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037 - Campaign of 1864 · History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part 1

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty seven of the History of Minnesota and Tales
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  Speaker 1: of the Frontier, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Phil Schampf. The History of Minnesota and Tales of
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  Speaker 1: the Frontier, Part one by Charles E. Flandreaux, Section thirty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Campaign of eighteen sixty four. The government very wisely decided
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  Speaker 1: not to allow the Indian question to rest upon the
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  Speaker 1: results of the campaign of eighteen sixty three, which left
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  Speaker 1: the Indians in possession of the country west of the Missouri,
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  Speaker 1: rightly supposing that they might construe their escape from General
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  Speaker 1: Sibley the previous year into a victory. It therefore sent
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  Speaker 1: out another expedition in eighteen sixty four to pursue and
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  Speaker 1: attack them beyond the Missouri. The plan and outfit were
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  Speaker 1: very similar to those of eighteen sixty three. General Sully
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  Speaker 1: was again to proceed up the Missouri with a large
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  Speaker 1: command and meet a force sent out from Minnesota, which forces,
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  Speaker 1: when combined, were to march westward and find and punish
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  Speaker 1: the savages if possible. The expedition as a whole was
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  Speaker 1: under the command of General Sully. It consisted of two brigades.
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  Speaker 1: The first composed of Iowa and Kansas infantry and cavalry
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  Speaker 1: and Brackett's Battalion to the number of several thousand, which
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  Speaker 1: was to start from Sioux City and proceed up the
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  Speaker 1: Missouri in steamboats. The second embraced the eighth Regiment of
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Thomas, mounted on ponies, the
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  Speaker 1: second Minnesota Cavalry under Colonel MacLaren, the third Minnesota Battery
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  Speaker 1: under Captain Jones. The second brigade was commanded by Colonel Thomas.
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  Speaker 1: This brigade left Fort Snelling on June first and marched westward.
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  Speaker 1: General Sibley and staff accompanied it as far as Fort Ridgley.
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  Speaker 1: On the ninth of June, it passed Wood Lake, the
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  Speaker 1: scene of the fight in eighteen sixty two. About this
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  Speaker 1: point it overlooked a large train of emigrants on their
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  Speaker 1: way to Idaho, who had with them one hundred sixty
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  Speaker 1: wagon loads of supplies. This train was escorted to the
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  Speaker 1: Missouri River safely. The march was wearisome in the extreme,
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  Speaker 1: with intensely hot weather and very bad water, and was
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  Speaker 1: only enlivened by the appearance occasionally of a herd of buffalo,
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  Speaker 1: a band of antelope, or a straggling elk. The movements
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  Speaker 1: of the command were carefully watched by flying bands of
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  Speaker 1: Indians during its whole march. On July first, the Missouri
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  Speaker 1: was reached at a point where now stands Fort Rice.
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  Speaker 1: General Sully and the first brigade had arrived there the
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  Speaker 1: day before. The crossing was made by the boats that
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  Speaker 1: brought up the first brigade. The call was immediately directed
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  Speaker 1: toward Cannonball River, where one thousand, eight hundred lodges of
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  Speaker 1: Indians were reported to be camped. The Indians fled before
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  Speaker 1: the approaching troops. On the last of July, the Hart
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  Speaker 1: River was reached, where a camp was formed and the
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  Speaker 1: tents and teams left behind. Thus relieved, the command pressed
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  Speaker 1: forward for an Indian camp eighty miles northward. On the
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  Speaker 1: second of August, the Indians were found in large numbers
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  Speaker 1: on the Big Knife River in the bad lands. These
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  Speaker 1: were the Uncapapa Sioux, who had murdered a party of
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  Speaker 1: miners from Idaho the year before, and had given aid
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  Speaker 1: and comfort to the Minnesota refugee Indians. They were attacked
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  Speaker 1: and a very spirited engagement ensued, in which the enemy
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  Speaker 1: was badly beaten and suffered severe losses. The place where
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  Speaker 1: this battle was fought was called Takahokute, or the bluff
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  Speaker 1: where the man shot the deer. On the next day,
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  Speaker 1: August third, the command moved west through the bad lands,
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  Speaker 1: and just as it emerged from this terribly ragged country,
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  Speaker 1: it was sharply attacked by a large body of Indians.
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  Speaker 1: The fight lasted through two days and nights, when the
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  Speaker 1: enemy retired in haste. They were very roughly handled in
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  Speaker 1: this engagement. General Sully then crossed to the west side
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellowstone River, where the weary soldiers found two
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  Speaker 1: steamboats awaiting them with ample supplies. In crossing this rapid river,
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  Speaker 1: the command lost three men and about twenty horses. From
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  Speaker 1: this point they came home by way of Forts Union, Berthold,
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  Speaker 1: and Stevenson, reaching Fort Rice on the ninth of September.
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  Speaker 1: On this trip, General Sully located Forts Rice, Stevenson, and Berthold.
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  Speaker 1: On reaching Fort Rice, considerable anxiety was felt for Colonel Fiske, who,
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  Speaker 1: with a squad of fifty troops, had left the fort
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  Speaker 1: as an escort for a train of Idaho immigrants, and
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  Speaker 1: had been attacked one hundred eighty miles west of the
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  Speaker 1: fort and had been compelled to entrench. He had sent
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  Speaker 1: for reinforcements, and General Sully sent him three hundred men,
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  Speaker 1: who extricated him from his perilous position. The Minnesota Brigade
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  Speaker 1: returned home by way of Fort Wadsworth, where they arrived
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  Speaker 1: on September twenty seventh. Here, Major Rose, with six companies
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  Speaker 1: of the second Cavalry, was left to garrison the post,
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  Speaker 1: the balance of the command reaching Fort Snelling on the
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  Speaker 1: twelfth of October. In June eighteen sixty five, another expedition
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  Speaker 1: left Minnesota for the West under Colonel Callahan of Wisconsin,
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  Speaker 1: which went as far as Devil's Lake. The first, second,
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  Speaker 1: and fourth sections of the third Minnesota Battery accompanied it. Again.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty six, an expedition started from Fort Abercrombie,
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  Speaker 1: which included the first section of the third Battery under
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Whipple. As no important results followed from these two
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  Speaker 1: two latter expeditions, I only mentioned them as being parts
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  Speaker 1: of the Indian War. The numbers of Indians engaged in
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  Speaker 1: this war together with their superior fighting qualities, their armament,
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  Speaker 1: and the country occupied by them, gives it rank among
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  Speaker 1: the most important of the Indian wars fought since the
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  Speaker 1: first settlement of the country on the Atlantic coast. But
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  Speaker 1: when viewed in the light of the number of settlers massacred,
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  Speaker 1: the amount of property destroyed, and the horrible atrocities committed
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  Speaker 1: by the savages, it far surpasses them all. I have
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  Speaker 1: dwelt upon this war to such an extent because I
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  Speaker 1: regard it as the most important event in the history
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  Speaker 1: of our state, and desire to perpetuate the facts, more
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  Speaker 1: especially connected with the gallant resistance offered by the settlers
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  Speaker 1: in its inception. Not an instance of timidity is recorded.
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  Speaker 1: The inhabitants, engaged in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, utterly
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  Speaker 1: unprepared for war, sprang to the front on the first
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  Speaker 1: indicator of danger, and checked the advance of the savage
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  Speaker 1: enemy in his initial efforts. The importance of battles should
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  Speaker 1: never be measured by the number engaged or the lists
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  Speaker 1: of killed and wounded, but by the consequences of their results.
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  Speaker 1: I think the repulse of Indians at Fort Ridgley and
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  Speaker 1: Nuom save the state of Minnesota from a disaster the
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  Speaker 1: magnitude of which cannot be estimated. Their advance was checked
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  Speaker 1: at the very frontier, and they were compelled to retreat,
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  Speaker 1: thus affording time and opportunity for the Whites to organize
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  Speaker 1: for systematic action. Had they not met with this early check,
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  Speaker 1: it is more than probable that the Chippawas on the
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  Speaker 1: Upper Mississippi and the Winnebagoes in the Lower Minnesota Valley
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  Speaker 1: would have joined them and the war have been carried
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  Speaker 1: into the heart of the state. Instances of a similar
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  Speaker 1: character have occurred in our early wars, which illustrate my position.
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  Speaker 1: The Battle of Eriskany, which was fought in the Revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: War in the Valley of the Mohawk between Rome and Utica,
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  Speaker 1: was not more of an encounter than Ridgeley or Nuolm,
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  Speaker 1: Yet it has been characterized as one of the decisive
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  Speaker 1: battles of the world because it prevented a junction of
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  Speaker 1: the British forces under Saint Leger in the west and
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  Speaker 1: Burgoyne in the east, and made American independence possible. The
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  Speaker 1: State of New York recognized the value of Eriskany just
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  Speaker 1: one hundred years after the battle was fought by the
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  Speaker 1: erection of a monument to commemorate it. The State of
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota has done better by erecting imposing monuments on both
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  Speaker 1: the battlefields of Ridgeley and Newolm, the inscriptions on which
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  Speaker 1: give us succinct history of the respective events. The state
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  Speaker 1: also presented each of the defenders of Fort Ridgley with
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  Speaker 1: a handsome bronze medal, especially struck for the purpose, the
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  Speaker 1: presentation of which took place at the time of the
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  Speaker 1: dedication of the monument on the twentieth day of August
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  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six. The medal has a picture of the
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  Speaker 1: fort on its obverse side, surrounded by the words Defender
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  Speaker 1: of Fort Ridgley August eighteen to twenty seven, eighteen sixty two.
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  Speaker 1: Just over the flag staff in a scroll is the
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  Speaker 1: legend ensue Tayo Panatakappi, which means it shut the door
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  Speaker 1: against us, referring to the battle having obstructed the further
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  Speaker 1: advance of the Indians. This was said by one of
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  Speaker 1: the Indians in the attacking party, in giving his view
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  Speaker 1: of the effect of the repulse, and adopted by the
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  Speaker 1: committee having charge of the preparation of the medal as
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  Speaker 1: being appropriate and true. On the reverse side are the
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  Speaker 1: words presented by the State of Minnesota, I, encircled by
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  Speaker 1: a wreath of moccasin flowers, which is the flower of
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  Speaker 1: the state. The State has also placed monuments at Birch
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  Speaker 1: Cooley Camp Release and acton. I regret to be compelled
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  Speaker 1: to say that a majority of the committee having charge
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  Speaker 1: of the building of the Birch Cooley Monument so far
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  Speaker 1: failed in the performance of their duties as to the
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  Speaker 1: location of the monument and formulating its inscriptions, that the
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  Speaker 1: Legislature felt compelled to pass an act to correct their errors.
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  Speaker 1: The correction has not yet been made, but in the
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  Speaker 1: cause of true history, it is to be hoped that
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  Speaker 1: it will be in the near future. The state also
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  Speaker 1: erected a handsome monument in the cemetery of Fort Ridgley
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  Speaker 1: to Captain marsh and the twenty three men of his
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  Speaker 1: company that were killed at the ferry near the Lower
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  Speaker 1: Sioux Agency on August eighteenth, eighteen sixty two, and by
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  Speaker 1: special act passed long after at the request of old settlers,
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  Speaker 1: added the name of Peter Quinn, the interpreter, who was
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  Speaker 1: killed at the same time and place. The state also
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  Speaker 1: built a monument in the same cemetery in remembrance of
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  Speaker 1: the wife of doctor Mueller, the post surgeon at Ridgley
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  Speaker 1: during the siege, on account of the valuable services rendered
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  Speaker 1: by her in nursing the wounded soldiers. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: thirty seven s