and only consented to take them after the government had agreed to rectify the matter. Most of the large amount due under these treaties went into the pockets of traders, government officials, and other swindlers. The Indians were grievously disappointed with their bargains, and from that time the control of affairs passed from the chiefs, who it was believed had been bribed, to the young men. They had now nearly disposed of all their land, and received scarcely any thing for it. They were 6200 in number, and their annuities, when paid in full, were hardly fifteen dollars apiece. Their sufferings from hunger were often severe, especially during the winter and spring previous to the massacre. This was owing to the lightness of the crops, for the cut-worms destroyed all the corn of the Sissetons, and greatly injured that of the other tribes; and also to an unprecedented fall of snow late in the season, which delayed the spring hunts. The Sissetons of Lae Traverse subsisted only by eating all their horses and dogs, and at least 1500 of the old men, women, and children had to be supported at an extra expense to the government, and this was so very parsimoniously done that some died from starvation. Then the wild Indians were very much incensed at
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Page 43 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. the abandonment by the Farmer Indians of their ancient customs, their assumption of the white dress, and adhesion to the Christian religion. They styled them opprobriously "whitewashed Indians" and "Dutchmen," whom they designated as "ea seicha" (the bad language). These "Farmer" Indians did very little work, had their lands plowed for them by the whites, and were much better supplied with food and clothing than the others, and the extra expense was deducted out of the common fund. This the latter thought very unjust, especially as they engaged themselves in hunting, and did much more than the others toward earning their living. Every favor that was granted the "Farmers" they looked upon with jealous eyes, and accused the agent and the missionaries with gross injustice in making any distinction between them. This feeling was fanned by the medicine or wakan (supernatural) men. These combine in their individual persons the offices of priest, prophet, and physician.* They are invested with power to do good and evil. They can inflict diseases and heal them, and discover things which are hid from the eyes of others. They can tell the locality of enemies, and predict the result of battles. From the medicine-man the warrior receives the spear and tomahawk, carefully constructed after the model furnished from the armory of the gods, pointed after divine prescription, and charged with spirit and power; and by the medicine-men in a particular way must he be painted, so as to protect his body from wounds, and make him terrible to his foes. As a doctor, the medicine-man cures diseases by music or horrid chants, or by sucking them from the body, * Rev. Mr. Pond. 43
Page 44 44 THE SIOUX WAE AND MASSACRE. and squirting them into a bowl of water to prevent their return. Their opposition to a system which was death to their profession was strenuous; and as their power over Indians was almost unlimited, the discontent which they fomented was great. The dissatisfaction thus engendered was fearfully augmented by the failure of the government to make the annual payment, which had before taken place in June, and by the traders refusing them credit at a time when they needed it the most. They were informed by the traders, as a reason for their not trusting them, that it was doubtful, on account of the difficulties the government had to encounter to sustain itself, whether they would receive more than a half payment during that year, and that that Would probably be the last. Just before the massacre took place we had met with great reverses in Virginia, and half-breeds and others who could read* kept telling them all kinds of exaggerated stories about the war: some that the "niggers" had taken, or were about to take Washington; that the Great Father and the agent were friends to these "niggers;" that the Father was "whipped out;" that the Indians would get no more money; that the "niggers" would take it, or that it would be used up for the war. They were fully aware of the magnitude of the contest. -Little Crow often said to the agent, "When I arose this morning, and looked toward the south, it seemed to me that I could see the smoke of the big gun, and hear the war-whoop of the contending braves." The Indians who hunted toward the Big Woods, and * Agent Galbraith's Report.
Page 45 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. those who attended the payment from Faribault, said, as they passed along, they saw nothing but old men, women, and children, and that all that were fit to be soldiers had gone to the Wars. This, together with the enlistment of half-breeds and employes of the government upon the reservation, strengthened the idea that the country had nearly exhausted its fighting material, and was going to ruin, and they would receive nothing more. The Indians, having no diversion during the evening, naturally gather together around their fires and discuss subjects of interest, and among these subjects the action of the government and of the traders are freely canvassed, and the effect was to amplify that which was already bad enough. With the conviction of the weakness of the whites, the possibilities of a successful onslaught upon them were frequently discussed. These tribes were well armed with double-barreled shot-guns, and could get plenty of powder and lead, and could call into the field 1300 warriors. The Yanktons, the Yanktonais, and the Tetawn Sioux, who would naturally sympathize with them on account of their relationship, and some of whom had recently been at war with the whites, could muster 4000 more. The Winnebagoes, theirmear neighbors, were their frequent visitors, and most potent in mischief-making, and they promised their assistance in case a difficulty arose. The Chippeways were as dissatisfied as the Sioux from similar causes. Mysterious messages passed from tribe to tribe of that nation during the summer, and it was asserted that Little Crow corresponded with their great chief, Hlole-in-the-day, in regard to 46
Page 46 46 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. their mutual grievances. These could furnish 4000 men, and, with such a force, it was believed they could regain their ancient possessions, if they made the atternpt. Hopes of assistance from the English were also entertained. They recollected that they had in former days been their allies and anxious for their trade, and that they hated the Americans, and that, on account of the Trent affair, a war would probably take place. Medals and flags presented by the British were still in existence among them, and some of the old men said that during the war of 1812 they had taken a cannon from one of our posts and presented it to the English; that they called it the " Little Dakota," and promised, if the Sioux were ever in trouble and wanted help, they would bring this cannon to them, with men to work it. They despised-our people, and believed they could not successfully contend with Indians, and instanced the Black Hawk War, on which occasion, they said, to be successful, we were compelled to ask their assistance. The escape of Inkpaduta, with the loss of only one of his own men, who foolishly returned to Yellow Medicine, increased this feeling, and they boasted that it was not a white man, but an Indian, who killed this one. Little Crow openly said that if troubles should arise, Minnesota would be compelled to call on her sister states for assistance. In June a number of chiefs and head men of the Sissetons and Wahpetons visited the Upper Agency, and inquired about the payment, whether they were going to get any money, saying that they had been
Page 47 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. told that they would not. When the agent informed them that it would take place, although he could not say when, or whether it would be a full payment, and that he would send them word when the money ar-. rived, they returned to their homesi but on the 14th of July all came down again, to the number of 5000, and camped. They said they were afraid they would not get their money, and that they had been again told so by the whites. Hiere they remained for some time, all pinched for food, and several dying from starvation. They dug up roots to appease their hunger, and when corn was turned out to them, like animals, they devoured it uncooked. With these Indians came a number of families of the Yanktonais, living near Big Stone Lake. This tribe claimed, and rightfully, an interest in the lands which the annuity Indians had sold, but none of them ever received any pay except those belonging to the Wanata's band, and this was unauthorized. Wanata was half Sisseton and Yanktonais, and his band was composed of Indians from both tribes. These Yanktonais were told that they should receive nothing in the future. When they became satisfied of this, they persuaded the other Indians, on the 4th of August, to break into the government warehouse, and take away the provisions there. This was done in the most boisterous manner, in the presence of one hundred soldiers with two twelve-pounder howitzers. The American flag was cut down, and the Indians stood around with their guns loaded, cocked, and leveled. Finally a council was held with them, and by the issuance of a large quantity of provisions they were induced to return to their homes. 47 t
Page 48 48 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. On the Lower Reservation the excitement was likewise intense for a month before the outbreak. From longer intercourse with the whites they were more corrupt and disposed to mischief than the others, and more idle, because they had not, like them, buffalo to hunt. About the first of July they formed the "Soldiers' Lodge." This is a secret organization of the young men to direct the action of the tribe when any thing of moment is to. be undertaken. In this it was determined that they would get all the credit possible, and when their annuities arrived, not permit the traders to receive them; and if they insisted, rob the stores, drive their owners from the reservation, or take their lives, as might seem expedient. The chiefs did not dare express dissent to this plan, for they were accused by the young Indians with bribery to the interests of the whites. The old chief Wabashaw even went so far as to say in council that he should not oppose this action, as the traders and government had cheated them long enough, and as the whites twenty years before had killed four of his relatives, and pitched them over the bluff near St. Paul. The traders knew from the organization of the lodge that it boded no good for a collection of their demands, and when an Indian would ask for credit they would retort, "Go to the Soldiers' Lodge and get credit," and the Indian would angrily reply, "Yes, if I was your kept squaw I could get all the credit I wanted; but as I am a man, I can not." They supposed that three certain Indians had disclosed the secrets of the lodge to the traders. They started after one who was riding onl horseback; he
Page 49 CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK. jumped off and ran into the woods. Then those who had guns shot a hundred balls into the horse, and the others stabbed him with their knives. The other two they caught in the street, and cut every piece of clothes from their backs before all the people. On another occasion they appeared in large numbers before Myrick's store, and one made a speech, saying, "You have told us that you will give us no more credit, and that we might starve this winter, or eat hay or dirt. Now, since you will not give us credit, when you want wood or water don't get it on our reservation." To this Myrick replied, " io! all right! When you are cold this winter, and want to warm yourselves by my stove, I will put you out of doors." Then they made the same speech to the other traders, and received about the same reply. Some of the more violent were ready for a general war. Jack Frazier, the celebrated friendly half-breed, heard one of them say, months before, that blood would be shed at the payment; and Indian members of Mr. Hindman's church at the agency told him frequently that the Sioux were " wo-hi-ti-ka," i. e., furious for a fight. Other half-breeds said that if war took place with England, which was then imminent on account of the Trent affair, there would be a war along the whole frontier. Shortly after the organization of the Soldiers' Lodge, 150 of its members took an interpreter living off of the reservation, and who was not in the interest of the traders, and went to Fort Ridgely, where they counciled with Captain Marsh, the commander of the post. They asked him, if they refused to pay their traders at payment, if he would assist the traders, and he as C 49
Page 50 50 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. sured them that he would not. It was usual to have a company of soldiers at payment, and they endeavored to dissuade Marsh from sending any, as they said they had their own soldiers, who would see that every thing was conducted orderly. They visited him several times afterward on a like errand. The night before the outbreak a large council was held at Rice Creek, fifteen miles above the agency,at which a number of Winnebagoes were present; and here it was determined that on the next day they would go down to the Lower Agency, camp there that night, then go to Fort Ridgely, and to St. Paul if necessary, to urge the making of the payment, and if they did not succeed more violent measures should be adopted. Thus, on the 17th day of August, 1862, we find the instinctive hatred of this savage and ferocious people, who are able to bring into the field 1300 well-armed warriors, the most expert and daring skirmishers in the world, fanned to a burning heat by many years of actual and of fancied wrong, and intensified by fears of hunger and of cold. We find this feeling belligerent, and manifesting itself in acts through the possibilities of success. We see the authority of the chiefs and older men set aside, and the energetic and turbulent spirit of youth assuming the direction of affairs. Wesee violence determined upon if a certain contingency should happen, and the more violent declaring for a general war. We find on the reservation the stores of the hated traders filled with goods which they have long sought to obtain, and within easy access the unarmed people upon whom rage and mania for the "feather" may wreak itself in slaughter.
Page 51 CAUSES OF TEE OUTBREAK. What happens among a civilized people when one class oppresses another of the same color and nation? Why, the archangel of revolution unsheathes his flaming sword. What shall happen now when the wronged are fiendish and cruel by nature, and the hated ones are of another race and within their power? What shall happen when, besides, despair stares them in the face; and the gaunt wolf starvation waits for themn with open jaws? The agent, who left the reservation with many of its young men two days before, heard not the question, though philosophy uttered it in thunder tones "with most miraculous organ." Much less did the peaceful people, who were quietly pursuing their toils, and gathering into their garners for the coming winter the summer's bounteous harvest. All seemed alike to be ignorant of the existence of the magazine whose explosion awaited but the spark -ignorant of the dark and lowering storm which threatened to burst with malign fury over their happy homes. 51
Page 52 52 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. CHAPTER III. A SPARK OF FIRE. ON the 10th of August, a party of twenty Indians from the Lower Reservation went to the Big Woods,* near Forest City, for the purpose of hunting deer and obtaining a wagon which the chief Mak-pe-yah-wetah, one of their number, had left the previous autumn with Captain Whitcomb as security for the purchasemoney of a sleigh. This chief, and four others of the party, separated from their Companions and went to Whitcomb's. The remaining fifteen lingered in the neighborhood of Acton. Four of these were Upper Indians by birth, but had intermarried with the M'dewakantons, and were living with Shakopee's band at the mouth of Rice Creek. This band was the worst disposed upon the reservation, and the most violent in its complaints against the whites. The others resided around the Lower Agency. On Sunday, the 17th of August, when within about six miles of Acton, one of the latter picked up some hen's eggs on the prairie, and proposed to eat them. " No," said one of the four, "they are the eggs of a tame fowl; they are the property of a white man. You must not touch them." "Nonsense," replied * A large and remarkable forest, commencing about eighty miles above the Falls of St. Anthony, and extending south at a right angle across the Minnesota River to the branches of the Mankato, or Blue Earth River.
Page 53 A SPARK OF FIRE. the first speaker; "they are worth nothing, and we are hungry, and might as well eat them." "No," still insisted the other; "they are not ours. It is wrong to take them, and we will get into trouble with the whites if we do so." "Oh!" angrily retorted the first, "you are putting on very virtuous airs. You Rice Creek Indians talk a great deal against the whites, and yet you dare not take a few paltry eggs. I am not afraid of the miserable fools."'-Don't abuse the white man," said the other; "he is absent. Abuse me. I am here, and am not frightened at your loud talk." "To the devil with you and the eggs," exclaimed the first, and he dashed them to the ground. "That's a very bold act," said the other, sneeringly, "to destroy a few hen's eggs! You are a coward." The dispute waxed hotter and hotter as they proceeded on their way. Presently they saw an ox, and the one who had broken the eggs cried out, "I am a coward, am I? I am so brave, and so little afraid of the whites as to dare to kill one of their oxen. There!" and he drew up his gun and shot the ox. "You call that brave too, do you?" said his former disputant; "I call it the act of a coward. You break eggs and kill an ox. You are a woman. I am a brave man, and know what is brave. I have been on war parties against Chippeways, and have taken scalps." And so the quarrel progressed in bitterness, and the whole party became embroiled in it, the four Rice Creek Indians being arrayed in opposition to the others, and each side accusing the other of cowardice. The difficulty bid fair to result in blows, when the larger number said, "Since we can't agree we will take different trails, and you will find out whether we 53
Page 54 54 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. are brave or not, for we are going to kill a white man." And so they left the four to themselves. Some little time afterward the four heard the others firing off their guns, and erroneously supposed they were killing whites, as they had threatened, and two insisted that they must do the same, or they would be charged with being cowards. The other two reasoned against it, and so debating they continued on their way to Acton. The first house they came to was untenanted. The next was that of Mr. Robinson Jones, whom they found at home with his wife and a young lady, a Miss Clara D. Wilson. This house they reached about eleven o'clock in the morning. Here they got into a contention with Jones about his refusal to give them liquor, and about the failure of one of them to return a gun which he had borrowed of Jones the previous winter, in consequence of which Jones compelled them to leave the house. From there they went to Mr. Howard Baker's, a quarter of a mile distant, where they found Mr. Baker, and a Mr. Webster and his wife. Baker was a son of Mrs. Jones by a former husband. Webster and his wife were emigrants from Michigan, and had just arrived that day. They intended going to a different part of the country, but had on the road fallen in with Baker, and were by him induced to come to Acton. When the Indians came to Baker's they asked for water, which was given them. They then wanted tobacco, and Mr. Webster handed them some tobacco, and they filled their pipes and sat down and smoked. They acted perfectly friendly until Jones came over with his wife and began talking with them. Jones
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:24:18 GMT -5
Page 55 A SPARK OF FIRE. again accused the Indian of having taken his gun to shoot deer, and having never returned it, and again the Indian denied it. Mrs. Baker asked Mrs. Jones if she had given them any whisky, and she said "No, we don't keep whisky for such black devils as they." The Indians appeared to understand what she was saying, for they became very savage in their appearance, and Mrs. Webster begged Mrs. Jones to desist. The Indians, irritated by Jones, had now determined on murder. Presently Jones traded Mr. Baker's double-barreled gun with one of the Indians for his, and the Indians proposed that they should go out and shoot at a mark for the purpose of having the white men discharge their guns. Jones accepted the banter, saying "that he wasn't afraid to shoot against any damned Redskin that ever lived," and they went out and fired at a mark. Webster had a gun, but did not go out with the party, and one of the Indians said the lock of his own gun was defective, and persuaded Webster to take the lock off, and to loan him his own. After they had discharged their pieces they carefully loaded them again, which Jones and Baker omitted to do. Then one of the Indians started in the direction of Forest City for the purpose of ascertaining if there were any whites near. On his return the four counseled together, and acted as if they were going away, when they suddenly turned and fired, the shots taking effect upon Jones and his wife, and Baker and Webster. Jones started for the woods, but a second shot brought him to the ground. The others were mortally wounded at the first fire. Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Jones were in the house. Mr. Webster was hit while 55
Page 56 56 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. going toward his covered wagon to bring some things which his wife was handing him from it. The Indians went immediately to Jones's house, broke it open, shot Miss Wilson, and departed. Mrs. Baker, who had a child in her arms, in her fright fell down cellar, and was not noticed; nor was Mrs. Webster, who was in the covered wagon. When the Indians left, Mrs. Baker came up from the cellar, and she and Mrs. Webster put pillows un der the heads of the wounded. Jones was a man of powerful and athletic frame, six feet and an inch in height, straight as an arrow, with dark complexion, jet black hair and whiskers, and fiery eye-the beau ideal of a cavalry officer, as Whitcomb often told him. Hiis fine physique offered great resistance to death. So terrible were his sufferings that he crammed handfuls of dirt into his mouth in his agony, and dug great holes with his heels in the hard ground. He ordered his wife to fly and save her child, but she insisted on remaining until he died, and then went into the woods. To add to the terrors of these helpless women in this lonely place, while they were listening to the groans of their husbands a white man passed along, and on his assistance being requested, looked at the bodies and laughed, and said that they now only had "the nose-bleed," and that the Indians would soon come again and finish them. When the wounded were dead, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster hastened to the house of a Norwegian a few miles distant, and, half dead with fright, narrated what had occurred. There was no man at home, and a boy was dispatched to give the alarm at Ripley, twelve miles distant, where a meeting was then being held to
Page 57 A SPARK OF FIRE. raise volunteers for the war. So incredulous were the people of any hostility on the part of the Indians, that they did not credit what the boy said for some little time, but finally they sent a messenger with the news to Forest City, twelve miles distant, where Captain Whitcomb had a number of recruits; and twelve or fifteen horsemen rode to Acton, which they reached at dusk. They placed a wagon-box over Jones, but did not disturb the bodies until next morning, after anl inquest was held. While the inquest was progressing, the eleven Indians before referred to, not knowing what their companions had done, appeared on horseback, and some of the whites who were mounted gave chase. They crossed a slough, and all the whites checked their horses at the edge except a daring fellow from Forest City, who followed over and fired. One of the Indians dismounted and returned the fire, and then mounted his horse again and fled with the others. There were seventy-five persons at the inquest. The surrounding country was thrown at once into the greatest alarm. The danger to be apprehended from the dissatisfied condition of the Indians upon the reservation was now fully appreciated. A total uncertainty as to their designs and their numbers prevailed. Mak-pe-yah-we-tah and his four companions had been to Captain Whitcomb's on Saturday and Sunday, and had demanded the delivery of the former's wagon without paying the amount for which it had been pledged, and, on Whitcomb's refusal to deliver it, had threatened to cut the wagon to pieces, and had flourished their axes over his head-and these still remained in the neighborhood. C2 57
Page 58 58 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Then thirteen had been at a house five miles from Acton on Sunday and cleaned their guns and ground their knives; and fourteen of Little Crow's band were in the adjoining county of Monongalea. Messengers were dispatched at once to the governor at Saint Paul for assistance. The four Indians who committed the murders immediately proceeded to the house of a Mr. Eckland, near Lake Elizabeth, and stole two horses, one of them engaging the owner in conversation while it was done, and then mounting, two on each horse, rode at a rapid pace to Shakopee's village, at the mouth of Rice Creek, which they reached before daylight, and stated what had occurred.
Page 59 COMMENCEMENT OF THIE MASSACRE. CHAPTER IV. COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE AND THE BATTLE OF RED-WOOD FERRY. WHEN the relatives of the murderers heard their story, they determined at once to commence the massacre, knowing that, unless they did so, the guilty parties would be caught and delivered up to justice. The more cautious of the band were opposed to this; but it was finally understood that, as it was agreed in the council of the previous evening to camp at the agency that night on their way to Fort Ridgely and Saint Paul, they would start for there as soon as it was light, and consult with Crow and the other Indians about the best course to pursue. So down they came in the early morning, their numbers increasing rapidly with accessions from the different villages, and when they reached Crow's house, two miles above the agency, they mustered one hundred and fifty men, most of them armed and well mounted, and all shouting and mad with enthusiasm, and anxious and eager for the fray. Crow had not yet arisen. Hie was awakened by their noise, and sat up with his blanket around him; and they told him what had transpired, and asked what they had better do. The exigency of the occasion was startling; and so fully alive was he to the perils to which a decision either way would expose him, that, as he afterward stated, the perspiration came 59
Page 60 60 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. LITTLE CROW. out in great beads upon his forehead. It was evident that the minds of those before him were made up, and that they would be joined by all the young men of the tribes. Suspicion of bribery by the whites had already attached to him and defeated his election for speakership, and his influence was fast waning. This nettled his scheming, ambitious spirit, and he knew that if he fell in with this movement his eloquence and superior intellect would secure him the leadership of the nation. On the other hand, in his various trips to Washington, he had acquired a knowledge of the immense forces of the whites and the danger of a hostile collision with them. But the fear of imminent personal
Page 61 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. danger which his refusal might then incite-the dream of possible success-the ties and affinities of kindred -the mad excitement of the hour, decided him, and he said, " Trouble with the whites is inevitable sooner or later. It may as well take place now as at any other time. I am with you. Let us go to the agency, and kill the traders and take their goods." Then sending the news down by swift messengers to the bands of Wabashaw, Waconta, and Red Legs, the Indians hastened with Crow to the agency, breaking up, as they entered the village, into small parties, and surrounding the different houses and stores. It was agreed that the attack upon the houses and stores should be as nearly simultaneous as possible, and that upon the discharge of the first gun the massacre should commence. Nothing save the presence of an overawing force of armed men could now have restrained their purpose. Such there was not. On the contrary, as before stated, many of the men at the agency were on the way to Fort Snelling to be mustered into one of the new regiments for the Southern war, and those who were left were unprepared for defense and unsuspicious of danger. The doom of the people was sealed; the signal gun sounded, and "suddenly, as from the woods and the fields-suddenly, as from the chambers of the air opening in revelations-suddenly, as from the ground yawning at their feet, leaped upon them, with the flashings of cataracts, Death, the crowned phantom, with all the equipage of his terrors, and the tragic roar of his voice." The first shot was fired at Myrick's store, in the upper part of the town, between six and seven o'clock 61
Page 62 62 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. in the morning. James Lynde was the first victim. IHe was standing in the door and saw them coming. One of the murderers cried out just before he shot, " Now I will kill the dog who wouldn't give me credit." Mr. Lynde was a clerk in the store, but had been a member of the State Senate, and was possessed of fine literary attainments. Then they killed in the same store, almost immediately, Divall, a clerk, and Fritz, the cook. Young Myrick was up stairs, and when the first gun was fired he concealed himself under a dry-goods box. The Indians, fearful that he would shoot at them, dared not ascend the stairs, and after some little time hit upon a plan of routing him by proposing to burn the building. When Myrick heard this he clambered up through the scuttle, slipped down the lightning-rod'o the roof of a low addition used as a warehouse, and jumped to the ground, and ran toward the brush covering the steep bank of the Minnesota River, which was near, and promised possible safety. As he ran, some Winnebagoes discharged their arrows at him without effect; but just as he reached the thicket a Sioux shot him with his gun and brought him to the ground, where he was found days afterward with a scythe and many arrows sticking in his body. At Forbes's store they killed Jo. Belland and Antoine Young; at Roberts's store, Brusson; and at La Batte's, old La Batte and his clerk. The superintendent of farms was shot, and the workman who was digging the well for a brick-yard for his destroyers' benefit. Many others perished at the same time. At Forbes's store they wounded George Spencer in the arms and side, but he was saved by an Indian friend.
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Page 65 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. Bourat, a clerk, ran up stairs. Presently he heard one say, "Let us go up and kill him, and get him out of the way," and he determined to make a rush for his life. Hie dashed down the stairs, and succeeded in getting about two hundred yards from the store, when he received a heavy charge of duck-shot in the side, which brought him down. Another shot was fired, which took effect in his left leg. Then the Indians came up, stripped him of his clothing and shoes, and piled some logs over him to prevent his escape, promising to come back soon and cut him up. He succeeded in extricating himself from the logs and making his escape after the most excruciating torture. The Indians being much engaged in plundering the stores, many escaped uninjured. Among these was the Rev. Mr. Hindman, who lived in the lower part of the town. iHe thus stated to the writer his experience on that eventful mornling: "I arose early, expecting to go to Faribault; had just finished breakfast, and was sitting outside smoking a pipe and talking with a mason about a job which he had just finished upon the new church which I was buildming. Presently I saw a number of Indians passing down, nearly naked and armed with guns. The mason exclaimed,'I guess they are going to have a dance.''No,' said Dr. Humphreys's son, who was standing near us,'they have guns, and are not going to dance.' Then I noticed that, instead of going by, they commenced sitting down on the steps of various buildings. "About this time I heard the guns in the upper town. A man by the name of Whipple said he guess ed the Chippeways had come over, and they were hav 65
Page 66 66 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. ing a battle. Hie then crossed the road to his boarding-house. I soon noticed that the people at the boarding-house who could see the upper stores were running down the bluff. Then four Indians came down the street. One of them left the others, and went into the Indian farmer Prescott's house, and came immediately out. Frank Robertson, a young clerk in the employ of the government, followed him out, looking very pale. I asked him what was the matter. iHe said he didn't know, but that the Indian told them all to stay in the house. iHe told me he thought there was going to be trouble, and started for Beaver Creek, a few miles above, where his mother lived. " Soon White Dog, formerly president of the' Farmer' Indians, ran past very much frightened. I asked him what the matter was, and he said that there was awful work, and that he was going to see Wabashaw about it. Then Crow, in company with another Indian, went by the gate, and I asked Crow what was the matter. Hie was usually very polite, but now he made no answer, and, regarding me with a savage look, went on toward the stable, the next building below. " Just before Wagner ran by, and I asked him also what the trouble was. HIe said the Indians were going to the stable to steal horses, and that he was going there to stop them. I told him that he had better not, as I was afraid there was trouble. Hie paid no attention to what I said. The next I saw was the Indians leading away the horses, and Wagner, John Lamb, and another person trying to prevent them. By this time Crow had reached them, and I heard him say to the Indians,' What are you doing? Why don't you shoot these men? What are you waiting for?' Immediate
Page 67 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. ly the Indians fired, wounding Wagner, who escaped across the river to die, and killing Lamb and the other man. "Then I found Mrs. West, and we started for the ferry. After we got about half way she ran into a house, and I lost sight of her. "Just as I got to Dickerson's house I came across a German who was wounded. I managed to get him down the hill and put him into a skiff, and we passed safely over, and arrived at Fort Ridgely about three o'clock. The people were crossing the ferry rapidly, and flying in every direction." The bands of Wabashaw and of the other chiefs below the agency soon came up and joined in the plundering and murdering. When the work was completed at the agency, the savages rapidly betook themselves to the surrounding country. The ferryman, Mauley, who resolutely ferried across the river at the agency all who desired to cross, was killed on the other side just as he had passed the last man over. Hie was disemboweled; his head, hands, and feet cut off, and thrust into the cavity. Obscure Frenchman though he was, the blood of no nobler hero dyed the battle-fields of Thermopylm or Marathon. William Taylor, a colored man, flying from the agency, was also shot on the opposite side of the river, two miles below. A few days before he had dressed himself in the Indian fashion, and had his daguerreotype taken, and given it to Crow, and if he had been present Taylor would probably not have been killed. He was a barber, and an old resident of St. Paul-a fat, jolly, good-natured, kindly fellow, who never did an ungentlemanly act. With his tonsorial accomplishments he was possessed of fine 67'
Page 68 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. musical taste, and his twanging violin was always in demand at the balls and parties of the city. Dr. Humphreys, the physician to-the Lower Indians, fled with his wife and three children, two boys and a girl, the eldest aged twelve years, and reached the house of one Magner, two miles from the river. The doctor sent one of the boys down a little hill to bring some water, as they were very thirsty. While the child was gone the Indians killed his father, and burned his mother and the other two children in the house. Hearing the report of the fatal gun, and seeing the Indians, the child remained concealed until they left. When he emerged from his hiding-place he went and looked at his father, and found that the miscreants had cut his throat. Then he retired to a hiding-place again, and presently some more Indians came along and chopped off his father's head with an axe. All the buildings at the agency but two were committed to the flames. Down the river, on each side, below the fort, and within six miles of New Ulm, and up the river to Yellow Medicine, the massacres that day extended. At Beaver Creek, and at the Sacred Heart Creek, large numbers perished. Parties gathering together for flight with their teams and movables, and partially armed, would be suddenly met by large bands of Indians, and, seeing the futility of resistance, would give up every thing, thinking that thereby they would appease the wrath of their opponents, and be allowed to escape, but all in vain. Quick and barbarous destruction was their portion. Occasionally some would be allowed to indulge in a hope of escape, and to pass a little distance on their way, but soon a gunshot '68
Page 69 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. would bring them to the ground, and death would teach them that their foes were only toying with them as the cat toys with the mouse. The naked forms of the savages, hideous with paint, their mad shouts and wild merriment, increased the horrors of the victim. Former friendship and kindness availed nothing. On the contrary, the Indians started off at first to the neighborhood where they had camped on their hunting excursions, and been hospitably treated by the murdered. Helplessness, innocence, tender age, prayers, tears-these were not calculated to induce mercy. They served but to furnish embellishments for the tale to be told for the plaudits of the camp, where narratives of common slaughter had become stale, and excess in cruelty received the palm. Continually discussing and puzzling their minds as to how they should outvie one another in the next outrage, by adding some new element of atrocity, nothing which devilish ingenuity could suggest was omitted. A gentleman living near New Ulm with his family went to the town without apprehending any danger. While he was gone the Indians came and killed two of his children before their mother's eyes, and were quickly dispatching her infant son, when she seized it and fled to her mother's house, a few yards distant. They pursued her and shot at her a number of times, but without success. They killed her mother, her sister, and servant-girl, but she escaped with her infant. When the father returned, he found one of his boys, aged twelve years, who had been left for dead, still living, and he dragged him from the fieldt While doing so five bullets whizzed about his ears. He 69 A
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:26:03 GMT -5
Page 70 70 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. brought him safely to St. Peter's, though cut and bruised in every limb, his face horribly mangled, and his skull fractured. An eye-witness of his sufferings says, "He was asleep, but occasionally a low, heartpiercing moan would escape his lips. At times he would attempt to turn over, and then, in the agony occasioned by the effort, he would groan most piteously. At length he awoke, his lips quivered with pain, and the meaningless expression of his eyes added new horrors to the dreadful scene, until, sickened to my soul, I left the room." Another little boy, whom they left for dead, was brought into the settlements badly wounded. They had driven a knife into his right eye, and it had fallen from its socket and decayed upon his cheek. A farmer and his two sons were engaged in stacking wheat. Twelve Indians approached unseen to a fence, and from behind it shot the three. Then they entered the farmer's house and killed two of his young children in the presence of their mother, who was ill with consumption, and dragged the mother and a daughter aged thirteen years miles away to their camp. There, in the presence of her dying mother, they stripped off her clothes, fastened her upon her back to the ground, and one by one violated her person until death came to her relief. One Indian went into a house where a woman was making bread. Her small child was in the cradle. He split the mother's head open with his tomahawk, and then placed the babe in the hot oven, where he kept it until it was almost dead, when he took it out and beat out its brains against the wall. Children were nailed living to tables and doors, and i
Page 71 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. knives and tomahawks thrown at them until they perished from fright and physical pain. The womb of the pregnant mother was ripped open, the palpitating infant torn forth, cut into bits, and thrown into the face of the dying woman. The hands and heads of the victims were cut off, their hearts ripped out, and other disgusting mutilations inflicted. Whole families were burned alive in their homes. Before noon the news of the outbreak reached the fort, and Captain Marsh, of the 5th regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, started at once for the agency with forty-eight men. He was mounted on a mule, and his men were in wagons. Mr. Hindman, with ten fugitives from the agency, met him at two o'clock a mile from the fort. Mr. Hindman asked him if he was going to the ferry at the agency. He said he was, and the former cautioned him against it, telling him if he went there he would be sure to get into trouble; that the Indians were killing every body, and that he had better go no farther than the bluff opposite the ferry, and there collect what women and children he could, and bring them into the fort. He replied that he had plenty of powder and lead, and enough men to whip all the Indians between there and the Pacific Ocean, and that he was not only going to the ferry, but across the ferry. Hindman told him that it was none of his business, but that the Indians outnumbered him three to one, and that certain death awaited him. The other fugitives with Hindman coincided in his admonitions; but Marsh, naturally a brave, daring fellow, and experienced in war by his service in a Wisconsin regiment during the Virginia campaign, and sharing in the corn 71
Page 72 72 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. mnon contempt of Indian valor, thanked them for their suggestions and rode on. Five miles from the ferry they met John Magner, a member of Marsh's company, who had been visiting his home near the agency on furlough. It was in his house that Dr. Humphreys's wife and children were burned. HIe had lain secreted in a cornfield, and had witnessed the flames of his house, and had seen many of the people slain. Marsh ascertained from him what had happened, but, nothing daunted, boldly advanced to the ferry. On the road they saw many dead bodies. Dr. Humphreys's little boy, who had remained concealed until now, joined them, as also did another fugitive, and accompanied them to the ferry. When they reached the ferry, which was at sundown, the Indians came to the opposite bank, and a conversation ensued between them and Marsh, through his interpreter Quinn. Marsh told them he was coming over to look into things, and ascertain what the trouble was. Some said he must not, and that they would shoot any one who tried it. White Dog advised him to cross. While this parley was going on, many Indians had secretly crossed over and surrounded Marsh. It was a long distance across the bottom to the bluff. Both banks were wooded, and thick with tall grass and bushes. On the opposite shore, around the saw-mill, were many logs, behind which Indians lay concealed. Marsh saw nothing of the Indians on his side of the river, and sent Magner a little distance below to where he could get a good view to ascertain the numbers on the other side, and sent another man into the water to bring in the ferry-boat, which was a few feet from
Page 73 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. shore. Magner soon returned, and told him it was certain death to cross. Others sided with Magner, and Marsh said he would this time yield his own judgment to that of others, and ordered his men who were fronting the ferry to an about face. The Indians evidently desired all the soldiers to get upon the boat and partly across the river before they fired, as then all could be killed. As soon as it became manifest that the idea of crossing was abandoned, Little Crow gave the signal to White Dog to fire. White Dog passed it to others, and from every side, amid hideous yells, burst on the terror-stricken whites the storm of bullets. Nearly half of their number fell at the first fire, and those who were not killed outright perished by the tomahawk. Quinn, the interpreter, who was standing with his band on the corner of the ferry-house, received twenty balls in his body, and, at the same time, an Indian standing close by shot him with arrows. The survivors sought safety in flight, discharging, however, before they left, several volleys at their enemies, by which one was killed and five wounded. Captain Marsh was uninjured, although he stood close beside Quinn, and had his mule killed under him. Gathering nine of his men together, among whom was Magner, he succeeded in getting two miles down the river, but, discovering that the Indians were cutting off his way to the fort, he ordered his men to cross the stream at a point where it was supposed to be fordable, and bravely led the way himself, holding over his head his revolver in one hand, and his sword in the other. Hie was soon beyond his depth, and it D 73
Page 74 74. THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. was perceived that he was drowning. Magner and another man went to his assistance, but too late. He sank from their sight, and his corpse was found in the river miles below some days afterward. He must have suddenly been taken with cramp, as he was an expert swimmer. His nine companions safely made their way into the fort. Others also escaped; among them was Dr. Humphreys's son. Twenty-four of the number perished. Nine Winnebagoes were present, and participated in the battle. Little Priest, one of their most distinguished chiefs, was seen to fire upon the whites. The Indians were highly jubilant over this success. Whatever of doubt there was before among some as to the propriety of embarking in the massacres disappeared, and the Lower Indians became a unit upon the question. Their dead enemies were lying all around them, and their camp was filled with captives. They had taken plenty of arms, and powder, and lead, and provisions, and clothing. The "Farmer" Indians and members of the Church, fearing, like all other renegades, that suspicion of want of zeal in the cause would rest upon them, to avoid it became more bloody and brutal in their language and conduct than the others. During the day three messengers were dispatched with the news to the Upper Indians at Yellow Medicine. The first messenger was not believed. When his report was confirmed by the second messenger, the Indians assembled together in council to the number of one hundred or more. Among them were thirty of the young Yanktonais. They were divided in sentiment as to what action should be taken. Some advised the killing of all the whites, and the taking of their -i I
Page 75 COiMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. goods, as they would all be considered by the whites as embroiled in the difficulties which had already taken place. The others insisted that the whites should be sent to the settlement, with their horses and what they could carry away. Other Day, a civilized Indian, addressed the coun OTIEl DAY. cil, telling them that they might easily kill a few unarmed whites-five, ten, or a hundred-but the consequence would be that their whole country would be soon filled with soldiers of the United States, and all of the Indianlls would be killed or driven away. "Some of you," he said, "say you have horses, and can escape to the plains; but what, I ask you, will become of those who have no horses?" Their reply was that they would have to suffer for 75
Page 76 76 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. what the others had done in any event. Then came the other messenger with news of Marsh's disaster, and the council broke up in a row, and the Yanlktonais, Sissetons, and a few of the Wahpetons moved toward the houses of the whites for an attack. Then Other Day seized his wife, who was a white woman, by the arm, took his gun, and went to the houses of the whites, who knew nothing of the assembling of the council, to warn them of their danger, and they assembled in the warehouse to the number of fifty, with the determination to defend themselves to the last extremity. Other Day and four of his relatives stood on the outside of the building all night, to watch for and give notice of any attack. While there, squads of Indians hovered around, watching an opportunity to catch them unawares. At ten o'clock they went to Garvie's store, and found him there, as he supposed they were only bent upon pillage. They fired seven shots at him, two of which took effect. He ran up stairs, got his gun, jumped out of the second story window, and made his way into the warehouse. Two others were killed on the bottom lands near the agency buildings. About daybreak they heard a gun go off near a warehouse a mile away, followed by others in rapid succession, and then a general yell as the Indians broke into the building. Then those who were watching the whites ran for this warehouse, and the whites, under the guidance of Other Day, crossed the river and made their way to the settlements. The party consisted of forty-two women and children, and twenty men. Among the former was the wife and children of the agent, Mr. Galbraith. Garvie was left at
Page 77 COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASSACRE. Hutchinson, and died soon after from the effects of his wounds. On the same Monday night, at nine o'clock, the people at Mr. Riggs's place, six miles above the Upper Agency, were informed of the danger by friendly Indians, and forty-two, including the missionaries, Riggs and Williamson, made their escape. Messengers were dispatched by the Indians at once to all the Indians to notify them of what was being enacted. Fort Ridgely and New Ulm were filled with fugitives that night, many bleeding from ghastly wounds, and all trembling with affright. Blazing houses were to be seen in every direction as the incendiaries plied their hellish work. The frightened inmates prepared themselves for battle as well as they might, and dispatched messengers for relief to the settlements, and after Lieutenant Shehan, who had started on the 16th for Fort Ripley, to accompany Com. missioner Dole, who was about to make a treaty with the Red Lake Chippeways. The messenger overtook Shehan forty miles away that night, and also carried the news to St. Peter's and other towns. 77
Page 78 78 THE SIOUx WAR AND MASSACRE. CHAPTER V. THE ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. AGENT GALBRAITH, with his companysof forty-five men, who were known as the "Renville Rangers," were in St. Peter's when the news arrived. That night was spent in running bullets, and getting ready for the relief of the fort and New Ulm. Early in the morning the bells were rung, and the alarm generally given. The people assembled between seven and eight o'clock to determine upon a course of action. The Renville Rangers had started between six and seven o'clock for the fort, and it was determined to send a detachment to the succor of New Ulm. The meeting adopted a resolution that every man who had any character of fire-arms or ammunition should produce them, and notify his neighbors to do the same, at the Court-house, within the next hour, for which time the meeting adjourned. At the expiration of the hour the people reassembled, bringing with them every description of fire-arms that could be obtained. Then a committee was appointed who collected lead, powder, and caps, and an organization had by the election of the Hon. Charles E. Flandreau, associate justice of the Supreme Court, as captain, William B. Dodd as first lieutenant, and Mr. Meyer as second lieutenant. Every body busied himself in getting wagons, horses, ammunition, blank II
Page 79 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 79 CHARLES E. FLANDREAU. ets, cooking utensils, and provisions, and by eleven o'clock sixteen men, mounted and tolerably well armed, reported themselves for duty. Ex-Sheriff Boardrman was placed in charge of this squad, and directed to scout toward New Ulm. He started off at once. Little Crow, with three hundred and twenty warriors, left the agency for the fort during the morning, pursuant to an understanding had the previous evening, but on the way dissensions arose, which resulted in a division of the force. One hundred and twenty, under Little Crow, went to the vicinity of the fort, but made no attack that day. While they were concealed in the neighborhood, Shehan and Galbraith, with their
Page 80 80 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. men, made their way into the fort unmolested. Had the design of attacking the fort, which was proposed by Crow, been carried out, it could easily have been taken, as the garrison only numbered about thirty effective men before the arrival of the re-enforcements. The remainder of the party, intent upon plunder, scattered themselves through the settlements around New Ulm and on the Cotton-Wood. At four o'clock one hundred of them gathered together, and made an attack upon the town, burning the buildings on the outskirts, and killing several persons in the street. This town contained a population of some 1500 souls, principally Germans, and this number was now largely increased by the fugitives. It is situate on the Minnesota River, twenty-eight miles above St. Peter's. The houses were scattered over a long extent of ground, and this rendered the place difficult of defense. While the attack was progressing, Boardman, with his fifteen mounted men, arrived at the ferry, and dashed into the town at full gallop. The people were in a state of utter frenzy, and there was no organization for defense. The interior of the town was barricaded, making a large square, surrounded by wagons, barrels, and all kinds of trumpery, within which the people were huddled together like a flock of frightened sheep. As soon as Boardman's men arrived, they went outside of the barricades, and, by vigorous firing, drove the Indians away at dark with a loss of several killed and wounded. It is conceded that these men saved the town. During this attack, Samuel Coffin, from Nicollet County, who had gone to New Ulm to inquire about ,i I
Page 81 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 81 the massacre, and the Rev. Charles A. Stein, from Judson, and Messrs. Buel, Swift,* and Boardman, of St. Peter's, were conspicuous for their gallantry. While the fight was progressing, the latter volunteered to return toward St. Peter's and inform Judge Flandreau of the situation of affairs. On his way from town he was attacked and fired upon by the Indians, but succeeded in crossing the ferry and making his way into St. Peter's, although he took a different road from Flandreau, and missed seeing him. Flandreau left St. Peter's at one o'clock, with one hundred men from that place and Le Sueur, and arrived at the ferry about nine that evening. The buildings in the town were still blazing. They made their way safely into the town, and were heartily welcomed by the people. Nor were they less pleased, for they were drenched to the skin and shivering with cold. Guards were kept out during the whole night in expectation of an attack. The next day was passed in strengthening the barricades and organizing the men generally for defense. Judge Flandreau was selected as commander-in-chief, and he appointed Captain Dodd provost marshal, and S. A. Buell deputy. Dr. Daniels, of St. Peter's, Dr. M'Mahan, of Mankato, Drs. Ayer and Mayo, of Le Sueur, and the resident German physicians of the town, were placed in charge of the sick and wounded. A public butcher was also appointed, and foraging and scouting parties selected. A theodolyte was placed on one of the principal buildings, by which the country for three miles around could be swept, and persons stationed there to keep a sharp look-out. During the * Now Governor of Minnesota. D2
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Page 82 82 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. day fifty men from Mankato, under Captain Bierbaur, arrived, and about the same number from Le Sueur. No Indians appearing, the men commenced roaming about the prairie. A mile and a half from town they found nine men, some dead and others nearly so -all horribly mutilated. These were a portion of a party of sixteen who had started for their homes at Leavenworth, on the Cotton-Wood, and, being beset by Indians, endeavored to make their way back during the attack on the previous day. Three of the party were seated upon a buck-board on a wagon. Two were killed. The horses were hit and ran, and the wagon struck a clod and knocked the board off. The survivor managed to suspend himself to the reach with his feet and hands, and was so carried untouched into the town, the horses on the full gallop, and one of them dropping dead as soon as they arrived. Another, who had been fearfully cut with hatchets, crawled up a cow and sucked her milk, and was afterward picked up.. Many dead bodies were found and buried. There were no farther signs of Indians for several days. At a quarter past three o'clock P.M. on Wednesday, Little Crow, being re-enforced by those who had been at New Ulm on the previous day, made an attack upon Fort Ridgely. The garrison were not expecting any thing of the kind, and were at once thrown into the utmost confusion. The first announcement that the Inrdians were in the neighborhood was a volley fired through one of the openings, which was attended with fatal effect. Sergeant Jones, the ordinance sergeant, attempted to use the cannon, but found, to his surprise, that they could not be dis 'I
Page 83 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 83 charged. On removing the charges, they were found to be stuffed with rags, the work of some half-breeds, who had left the fort under pretense of going to cut kin-ne-kin-nic,* and had deserted to the enemy. They were reloaded, and a brisk fire kept up. At half past six o'clock in the evening the attack ceased, with a loss to the garrison of three killed and eight wounded, and to the Indians of several killed and wounded. Among the latter was Little Crow, who was grazed across the breast by a cannon ball. On Thursday morning, at half past nine o'clock, the attack was renewed, and lasted for about half an hour. At ten minutes before six o'clock P.lL the attack was again renewed, and continued about the same length of time. The assailants were by no means as numerous as before, as many had left upon marauding excursions through the surrounding neighborhood. Little Crow returned that night with his men to the agency, and found that the Upper Indians, whom he had sent for by Little Six, had arrived; and next morning, enthusiastic with the hope of success, 450 warriors, Little Crow among the number, started for the fort with a long train of wagons in which to carry their plunder. Leaving these on the reservation side of the river, they crossed over and concealed themselves in the ravines around the fort. The first intimation to the garrison of the presence of the Indians was the appearance of about twenty warriors on the prairie, who began waving their blankets and uttering shouts of derision and defiance. This was done for the purpose of luring the whites from the fort, when * A species of willow, the bark of which the Indians mix with tobacco and use for smoking.
Page 84 84 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. a rush was to be made to the inside. In this they failed; and as soon as it became apparent that this stratagem would not succeed, a shower of bullets rained upon the fort from every direction. The ravines were alive with men, and the firing was accompanied by hideous shouts and yells. The attack continued until a quarter before seven o'clock P.M., nearly five hours, and was most determined, bitter, and persistent. During the fight the Indians went into the government stables and let loose all the horses and mules. All the buildings around the fort, except the magazine, were fired by the assailants or the besieged. Fire-arrows were shot upon the roof of the fort, but went out without accomplishing their design. A number of Indians posted themselves in one of the stables and opened fire. Sergeant Jones skillfully exploded a shell within it, and set the building on fire. Just as the shell exploded, Thomas Robertson, a half-breed, by direction of the Indians, was engaged in firing upon a man on one of the porches of the fort. He escaped miraculously without injury. During the fight one white was killed and seven slightly wQunded. At one time a charging party was placed near the fort, and Little Crow was heard urging them to charge, but without avail. Lieutenants Shehan, Gorman, and Whipple, and Sergeants Jones and M'Grew, did good service in these actions. Among those in the fort were the Sioux agent, Mr. Galbraith, and Messrs. Ramsey, Hatch, and Wykoff, who had with them some $72,000 in coin to make the payment. They had reached the fort with it on Monday, the first day of the outbreak. Fort Ridgely was ill adapted for defense, and a de i I
Page 85 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 85 termined charge upon it would have resulted in its fall. There are two stone buildings placed at right angles, in the shape of the letter "L," and on each side of this are arranged rows of wooden buildings, so as to form two squares. It is situated upon the spur of a bluff, and commanded on two sides by ravines. The ends of the buildings were pierced with bullets, which fell into the rooms in showers. A little while before the first fight Henry Balland left the fort to obtain a horse to go to the settlements. Before he could return the Indians had surrounded the place and made it impossible. He sprang into the bushes, where he remained concealed for several hours, the Indians being close enough to him for their words and motions to be noted. Several times they nearly stumbled over him. While the attack was progressing a heavy storm sprung up, and Balland saw some one hundred Indians come close up to where he was lying. There they remained some time, ranged along in a single line, with their guns under their blankets to keep them dry. As the dusk came on, guided by the flashes of lightning, he wormed his way cautiously toward the river and effected his escape. When about thirty miles on his journey, he met a soldier who said he was going to the fort. Balland cautioned him against it, and told him how it was surrounded by hundreds of Indians; but the other said he didn't care, that he would look for himself, and should not return until he could say he had seen the fort. Balland told him he might see it, but that he would never live to tell of it. He rode laughingly on, and was shot close to the fort by Little Crow's brother. Antoine Frenier, on his re
Page 86 86 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. turn from Yellow Medicine, passed near while the fight was progressing, and, finding it impossible to enter, went on toward Henderson. He also met at Cum mings's Place, below, a soldier, who also continued on to the fort contrary to his warning, and met with the fate of the other. On the night of the last attack, the party of the mis sionaries Riggs and Williamson arrived in the vicinity, and Mr. Hunter, one of their number, crawled in to ascertain the condition of the garrison. He was told that the place was already filled with fugitives, and that they had better make their way to Henderson. He crept cautiously back, and communicated the news to his wearied friends, who had expected here, without doubt, to find relief. Bracing up their courage as well as they could, they camped until morning, and, strange to say, passed through the carnival of blood that was raging in safety. Early on Saturday, the 23d instant, the Indians made their way to New Ulm. Since Tuesday no attack had been made upon that place, and the time had been passed in strengthening their works, burying their dead, and in scouting through the surrounding country. Many fugitives were thus rescued. At nine o'clock in the morning a series of fires were seen along the Fort Ridgely side of the river, commencing from the direction of the fort, and rapidly nearing New Ulm. The anxious inmates of the town knew that these arose from the houses along the road, and indicated the approach of their foes. As the fires reached opposite the town, long lines of Indians were seen coming down the gullies in the bluff, near the middle ferry, and taking positions. .e i
Page 87 EBO(APE OF THE MISSIO4ARIE,9.
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Page 89 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 89 About seventy-five men under Captain Huey, of St.Peter's, at the request of citizens who owned property on the other shore, had volunteered, before the Indians appeared, to check their depredations. They crossed at the upper ferry just before the Indians came in sight. They soon got into a brisk fight, and lost two of their men. Being outnumbered and unable to return, they retreated toward St. Peter's, and at Nicollet, fourteen miles from New Ulm, joined Captain Cox's command of 150 men, who were on their way to New Ulm from St. Peter's. Simultaneous with this attack, a large body of Indians, variously estimated from 350 to 500, made their appearance two miles and a half above the town. Then those at the middle ferry, as a signal for the attack, built a fire which gave out a large smoke, which the others answered in like manner, and then they came down upon the town. Judge Flandreau, conceiving that a battle on the open prairie would be more advantageous to the whites, posted all his available force, numbering some two hundred and fifty men, on the open field outside the town, about half a mile distant at some points, and at a greater distance in the direction toward the place where he conceived the first attack would be made. He thus describes what subsequently occurred: "At nearly 10 o'clock A.M. the body of Indians began to move toward us, first slowly, and then with considerable rapidity. Their advance upon the sloping prairie in the bright sunlight was a very fine spectacle, and to such inexperienced soldiers as we all were, intensely exciting. When within about one mile and a half of us the mass began to expand like a fan, and
Page 90 90 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. increase in the velocity of its approach, and continued this movement until within about double rifle shot, when it had covered our entire front. "Then the savages uttered a terrific yell, and came down upon us like the wind. I had stationed myself at a point in the rear where communications could be had with me easily, and waited the first discharge with great anxiety, as it seemed to me that to yield was certain destruction, as the enemy would rush into the town and drive all before them. The yell unsettled the men a little, and just as the rifles began to crack they fell back along the whole line, and committed the error of passing the outer houses without taking possession of them-a mistake which the Indians immediately took advantage of by themselves occupying them in squads of two and three, and up to ten. They poured into us a sharp and rapid fire as we fell back, and opened from houses in every direction. Several of us rode up the hill, endeavoring to rally the men, and with good effect, as they gave three cheers, and sallied out of various houses they had retreated to, and checked the advance effectually. The firing from both sides then became general, sharp, and rapid; and it got to be a regular Indian skirmish, in which every man did his own work after his own fashion. "The Indians had spread out until they had got into our rear and on all sides, having the very decided advantage of the houses on the bluff, which commanded the interior of the town with the exception of the wind-mill, which was occupied by about twenty of the Le Sueur Tigers, who held them at long range. " The wind was from the lower part of the town; and this fact directed the larger part of the enemy to t i.
Page 91 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 91 that point, where they promptly commenced firing the houses and advancing behind the smoke. The conflagration became general in the lower part of the town on both sides of the street, and the bullets flew very thickly both from the bluff and up the street. I thought it prudent to dismount and conduct the defense on foot. Just at this point Captain Dodd, of St. Peter's, and some one else whose name I do not know, charged down the street to ascertain whether some horsemen seen in the extreme lower town were not our friends coming in, and were met about three blocks down with a heavy volley from behind a house, five bullets passing through Captain Dodd's body, and several through that of his horse. The horsemen both turned, and the captain got sufficiently near to be received by his friends before he fell. Hie died about five hours after being hit. Too much call not be said of his personal bravery and general desire to perform his duty manfully. Captain Saunders, of the Le Sueur company, was shot through his body shortly after, and retired, placing his rifle in effective hands, and encouraging the men. The fight was going on all around the town during the whole forenoon and part of the afternoon, sometimes with slight advantage to us and again to the Indians; but the difficulty which stared us in the face was their gradual but certain approach up the main street behind the burning buildings, which promised our destruction. "We frequently sallied out and took buildings in advance; but the risk of being picked off from the bluff was unequal to the advantage gained, and the duty was performed with some reluctance by the men. In the lower part of the town I had some of the best
Page 92 92 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. men in the state, both as shots and for coolness and determination. It will be sufficient to mention two as types of the class of the best fighting men-Asa White and Newell Horton, known to all old settlers. "They did very effective service in checking the advance, both by their unerring rifles and the good example their steadiness placed before the younger men. We discovered a concentration of Indians on the side of the street toward the river and at the rear of the buildings, and expected a rush upon the town from that position, the result of which I feared more than any thing else, as the boys had proved unequal to it in the morning; and we were not disappointed; for in a few moments they came on, on ponies and on foot, furiously, about sixty in number, charging around the point of a little grove of oaks. "This was the critical point of the day; but four or five hours under fire had brought the boys up to the fighting temperature, and they stood firmly, and advanced with a cheer, routing the rascals like sheep. They received us with a very hot fire, killing Houghton and the elderly gentleman, whose name I did not know. As they fled in a crowd, at a very short range, we gave them a volley that was very effective, and settled the fortunes of the day in our favor, for they did not dare to try it over. I think, after once repulsing them in a fair fight, we could have successfully resisted them had they returned a second time, as the necessary confidence had been gained. White men fight under a great disadvantage the first time they engage. There is something so fiendish in their yells, and terrifying in their appearance when in battle, that it takes a good deal of time to overcome the i k i i I
Page 93 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 93 unpleasant sensation it inspires. There is a snakelike stealth in all their movements that excites distrust and uncertainty, and which unsteadies the nerves at first. "After this repulse the battle raged until dark, without sufficient advantage on one side or the other to merit mention in detail, when the savages drew off, firing only an occasional shot from under close cover. After dark we decreased the extent of our lines of barricades; and I deemed it prudent to order all the buildings outside to be burned, in order to prevent them from affording protection to the savages while they advanced to annoy us. We were compelled to consume about forty valuable buildings; but, as it was a military necessity, the inhabitants did not demur, but themselves applied the torch cheerfully. In a short time we had a fair field before us of open prairie, with the exception of a large brick building, which we held, and had loopholed in all the stories on all sides, and which commanded a large portion of our front toward the bluff. We also dug a system of rifle-pits on that front outside the barricades, about four rods apart, which completed our defenses. "That night we slept very little, every man being at the barricades all night, each third man being allowed to sleep at intervals. In the morning the attack was renewed, but not with much vigor, and subsided about noon."* * Judge Charles E. Flandreau, the gallant defender of New Ulm, is aged about thirty-five years. He is tall of stature, and as lithe, sinewy, and active as an Indian. His father, who is now deceased, was an eminent lawyer of the State of New York, and once a partner of the celebrated Aaron Burr. Judge Flandreau was once a midshipman in the United States Navy, but abandoned that profession for
Page 94 94 TIHE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. During the morning Captain E. St. Julien Cox, with one hundred and forty-five volunteers from Sibley and Nicollet counties, arrived. The whites lost about ten killed and fifty wounded. The loss of the Indians in killed and wounded was also considerable. During the fight heavy firing was kept up on the whites from a wood-pile, and an Indian observed standing upon it. The whites fired upon him until the Indians left, but he kept his position undisturbed. On approaching, he was found to be dead and pierced with bullets. He had been propped up there to draw our fire. A half-breed named Le Blanc lay in the grass as our men advanced, and fired and wounded one of them. He rose and ran partially bent over, but a bullet sped after him, and cut the great artery on the shoulder, from which the blood spirted in a large stream. He was soon finished, his head cut off and scalped. HeI had been one of the most desperate of the foe. The savages used the hill for their hospital, and from this they had a white flag flying during the fight. On Sunday morning one of their number was secreted in one of the houses close to the whites, and escaped by throwing a feather bed over his back, so as to hide his body, and walking leisurely away. A dozen shots could have been fired with fatal effect, the study of law, in which he has achieved signal success. His quick apprehension, his ready application of principles to the case before him, and untiring activity, early attracted the attention of the public. He has been Indian Agent, judge of the Territorial District Court of Minnesota, member of the State Constitutional Convention and of the Senate, and now holds the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court. At the first intimation of the outbreak he left his family and repaired to the defense of the frontier, where he remained until relieved by the regular forces several weeks afterward. i I I k i
Page 95 ATTACKS UPON NEW ULM AND FORT RIDGELY. 95 but all supposed he was a white man, and several remarked, "What a fool that man is, to expose himself in that way." When he got out of range he threw the bed down, and danced and shouted in triumph.
Page 96 96 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. CHAPTER VI. FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF TEE OUTBREAK. SOME of the individual outrages which occurred on Monday were detailed in the fourth chapter; but while New Ulna and Fort Ridgely were attacked, the depredations extended throughout the whole western frontier of Minnesota, and into Iowa and Dakota. During this week over seven hundred people perished, and about two hundred were made captive. On Tuesday two Indians killed Mr. Amos W. Huggins at Lac qui Parle. He was there engaged in conducting a school for their children, and was born and bred among them. Mr. Galbraith thus speaks of him: "Mr. iHuggins exercised nothing but kindness toward the Indians. He fed them when hungry, clothed them when naked, attended them when sick, and advised and cheered them in all their difficulties. iHe was intelligent, industrious, energetic, and good, and yet he was one of the first victims of the outbreak, shot down like a dog by the very Indians whom he had so long and so well served." His wife and child, and a Miss Julia La Fromboise, also a teacher, were dragged into captivity. Early on Wednesday, Antoine Freniere, the Sioux interpreter, who had been dispatched from Fort Ridgely on Tuesday, by the agent Galbraith, to ascertain the condition of affairs at the Yellow Medicine Agen I i k .I I k i i
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Page 97 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 97 cy, where he had left hjs family, went into a house a few miles below the agency to get a match to light his pipe. There he saw seven little children, the eld est not over eight years of age, Germans. One of them, a girl, was wounded in the hand. They ap peared to be stupid and unconscious of their condi tion. Freniere asked the eldest where her mother was, and she pointed out of doors in a particular direc tion. Hie went out, and, passing down a little path to ward the spot indicated, suddenly came upon a sight which froze his veins with horror. There, closely grouped together, were twenty - seven dead bodies, pierced with bullets, and hacked with knives and hatchets, pale and ghastly, and clotted with blood. The only living creature was a little child on the breast of a woman, probably its mother, vainly seeking for nourishment. Terrified by the sight, knowing that the savages were close around him, and that he could not save the children, he hastened away, leaving them to their fate. On the same day they began murdering at Lake Shetek and Spirit Lake, in Iowa, and also in the neighborhood of Forest City, one hundred and twenty miles apart. About seven o'clock four Indians came to the house of a farmer named Anderson, residing with his family thirty miles west of Forest City, on Eagle Lake. They had often visited there before, were well acquainted with the family, and had received many favors from them. One was called John, and could talk English a little. They were all dressed in white men's clothes, wore hats, and had their hair cut short. Each one carried a double-barre]ed shot-gun. When they came E
Page 98 98 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. to the door they shook hands with Anderson, and asked for some milk to drink, which he brought them in a pan. They drank it and handed the pan back, and he set it down and passed out the door. Then two of the Indians fired and killed him instantly. A son of Anderson had gone into the garden to dig potatoes for the Indians at their request, and they fired and killed him. Another son, standing in, the door, was wounded ill the shoulder and left for dead. The mother, with her little child, rushed down cellar and escaped notice. A daughter, named Julia, ran into the high grass with a little sister aged ten years. The Indians, after a long search, discovered them, and, placing them on a pony, carried them west a mile and a half, where they camped, one of their number keeping watch upon the captives during the night. Early in the morning their ponies ran away, and the Indians started in pursuit. Julia and her sister ran into the bush, and reached Forest City two days afterward, "camping," to use her own words, on the open prairie at night, and sucking the cows for sustenance. Four other Indians on the way pursued and discharged their guns at them, but without effect. They escaped these by again getting into the brush. They saw lying dead along the xoad two acquaintances named Buckland and Peterson. Both had their heads cut off. All the skin was torn from Peterson's face, and many long gashes, running lengthwise, were cut into his body, and two knives inserted in his stomach. When the Indians left the house, the mother, carrying her child, went to Green Lake, ten miles distant, expecting to find assistance, but the Indians had preceded her. Two days afterward she returned to her house, Ii I I I i iI i t I i "I
Page 99 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 99 and found the wounded son, whom she had left for dead, composedly baking bread. Attaching the ox-team to their wagon, the three got in, and went to a Mr.Foote's house, several miles distant. There they found Foote and a Norwegian, named Erickson, both severely wounded. Placing these in their wagon, they all started for Forest City, and arrived in safety on Sunday evening. The daugh ter, Julia, had left before, and did not know of their safety for a week afterward. The Lake Shetek settlement was about seventy miles west of Mankato, and numbered about forty-five persons, men, women, and children. They were at tacked by Lean Bear and eight of his men, and by the bands of White Lodge and Sleepy Eyes. Ten or eleven of the party were taken captives, about twenty escaped, mostly severely wounded, and about fifteen were killed. Three women and six children were shot by one man, who was the recipient of frequent charities from the hands of the whites whom he killed. Among the persons killed was a child of Mr. Duly, four and a half years old, who was pounded to death by a squaw. Among those who escaped was the father, Mr. Duly; but, before he did so, he managed to put an end to the mortal career of one of his assailants -Lean Bear. The prisoners were carried to the Missouri River, and were afterward ransomed. Among the number was the wife and two children of Mr. Duly, Mrs. AVright and child, and two children of Mr. Ireland, and a daughter of Mr. Everett. The distance is estimated to be seven hundred and fifty miles by the route which they traveled. The women were com 0
Page 100 100 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. pelled to witness the murder of most of their children. The children who accompanied them are believed to be the only survivors of their respective families, with one exception. One of the lady captives was severely wounded in the foot by a gunshot, from which she suffered excruciatingly. She was enceinte at the time; but, notwithstanding her delicate condition, had the dreadful alternative presented to her of submitting to the vile embraces of her captors, or seeing her only surviving child brutally murdered. This brutality produced premature labor; but even this did not relieve her from the foul treatment to which she was continually subjected. From the time of her captivity to her re. lease she was five times sold to different Indians, and has often been compelled to submit to the gratification of their brutal passions. The other lady, a very intelligent and respectable woman, who, at the time of her capture, had an infant several months old, after having been compelled to submit to the same heartless indignities for the sake of saving the life of her infant, had it wrested from her arms and its brains dashed out against the wagon she was driving. She, too, was changed from owner to owner in the same manner as the other, and forced to submit to the same treatment. One little girl, ten years old, who had received several wounds at the hands of the savages, was held prostrate on the ground by four of her captors, and violated by more than twenty young men of the tribe at a time. This treatment was kept up from day to day, until her system became completely prostrate, and herself well-nigh lifeless. Ii t .i t I t t. k 1; l
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:34:50 GMT -5
Page 101 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 101 Another little girl, nine years of age, was subject to treatment still more brutal. In consequence of her tender years, the savages resorted to horrid mutilations of her person to enable them to gratify their lustful desires. It is improper to detail publicly all the cruel ties to which they were subjected. Imagination can hardly depict the enormities perpetrated upon these poor women. While suffering these barbarities, their cries are represented to have been of the most heart rending character. At the time the little girl last mentioned was sub ject to these inhumanities, she was suffering from the effects of a compound fracture of the bones both above and below the elbow, produced by a gunshot wound, from which she has not yet recovered. During the massacre in Minnesota, and while on their journey to the Missouri, the savage practices of the younger Indians far surpassed in atrocity that of the older members of the tribe. Neither age, condition, nor sex among them were exempt from participation in these cruelties. The practice of shooting arrows into defenseless women and children constituted their favorite amusement.* The meeting between Mr. tverett and his little daughter, many weary months afterward, was most affecting. Hiis wife had been murdered, a son four years old had been killed before his eyes, and another, still younger, was alive when last seen. IHe himself was then suffering from his wounds. Out of this once happy family father and child alone remained. An eye-witness of their reunion says: "The child took the hand of her father, and he pressed her to his bo * See "Mankato Record" and "Washington Republican."
Page 102 102 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. som, but not a word was spoken by either. The joy of meeting the sole remnant of his family was so saddened by the recollection-so vividly forced upon his mind by the presence of his child-of the fate of his dearly-loved wife and darling boys, that the strong man was overcome with emotion. He wept like a child. He asked his daughter about her little brother two years old, of whom the father had heard no tidings. She replied that when she saw him last he was crawling into the bushes to hide himself from the savages. He probably escaped the tomahawk of the Indian only to die of starvation in the thickets of Lake Shetek." At the Lake Shetek settlement also lived Mrs. Phineas B. Hurd. She was born in Western New York, passed her childhood in Steuben County in that state, where she was married in 1857, and emigrated to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Here she and her husband remained about two years, and from there removed to the neighborhood of St. Peter's with the intention of settlement, but finally joined in the emigration still farther westward, and settled at Lake Shetek, where she resided three years. On the 2d of June last, Mr. Hiurd, with another man, left home on a trip to Dacota Territory, to be absent a month, taking a span of horses and wagon, and such other outfit as would be required upon such an expe dition, thus leaving Mrs. Hurd alone with her two chil dren and a Mr. Voigt, who had charge of the farm. On the morning of the 20th of August, about five o'clock, while Mrs. Hurd was milking, some twenty Indians rode up to the house and dismounted. She discovered among the horses one of their own that was i I I t I I k II ?I I
Page 103 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 103 taken away by Mr. Hurd. She got into the house be fore the Indians, who entered and began smoking, as was their custom. Five of these men she knew, one being a half-breed that could speak English. Her chil dren were in bed, and at the time of the entrance of the Indians asleep. The youngest, about a year old, awoke and cried, when Mr. Voigt took it up and car ried it into the front yard, when one of the Indians stepped to the door and shot him through the body. He fell dead with the child in his arms. At this sig nal some ten or fifteen more Indians and squaws rush ed into the house, they having been concealed near by, and commenced an indiscriminate destruction of every thing in the house, breaking open trunks, de stroying furniture, cutting open feather-beds, and scat tering the contents about the house and yard. Mrs. Hurd, in her uncommon energy and industry as a pi oneer housewife, had, with a good stock of cows, begun to make butter and cheese even in this new country, and had on hand at the time two hundred pounds of butter and twenty-three cheeses. These the Indians threw out into the yard and destroyed. While this destruction was going on, Mrs. Hurd was told that her life would be spared on condition that she would give no alarm, and leave the settlement by an unfrequented path or trail leading directly east across the prairie, in the direction of New Ulm, and was ordered to take her children and commence her march. Upon pleading for her children's clothes, she was hurried off, being refused even her sun-bonnet or shawl. She took her youngest in her arms and led the other, a little boy of about three years, by the hand, and, being escorted by seven Indians on horseback, she turned her
Page 104 104 TiE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. back on her once prosperous and happy home. The distance across the prairie in the direction which she was sent was sixty or seventy miles to a habitation. The Indians went with her three miles, and before taking leave of her repeated the condition of her release, and she was told that the whites were all to be killed, but that she might go to her mother. Thus she was left with her two children almost naked, herself bareheaded, without food or raiment, not even a blanket to shelter her and her children from the cold dews of the night or the storm. After the Indians left her, three miles from her home, on the prairie, "we took our way," said Mrs. Hiurd, "through the unfrequented road or trail into which the Indians had conducted us. It was clear, and the sun shone with more than usual brightness. The dew on the grass was heavy. My little boy, William Henry, being barefooted and thinly clad, shivered with the cold, and, pressing close to me, entreated me to return to our home. HIe did not know of the death of Mr. Voigt, as I kept him from the sight of the corpse. HIe could not understand why I insisted upon going on, enduring the pain and cold of so cheerless a morning. HIe cried pitifully at first, but, after a time, pressing my hand, he trudged manfully along by my side. The little one rested in my arms unconscious of our situation. Two guns were fired when I was a short distance out, which told the death of my neigh bor, Mr. Cook. I well knew its fearful meaning. There was death behind, and all the horrors of starvation be fore me. But there was no alternative. For my chil dren, any thing but death at the hands of the merci less savage; even starvation on the prairies seemed preferable to this. i i I i 7 I s II I
Page 105 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 105 "About ten o'clock in the forenoon a thunderstorm suddenly arose. It was of unusual violence; the wind was not high, but the lightning, thunder, and rain were most terrible. The violence of the storm was expended in about three hours, but the rain continued to fall slowly until night, and at intervals continued until morning. During the storm I lost the trail, and walked on, not knowing whether I was right or wrong. Water covered the lower portions of the prairie, and it was with difficulty I could find a place to rest when night came on. At last I came to a sand-hill or knoll; on the top of this I sat down to rest for the night. I laid my children down, and leaned over them to protect them from the rain and chilling blast. Hungry, weary, and wet, WVilliam fell asleep, and continued so until morning. The younger one worried much; the night wore away slowly, and the morning at last came, inviting us to renewed efforts. As soon as I could see, I took my little ones and moved on. About seven o'clock I heard guns, and for the first time became conscious that I had lost my way and was still in the vicinity of the lake. I changed my course, avoiding the direction in which I heard the guns, and pressed on with increased energy. No trail was visible. As for myself, I was not conscious of hunger; but it was harassing to a mother's heart to listen to the cries of my precious boy for his usual beverage of milk, and his constant complaints of hunger; but there was no remedy. The entire day was misty and the grass wet. Our clothes were not dry during the day. Toward night William grew sick, and vomited until it seemed impossible for him longer to keep up. The youngest still nursed, and E2
Page 106 106 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. did not seem to suffer materially. About dark on the second day I struck a road, and knew at once where I was, and to my horror found I was only four miles from home. Thus had two days and one night been passed, traveling, probably, in a circle. I felt almost exhausted, and my journey but just began; but, discouraging as this misfortune might be, as the shades of night again closed around me, the sight of a known object was a pleasure to me. I was no longer lost upon the vast prairie. "It was now that I felt for the first time it would be better to die at once; that it would be a satisfaction to die here, and end our weary journey on this traveled road over which we had passed in our bappier days. I could not bear to lie down with my little ones on the unknown and trackless waste over which we had been wandering. But this feeling was but for a moment. I took courage and started on the road to New Ulm. When it became quite dark I halted for the night; that night I passed as before, without sleep. In the morning early I started on. It was foggy and the grass wet; the road, being but little traveled, was grown up with grass. William was so sick this morning that he could not walk much of the time, so I was obliged to carry both. I was now sensibly reduced in strength, and felt approaching hunger. My boy no longer asked for food, but was thirsty, and drank frequently from the pools by the wayside. I could no longer carry both my children at the same time, but took one at a distance of a quarter or half a mile, laid it in the grass, and returned for the other; in this way I traveled twelve miles, to a place called Dutch Charlie's, sixteen miles from I tI I t I I I
Page 107 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 107 Lake Shetek. I arrived there about sunset, having been sustained in my weary journey by the sweet hope of relief. My toils seemed about at an end; but what was my consternation and despair when I found it empty! Every article of food or clothing removed! My heart seemed to die within me, and I sunk down in despair. The cries of my child aroused me from my almost unconscious state, and I began my search for food.. The house had not been plundered by the Indians, but abandoned by its owner. I had promised my boy food when we arrived here, and when none could be found he cried most bitterly. But I did not shed a tear, nor am I conscious of having done so during all this journey. I found some carrots and onions growing in the garden, which I ate raw, having no fire. My eldest child continued vomiting. I offered him some carrot, but he could not eat it. That night we staid in a cornfield, and the next morning at daylight I renewed my search for food. To my great joy, I found the remains of a spoiled ham. Here, I may say, my good fortune began. There was not more than a pound of it, and that much decayed. This I saved for my boy, feeding it to him in very small quantities; his vomiting ceased, and he revived rapidly. I gathered more carrots and onions, and with this store of provisions, at about eight o'clock on the morning of the third day, I again set forth on my weary road for the residence of Mr. Brown, twenty-five miles distant.. This distance I reached in two days. Under the effects of the food I was able to give my boy, he gained strength, and was able to walk all of the last day. When within about three miles of the residence of Mr. Brown, two of our neighbors from f
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:36:20 GMT -5
Page 108 108 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Lake Shetek settlement overtook us, under the escort of the mail-carrier. Both of them had been wounded by the Indians and left for dead in the attack on the settlement. Thomas Ireland, one of the party, had been hit with eight balls, and, strange to say, was still able to walk, and had done so most of the way. Mrs. Estlick, the other person under escort, was utterly unable to walk, having been shot in the foot, once in the side, and once in the arm. Her husband had been killed, and her son, about ten years old, wounded. The mail-carrier had overtaken this party after the fight with the Indians at the lake, and, placing Mrs. Estlick in his sulky, he was leading his horse. "As the little party came in sight I took them to be Indians, and felt that after all my toil and suffering I must die, with my children, by the hand of the savage. I feared to look around, but kept on my way until overtaken. This was a little before sunset, and we all arrived at the residence of Mr. Brown that night. This house was also deserted and empty, but, being fastened up, we thought they might come back. Our company being too weak and destitute to proceed, we took possession of the house and remained ten days. There we found potatoes and green corn. The mailcarrier, accompanied by Mr. Ireland, lame as he was, proceeded on the next morning to New Ulm, where they found there had been a battle with the Indians, and one hundred and ninety-two houses burned. A party of twelve men were immediately sent with a wagon to our relief. It was now that we learned the fate of Mr. Brown and family-all had been murdered! We also learned of the general outbreak and massacre of all the more remote settlements; and the I III It i i i s 1. t t II t i i l
Page 109 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 109 sad, sickening thought was now fully'confirmed in my mind that my husband was dead-my fatherless chil dren and myself made beggars." She has been dealt kindly with, and will probably be paid for loss of property; but what can bring back to her the murdered husband, the beauty, loveliness, and enjoyment that surrounded her on the morning o.f the 20th of August, 1862, or blot from her memory those awful dreary nights of watching alone upon the broad prairie, in the storm and in the tempest, amid thunderings and lightnings? Or who can comtemplate that mother's feelings as her sick and helpless child cried for bread, and there was none to give, or as she bore the one along the almost trackless waste and laid it down amid the prairie grass, and then returned for her other offspring? The Mantuan bard has touched a universal chord of human sympathy in his deep-toned description of the flight of his hero from the burning city of Troy, bearing his "good father" Anchises on his back, and leading "the little Ascanius" by the hand, who, ever and anon falling in the rear, would "follow with unequal step." The heroine of Lake Shetek bore her two Ascanii in her arms; but, unequal to the double burden, was compelled to deposit half her precious cargo in the prairie grass, and, returning for the other, to repeat for the third time her painful steps over the same. This process, repeated at the end of each half or quarter of a mile, extended the fearful duration of her terrible flight through the lonely and uninhabited prairie. The force of nature could go no farther, and maternal love has no stronger exemplification. But for the
Page 110 110 i THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. plentiful showers of refreshing rain, sent by a merciful Providence, these poor wanderers would have fainted by the way, and the touching story of the heroine of Shetek would have been forever shrouded in mystery.* Mrs. Estlick's son Burton, not ten years of age, and his little brother, aged five years, having become sep i_ __ _ ! l.. fI ~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I ~~~~~~~~ ~~'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;~~~ arated from their mother arrived safely at the settlements days after the attack. Burton alternately led and carried the little fellow a distance of eighty miles. * Correspondence of the Davenport Gazette. i i i MRS. ESTLICK AND CHILDREN. I
Page 111 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 111 Such instances of heroic fortitude were not common. 'Many strong, burly men basely deserted their friends to save their own lives. Many were armed and did not fire a shot, so paralyzed were they by terror. Not over three Indians fell except in battle. Five persons were burning charcoal for the depart ment on Big Stone Lake, at the upper extremity of the reservation, on Thursday. They had their tents pitched on the edge of a ravine near some woods. Toward morning they heard several war-whoops, and rushed out to see what was the matter, when fifty or sixty Indians, some on foot and some on horseback, surrounded them, and when they got within ten paces fired and killed all but one-Anthony Menderfield. He plunged in the ravine and made his escape amid a shower of bullets. He saw Mrs. Huggins and Miss La Framboise at Lac qui Parle. On Saturday they massacred settlers and committed depredations in the Norwegian Grove settlements back of Henderson. There they committed one of their grossest outrages. Stripping a captive naked, they fastened her arms and legs to the ground by tying them to stakes. Then a dozen of them ravished her; and while she was almost fainting with exhaustion, they sharpened a rail and drove it into her person. This soon ended her life with the most horrible of tortures. On the same day, while the second battle at New Ulm was progressing, the Upper Sissetons commenced their ravages in the valley of the Red River of the North, murdering several persons at Breckinridge, and threatening Fort Abercrombie. Tens of thousands of acres of crops, the fruits of hardy labor, into which the sickle had just been put,
Page 112 112 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. were abandoned to destruction. Cattle, wantonly shot down, lay rotting upon the prairies beside their owners; others roamed, scared and wild, through the cultivated fields. From Fort Abercrombie to the Iowa line, a frontage of two hundred miles, and extending inwardly from Big Stone Lake to Forest City, an area of over twenty thousand square miles, the torch and the tomahawk asserted themselves supreme. iHere and there armed parties from the interior settlements ventured a little distance forth for the burial of the dead, and to watch the movements of the foe; but, with this exception, in this vast district there was no white person save the flying fugitive, hiding himself by day, and shivering with affright at every sound and at every shadow that fell upon the grass. The news of the first murders at Acton, on Sunday, and of the outbreak at Red-Wood, on Monday, reached St. Paul on Tuesday, the messengers notifying all the settlements through which they passed. It spread quickly throughout the country. Not credited at first, fearful confirmation was received in every passing hour. The frightened fugitives poured into the towns by thousands; large numbers of them crowding even to St. Paul, Hiastings, and Winona, and many of them not stopping until they had left the state far behind them. St. Peter's, Mankato, Hienderson, St. Cloud, Forest City, and Glencoe, and all the towns along the immediate frontier, were jammed with the sufferers. On every street corner they bared their wounds and told their piteous tales. The uncertainty of the number of the hostile Sioux, and the probability that the Winnebagoes and the I l t
Page 113 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 113 Chippeways were involved with them, increased the public excitement. A number of the Winnebagoes, it will be recollected, were at Red-Wood when the outbreak commenced; and several of these were arrested on Tuesday on their way to their own reservation, who said their guns were loaded with shot, but which proved to be balls. The Chippeways on the same day commenced plundering the government property at their agency on the Upper Mississippi, and taking captives, and assembling their warriors at Gull Lake, twenty miles north of Fort Ripley, and sending their families to points remote from danger. Mysterious messages had been passing between their reservations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan during the previous year, and it was known that they complained of the same class of grievances as the Sioux. Hole-in-the-Day, a wise, brave, and distinguished chief, openly advocated a junction with the Sioux, and he himself had a personal encounter with the whites, in which shots were exchanged. Hie urged an exterminating war in the councils of his people, and only waited for the arrival of warriors from Leech Lake to attack Fort Ripley. Commissioner Dole, who had progressed as far as St. Cloud on his way to the Red River of the North to form a treaty with the Red Lake Chippeways, returned, and Walker, the agent for the Chippeways at Crow-Wing, fled from the agency, and, the troubles so weighing upon his mind as to produce insanity, committed suicide near Monticello on the day of the second attack on New Ulm. Rumor magnified the danger; but the reasonableness of apprehension will be apparent when it is considered that the Winnebagoes, who had four hundred
Page 114 114 THE SIOUX WAR AND MIASSACRE. ~;~~/Xj/jj~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~ <~~~ ~<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I/OLE-IN-THE-DAY. warriors, were within a few miles of the large town of Mankato, which was surrounded by woods, from which an attack with impunity could be made; and that the Chippeways, who muster four thousand warriors, were many of them within two days' march of I I Il
Page 115 FARTHER OUTRAGES DURING THE OUTBREAK. 115 St. Paul, and that their country abounded in morasses and swamps as inaccessible as those into which the Seminoles retreated during the Florida war. Thus but faintly seen in the outline were the first week's ravages of that fierce hurricane that strode forth with the suddenness of thought from the deep, luxuriant peace of the glorious August, desolating the happy fields, and filling the broad land with louder lamentations than were heard in Bethlehem "when Herod's sword swept its nurseries of innocents." No tongue touched with fire-no master hand with tragic colorings of black and of red, could adequately portray the horrid sublimities of the sorrow-stricken plains-the smoking ruins of happy homes planted in the wilds with laborious care, and blossoming round with carefully-tended flowers-the perishing harvests, the reaper lying dead in the swath, with his sickle in his hand-the wild and startled ox trampling out the fruit of his labors, and inquiring, with raised head and staring eyes, the meaning of this midnight that had rushed upon the realm of noon-the dogs "moaning for vanished faces" around deserted roof-trees, some gone mad with despair-the swollen bodies of the dead cattle, huge and strange as those of some antediluvian world-the heaps of the untimely slain, their headless corpses festering and rotting in the heat, the hogs rooting in the clustering hair and feeding on the gentle cheek, and all deserted by the retreating, palpitating border "where the fierce hurry of flight and pursuit ceases not by day or by night." Only the sufferer-only he who has been stricken with as hopeless a despair as that which blanched the face of the last survivor of the Deluge, as he stood on
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:37:18 GMT -5
Page 116 116 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. some lone mountain peak, and the hungry waters mounted to his lip; only he whose home has been consumed, his wife dishonored before his eyes, and the arms of his child unlinked forever from his neck, and heard the dull thud of the tomahawk as it sunk into their brains; only he who has been wounded unto death, and in his concealment felt upon his cheek the hot breath of his foe-only he can adequately appreciate the horrors of the fiendish protest of the savage Sioux against Civilization's irresistible march. - j \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I
Page 117 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 117 CHAPTER VII. FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. WHILE the effect of the sorrows and troubles caused by these raids were increased by their supervening upon those growing out of the gigantic civil war in which the country was plunged, yet in the existence of that war there was compensation. Hiad the difficulty arisen in a time of peace, weeks would have elapsed before troops could have been raised, or ammunition and arms furnished; and the absence of opposition would have widened the area of devastation, and have added the Winnebagoes and the Chippeways to the ranks of the destroyers. But now, under the recent call of the President for volunteers, there were in the state several thousand men organized into regiments, and partially armed. These were at once hurried toward the frontier. Mounted volunteers were also called out by proclamation of the governor to join in pursuit of the foe. Officers in command, and the sheriffs of different counties, were authorized to impress horses and teams, and whatever else was judged necessary in the emergency. Upon the receipt of the news on Tuesday, Governor Ramsey hastened to Mendota, and requested the Hion. I. 11. Sibley to take command, with the rank of colonel, of an expedition to move up the Minnesota Valley. Hte at once accepted the position, to which he was peculiarly fitted by reason of his long residence
Page 118 118 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. among the Indians and his sound judgment, and the next morning started with four companies of the 6th regiment for St. Peter's, where he arrived on Friday, the day of the last battle at the fort. On Sunday this force was increased by the arrival of some two hundred mounted men, called the Cullen Guard, under the command of W. J. Cullen. These, with about one hundred more mounted men, were placed under the command of Colonel Samuel M'Phaill. On the same day arrived six more companies of the 6th regiment, of which Wm. R. Crooks was colonel. Several companies of volunteer militia had also congregated here, which swelled Sibley's command to some 1400 men. Large as this force was, a total ignorance of the whereabouts, number, and designs of the enemy, and the vast importance o.f not suffering a defeat, rendered their movements slower than the fiery impatience of the people demanded. Besides, though arms and ammunition were more accessible than in time of peace, they were not such as the magnitude of the occasion required. The mounted men had no experience in war and were only partially armed, and that only with pistols and sabres, about whose use they knew nothing. A portion of the guns of the infantry were worthless, and for the good guns there were no cartridges that would fit. The foe was experienced in war, well armed, confident of victory, and wrought up to desperation by the necessity of success. Colonel Sibley's upward march was through scenes calculated to impress him with the importance of caution. The stream of fugitives down the valley far outnumbered those who marched up for their relief. I k II k I I iI I
Page 119 FORCES DISPATCHED TO TIIE FRONTIER. 119 Shakopee, Belle Plaine, and Henderson were filled with fugitives. Guards patroled the outskirts, and attacks were constantly apprehended. Henderson was in the midst of woods, and the peo-ple expected every moment that the enemy, whose work could be seen from the village in their blazing fires, would suddenly emerge from the woods and commence their depredations. St. Peter's, where he now was, a large, straggling town of several thousand inhabitants, and swelled to double its true number, presented a picture of excitement not easily forgotten. Oxen were killed in the streets, and the meat, hastily prepared, cooked over fires made on the ground. The grist-mills were surrendered by their owners to the use of the public, and kept in constant motion to allay the demand for food. All thought of property was abandoned. Safety of life prevailed over every other consideration. Poverty stared those who had been affluent in the face, but they thought little of that. Women were to be seen in the street hanging on each other's necks, telling of their mutual losses, and the little terror-stricken children, surviving remnants of once happy homes, crying piteously around their knees. The houses and stables were all occupied, and hundreds of the fugitives had no covering or shelter but the canopy of heaven. WNVere the town attacked great destruction must necessarily ensue, as it was scattered over such a vast extent of country and difficult to be defended. People had been killed within ten miles of the place, and Antoine Frenier had been shot at within six miles. On the 26th Lieutenant Governor Donnelly wrote to the executive from St. Peter's: "You can hardly
Page 120 120 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. conceive the panic existing along the valley. In Belle PIaine I found six hundred people crowded. In this place the leading citizens assure me there are between three and four thousand refugees. On the road between New Ulm and Mankato are over two thousand. Mankato also is crowded. The people here are in a state of panic. They fear to see our forces leave. Although we may agree that much of this dread is without foundation, nevertheless it is producing disastrous consequences to the state. The people will continue to pour down the valley, carrying consternation wherever they go, their property in the mean time abandoned and going to ruin." The safety of these towns and the panic-stricken people depended entirely upon Colonel Sibley's success, and he could not risk every thing to march, until prepared, to the relief of New Ulm and Fort Ridgely. The men under Captain Cox, who reached New Ulm on Sunday morning, were dispatched by Colonel Sibley on Saturday. On Monday he sent there also Captain Anderson, with forty mounted men of the Cullen Guard, and twenty foot soldiers in wagons. The prospect to these was by no means agreeable. The last report from New Ulm was that the town was entirely surrounded by Indians, and that an attempt to penetrate their lines was perilous in the extreme. Not over half of the mounted men were armed with any thing but pistols and swords, and at the first fire the inexperienced riders would probably be placed hors du combat. The scenes through which they had already passed had been of a character to excite the imagination, and the stories which had been told magnified the apprehension. They had stood guard in z I I I i -1 If i 1 1 i
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:38:25 GMT -5
Page 121 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 121 the woods of Henderson the previous night, and had seen a boy brought in there bleeding from wounds he had just received; and on their ride from that point to St. Peter's they found that the settlers had all fled; the only whites they met were some scouts from Le Sueur, heavily armed, and a fugitive flying toward St. Peter's to obtain relief for a family who had just been chased in the woods by the Indians. In these-they were just about to ride when the Indians made their appearance on the outskirts. While they were de bating on the mode of attack, William Quinn, a halfbreed, rode up at full speed with a note from Colonel Sibley, telling them not to go into the woods, as they were filled with Indians, but to hurry to St. Peter's. It was noon before the command was ready to start for New Ulm, as wagons, ammunition, provisions, cooking utensils, axes, ropes to assist in crossing the river at the town if the ferry was destroyed, and many other things, had to be obtained. When three miles out, all the men discharged their pieces and reloaded them. At the same time they saw a man in the distance who ran for the woods. They had ridden about four miles farther when they were overtaken by Colonel Hewitt, of St. Paul, a member of the company, who informed them that the man they had seen had heard the discharge of the fire-arms, and had rushed into St. Peter's and told them the command had been attacked by the. Indians, a number killed on each side, and that the battle was still progressing. All was excitement; the long roll was beaten; soldiers assembled and marched out a good distance before it was found to be a false alarm. This was the only man seen on the route. Far in advance F
Page 122 122 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. of the troop rode the guide, the brave, stalwart Scotchman, George M'Leod, unarmed save with a knife and an old sabre which he had swung when an officer in the Canadian war. Fifteen miles out of St. Peter's they came to a belt of woods. Here M'Leod halted them and made a short address, in which he said that in those woods they should probably be attacked by Indians; that they must not be discouraged by seeing their comrades fall around them; that there was no such thing as a retreat if a contest took place; and that the only possible chance of safety was to stand their ground. The horsemen who were armed with guns were then ordered to dismount and leave their horses in charge of their companions, and then, with the twenty infantry men, they scoured the woods. The possibility of speedy death enforced itself upon the minds of all, and the imagination was busy in conjecturing what would be one's sensations as the fatal knife advanced to the throat, cut through the flesh, and severed the head from the body, and how one would look after it was done. Not an Indian, though, was to be seen. The same course was taken in passing through all the groves on the route. That night they camped on an eminence within eight miles of New Ulm, having made twenty miles. Just below was a deserted farm-house. Its inmates were evidently persons of taste. Pictures hung upon the walls. There were flowers in pots on the porch, and vines clambering over it. The table was set, apparently for the evening meal; the dishes were still upon it, and the half-tasted food, and the chairs pushed back, as if the occupants had suddenly jumped up on {i I I .i I i i
Page 123 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 123 hearing the news, and rushed at once away. Near by was a garden, from which the men supplied themselves with vegetables, and at a distance beyond an oat-field, on which the crop lay bound in sheaves. These furnished food for the wearied horses. Barricading themselves as well as possible with rails from neighboring fences, they passed an anxious night. Every man was on guard, lying fiat upon the ground. Jaded by four days continuous riding, and destitute of proper clothing and blankets to protect themselves against the cool night air-apprehensive at every moment of an attack from the stealthy foe, and drenched with heavy rain, they longed impatiently for the morning light. Far out in the tall, wet grass were a number of pickets, who were instructed to shoot at the first man who approached, and then rush into camp, when all were to make the best defense possible. Their excited imaginations construed every noise as coming from the enemy. To one going the rounds a picket whispered, "There! don't you hear that signal cry? they will soon attack us." It was nothing but the melancholy tuwhit of an owl in a neighboring tree. "Be still," said another, drawing him upon the ground, where he was lying with his gun cocked; "I have heard for some time the tramping of an Indian pony over there, and am just waiting to catch a glimpse of him before I shoot." It was the picket on the next beat walking to keep himself warm. Excited as most of the pickets were, there were two or three so dead to all sense of danger, through the fatigue they had endured, that they went soundly to sleep, and snored so loud that they could be heard all over the camp.
Page 124 124 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Just before dawn the bark of a dog was heard Every one was then on the qui vive, as the Indians attack in the gray of the morning, and the dog was supposed to belong to them. Soon came the crowing of cocks from the deserted farm-houses-joyful sounds, as indicative of the coming morning; melancholy sounds, as indicative of civilization which had fled far away. Presently the dog came into camp, wagging his tail with joy. IHe belonged to one of the settlers, and was glad to see white men once more. The dawn came without an attack, and hurriedly feeding the horses, and taking a few morsels to satisfy their hunger, they proceeded hastily, but with caution, on their way. The clouds had passed away; the sun soon rode up bright in the blue sky; the vegetation, "washed by the rain, and wiped with the sunbeam," glittered exuberant in the clear light, and "All the bugle breezes blew Reveille to the breaking morn." An hour and a half's brisk gallop brought them to the ferry, two miles below the town. This they expected to find guarded by Indians; but not a person was to be seen. A pair of oxen, yoked together, were struggling in the river. The boat, half filled with water, lay in the centre of the stream. Two men swam out and brought her to the shore. She was quickly bailed out and the troops ferried across. Cautiously they approached the town, expecting to cut their way through the beleaguering Indians, and to be received with the cheers and hospitality of the people; but no sound greeted their ears. Soon they saw thickly scattered around vast swollen carcasses of cows, and oxen, and horses, perforated with balls. These were fast t i II I I i I I
Page 125 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 125 approaching decomposition. They lay on their sides and backs, their legs pointing out stiff and straight in the air. Swarms of large black flies were settled on them, which started buzzing up at the approach of man, and the most sickening stench pervaded the atmosphere. Presently they came to the blackened remains of the burned buildings, where the fire had not yet died out, and from which there flickered a- faint yellow, unearthly smoke. Across the principal street lay the naked, headless body of a man, swollen like the cattle and blackened with the sun-the head cut off and scalped, and tumbled some distance from the trunk. Just off the street were many new - made graves, with boards fixed at the head, with the names of the dead upon them. The doors of the unburned houses were standing wide ajar. Goods from the stores, and household utensils, and bedding, and furniture were littered over-the ground in endless confusion. Buildings were loopholed for musketry, and the marks of bullets every where visible. The day had now become intensely hot; no breath of air was stirring; the sky was brazen, and over the devastated town, where the beauty of the winding river, and the riotous luxuriance of the foliage contrasted so with the ruin around, there seemed to the awestricken beholder to rest an atmosphere peculiarly its own, such as one would fancy over a city devastated by the plague, or over the frightful spot where an earthquake had ingulfed a people. The loud voice of the captain broke the awful silence. " Go up yonder street," he said to the twenty foot soldiers. They hesitated, for they were many of them residents of the place, and expected to find their friends dead in the
Page 126 126 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. houses. "Forward," again cried the captain, drawing his pistol; "the first man who falters I will shoot him dead." Striking up a wild German war-song, they rushed forward. Then the order was given the horsemen to draw their sabres and charge up another street. This they did, yelling like demons, and startling the echoes with their infuriated shouts, until their progress was checked by the barricades. But there was no living thing there except a few dogs, which came out yelping at their approach. Some thought they saw Indian tepees on an adjoining eminence, and the company rode briskly over, but found they were deceived. The place was deserted by friend and foe. Helping themselves to blankets and cooking utensils, the men retraced their course to St. Peter's, as their orders were positive to return at once. Before they left they buried the body they saw on their entrance alongside of the street. In crossing the ferry, one of the teams attached to thewagon loaded with the eatables backed off the boat. They struggled madly in the stream, and all efforts to save them proved unavailing. They were impressed from a poor fellow, who stood watching them with tears in his eyes. He had to wait many weary months before he received his pay. The hard service which the horses had endured made it necessary to walk them most of the distance, and darkness came on before they were half way to St. Peter's. Many went to sleep on their horses, and dreamed horrid dreams of the ghastly town they had just seen, and of perils around, and of anxious mourning relatives if death should meet them. From these they would be aroused, at every grove in which there II I II t 11 I i 4, t II II I
Page 127 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 127 might be a lurking foe, by the sharp order "Forward, double-quick," and away they would dash through the silent, solemn woods, their sabres rattling, and the loud rumble of the wagons, and the quick clatter of the horses' feet sounding painfully afar. At midnight they reached St. Peter's, and found that Colonel Sibley had left that morning for Fort Ridge ly with his command, and had ordered them to follow immediately on their return. Here they learned what had become of the people of New Ulm. On Monday, the 25th of August, and the day before they entered the place, the people, numbering about two thousand persons, comprising the women and children, the sick and the wounded, with a train of one hundred and fif ty-three wagons, had abandoned the town and gone to Mankato. The exhaustion of their ammunition; the ravages of disease, arising from the decomposition of the dead animals and the close quarters into which they were penned; the uncertainty of relief from be low, and the fate of Fort Ridgely and neighboring towns, with the consequent isolation of the place, seem ed, in the judgment of a council of the officers and soldiers, to necessitate this course. During Monday night one of their sentinels saw some one approaching the camp, who, to the challenge "Who goes there?" responded "A Winnebago." The sentinel aimed his gun at the person, and snapped two caps upon it without being able to effect a dis charge, which was singular, as the piece was a Spring field musket-a gun that hardly ever misses fire. It was a lucky incident, for the person was a white wom an, a fugitive from Lake Shetek. She answered that she was a Winnebago because she feared that it was
Page 128 128 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. an encampment of the Sioux. She had traveled sev enty miles without tasting a morsel of food, and car ried her baby on her back. The Indians had fired at her, and a ball had passed through her shoulder and carried away the child's finger. The remainder of her family had been killed. She said that the child was very fretful, and would often cry when its wound commenced to pain; but that, whenever she saw Indians and crouched in the grass for concealment, the baby, as if by instinct, would keep perfectly quiet. Most of the fugitives had arrived at St. Peter's. Some forty of the wounded were placed in a large room, and the surgeons were at their work. The cries and groaning from the writhing forms were piteous to hear. The Rev. Henry B. Whipple, the Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, active in every good work, and whose heart is as kind and tender as that of a woman, had hastened hither, and was busily engaged in alleviating their sufferings. On Wednesday the troop which had visited New Ulm started for the fort, forty-five miles distant. On their way they met a man in a wagon who had just been shot at by an Indian, who was probably a scout, and desirous of getting the man's horse to-convey the news of Sibley's movement. He pointed out the marsh in which the Indian had concealed himself They found where he had lain, and presently routed him out, but he made his way into the woods and escaped pursuit. The next day they reached the fort, having ridden two hundred miles since Friday. Colonel Sibley had arrived that morning, Colonel M'Phail], with a body of horsemen, having preceded him the previous night. On his way Colonel Sibley bad bur II i I i 11I i II i I I II I i I
Page 129 FORCES DISPATCHED TO THE FRONTIER. 129 ied a man whose scalp Anderson's troop found. He had been killed on Monday or Tuesday. Duncan Kennedy, a messenger from the fort to St. Peter's, while groping his way in the night, had stumbled upon this body. There was a low mist over the ground, which prevented its being seen. The horrible stench, and the sensation received from contact with the corpse, caused him almost to faint with dizziness; but, cocking both barrels of his gun, he staggered on, and reached St. Peter's in safety. Nathan Myrick and Charles Mix, volunteer scouts from St. Peter's to the fort, had also seen this body days before, and shudderingly told of its appearance. The corpses of the two soldiers before spoken of were found near the fort and buried. Intrenchments were thrown up around the fort, and upon a neighboring elevation which commanded the camp. Cannon were placed in enfilading positions, and a strong guard continually kept up. The first two nights after the arrival of the forces shots were fired into the camp, and a general attack expected, but none came. It could never satisfactorily be determined whether the shots were from Indians or from our own frightened outposts. The soldiers now rambled freely through the woods, which a few days before would have been attended with certain death. The numerous tents, the armed host and frowning cannon, were welcome to those who had been so long besieged. "The drum Beat; merrily-blowing shrilled the martial fife; And in the blast and bray of the long horn And serpent-throated bugle undulated The banner." F2
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Page 130 130 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Some of the men amused themselves by. digging up a dead Indian, and using him as a mark for their rifles. One of his ribs was cut out and preserved by an officer possessed of a morbid desire for a relic. Most of the mounted men had enlisted for no particular time; they had left their business unattended to-the merchant had closed his doors, and the farmer had abandoned his crops on the field; they had accomplished what they started for-the relief of Fort Ridgely and New Ulm; there was no prospect of a speedy conflict, and they insisted on returning home. Ninety men, however, of the Cullen Guard, under Captain Anderson, still remained, and these were soon increased by the arrival of forty-seven men under Captain Sterritt. On the 1st of September, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, with a portion of the 7th regiment, joined the expedition. All that was now needed for a forward movement were ammunition and provisions, but these did not arrive in sufficient quantity for many days afterward. Excitement soon came in most woful shape. I i I 1 4 I, t
Page 131 BIRCH COOLIE. CHAPTER VIII. BIRCH COOLIE. ON Sunday, the last day of August, Captain Grant's company of infantry, seventy men of the Cullen Guard under Captain Anderson, and a detail of citizens and other soldiers, together with seventeen teamsters with teams, numbering in all about one hundred and fifty men, were dispatched, under command of Major Joseph R. Brown, to the Lower Agency, for the purpose of burying the dead, and ascertaining, if possible, the whereabouts of the enemy. The next evening, several of the citizens who had accompanied them returned, and informed Colonel Sibley that on that morning the cavalry and a small portion of the infantry had crossed the river at the agency, buried the dead, and had gone some little distance above, and that there were no indications of the Indians having been there for several days. Captain Grant, with the infantry, had interred the dead on the Fort Ridgely side, including those at Beaver Creek, and had encamped during the afternoon on the same side of the river, where they were joined in the evening by Major Brown and his detachment. The report that Major Brown, whose long residence among the Indians had made him a competent judge, could discover no indications of their presence in the neighborhood, caused the commander of the expedition to rest easy as to the safety of the detachment; 131 I
Page 132 132 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. but on the morning of Wednesday the sentries sent word that they could hear the report of guns in the direction of the agency. The eminences around the camp were quickly crowded with anxious listeners. The wind was blowing strongly toward the direction from which the sound was stated to have proceeded, but by throwing one's self upon the ground, the rapid discharge of fire-arms could be distinctly heard. Colonel M'Phaill, with fifty horsemen, Major M'Laren, with one hundred and five infantry, and Captain Mark Hendricks, with a mountain howitzer, were at once sent forward to their relief. The musketry still continued to be heard, and in a few hours the sullen boom of the howitzer indicated that the second detachment had become engaged. The tents were ordered to be struck and taken into the fort, and the entire command to put themselves at once in readiness for marching. Just as the sun was setting, and in an incredibly short time after the order was given, the whole force was in motion. Accompanying it was Sergeant Jones, with two pieces of cannon. After a slow, weary march of thirteen miles, the darkness, which had now become intense, was lit up by a bright flash, followed by the quick roar of the howitzer; and guided by its repeated discharges, to which our cannon answered, we found ourselves at the camp of the second detachment. During the afternoon they had advanced within three miles of where Major Brown was supposed to be; had been attacked by a large force of Indians, and had thought it better to choose a position and wait for re-enforcements. At early dawn the entire force was in motion. As we neared the head of Birch Coolie tents could be I i :i i f i i i i
Page 133 BIRCH COOLIE. seen through the trees, and speculations were rife as to whether it was Brown's camp or that of the In dians, as they have tents very similar to our own. The Indians were soon seen swarming through a belt of woods toward our column from the direction of the tents, and quickly scattering along the line, waving their blankets and shouting defiance, as if to entice us into the woods in pursuit. Some- were mounted, and one on a white horse was especially conspicuous, riding up and down the line, and encour aging his comrades. Failing to draw the forces into the wood, they advanced nearer, and, throwing them selves down behind eminences which would afford protection, poured a rapid fire into the column. Nearly all the balls flew too high or were spent, and only one of our men was wounded. Skirmishers were at once thrown out, who, with quick discharges, drove them back, and the bursting shells from the cannon soon put them to rout. They retreated rapidly down Birch Coolie, and crossed the river at the agency. The tents proved to be those of Major Brown, and the scene presented was most horrible. The camp was surrounded by the dead bodies of the horses, over ninety in number, perforated with balls. The tents were riddled with bullets, as many as one hundred and four being found in a single one. Ditches were dug between the tents, and the horses and the dirt piled on them so as to form a breastwork. Within this circuit lay thirteen of the soldiers dead, and a number wounded, many of them mortally, and a few feet distant were more dead bodies. Among the wounded were Major Brown, Captain Anderson, Agent Galbraith, and Captain Redfield, of Colonel 133 tI
Page 134 134 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Sibley's staff. The groanings of the wounded could be heard a long distance off. William Irvine, of west St. Paul, presented a terrible spectacle. Hle had been shot in the head, and his brains were oozing over his face; and yet he lived for a number of hours, his breathing heavy and painfully distinct. I have already stated that they had camped here on Monday evening. The spot was chosen because of its accessibility to wood and water, and but little reference to an attack had in view, as it was supposed that no Indians were in the neighborhood. In fact, a worse spot to repel an attack could not have been found. It was within gunshot of the head of the wooded ravine on one side, and of an elevation on the other, from behind which an attacking party could command the camp with safety to themselves. In the afternoon, just after the camp was pitched, some one thought he heard several guns fired, but little attention was paid to the statement. Ten sentinels were placed around the camp, with orders to keep a strict look-out, and to give the alarm at once in case of any suspicious appearance. The remainder, fatigued with the hard marching which they had endured for the past week, and with the labors of the day, for they had buried fifty-four victims of the outbreak, were soon wrapped in profound slumber, little dreaming of being prematurely aroused from it. Just as it began to grow'a little gray in the east, one of the sentinels thought he saw something creeping toward him in the grass. iHe fired at it, and before the echoes of the report had died away, a volley from three hundred guns, within a hundred yards of the slumbering camp, raked the tents "fore and aft." For Z, I. l l t t I II t i II t k i i i
Page 135 BIRCH COOLIE. more than three hours this firing was kept up with scarcely an intermission, and in that fatal three hours some twenty men were killed or mortally wounded, some sixty severely wounded, and over ninety horses killed. The Indian guns were mostly double-bar reled, and there was a perfect rain of lead upon the little camp; the tents were riddled with balls, and the scene beggared description. After the effect of the first fire was partially over the men commenced to " dig," and dig they did with one pick, three spades, a couple of old axes, knives, bayonets, and sticks, and by four o'clock P.M. they had holes enough in the ground to protect them from shooting at a distance. When they were relieved by Colonel Sibley they had been thirty-one hours without food or water, with but thirty rounds of ammunition to the man when they commenced, and with less than five when relieved.* This was the most severe battle of the war in proportion to the number engaged. Twenty-three men were killed or mortally wounded, forty-five more severely wounded, and the remainder had been hit or received bullet-holes in their garments. One horse alone survived-a powerful stallion, who had been impressed at Henderson, and he was wounded. Captain Grant had found a woman the day before near Beaver Creek, who, though badly wounded by a discharge of buckshot, had made her escape from the massacre near Patterson's Rapids. She had been fourteen days without seeing a human being, and had eaten nothing during this time but a few berries, obtained by dragging herself through the briers. When found she was nearly dead, and in such an exhausted * Agent Galbraith's Report. 135 I
Page 136 136 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. state as to be almost unable to speak, and could give but little account of herself or her sufferings. She was lying in a high wagon in the centre of the camp during the attack, and, strange to say, received no injury, though a number of balls passed through the wagon from different directions. God would not break the bruised reed. Major Brown was correct in his conclusion that the Indians had left the Lower Agency several days before. On Thursday, four days after the last attack on New Ulm, hearing of Sibley's march to the fort, and anxious to place their families in safety, they had moved up above the Yellow Medicine River. Shortly after, an Indian, who had been getting in his traps back of New Ulm, told them that he had been within view of the town, and that it appeared to him to be deserted. On hearing this, a war party was at once organized to proceed to New Ulm and get what plunder they wanted, and then to attack St. Peter's and Mankato. Early on Monday morning three hundred and fortynine warriors, with a long train of wagons to carry their plunder, started down the river on the reservation side, under Gray Bird, of Crow's band, a Farmer Indian, and speaker of the Soldiers' Lodge. One hundred and ten more, under Crow, followed in an hour, with the intention of joining them, but crossed over the river at Yellow Medicine to meet any troops who might be coming up on that side to attack their families. They changed their minds after they had marched five or six miles, and went toward the Big Woods, in the neighborhood of Acton. When Gray Bird's force arrived at the Lower Agen . k I I i f k I i I
Page 137 BIRCH COOLIE. cy they caught sight of Major Brown's horsemen winding up the ravine to Grant's camp. Runners were sent over to watch their movements, and ascertain whether they were moving toward Yellow Medicine or the fort. When these returned and informed them that the whites had encamped, their joy knew no bounds, and they at once resolved on the attack which followed. Had we sent out spies upon the movements of the Indians at Yellow Medicine, the result would have been different, for we might have surprised both parties, perhaps, with great slaughter. Colonel Sibley, in his report of the battle, says: "That the command was not destroyed before I arrived to rescue them from their perilous situation may be ascribed chiefly to the coolness of nerve displayed by Major Brown and Captain Anderson, both of whom were severely wounded." Captains Grant and Redfield, and Lieutenants Turnbull, Gillam, and Baldwin, behaved with great gallantry, as did all the men during the trying ordeal. After the dead were buried the command returned to the fort, carrying the wounded with them. Disastrous as this affair was, it saved New Ulm from total destruction, and Mankato and St. Peter's, which were now left almost defenseless, from attacks which would necessarily have been attended with great loss of life and property. 137
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Page 138 138 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. CHAPTER IX. THE WAR PARTY TO THE BIG WOODS. LITTLE CROW'S party to the Big Woods traveled thirty miles on Monday, and camped near Acton. Twenty of them were mounted, and Little Crow rode in his own wagon with Jo. Campbell, a mixed blood, who acted as his driver and private secretary. Baptiste Campbell, Jo.'s brother, Louis la Belle, and Maga (the Swan), all half-breeds, were also with the party. They traveled together until noon of the next day, when a quarrel arose. Little Crow, with thirty-four Indians and the half-breeds, started for Cedar Mills to get flour, after which they were to return to Yellow Medicine. They camped a mile and a half from Acton. The other party determined to make a raid through the country to St. Cloud, and camped within half a mile of Crow, without either being aware that night of the presence of the other, or of their proximity to any white men. There was a party of white men, equally ignorant of the presence of these Indians, encamped at Acton, about a mile distant, in the yard of Howard Baker, one of the victims of the outrage which preceded the massacre. They were enlisted men and volunteer militia from Hlennepin County, numbering in all about seventy-five men, under the command of Captain Richard Strout, of company B of the 9th Minnesota regiment. In the night several scouts came through t II I L i i II I t II .I i I I I
Page 139 THE WAR PARTY TO THE BIG WOODS. 139 from Forest City, informing them that on the preced ing morning Captain Whitcomb had been attacked near that place by Indians (who belonged to another party than that just referred to), and to be on the look out for them, and to hurry to the defense of the town. Early in the morning they started toward Hutchin son, intending to go from there to Forest City, as the direct road was more dangerous. They passed by the larger body of Indians unper ceived. As they approached Crow's camp, one of his Indians caught sight of them, and told the others there were three hundred whites coming. Then the Indians sent the half-breeds with the horses into the woods, and stripped themselves for battle. Just then the other party of Indians discovered the white men, and followed them up, whooping and firing. Crow's party appeared in their front, and the whites charged through them, firing as they advanced, and made their way to IHutchinson, closely followed by the Indians for four or five miles, losing nine horses, and several wagons containing arms, ammunition, cooking uten sils, tents, etc., together with three killed and fifteen wounded. Among the killed was Edwin Stone, a respectable merchant of Minneapolis. He was on foot when wounded, and endeavored to get into a wagon, but fell backward exclaiming, "My God, they will butch er me." Little Crow's son, a boy between fifteen and sixteen, ran up and shot him, and another Indian rid ing past jumped off his horse, sunk his tomahawk into his brain with a force that made him bound from the ground, leaped on his horse again, and joined in the pursuit. The wadding from the gun set Stone's
Page 140 140 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. clothes on fire, and one of the half-breeds endeavored to extinguish it by rubbing it with bunches of grass, which were afterward found near the body. That night they encamped near Cedar Mills, and next morning advanced to HIutchinson, which they reached about ten o'clock. They burned a large portion of the town, and attacked Strout's company and others in the fort. Oma-ni-sa, a young Indian, called out in English to the garrison to come on the open field and fight like men. The whites came forth in squads and drove them back without the loss of any of their number. One of the Indians was severely wounded. He was carried as far as Lac qui Parle, where he died. On the preceding day (the 3d), about two o'clock in the morning, the Indians, against whom Strout had been warned, numbering some fifty warriors, attacked Forest City, wounded two men, burned several buildings, and carried off a great deal of plunder. The Hiutchinson party, after skirmishing most of the day around that place, returned to their campingplace near Cedar Mills. They were joined during the night by the party who had attacked Forest City the preceding day. One of these, Kah-shak-a-wa-kan, brought Mrs. Adams as a prisoner. iHe had taken her child with her, but afterward murdered it in her presence. Next morning the Indians again divided and returned home-Little Crow, with his party, by way of the Lower Agency, which he reached that night. One of the scouts, while riding along, was startled by his horse jumping aside. Hie looked for the cause, and saw a white man lying in a pile of grass, which I I I I I t I k 4 i II i A i I
Page 141 THE WAR PARTY TO THE BIG WOODS. 141 he had pulled up and heaped around him for conceal ment. Close to him were ears of green corn partially eaten. Hie was a young man; his hands were small; his hair was long and fair; but his garments were tat tered and torn with long journeyings, and the face was haggard and pale. He was asleep, with his cheek resting on his hand; so soundly asleep, so intensely engaged, perhaps, in happy dreams for thus, some times, does our nature compensate for the sufferings of our wakeful hours-that the trampling of the Indian's horse did not arouse him. "What do you here, my friend?" sounded in his ear in the loud voice of the savage. The sleeper raised his head and gazed with startled apprehension in the face of his threatening foe, whose presence he had shunned with bated breath for many a weary league; and before that expression had time. even to change, the whirring axe dashed out the brains which gave it life. Then the murderer, dismounting, with his knife cut off the head; but even then that startled look did not change, for death had frozen it there, and nothing but corruption's effacing hand could sweep it away. The shuddering half-breeds who followed afterward passed by on the other side, and Crow said, "Poor fellow! his life ought to have been spared; he was too starved to have done us harm." But they left it there unburied, in its pool of blood, staring upward through the gathering darkness with its fixed, wild eyes, alone in the vast desolation, ringed by distant skies, there to remain until Nature, by storm and frost, should transform it to original clay, and by the blessed sunlight "reconcile it to herself again with the sweet oblivion of flowers,"
Page 142 142 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Fort Abercrombie had been in a continued state of siege by the Sissetons since the 25th of August, and communication with it cut off, but the remainder of the country had been but little visited by the Indians since they left New Ulm on the 24th of August; and this fact, and the presence of the force on the frontier, had quieted the fears of the people, and induced many to return to their homes; but the attacks at Birch Coolie, Acton, iHutchinson, Forest City, and the massacre of citizens at Hlilo, twenty miles above St. Peter's, and in the Butternut Valley, far within Sibley's lines, occurring on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of September, threw the whole country again into the most intense excitement. Portions even of Ramsey County was depopulated, and citizens on the outskirts of St. Paul moved into the interior of the city. General Sibley's family, living in Mendota, went one night to Fort Snelling for protection. Far and wide the wild news spread, like the wrath of fire racing on the wings of the wind.* * On the 3d of September Fort Abercrombie was attacked in force by several hundred Sissetons and Yanktonais. t I II t I ,.' II N I I
Page 143 THE CAPTIVES. CHAPTER X. THE CAPTIVES. COLONEL SIBLEY was compelled to remain many days inactive at Fort Ridgely for want of ammunition and supplies; nor did the Indians commit any extens ive outrages in the mean time, for the reason that a correspondence was being carried on for the delivery of the captives and a cessation of hostilities. Little Crow, could he have followed his own incli nations, would have been willing, even at the com mencement of the outbreak, to have made terms of peace. He did not join in the war as a matter of choice, but was forced into it by circumstances, as has already been shown. His reputation was that of a great liar, but he was not naturally a cruel-hearted man. It is said that many an Indian, who went by his door without sufficient covering, received from the chief a blanket, though he had to take it from his own back. He rejoiced, it is true, that the traders and employ4s of the government had been killed, because he considered that they had been the cause of all the troubles of his people, but it is not believed that he was guilty of the murder of any unarmed white person. He informed Chaska of the peril of his friend Spencer, and tried to save Myrick's life, and, at the risk of his own, assisted Charles Blair to escape. He openly opposed the slaughter of unarmed settlers and their families. At the agency the next day after the 143
Page 144 144 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. massacre commenced, assembling his warriors together in council, he addressed them as follows: "Soldiers and young men, you ought not to kill women and children. Your consciences will reproach you for it hereafter, and make you weak in battle. You were too hasty in going into the country. You should have killed only those who have been robbing us so long. Hereafter make war after the manner of white men." Desirous as he might have been for the cessation of a hopeless contest, he dared not broach the subject in the beginning to his braves. The plunder they had acquired, the numerous bloody deeds they had committed, and the belief of success infused them with fierce joy, and determined them upon a continuance of the war. After the defeat at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm, the chief was more thoroughly convinced than before of the certainty of defeat; and Joseph Campbell told the writer that at his (Crow's) dictation, on their way to the Big Woods, on the 1st of September, he wrote letters to Governor Ramsey and Colonel Sibley, requesting a cessation of hostilities and a treaty of settlement, and that these letters Crow exhibited to his braves, and that they would not allow them to be sent. From the first there was trouble between the Upper and Lower Indians. Besides the feeling of semi-hostility which exists between separate communities, and especially among Indians, who are always quarreling with one another, the pride of the former was hurt by the failure of the others to counsel with them before commencing the war. There was another ground of complaint more serious than this. The latter had ac i I. I k i I N i I I
Page 145 THE CAPTIVES. quired a large amount of plunder before the Upper Indians came down, and their chiefs sent word if they would join in the war there should be an equal distri bution of the spoils. This promise the braves of the Lower Indians refused to carry out, on the ground that it would be unfair to share with those who had done nothing that which they had periled their lives to obtain. They did not surrender for a long time even that which belonged to the half-breed relatives of the others, nor until a "Soldiers' Lodge" was form ed, and demanded it in an interview which seriously threatened a bloody termination. Prominent among the disaffected was Paul Ma-za ku-ta-ma-ne, a civilized Indian, and head deacon of Mr. Riggs's church. Paul was a man of great oratorical powers and unflinching nerve. He was the chief speaker of the Sissetons. Like Crow, and other intelligent and aged men, he believed in the hopelessness of the contest; nor was he at all chary in so expressing himself, for he had the protection of his people, who had not been so deeply implicated in the troubles as the others. At a council at the Lower Agency, soon after the Yellow Medicine Indians came down, Paul made the following speech to the Lower Indians: "Warriors and young men!-I am an Indian, and you are Indians, and there should be no secrets between us. Why, then, did you not tell us that you were going to kill the whites? All of us will have to suffer for what you have done. The preachers have told us that there is to be an end of the world. The end of the world is near at hand for the nation of the Dakotas. Every Indian knows that we can not live without the aid of the white man. Why, G 145
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Page 146 146 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. then, have you acted like children? You have spoken, too, with false tongues. Two days ago you sent a message by Sha-ko-pee, one of your chiefs, that you had laid aside for us half of your plunder. We have come to get it, and we see nothing. If you choose to act by yourselves in this way, every man must do the same, and henceforth I shall think and look out for myself." Little Crow was statesman enough to know that a main lever to the procurement of peace was the prosecution of a formidable war; and he was Indian enough to desire, if peace was not obtained, to inflict as much injury as possible upon his opponents. Policy, therefore, required that the Upper Indians should be encouraged and conciliated, and their aid secured. To enforce his ideas he had a tongue of most persuasive power. "I am an orator!" said Red Jacket, proudly; "I was born an orator!" Not less sensible of his gift was the Sioux chieftain. At the councils years before, when other Indians were endeavoring to make themselves understood, the knowledge of his own superior ability would manifest itself in his countenance, and the superbly contemptuous manner with which he would wrap his blanket around him and stride away was a subject of remark among the white lookers-on. The Rev. Dr. Williamson, the oldest living missionary among the Sioux, has stated that, though he knew Little Crow's complicity in the war, he would almost have been afraid to have met him, for fear he would have convinced him of his spotless innocence. Paul's speech produced some effect among his people, but it was done away with by Crow, who addressed them at length, telling them that they could
Page 147 THE CAPTIVES. easily conquer the whites; that there was plenty more plunder in the country; and that all they had to do was to persevere, and they could camp the next winter with their squaws in St. Paul. He then read to them a letter which Jo. Campbell, at his dictation, had written to the English at Pembina. The letter said: "Our fathers have told us that when the English fought the Americans the Sioux helped them, and captured a cannon, which they gave to them, and which was called the' Little Dakota.' Do you recollect this? We have helped you when you were in trouble. My own grandfather periled his life in your cause. Now we are in difficulty, and want that cannon and your assistance. We shall soon send men to council with you, and to bring the cannon; and we want you also to give us plenty of powder and lead. With these we can defeat the Americans." Colonel Sibley, on leaving the battle-ground at Birch Coolie with a view of obtaining the release of the captives, had attached to a stake a communication in the following words: "If Little Crow has any proposition to make, let him send a halfbreed to me, and he shall be protected in and out of camp. " H. 11. SIBLEY, Col. Com'g Mil. Ex'n." This was found and delivered to Crow on his return from Hutchinson, and he at once dispatched, with the consent of his braves, whom the Birch Coolie affair had disheartened, two mixed bloods under a flag of truce, with a letter, of which the following is substantially a copy: "Yellow Medicine, September 7th, 1862. "DEAR SiR,-For what reason we have commenced this war I will tell you. It is on account of Major Galbraith. We made a 147
Page 148 148 THE SIOUX WAR AiND MASSACRE. treaty with the government, and beg for what we do get, and can't get that -till our children are dying with hunger. It is the traders who commenced it. Mr. A. J. Myrick told the Indians that they would eat grass or dirt. Then Mr. Forbes told the Lower Sioux that they were not men. Then Roberts was working with his friends to defraud us out of our moneys. If the young braves have pushed the white men, I have done this myself. So I want you to let Governor Ramsey know this. I have a great many prisoners, women and children. It ain't all our fault. The Winnebagoes were in the engagement, and two of them were killed. I want you to give me an answer by the bearer. All at present. his "Yours truly, Friend Little x Crow." mark. Addressed, "Gov. HI. H. Sibley, Esq., Fort Ridgely." By these messengers Colonel Sibley sent the following reply: "LITTLE CROW,-You have murdered many of our people without any sufficient cause. Return me the prisoners under a flag of truce, and I will talk with you then like a man. " H. H. SIBLEY, Col. com'g Mil. Exp'n." On the 12th of September, the same messengers who had appeared on the previous occasion made a second entry into camp as bearers of dispatches from the same source as before. The following is a literal copy of the communication: " Red Iron Village, or May awaken. "To I-Ion H H Sibley "we have in mawakanton band One Hundred and fifty five presoners-not includ the Sisiton & warpeton presoners, then we are waiting for the Sisiton what we are going to do whit the priseners they are coming doun. they are at Lake quiparle now. The words that il to the govrment il want to here from him also, and I want to know from you as a friend what way that il can make peace for my people -in regard to prisoners they fair with our chilldren or our self jist as well as us Your truly friend LITTLE Cxow "per A J Campbell" To this communication Colonel Sibley penned the
Page 149 THE CAPTIVES. following reply, and sent it forward by the messengers of Little Crow upon their return to the encampment of that chief: " Head-quarters Military Expedition, September 12,1862. " To Little Crow, Sioux Chief: "I have received your letter of to-day. You have not done as I wished in giving up to me the prisoners taken by your people. It would be better for you to do so. I told you I had sent your former letter to Governor Ramsey, but I have not yet had time to receive a reply. You have allowed your young men to commit nine murders since you wrote your first letter. That is not the way for you to make peace. H. H. SIBLEY, Col. com'g Mil. Exp'n." At the same time that the last letter was received from Little Crow, Mr. Robertson, one of the messengers from that chief, brought privately and in a clandestine manner the following note from Wabashaw and Taopee, one of the Farmer Indians: "Mayawakan, September 10th, 1862. " Col. H. H. Sibley, Fort Ridgely: ' DEAR SIR, -You know that Little Crow has been opposed to me in every thing that our people have had to do with the whites. He has been opposed to every thing in the form of civilization or Christianity. I have always been in favor of, and of late years have done every thing of the kind that has been offered to us by the government and other good white people-he has now got himself into trouble that we know he can never get himself out of, and he is trying to involve those few of us that are still the friend of the American in the murder of the poor whites that have been settled in the border, but I have been kept back by threats that I should be killed if I did any thing to help the whites; but if you will now appoint some place for me to meet you, myself and the few friends that I have will get all the prisoners that we can, and with our family go to whatever place you will appoint for us to meet. I would say further that the mouth of the Red-Wood, Candiohi, on the north side of the Minnesota, or theread of the Cotton-wood River-one of these places, I think, would be a good place to meet. Return the messenger as quick as possible. We have not much time to spare. "Your true friends,W WABASRAW, TAOP.UE." 149
Page 150 150 THiE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. To this letter Colonel Sibley returned by the same messenger the following answer: "Head-quarters Military Indian Expedition, September 12th, 1862. "To Wabashaw and Taopee: "I have received your private message. I have come up here with a large force to punish the murderers of my people. It is not my purpose to injure any innocent person. If you and others who have not been concerned in the murders and expeditions will gather yourselves, with all the prisoners, on the prairie in full sight of my troops, and when a white flag is displayed by you a white flag will be hoisted in my camp, and then you can come forward and place yourself under my protection. My troops will be all mounted in two days' time, and in three days from this day I expect to march. There must be no attempt to approach my column or my camp except in open day, and with a flag of truce conspicuously displayed. I shall be glad to receive all true friends of the whites, with as many prisoners as they can bring, and I am powerful enough to crush all who attempt to oppose my march, and to punish those who have washed their hands in innocent blood. I sign myself the friend of all who were friends of your great American Father. "I H. H. SIBLEY, Colonel commanding Expedition." Wabashaw and Taopee were Lower Indians, and dared not do any thing openly in favor of a delivery of the prisoners; but there began now a fierce controversy on the subject between a part of the Upper Indians, headed by Paul, and the others. The Lower Indians saw from Colonel Sibley's letters that he demranded an unconditional surrender of the captives, and that he would not make terms by which any of the guilty might escape, and, knowing that they were all deeply implicated, determined that the captives should share whatever fate they suffered. Paul thought, if the Upper Indians could get possession of the captives and deliver them to the whites most of them would escape with impunity. iHe sought to detach them from the others, and make them a unit
Page 151 THE CAPTIVES. on this point, and, to accomplish it, cunningly fanned the elements of separation which already existed. While the discussion proceeded, the Lower Indians, in order to counsel about the matter, made a feast, and invited the others to attend. Nearly all the Annuity Sioux were present. The following speeches were made. Mazza-wa-mnu-na, of Shakopee's band, a Lower Indian, made the first speech. "You men who are in favor of leaving us and delivering up the captives, talk like children. You believe, if you do so, the whites will think you have acted as their friends, and will spare your lives. They will not, and you ought to know it. You say that the whites are too strong for us, and that we will all have to perish. Well, by sticking together and fighting the whites, we will live, at all events, for a few days, when, by the course you propose, we would die at once. Let us keep the prisoners with us, and let them share our fate. That is all the advice I have to give." Rda-in-yan-ka, Wabashaw's son-in-law, and a soldier of Crow's band, spoke next as follows: "I am for continuing the war, and am opposed to the delivery of the prisoners. I have no confidence that the whites will stand by any agreement they make if we give them up. Ever since we treated with them their agents and traders have robbed and cheated us. Some of our people have been shot, some hung; others placed upon floating ice and drowned; and many have been starved in their prisons. It was not the intention of the nation to kill any of the whites until after the four men returned from Acton and told what they had done. When 151
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Page 152 152 TIIHE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. they did this, all the young men became excited, and commenced the massacre. The older ones would have prevented it if they could, but since the treaties they have lost all their influence. We may regret what has happened, but the matter has gone too far to be remedied. We have got to die. Let us, then, kill as many of the whites as possible, and let the prisoners die with us." Paul was the next speaker. A great many Indians were present; and as he was anxious that all should hear, he stood up on a barrel, and spoke in a loud voice as follows: "I am going to tell you what I think, and what I am ready to do, now and hereafter. You, M'dewakanton and Wahpekuta Indians, have been with the white men a great deal longer than the Upper Indians, yet I, who am an Upper Indian, have put on white men's clothes, and consider myself now a white man. I was very much surprised to hear that you had been killing the settlers, for you have had the advice of the preachers for so many years. Why did you not tell us you were going to kill them? I ask you the question again, Why did you not tell us? You make no answer. The reason was, if you had done so, and we had counseled together, you would not have been able to have involved our young men with you. When we older men heard of it we were so surprised that we knew not what to do. By your involving our young men without consulting us you have done us a great injustice. I am now going to tell you something you don't like. You have gotten our people into this difficulty through your incitements to its rash young soldiers without a council being called and our consent obtained, and I shall use all the means I can to
Page 153 THE CAPTIVES. get them out of it without reference to you. I am opposed to their continuing this war, or of committing farther outrages, and I warn them not to do it. I have heard a great many of you say that you were brave men, and could whip the whites. This is a lie. Persons who will cut women and children's throats are squaws and cowards. You say the whites are not brave. You will see. They will not, it is true, kill women and children, as you have done, but they will fight you who have arms in your hands. I am ashamed of the way that you have acted toward the captives. Fight the whites if you desire to, but do it like brave men. Give me the captives, and I will carry them to Fort Ridgely. I hear one of you say that if I take them there the soldiers will shoot me. I will take the risk. I am not afraid of death, but I am opposed to the way you act toward the prisoners. If any of you have the feelings of men, you will give them up. You may look as fierce at me as you please, but I shall ask you once, twice, and ten times to deliver these women and children to their friends. That is all I have to say." White Lodge's eldest son, one of those engaged in the Lake Shetek massacre, was the fourth speaker. HIe said: "I am an Upper Indian, but I am opposed to what Paul advises. I hope our people will not agree with him. We must all die in battle, or perish with hunger, and let the captives suffer what we suffer." This was all that was said in this council. Paul had no other speaker to assist him, and the Lower Indians would not consent that the captives should be delivered. G2 153
Page 154 154 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Paul went home and communicated the result to those who coincided with him, and by their advice he killed an ox and invited the Indians to another feast and council. They met, and a similar discussion took place, in which Paul, in addition to what he had formerly stated, said that the captives should not be taken into the battle, as some of them threatened; that if he had to die, as they said he must, he would die in endeavoring to deliver them; and that, as one third of the Upper Indians would stand by him in this, they had better deliver them, if they desired to prevent a quarrel among themselves. The danger of collision was imminent. Hiad it occurred, the prisoners would all have been murdered. The Upper Indians, who were opposed to a junction with the Lower ones, formed a Soldiers' Lodge, and commanded them not to proceed any farther into their country; and at Red Iron's village, that chief, and a hundred and fifty Sissetons on horseback, formed a line in front of their column, and fired their guns off as a signal to halt. They were afraid that they were going through to Big Stone Lake, and leave them to stand the brunt of the rage of the whites; for they had said at first that they would make a stand at Yellow Medicine, and die there if necessary. On being assured that they would not go as far as Lac qui Parle, and giving Red Iron's men some of their plunder, the chief allowed them to camp at a spot which he selected. The plunder was at first refused, and only a small portion turned over, and that under a threat from Red Iron and his men, that unless it was done, when Standing Buffalo, who was on his way, came down with the other Sissetons, they
Page 155 THE CAPTIVES. I3ED IRON. would join together and take the prisoners by force, and make peace with the whites, and leave the others to shift for themselves. At this time the prisoners stood in great peril, because many of the Lower Indians were in favor of killing them to remove the inducement they offered to the others to separate and make peace. As an additional argument, they said that the whites had starved them before, and that there was no use to take the bread from their own mouths to feed so many captives. 155 I -
Page 156 156 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. When Standing Buffalo and his warriors arrived, another council was called. The Sissetons were ranged on one side, the Wahpetons on another, and the Lower Indians by themselves. Paul was the first speaker. HIe said: "Soldiers and young men of the Sissetons!-I told the Lower Indians my mind before your arrival, and am now going to repeat what I have said in your hearing. First of all, they commenced war upon the whites without letting us know any thing about it. The Sissetons didn't hear of it until several days afterward. Why should we assist them? We are under no obligations to do so. I am part Sisseton and part Wahpeton, and I know that they have never interested themselves in our affairs. When we went to war against the Chippeways they never helped us. " Lower Indians!-You are fools. We want nothing to do with you. We belong to the same nation, but you started the massacre without telling us about it, and have bribed our young men to kill the whites, and thought that by so doing you could involve us all in the same trouble. You are mistaken. You must give up the prisoners, or we will fight you. I and a hundred others have made up our minds to wait here for the soldiers." Some of the younger Indians, who were fully armed, made so many angry demonstrations here that it was feared that the council would have a bloody termination; but they were persuaded to leave the grounds, aind, after quiet was restored, Paul continued: "I want to know from you Lower Indians whether you were asleep or crazy. In fighting the whites, you are fighting the thunder and lightning. You will all
Page 157 THE CAPTIVES. be killed off. You might as well try to bail out the waters of the Mississippi as to whip them. You say you can make a treaty with the British government. That is impossible. Have you not yet come to your senses? They are also white men, and neighbors and friends to the soldiers. They are ruled by a petticoat, and she has the tender heart of a squaw. What will she do for men who have committed the murders you have? Your young men have brought a great misfortune upon us. Let them go and fight the soldiers. But you, who want to live and not die, come with me. I am going to shake hands with the whites. I hear some of your young men talking very loud, and boasting that you have killed so many women and ohildren. That's not brave; it is cowardly. Go and fight the soldiers. That's brave. You dare not. When you see their army coming on the plains, you will faint with fright. You will throw down your arms, and fly in one direction and your women in another, and this winter you will all starve. You will see that my words will come true. Go back from the lands of the Sissetons. They have not buffaloes enough for themselves, and can not feed you. Fight the whites on your reservation if you are not afraid of them. Make your boasts good, and stop your lies." Here the excitement of the Lower Indians became so great that some of them cried out, "Kill him! kill him!" But Paul, unfaltering, continued in a loud voice: "Some of you say you will kill me. Bluster away. I am not afraid. I am not a woman, and I shall not die alone. There arethree hundred around me whom you will also have to kill before you have finished." 157
Page 158 158 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Wabashaw's son-in-law, Rda-in-yan-ka, made the next speech. He said: " We all heard what Paul said the other day, and we have had several councils to decide what to do, but have arrived at no conclusion, and we desire a little longer time to think over it. Before the treaties the old men determined these questions, but now I have no influence, nor have the chiefs. The young soldiers must decide it." Wakin-yan-to-ci-ye, of Crow's band, was the next speaker. He said: "You have asked for the prisoners several times, and you must make up your minds not to ask any more. We are determined that the captives shall die with us." Mah-pi-ya-na-xka-xka, a soldier of the Lac qui Parle band, made the next speech. He spoke as follows: " I am an Upper Indian, and have heard what Paul has said, and do not agree with him. He is for giving up the captives and making peace. It can not be done. We have gone too far. Since the treaties, when did we do the least thing, either in stealing cattle or in harming a white man, that we did not get punished for? Now the Indians have been killing men, women, and children, how many God only knows, and if we give ourselves up we shall all be hung. I have heard that there were four stores full of goods for us here. I come and find nothing. How is this?" Little Crow was the next speaker. He said: "Paul wants to make peace. It is impossible to do so, if we desired. Did we ever do the most trifling
Page 159 TIE CAPTIVES. thing, and the whites not hang us? Now we have been killing them by hundreds in Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa, and I know that if they get us into their power they will hang every one of us. As for me, I will kill as many of them as I can, and fight them till I die. Do not think you will escape. There is not a band of Indians from the Red-Wood Agency to Big Stone Lake that has not had some of its members embroiled in the war. I tell you we must fight and perish together. A man is a fool and a coward who thinks otherwise, and who will desert his nation at such a time. Disgrace not yourselves by a surrender to those who will hang you up like dogs, but die, if die you must, with arms in your hands, like warriors and braves of the Dakota." Standing Buffalo, hereditary chief of the Upper Sissetons, spoke next, as follows: "I am a young man, but I have always felt friendly toward the whites because they were kind to my father. You have brought me into great danger without my knowing of it beforehand. By killing the whites, it is just as if you had waited for me in ambush and shot me down. You Lower Indians feel very bad because we have all got into trouble; but I feel worse, because I know that neither I nor my people have killed any of the whites, and that yet we have to suffer for the guilty. I was out buffalo-hunting when I heard of the outbreak, and I felt as if I was dead, and I feel so now. You all know that the Indians can not live without the aid of the white men, and therefore I have made up my mind that Paul is right, and my Indians will stand by him. We claim this reservation. What are you doing here? If you 159
Page 160 160 THiE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. STANDING BUFFALO. want to fight the whites, go back and fight them. Leave me at my village at Big Stone Lake. You sent word to my young men to come down, and that you had plenty of oxen, and horses, and goods, and powder, and lead, and now we see nothing. 5Veare going back to Big Stone Lake, and leave you to fight the whites. Those who make peace can say that Standing Buffalo and his people will give themselves up in the spring." Wanata, the mixed Sisseton and Yanktonais chief, from the vicinity of Lac Traverse, was the next speaker. He said:
Page 161 THE CAPTIVES. " You ask me to fight the whites. I want to ask you a question. You said you had plenty of powder and lead for us. Where is it? You make no answer. I will. You have it all. Go, then, you, and fight the whites with it. You are unreasonable to ask me to do so, for two reasons: first, I have no powder and lead; second, I can't live without the whites. You have cut my throat, and now you ask my assistance. You can't have it. I am going home. Above Lac qui Parle the country belongs to us. Stay on your own lands and don't come on ours. You can fight, and I will give myself up in the spring and shake hands with the whites. I have finished." Wasou-washta and Wa-kein-to-wa, Spencer's friend, were the only ones, besides Paul, who spoke openly in favor of delivering the prisoners. After this council the Lower Indians held one by themselves, and sent four Indians to Paul to know if his party would join them in the war, and he gave them the same answer. Then they accused him and the others of cowardice, and the interview ended in a quarrel. Paul also told them that he had heard that Wabashaw and Taopee had written a letter to Colonel Sibley, but they said that it was not true; that they had heard the same thing, and had asked Wabashaw about it, but he denied it. As time progressed the excitement increased, and the fate of the captives grew more hopeless. After Standing Buffalo arrived, a large number of Sissetons came in from Abercrombie. One of their squaws was loud in her incitements to battle. She had a white man's whiskers tied to a pole, which she had obtained at that fort, and flourished over her head while she 161
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Page 162 162 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. sang a song to the purport that the whites had made the Indians mad, and that they would cut them into bits. Little Crow did not cease to encourage his men, for he perceived that there was no other course left open but battle. He stated that there were from two to three thousand British soldiers at Lac Traverse, who would soon be down to assist them, and that he believed, from signs he had seen at the Big Woods, that the Chippeways were co-operating with them. He urged that the Winnebagoes would also rise and go down the west side of the Mississippi, while he would take care of the country on the east, and that the other Sioux would capture the forts on the Missouri. There was a Yankton present who was a very fluent speaker. He addressed the Indians at great length in support of Crow's views. He traced on the ground a map of the country, showing the course of the Missouri, and the locality of the different forts. He also marked out the ocean, and stated that a great nation was coming across this to help them, and its people would bring them plenty of ammunition. Crow's brother ridiculed the courage of the whites, and narrated, with much glee, how he cut off the limbs of the men with one stroke of a cleaver, and that they made no resistance, but stared at him like poor dumb beasts. The young braves kept themselves in a high state of excitement by their war orgies. These they no longer conducted on foot, but upon the horses which they had stolen and trained to dance. Other letters, indicating the condition of affairs in the camp, and the anxiety and peril of the captives, were received from the friendly Indians from time to time, of which the following are copies:
Page 163 TilE CAPTIVES. " Maya-wakan, September 14, 1862. "DEAR SIR,-The first time that the young braves that brought the prisoners in camp I was opposed to it, but Crow opposed it and other things. I am afraid to come back on my reserve, but you will decide this for me. You told us that you wanted the priserners, so we quit fighting Some of the prisoners have run away from our camp. There is three parties out, but when they come back we will quit the war for good. In regard to half-breeds, if you say that I should give them, I will do so. My friend, you know Wabashaw-that I am not a bad man. I am a kind-hearted man. I know myself that the poor women ain't the blamed for the fight. I am always in for good. If you want to make peace with the Friendly Indians, we want to hear from you in regard to it. I am trying to do what is right. I hope that you will do so, and deal honestly with us. I want you to write me aodlte...s his "Yours truly, WABASEIAW" x mark. "Red Iron's Village, September 15th, 1862. " Ex. Governor Sibley: "HON. SiR,-I have just seen your letter to Wabaxa and the other two chiefs. They intend to raise the white flag. It is our intention to join these bands; but if your troops do not reach here till the last of the week, it may be too late for our rescue. The Red Iron and the lower bands have held two councils already about killing off the captives, which includes the whites, half-breeds, and all those that have dressed like the whites. I have tried all that I could to get the captives free; have held two councils with the lower bands, but Little Crow won't give them up. Eight have come to me for protection till they can get better from their own people. I keep them in my family. I have tried to send a letter to you several times, but am watched very close. This letter, or rather a copy of it, was sent one day by a young man, but he could not get away from the other Indians in safety, so he returned. The half-breeds, and all the white captives, are in the greatest danger, for they declare they will put them to death as soon as your troops appear. We shall do as you requested as soon as practicable (that is, to raise the flag). Now, dear sir, please let me know what time we may expect you, for our lives are hazarded if we move before we can receive aid. I am glad you are powerful and strong, for, if God helps, you will conquer. As Christians, we are looking to him, and trust he will send you to free us. We have held meetings every Sabbath since the missionaries 163
Page 164 164 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. left. Oh! deliver us, if possible, from our savage foes, and we shall try to show you how much we honor our great American Father. "Very respectfully, MA-ZA-KU-TA-MA-NE, or PAUL." "September 18th. "IHON. SIR, -We think it just to witness our hands to the above, and also to state that this is the fourth letter we have written for him to send to you, but, as he said, he could not send it. Paul held a council with some of the lower chiefs, and talked very bravely to them. They wished to know if he was going to join the whites, telling him, at the same time, that chiefs had given themselves up and been killed (we didn't believe it). He told them plainly he should join them. They said he was no brave; says Paul,' I am not brave to murder, and do such wicked acts as your people do, but you shall see I am brave to do right.' His life is in danger every moment from his speech. Paul requests us again to urge you to write immediately when he may expect you, so he can get his band ready, if possible, before the slaughter commences among the captives. We dare not give our names in full, but Rev. Mr. Riggs will know, for he married John and. M. A. BUTLER." "September 18th. "The Lowver Friendly Indians to Hon. Governor Sibley: "DEAR SiR,-We are in trouble about putting up the white flag. Some of the young ihen say they will go along with us, and, when near enough, will commence firing at your troops, so you see we are betrayed. Do let us know what we shall do; we are in jeopardy every moment. Great excitement last night about killing the captives, but nothing done. Please understand about the flag, and a part of the soldiers making you believe we are the enemies; so do write what we shall do. We hope you will hasten on, and spare the lives of the innocent." (No signature.) " Red Iron's Village, September 19th, 1S62. " Colonel H. H. Sibley: "I would like to see you in person this day, but I am in a hurry and can not come, so I send you a letter, which will answer the purpose. My brother, I talk to you on this paper to let you know that I have not forgotten that you are my friend. I still remember it was with the white man's provision that I have lived through the severe winter; for that reason, my friendship to you is unshaken. Although
Page 165 THE CAPTIVES. I have known of one bad thing this day, it was none of my fault. I had nothing whatever to do with it. I came down here to this place to find out who disturbed the peace between us, and for what reason. I have now found out, and am in a hurry to return. The nation is about to sacrifice itself for the sake of a few foolish young men. As for me, my great Father wished me to live, therefore he gave me provisions and money; and now it seems as though they had suddenly taken it from me, and thrown it into the water. My heart is sad, not only because I have not seen my goods, but because this day I have seen the destitution of our half-breeds. They are our flesh and blood, and therefore we are anxious for their welfare. My heart is still made more sad at the sight of the many captives; but they are not my captives, and, were my band strong enough, they should be released. My brother, I want to say something which I hope you will regard. I heard of this trouble while I was away from home, but did not believe it, and so I came down to see for myself; and now that I have seen and heard, I am in a hurry to get back, and tell my relative the straight of it. Although they have tried to shake our friend-. ship, yet I am anxious to renew it, and let it be stronger than ever. You are anxious to punish the offenders; but I ask a favor-that is, to wait on me until I have gathered my people and relatives together, for they are many and scattered. I ask this favor because I am fearful lest your hurry should fail my intentions. "TATANKA NAJIN (Standing Buffalo), Chief of the Sissetons." " Ped Iron's Village, September 24th. "Ex. Gov. Sibley: lion. Sir: "I have written some three or four letters to you, but never could send them. From the first I was anxious to extend and renew our friendship, and that of all the whites, and also are my friends, the Lower chiefs, that wish for peace. I held two councils as soon as the enemies came to our peaceful republic, in order to get the captives free, willing to hazard my own life could I obtain the liberty of the poor captives. The enemy are holding a council this morning, and wanted us to join them. They are rebels. We prefer our own councils and writing our own letters. The captives have been coming to us for safety until we have the greatest number, and so we are in danger of a battle from them immediately. Now, dear sir, please come right away without delay, or we may all fall victims, for fight we must soon. The enemy are not large in numbers, but you well know they are cruel savages (and the women, in the writer's opinion, can 161, a
Page 166 166 THE SIOUX WAR AND MIASSACRE. fight as well as the men). All the Indians, with the exception of these, are friendly, and, were we prepared for defending ourselves, we should conquer; and if you don't hasten, our women and all the captives will suffer. Yours respectfully, " MA-ZA-KIU-TA-MA-NE, "TAOPEE, and " WAKE-WAN-WA. " Hon. Ex. Gov. Sibley, Col. commanding. "This letter is at the request of all our people. Maza-moni and Akipa are desirous of having their names put down with the Friendly Indians, feeling that they have had trouble enough, and are desirous of peace. All in great haste." LITTLE PAUL.
Page 167 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 167 CHAPTER XI. UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. ON the afternoon of the 18th of September the camp at Fort Ridgely was broken up, and the expedi tion, disgusted with the long inactivity, joyfully start ed on its upward march after the foe. As crossing above might be attended with an ambuscade, a boat was constructed near the fort, and the expedition there ferried over. Just as the last of the train was leaving, a man was seen coming from the west. The' scouts rode toward him to ascertain who he was. lHe proved to be a fugitive German almost starved. When they approached he supposed that they were Indians, and was hacking away at his throat with his knife to commit suicide, but the edge was too dull to effect his purpose. The first camp was two miles above, and darkness came on before we were all across. Next morning we started with the dawn, and camped early in the afternoon a few miles below the agency. None of the enemy appeared during the day. Some of the men visited the houses of the "Farmer Indians," which were in the edge of the woods, and returned laden with buffalo robes and trinkets. A few miles above they found and buried the remains of Mr. Prescott, the government farmer. He had been concealed at the agency by his wife, a mixed blood, in an oven during the massacre, and then started for the fort.
Page 168 168 THIE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. The Indians met him. He pleaded long and earnestly for his life, but without avail. Hie was killed, and his head cut off and placed upon a pole, with the face toward St. Paul, "in order," as his murderers said, with grim facetiousness, "that he might watch for their money." Hie was an old man, and had lived many years among them. Soon after dark the presence of Indians was made manifest by their firing one of the buildings in the woods a mile from the camp. It was done to lure our men into an ambush, but it failed of success. Early the next morning we proceeded on our way. On passing Prescott's grave we found several hundred little sticks thrust in the fresh dirt, indicating the number of Indians who had visited it.* All that day about a dozen of the enemy, well mounted, were seen two or three miles ahead. They were scouts from the camp above Yellow Medicine. Our route lay over a rolling prairie. Up every high hillock before us these scouts would gallop, watch our movements until we approached near, and then scud away. All objects on a prairie seem larger by reason of the absence of standards of comparison, and are more distinctly limned against the sky than elsewhere. The picturesque appearance of these horsemen-the knowledge that they were foes-the mystery associated with a different race, and the fact that they were probably possessed of secrets of movements of vital importance, invested them with strange and romantic interest. On a fence near the Red-Wood River they left a message of defiance, telling us to come on, and that the braves were ready for us at Yellow Medicine. They * "These Indians were the ones alluded to in Wabashaw's letter. f t I i. t
Page 169 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 169 also amused themselves with firing several bridges to impede our progress. These were smoking when we came up, but not materially injured. The train stopped for dinner a mile and a half from the Red-Wood River, and young Myrick, one of the scouts (a cousin of the trader of that name, who was killed at the Lower Agency), in company with anoth er person, galloped ahead to the brow of the bluff overhanging the Red-Wood River. Here there was a deep, spacious, valley-like gorge, a mile and a half across, caused by the meanderings of the stream. The bluffs were belted thickly with trees, and in the valley were large marshes of tall grass, and cornfields, and great patches of dense underbrush, with rocky acclivities rising above them. On a number of these were houses. The place was just the one for an Indian ambuscade. Where the horsemen stood there were fresh ears of green corn partially eaten, and sticks of kin-ne-kin-nic from which the Indians had recently whittled the bark. As Myrick and his companion stood there, they saw Other Day oni horseback visiting the different houses to their right, and they immediately observed to one another that he was committing a very hazardous and foolish act, for it would be so easy for the enemy to pick him off. Presently he rode to where they were standing, and they, forgetting their comments on his conduct, proposed to go farther up the valley to the house of John Moore. To this the Indian assented, and the three forded the Red-Wood, and rode to the foot of the rocks upon which the house was situated. Here Other Day fastened his horse to a plum-tree, threw himself upon the ground, and began eating the H
Page 170 170 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. rich fruit which lay in great abundance below. The others followed his example. In a few moments he ran up the rocks to the house, leaving his horse fastened. Myrick's companion said it was dangerous to leave their horses there, as they had seen Indians all the morning ahead, and, close to where they now were, had observed a fresh moccasin track in the road, and plum-stones from which the fruit had just been eaten, and that it was best to have their horses with them. So saying, he led his horse up to the house, and stood holding him at the door. Other Day was then up stairs. Myrick ran up presently. He said he had been debating whether to tie his horse or bring him along, and had finally concluded to leave him there without hitching. He then went up stairs and left the other at the door. The rough rocks were not inviting, nor were any of the surroundings. The windows were all smashed to pieces, and the floor littered with various articles. On the outside was the trunk belonging to Prescott, whom we had buried the evening before. It had been broken open and emptied, and scattered around were many letters bearing his superscription. These suggested his fate, and the presence of the warriors who had visited his grave, and the question of the possibility of escape if they saw them. To a mind rendered morbidly active by the horrors which had been enacted, the effect was somewhat exciting. The expedition was two miles away, and could not afford relief, and flight through the wild morass was almost an impossibility. After a long search in the garret, Other Day and Myrick passed down into the cllar; Myrick, as he did so, saying 1,
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Page 171 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 171 that it was a very foolish proceeding, but that it wouldn't do for white men to be beaten in temerity by an Indian. They staid in the cellar some little time, when the silence was broken by the clattering of Myrick's horse up the rocks. The horses could not be seen from the house, nor therefore the cause of this proceeding per ceived; but Myrick's companion immediately-cried out, "Myrick, here comes your horse; there is some thing wrong." Both hurried from the cellar, and Other Day ran down the rocks, then hurried back, his face blazing with excitement, and crying, in startling tones, "Sioux! Sioux!" seized his gun, motioned the others back toward the house, as if they should there make a stand, and rushed down the rocks. Presently he was heard talking in a loud voice, and the others, no longer able to restraih their curiosity, ran to the edge of the eminence, holding their horses, and there, four hundred yards out in the marsh, were two Indians, mounted on Other Day's horse, which they had taken within fifty feet of the house. Other Day was trying to call them back, but they made off the faster, and then he discharged his rifle at them without effect. Its echoes rang through the valley, and were followed instantly by two discharges from Myrick (his companion had only a revolver). These were likewise without effect, and the Indians passed into the woods and made their escape. Hope of successful pursuit across the marsh there was not, and if there had been, an ignorance of the number of the foe would have rendered it too hazardous an undertaking to attempt. The horse was gayly decorated with a red head-dress, which its owner had found in one of the
Page 172 172 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. houses. It was a great prize to the captors, not merely for its value, but because it was taken from one whom they hated for joining the whites, and of whom they were all afraid. Hie was a desperate man in a quarrel; had killed several of the tribe years before, and went always armed, so as not to be caught unprepared. An Indian afterward stated that the captors were concealed in the grass while the three were eating plums, and that one of the two had his gun aimed at Myrick to shoot, but was made to desist by his companion, for fear one of them would be shot by Other Day, and also because the firing would call the attention of our troops. Then the three made their way toward the camp, avoiding as far as possible the spots where a foe might be concealed. Fearing to cross at the ford, as Indians would naturally lie there in'ambush, they endeavored ineffectually to cross the Red-Wood at other points. The opposite bank was too steep for the horses to clamber. Myrick's companion, when returning from the other shore, caught sight of some horsemen half a mile away, and pointed them out to Other Day. iHe jumped upon a little eminence, looked at them a moment, said they were white men, then crossed the river on a tree which had fallen across it, and took his way quickly toward the train. The horsemen disappeared from view almost immediately, and this led the two to doubt the correctness of Other Day's judgment. They thought that they must have heard the guns, and, if white men, would ride down to see what the trouble was. They debated for some time what to do, but finally rode over toward them through the tall corn, with their arms cocked and ready for use, I I
Page 173 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 173 and were delighted on finding them to be our ad vanced scouts. They had not heard the discharge of the guns. Poor Other Day was now under a tempo rary cloud, for Colonel Sibley laughed at his losing his horse, saying the enemy were too sharp for him, and compelled him to walk. He was much chagrined, as all the expedition knew him, and had noticed the gaudy head-dress of his horse; but he simply said that when they neared the enemy he would have two horses for one. The next day we found George Gleason's body on the prairie, and buried it. HIe was wasted almost to a skeleton. Two heavy stones were imbedded in his skull. HIe was Mr. Galbraith's clerk at the Lower Agency, and well known throughout the state. On the evening of the 22d we camped on the Lonetree Lake, two miles from Wood Lake, and two from the Yellow Medicine River. Next morning, between six and seven o'clock, as we were taking our breakfast, several foraging teams, with their guards, when about half a mile from camp, were fired upon by Indians, who lay concealed in the grass. The guards returned the fire, while the teams were urged to their utmost speed. The 3d regiment, under Major Welch, which had joined us at the fort, hurried out, without orders from the commander of the expedition, crossed a ravine, and was soon engaged with the foe. The general impression at first was that the attack was by a small number of the enemy, and that the soldiers were wasting their ammunition, for the firing soon became rapid. The 3d were ordered back into camp; and just then the enemy appeared in great numbers on all sides, and were gathering in the ravine between
Page 174 174 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. the regiment and the camp. The battle, which was known as that of Wood Lake, had now fairly begun. The balls flew thick and fast, some of them peinetrating the tents. Captain Hendricks's cannon now opened fire, as did the howitzer, under the direct supervision of Colonel Sibley. Then Hendricks boldly advanced his gun to the head of the ravine, and the brave Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, with three companies of the 7th, and LIEUTENANT' COLONEL W. IL MARSiiALL. Captain Grant, of the 6th, charged amid a shower of balls, on the double-quick, through the ravine, and put the foe to rout. The contest lasted for an hour and a half. The number actually engaged on each side z I i i,
Page 175 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 175 was about eight hundred, many of our men being held in camp in reserve. Our loss was four killed and between forty and fifty wounded. Among the wounded was Major Welch, who was shot in the leg early in the fight while bravely leading his men forward. The command then devolved upon Lieutenant Olin, who distinguished himself by his gallant conduct. The 3d regiment had acted in a very boisterous manner ever since it joined us, paying little regard to orders. This was owing to the fact that they felt reckless from their unjustifiable surrender at Murfreesborough, and because they were without officers, Lieutenant Olin being the only one present belonging to the regiment (Welch had been recently assigned to the command). In this fight they nobly did their whole duty. They and the Renville Rangers, under Captain James Gorman, bore the brunt of the fray, and sustained most of the losses. A small body of the enemy threatened another portion of the camp, but were successfully repelled by Major M'Laren and Captain Harvey B. Wilson. Colonel Sibley's staff were active in carrying his orders, and were specially commended in his dispatches. Other Day nobly redeemed the pledge he had made two days before. He took with his own hand two horses from the enemy, and slew their riders. He was often in their midst, and so far in advance of our men that they fired many shots at him, in the belief that he was one of the foe. No person on the field compared with him in the exhibition of reckless bravery. He was a warrior worthy to have crossed cimeters with Saladin, or dashed with Arabia's mad prophet through the shock of Eastern war. He seemed to
Page 176 176 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. be instinct with the spirit of the fierce, resistless steed, "who saith among the trumpets' ha! ha!' and smelleth the battle from afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting." HIe was clothed entirely in white; a belt around his waist, in which was placed his knife; a handkerchief was knotted about his head, and in his hand he lightly grasped his rifle. His teeth glistened like finest ivory through the slightlyparted lips; his eye was ablaze with fire; his face of bronze radiant with the joy of battle; his exulting utterances came thick and fast, in a sort of purr, pitched upon a high key, and soft as the dulcet tones of an Italian woman. As he bounded along with the graceful spring of a tiger-cat, there came to mind Djalma, the Prince of Java, when, in the theatre at Paris, at the time of the escape of the panther Le Mort, he leaped upon the stage with the returning ardor of his native jungles, and struck his dagger'to the heart. With the exuberant, riotous health of Bulwer's Margrave, and the airy wildness of the Faun, he looked the perfection of all the creatures of the woods and fields, and the incarnation of the ideal of the Indian God of War. It was the taunts of the Friendly Indians who forced on the fight while we were in camp. Little Crow's plan was to ambuscade us while passing through the deep gorge of the Yellow Medicine. Had this advice been followed many of our number would have been slain. They insisted that if the Lower Indians were really brave they ought to attack us on the open plain. Just before the battle their medicine-man went through certain incantations and predicted success. In one of the wagons the Sioux carried a British flag. Had they been a unit in their feelings the battle would I\ -1I i
Page 177 UPWARD MARCH AND BATTLE OF WOOD LAKE. 177 have continued much longer; but the Upper Indians, as soon as they found the day was going against them, abandoned the field, and were followed by the others. Simon, a Sioux who had joined us at Fort Ridgely, went from Colonel Sibley's forces during the progress of the fight to ascertain what the friendly-disposed Indians were going to do. It will be recollected that they had sent word that they would display a'white flag and leave the others. He distinctly stated that it would be better for them to abandon the others, and that the innocent ones would not be punished. The young braves evinced great hostility, and threatened to kill him; but he said that they might do so; that he was an old man, but would do his duty whatever might happen. Hiis conduct is represented to have been cool and daring in the extreme. At the conclusion of the contest they requested leave to carry away their dead, but were refused. Fifteen Indians were found upon the battle -field, and a wounded one brought in as a prisoner. The dead ones were gathered together and buried. They were all scalped. One person, in his eagerness, tore off the entire skin from the face with the scalp, and carried it to his tent under his vest. It seemed a hard thing to exult over the dead, but the soldiers could not help feeling satisfaction that the hunt after the miscreants who had committed so many murders with impunity was having a practical result. The sensation experienced was very much like that felt by the hunter when he proves that he has succeeded in killing some wily animal by an exhibition of the animal itself, or by the fisherman, who produces-the fish to listeners who would otherwise be dubious as to the reception of bites. So many H2 ,'
Page 178 178 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. large stories about the killing of Indians had been told, without any person having actually seen their natural confirmation- the bodies-that the people were getting very incredulous on the point. The mutilation of the dead enemy was discountenanced by the officers. It was done in the excitement of the moment, and after seeing the horrible manner in which the foe had carved up the soldiers which they killed. The wounded Indian lived several days. He was shot through the lungs, and the breath and the bubbling blood could be heard issuing from the wound. He was lying in a tent, guarded, shivering with cold, and almost perishing for water. James Gorman, of the Renville Rangers, and another person, gave him some water, and threw an overcoat over him. A grateful look came into his dying eyes. He had not expected this. The soldiers on the outside thought this act of charity an outrageously culpable thing. How precious a cup of cold water may sometimes be, and what contumely attend its bestowal! Among the fatally wounded of the Indians who were carried away was one of the "Farmers,"' who had been a devoted friend of the captives. He was not engaged himself, but took a club and drove some of the cowardly Lower Indians into the midst of danger, saying, "You said we were not brave, and now I will show you where to go." -Red Iron, who had also been our friend, was with him. After burying our dead and remaining one day at WAVood Lake, we marched to the Indian camp near Lac qui Parle, which, by the route we had taken, was about two hundred and twenty-five miles from St. Paul. i tI I
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Page 180 ~) ~ INDI)IAN CAMP TAKEN BY COLONEL $II,LEY.
Page 181 CAMP RELEASE. CHAPTER XII. CAMP RELEASE. ON the 26th of September we reached the Indian camp. It was located nearly opposite the mouth of the Chippeway River, and numbered about one hundred tepees. Just before we arrived, a war party, composed of a portion of those who had placed the sticks on Prescott's grave, had passed by, leaving a prisoner with the inmates.* Little Crow and some two hundred men and their families hurriedly fled the day after the battle. Some of the fugitives were still in sight when we came up. A few hundred cavalry could easily have captured these, and put an immediate end to the war. Colonel Sibley frequently urged the necessity of a mounted force, and Governor Ramsey was energetic in his endeavors to comply with his demand. The failure to do so resulted from the preoccupation of the federal government in a more important war. General Pope, who was placed in command of the department some time afterward, dispatched several hundred cavalry to Colonel Sibley, but the season was too far advanced to follow Crow. It was unfortunate that the energetic and influential ex-Senator Rice had not been placed early in charge of the * This party had murdered several persons in the neighborhood of Hutchinson on the day of the battle of Wood Lake. The others committed depredations at Mednlii. 181
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Page 182 THE SIOUX WAST AND MASSACRE. department, as was suggested. He was fully alive to the necessity of such a force, and would have taken care that Colonel Sibley should have had the requisite number in time. Our own camp, which was called " Camp Release," was pitched about a quarter of a mile from that of the Indians, which our cannon commanded. Their camp was filled with wagons and cattle which they had stolen. The tents were well supplied with carpets, and different kinds of goods and household utensils. Soon after our arrival, the commander, with his staff and body-guard, rode over and took formal possession. ol' I- TZ. 182 i,
Page 183 ___ A ___ _ 4 ffi~~~~, CAMNP RELEASL. ,, 11,
Page 184 iN
Page 185 CAMP RELEASE. Wondering squaws and children stared at the newcomers, and tall, gayly-painted braves were profuse in their declarations of friendship. " Old Betz," a very aged squaw, since dead, who was well known throughout the state, and who, it was said, had been kind to the captives, was among the former. A formal demand which was made for the captives was instantly complied with. They were nearly two hundred and fifty in number. They had been compelled to wear the Indian dress during their captivity, but had now been permitted to resume their former habiliments. INDIAN BOY 185
Page 186 186 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. The poor creatures wept for joy at their escape. They had watched for our coming for many a weary day, with constant apprehensions of death at the hands of their savage captors, and had almost despaired of seeing us. The woe written in the faces of the half starved and nearly naked women and children would have melted the hardest heart. They were taken to our camp, where they remained until sent below a few days subsequently. The sleepless nights which the commander passed in scheming for their deliverance, and the steadfastness with which he resisted all counsels for a sudden attack, which would have compromised their safety, received in their deliverance a rich reward. George Spencer, who was saved by his Indian friend at Red-Wood (the only white man among the captives), said, if we had marched to the camp immediately after the battle, most of the prisoners would have been killed. It will be recollected that many of them were in the Lower Indians' exclusive possession, and that they had resolved that they should die with them. The apprehensions of the captives after the first rage of their captors was over were greater than their actual sufferings. They fared as well as the Indians in the main. Only one person was killed-a little boy whom a warrior had adopted. The Indian was in the habit of painting his face, and one morning the little fellow cried because it was not done, and, enraged, the savage shot him. Hie was only wounded, and the Indian boys beat him to death with clubs and pitched him over the bluff. The grosser outrages were mostly committed by the younger portion of the tribe. I. ( I N
Page 187 CAMP RELEASE. Indians are not all lost to humanity. Simon, Lorenzo Lawrence, Robert Hopkins, Paul, Spencer's comrade, Chaska, and the noble Other Day, risked their lives in behalf of their white friends. History is full of such instances. The heroic Pocahontas interposed her own person between the axe of the executioner and the imperiled Smith. The great Virginia massacre of 1662 was limited in its extent by an Indian revealing the plot: a friend whom he wished to save, and Philip of Pokanoket wept with sorrow when he heard of the death of the first Englishman who was killed. These acts and numberless others will suffer no dimi nution of effect by comparison with any sacrifices that whites have made for Indians. Many of our men insisted that Colonel Sibley would be justifiable in making any treaty he could to obtain the captives, and when that was done, kill all the Indians, men, women, and children; one of them quoting a saying, which he attributed to the great Indianfighter Hiarney, that "nits make lice." Our people, luckily, are disciplined; and the broad, sober sense of the leaders, which reaches beyond the present hour, generally restrains acts of atrocity. Indians pay little regard to the chiefs and older men. Prominent intellects they have, but no commanders-no men with power to enforce their views. Passion, unrestrained by judgment, therefore rules. In vain Tecumseh sought, with more effort than the white man Proctor, to stay the massacre on the River Raisin; and Crow's exhortations to spare women and children fell unheeded on the ears of the braves. The murder of white soldiers who have surrendered in good faith is due to the inability of the chiefs to enforce obedience to their orders. 187
Page 188 188 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. A military commission of inquiry was at once appointed to ascertain the guilty parties, and testimony against about a dozen obtained. A commission for the trial of these and of any others who might be accused was then organized, and some thirty or forty immediately arrested. The remainder in camp were sent down to the Yellow Medicine Agency under charge of Agent Galbraith, as the stock of provisions was fast becoming exhausted. A Many other Indians came in voluntarily with their squaws from time to time, and gave themselves up; and others were surprised in the night by our expeditions, and placed with the others in a second camp near our own. The evidence before the commission indicating that the whole nation was involved in the war, Colonel Crooks, by order of the commander, silently surrounded the second camp in the night, disarmed the men, and placed them in a log jail which had previously been erected in the midst of our camp. The guns taken from them were nearly all loaded with ball, and the shot-pouches also filled with them. Among the guns were some of the rifles which had been taken from Marsh and Strout. A similar proceeding was ordered at Yellow Medicine, and safely accomplished by assembling all the braves within the walls of the agency buildings, under pretense of holding a council. Rattling Moccasin, taking alarm, had decamped from there a few days before with a portion of his band. The prisoners were linked together in pairs by chains forged to their ankles. As the proud but now crestfallen braves hobbled along, the soldiers would derisively salute them with "Left!" "Left!" They were I
Page 189 CAMP RELEASE. designated, whenever spoken of, as "Los," from "LoI the poor Indian, whose untutored mind," etc. A number of half-breeds were among the accused, and these were looked upon with more hatred than the Indians, because related to the whites. The object of most bitter malediction was the negro, or, rather, mulatto Godfrey or Gussa, who was also a prisoner and chained to an Indian. Hie had been foremost among the attacking party at New Ulm, and Indians said he was braver than any of them. Hie had boasted that he had killed nine adults and a number of children, but of the latter he said he kept no account, because he thought they did not amount to any thing. The Indians had given him the name of Otakle, i. e., "he who kills many." Hie admitted being in the battles, but denied that he had killed any one. Where persons are murdered in a house, the Indians give the credit of the affair to the man who first enters, on account of the superior daring thereby indicated, just as, for the same reason, they say a brave who first touches the body of the slain kills the person, although the deed may have been committed by another. The man attacked may be only feigning death. Indians often do so. Godfrey said he acquired his name by entering first into a house near New Ulm by direction of the Indians, where a number were killed by them. I have but little doubt that he entered into the massacres with as much zest as the Indians themselves after he once commenced. Hie was brought up among them, could speak their language, and was married to a squaw. Two very intelligent girls, who were captured by a party of Indians on the first day of the massacre, between Reynolds's place on the Red-Wood 189
Page 190 190 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. and New Ulm, said that Godfrey, who was with the Indians, driving the team in which they were placed, was painted for war, and wore a breech-clout; and that he chuckled over their captivity, and seemed to enter fully into the spirit of their captors. IHe was leaning composedly against a wagon-box when we entered the Indian c-amp. He was about the medium height, stoutly built; had very dark complexion, curly hair, lips of medium thickness, eyes slightly crossed, but not enough to disfigure, and a voice of most marvelous sweetness. Hie wore moccasins, but otherwise had resumed the dress of the whites. An old plush cap, with large ear-flaps, was placed on one side of his head. This is the story which Godfrey told: ie
Page 191 GODFREY'S STORY. CHAPTER XIII. GODFREY'S STORY. "I AM twenty-seven years old. I was born at Men dota,. My father was a Canadian Frenchman, and my mother a colored woman, who hired in the family of the late Alex. Bailley. I was raised in Mr. Bailley's family. My father is, I think, living in Wisconsin; his name is Joe Godfrey. My mother is also living at Prairie du Chien. I last saw my father and mother at Prairie du Chien seven years ago. I lived with Mr. Bailley at Wabashaw, and also at Hastings and Faribault. I had lived at the Lower Agency five years. I was married, four years ago, to a woman of Wabashaw' band-daughter of Wa-kpa-doo-ta.* At the time of the outbreak I lived on the Reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, between the Lower Agency and New Ulm, about twenty miles below the agency and eight above New Ulm. " The first time I heard of the trouble I was mowing hay. About noon an Indian was making hay near me. I went to help him, to change work; he was to lend me his oxen. I helped him load some -hay, and as we took it to his place we heard hallooing, and saw a man on horseback, with a gun across his legs before him. When he saw me he drew his gun up and cocked it. The Indian with me asked him 'What's the matter?' He looked strange. He wore * Afterward executed. 191
Page 192 192 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. a new hat-a soft gray hat-and had a new white leather ox or mule whip. He said all the white people had been killed at the agency. The Indian with me asked who did it, and he replied the Indians, and that they would soon be down that way to kill the settlers toward New Ulm. Hie asked me which side I would take. Hie said I would have to go home and take off my clothes, and put on a breech-clout. I was afraid, because he held his gun as if he would kill me. I went to my house and told my wife to get ready, and we would try to get away. I told my wife about what the Indian told me. I told her we would try to get down the river. She said we would be killed with the white people. We got something ready to take with us to eat, and started-we got about two hundred yards into the woods. (The old man, my wife's father, said he would fasten the house and follow after.) We heard some one halloo. It was the old man. He called to us to come back. I told my wife to go on, but her mother told her to stop. I told them to go ahead; but the old man called so much that they stopped and turned back. I followed them. "I found my squaw's uncle at the house. IHe scolded my wife and her mother for trying to get away; he said all the Indians had gone to the agency, and that they must go there. He said we would be killed if we went toward the white folks; that we would only be safe to go and join the Indians. I still had my pants on. I was afraid; and they told me I must take my pants off and put on the breech-clout. I did so. The uncle said we must take a rope and catch a horse. "I started with him toward New Ulm, and we met t
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Post by denney on Aug 1, 2006 21:47:05 GMT -5
Page 193 GODFREY'S STORY. a lot of Indians at the creek, about a mile from my house. They were all painted, and said I must be painted. They then painted me. I was afraid to re fuse. "They asked me why I didn't have a gun, or knife, or some weapon. I told them I had no gun-the old man had taken it away. One Indian had a spear, a gun, and a little hatchet. IHe told me to take 4-the hatchet, and that I must fight with the Indians, and do the same they did, or I would be killed. We started down the road. We saw two wagons with people in them coming toward us. The Indians consulted what to do, and decided for half of them to go up to a house off the road, on the right-hand side. They started, but I stopped, and they called me and told me I must come on. There was an old man, a boy, and two young women at the house-Dutch people. The family's name was something like'Masseybush.' The boy and two girls stood outside, near the kitchen door. Half of the Indians went to the house, half remained in the road. The Indians told me to tell the whites that there were Chippeways about, and that they (the Indians) were after them. I did not say any thing. The Indians asked for some water. The girls went into the house, and the Indians followed and talked in Sioux. One said to me,'Here is a gun for you.' Dinner was on the table, and the Indians said,'After we kill, then we will have dinner.' They told me to watch the road, and when the teams came up to tell them. I turned to look, and just then I heard the Indians shoot; I looked, and two girls fell just outside the door. I did not go in the house; I started to go round the house. We were on the back side of it, I 193
Page 194 194 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. when I heard the Indians on the road hallooing and shouting. They called me, and I went to the road and saw them killing white men. My brother-in-law told me I must take care of a team that he was holding; that it was his. I saw two men killed that were with this wagon. I did not see who were killed in the other wagon. I saw one Indian stick his knife in the side of a man that was not yet dead; he cut his side open, and then cut him all to pieces.* His name was Wakantonka (great spirit). Two of the Indians that killed the people at the house have been convicted. Their names are Waki-ya-ni and Mah - hwa. There were about ten Indians at the house, and about the same number in the road. I got into the wagon, and the Indians all got in. We turned and went toward New Ulm. When we got near to a house the Indians all got out and ran ahead of the wagons, and two or three went to each house, and in that way they killed all the people along the road. I staid in the wagon, and did not see the people killed. They killed the people of six or eight houses-all until we got to the' Travelers' Home.' There were other Indians killing people all through the settlement. We could see them and hear them all around. I was standing in the wagon, and could see three, or four, or five Indians at every house. "When we got near the'Travelers' Home' they told me to stop. I saw an old woman with two children- one in each hand-run away across the yard. One Indian, Maza-bom-doo, who was convicted, shot the old woman, and jumped over and kicked the children down with his feet. The old woman fell down *Afterward executed.
Page 195 GODFREY'S STORY. as if dead. I turned away my head, and did not see whether the children were killed. After that I heard a shot behind the barn, but did not see who was shot. I supposed some one was killed. After that the In dians got in the wagon, anid told me to start down the road. We started on, and got to a house where a man lived named Schling-a German-an old man. The Indians found a jug in the wagon, and were now al most drunk. They told me to jump out. I jumped out and started ahead, and the Indians called me to come back. They threw out a hatchet, and said I must go to the house and kill the people. Maza-bom doo was ahead. He told me there were three guns there that he had left for some flour, and we must get them. I was afraid. "I went into the house. There was the old man, his wife and son, and a boy and another man. They were at dinner. The door stood open, and the Indians were right behind me, and pushed me in. I struck the old man on the shoulder with the flat of the hatchet, and then the Indians rushed in and commenced to shoot them. The old man, woman, and boy ran into the kitchen. The other man ran out some way, I did not see how; but when we went back to the road, about twenty steps, I saw him in the road dead. He was the man I struck in the house. I heard the Indians shoot back of the house, but did not see what at. After we started to go to Red-Wood, one little Indian, who had pox-marks on his face, and who was killed at Wood Lake, said he struck the boy with a knife, but didn't say if he killed him. He told this to the other Indians. "We saw coming up the road two wagons, one with 195
Page 196 196 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. a flag in it. The Indians were afraid, and we started back, and went past the'Travelers' IHome.' We got to a bridge, and the Indians got out and laid down in the grass about the bridge. I went on up the road. The wagons, with white men, came on up and stopped in the road, where there was a dead man, I think; then they sounded the bugle and started to cross the bridge, running their horses. The foremost wagon had one horse, of a gray color; three men were in it, and had the flag. Just as they came across the bridge, the Indians raised up and shot. The three men fell out, and the team went on. The Indians ran and caught it. The other wagon had not got across the bridge. I heard them shoot at the men in it, but I did not see them. After the Indians brought the second wagon arcoss the bridge, three Indians got in the wagon. After that all of them talked together, and said that it was late (the sun was nearly down), and that they must look after their wives and children that had started to go to Red-Wood. Many of these Indians lived on the lower end of the reservation. The two-horse team that they had just taken was very much frightened, and they could not hold them. They told me I must take and hold them, and drive them. I took the team, and then they all got in. We then had four teams. We started from there, and went on up. When we got to where the first people were killed, the Indians told me to drive up to the house. The two girls were lying dead. I saw one girl with her head cut off; the head was gone. One Indian, an old man, asked who cut the head off; he said it was too bad. The other Indians said they did not know. The girls' clothes were turned up. The I
Page 197 GODFREY'S STORY. old man put them down. HIe is now in prison; his name is Wazakoota; he is a good old man. While we stood there one wagon went to another house, and I heard a gun go off. "We started up the road, and stopped at a creek about a mile farther on. We waited for some of the Indians that were behind. While we were there we saw a house on fire. When the Indians came up.they said that Wak-pa-doo-ta, my father-in-law, shot a woman, who was on a bed sick, through the window; and that an old man ran up stairs, and the Indians were afraid to go in the house; they thought he had a gun, and they set fire to the house and left it. We then started on from that creek, and went about seven miles to near a little lake (about a hundred yards from the road). We saw, far away, a wagon coming toward us. When it was only two miles from us we saw it was a two-horse wagon, but the Indians didn't know if it was white people. When it came nearer they told me to go fast. The Indians whipped the horses and hurried them on. Two Indians were ahead of us on horseback. Pretty soon we came near, and the team that was coming toward us stopped and turned round, and the Indians said it was white men, and they were trying to run away. The two on horseback then shot, and I saw a white man-Patville-fall back over his seat; and after that I saw three women and one man jump out of the wagon and run. Then those in the wagon with me jumped out and ran after the women. We got up to the wagon. Patville was not dead. The Indians threw him out, and a young Indian, sentenced to be hung, stuck a knife between his ribs, under the arm, and another one, who is with Lit 197
Page 198 198 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. tle Crow, took his gun and beat his head all to pieces. The other Indians killed the other white man near the little lake, and brought back the three womenMattie Williams, Mary Anderson, and Mary Swan. "Patville's wagon was full of trunks. The Indians broke them open and took the things out; there were some goods in them (Patville was a sort of trader on the reservation). They put one woman in the wagon. I drove. The other two were put separately in the other wagons. The one in my wagon (Mary Swan) was caught by Maza-bom-doo. Ta-zoo had Mattie Williams. We then went on, and stopped at a creek about a mile ahead to water the horses. Then they called me to ask the woman that was wounded if she was badly hurt. She said' Yes.' They told me to ask her to show the wound, and that they would do something for it. She showed the wound. It was in the back. The ball did not come out. She asked where we were going. I said I didn't know. but supposed to Red-Wood. I asked what had been done at the agency. She said they didn't know; that they came around on the prairie past Red-Wood. I told her I heard that all the whites at the agency were killed and the stores robbed. She said she wished they would drive fast, so she could have a doctor do something for her wound; she was afraid she would die. I said I was a prisoner too. She asked what would be done with them. I said I didn't know; perhaps we would all be killed. I said maybe the doctor was killed, if all the white people were. After that we started on, and got to the Red-Wood Agency about nine o'clock. It was dark. Then the Indians looked round, and did not see any people. We went i
Page 199 GODFREY'S STORY. on to Wacouta's house. He came out, and told me to tell the girl in my wagon to go into his house-that the other two girls were in his house. I told the girl; but she was afraid, and said she thought the other women were somewhere else. I told her that Wacouta said they were in his house, and she had better go. Wacouta told her to go with him, and she got out and went with him. I then went on to Little Crow's village, where most all of the Indians had gone. - I found my wife there. We staid some time there, and then started for the fort. They asked me to go to drive a team. After we got there they commenced to fight. They broke in the stable, and told me to go and take all the horses I could. I got a black mare, but an Indian took it away from me. They fought all day, and slept at night in the old stable under the hill. The next morning they fought only a little; it was raining. We then went back to Red-Wood. In about six days after all the Indians started, and said they would go to Mankato. They came down toward the fort on that side of the river, and crossed near the 'Travelers' Home.' When they got opposite the fort they stopped, and talked of trying to get in again, but did not. About noon they went on to New Ulm. I saw no white people on the road. I got to New Ulm about two hours after noon. They burned houses, and shot, and fought. They slept at New Ulm that night, and the next day went back to Little Crow's village. (This was the last fight at New Ulm; Godfrey says he was not there at the first fight. He was then at Little Crow's village.) After a few days we went to Rice Creek; staid there a few days, and started again to come to Mankato. After crossing the 199
Page 200 200 THE SIOUX WAR AND MASSACRE. Red-Wood we went up the hill, and saw wagons on the prairie on the other side of the river. After the Indians had all crossed the Red-Wood, half staid there all night, and half went over the Minnesota to where they saw the wagons. Those that staid back went over early the next morning. I went with them. We got there at sunrise. We heard shooting just before we got there. They were shooting all day. They killed all the horses. (This was the battle of Birch Coolie.) At night the Indians killed some cattle, and cooked and ate some meat. Some talked of trying to get into the camp, and some tried it all night. Others talked of watching till they should drive them out for want of water. Three Indians were killed that day-so the Indians said. I saw some wounded-I should think five. In the morning some more talk was had about trying to get in. In the mean time we saw soldiers coming up, and half of the Indians started to try and stop them, and the other half staid to watch the camp at Birch Coolie. They went down to try and stop the soldiers, and afterward came back and said 'twas no use-that they couldn't stop them. Some wanted to try and get the whites into Birch Coolie, but others thought they had better go back. They fired some shots, and then started back. The Sissetons got to us while we were there the second day, about two or three hours before the Indians all left. The Indians left a little before sundown. They crossed the river at the old crossing, and went up to the site of Reynolds's house, the other side of the RedWood, and camped. They started about midnight to go to Rice Creek. Got there about sunrise. Staid there several days. i i ii
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