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034 - Trial of the Indians · History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part 1

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty four of the History of Minnesota and Detales
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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. The
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  Speaker 1: History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part one
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  Speaker 1: by Charles E. Flandrau, Section thirty four, Trial of the Indians.
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  Speaker 1: The State has reason to congratulate itself on two things
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  Speaker 1: in this connection. First that it had so wise and
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  Speaker 1: just a man as Colonel Sibley to select this important tribunal,
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  Speaker 1: and second that he had at his command such admirable
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  Speaker 1: material from which to make his selection. It must be
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  Speaker 1: remembered that this court entered upon its duties with the
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  Speaker 1: lives of hundreds of men at its absolute disposal. Whether
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  Speaker 1: they were Indians or any other kind of people, the
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  Speaker 1: fact must not be overlooked that they were human beings,
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  Speaker 1: and the responsibility of the tribunal was correspondingly great. Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Sibley at this date sent me a dispatch declaring his
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  Speaker 1: intention in the matter of the result of the trials.
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  Speaker 1: It is as follows, Camp Release nine miles below Lacyparl
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  Speaker 1: September twenty five, eighteen sixty two, Colonel, after speaking of
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  Speaker 1: a variety of matters concerning the disposition of troops who
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  Speaker 1: were in my command, the Battle of Wood Lake, which
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  Speaker 1: he characterized as a smart conflict we had with the Indians,
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  Speaker 1: the rescue of the prisoners, and other matters, he adds
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  Speaker 1: n B. I am encamped near a camp of one
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  Speaker 1: hundred fifty lodges of friendly Indians and half breeds, but
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  Speaker 1: have had to purge it of suspected characters. I have
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  Speaker 1: apprehended sixteen supposed to have been connected with the late outrages,
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  Speaker 1: and have appointed a military commission of five officers to
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  Speaker 1: try them. If found guilty, they will be forthwith executed,
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  Speaker 1: although it will perhaps be a stretch of my authority.
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  Speaker 1: If so, necessity must be my justification, Yours, H. H. Sibley.
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  Speaker 1: On the twenty eighth of September, an order was issued
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  Speaker 1: convening this court martial. It was composed of William Crook's
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  Speaker 1: Colonel of the sixth Regiment, President William R. Marshall, Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: colonel of the seventh Regiment, Captains Grant and Bailey of
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  Speaker 1: the sixth, and Lieutenant Olan of the third others were
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  Speaker 1: subsequently added as necessity required. All these men were of
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  Speaker 1: mature years, prominent in their social and general standing as citizens,
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  Speaker 1: and as well equipped as any persons could be to
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  Speaker 1: engage in such work. What I regard is the most
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  Speaker 1: important feature in the composition of this most extraordinary court
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  Speaker 1: is the fact that the Honorable Isaac V D. D Heard,
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  Speaker 1: an experienced lawyer of Saint Paul, who had been for
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  Speaker 1: many years the prosecuting Attorney of Ramsay County, and who
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  Speaker 1: was thoroughly versed in criminal law, was on the staff
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  Speaker 1: of Colonel Sibley, and was by him appointed Recorder of
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  Speaker 1: the court. Mister Hurd, in the performance of his duty,
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  Speaker 1: was above prejudice or passion, and could treat a case
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  Speaker 1: of this nature as if it were a mere misdemeanor.
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Olan was Judge Advocate of this court. But as
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  Speaker 1: the trials progressed, the evidence was all put in and
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  Speaker 1: the records kept by mister Hurd. Some changes were made
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  Speaker 1: in the personnel of the court from time to time,
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  Speaker 1: as the officers were needed elsewhere, but none of the
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  Speaker 1: changes lessened the dignity or character of the tribunal. And
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  Speaker 1: make these comments because the trials took place at a
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  Speaker 1: period of intense excitement, and persons unacquainted with the facts
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  Speaker 1: may be led to believe that the court was organized
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  Speaker 1: to convict and was unfair in its decisions. The court
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  Speaker 1: sat some time at Camp Relice, then at the Lower
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  Speaker 1: Agency and Mancato, where it investigated the question whether the
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  Speaker 1: Winnebagoes had participated in the outbreak, but none of that
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  Speaker 1: tribe were implicated, which proves that the court acted judicially
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  Speaker 1: and not upon unreliable evidence. As the country was full
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  Speaker 1: of rumors and charges that the Winnebagoes were implicated, the
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  Speaker 1: Court terminated its sittings at Fort Snelling after a series
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  Speaker 1: of sessions lasting from September thirtieth to November fifth, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty two, during which four hundred twenty five prisoners were
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  Speaker 1: arraigned and tried. Of these, three hundred twenty one were
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  Speaker 1: found guilty of the offenses charged, of whom three hundred
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  Speaker 1: three were sentenced to death, and the rest to various
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  Speaker 1: terms of imprisonment according to the nature of their crimes.
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  Speaker 1: The condemned prisoners were removed to man Cato, where they
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  Speaker 1: were confined to a large guard house constructed of logs
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose and regarded by a strong force of soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: On the way down. As the party having charge of
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  Speaker 1: the prisoners passed through nu Alms, they found the inhabitants
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  Speaker 1: disinterring the dead who had been hastily buried in the
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  Speaker 1: streets where they fell during the fights at that place.
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  Speaker 1: The sight of the Indians so enraged the people that
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  Speaker 1: a general attack was made on the wagons in which
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  Speaker 1: they were chained together. The attacking force was principally composed
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  Speaker 1: of women, armed with clubs, stones, knives, hot water, and
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  Speaker 1: similar weapons. Of course, the guard could not shoot or
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  Speaker 1: bayonet a woman, and they got the prisoners through the
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  Speaker 1: town with the loss of one killed and many battered
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  Speaker 1: and bruised. While this court martial was in session, the
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  Speaker 1: news of its proceedings reached the eastern cities, and a
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  Speaker 1: great outcry was raised that Minnesota was contemplating a dreadful
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  Speaker 1: massacre of Indians. Many influential bodies of well intentioned but
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  Speaker 1: ill informed people beseeched President Lincoln to put a stop
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  Speaker 1: to the proposed executions. The President sent for the records
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  Speaker 1: of the trials and turned them over to his legal
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  Speaker 1: and military advisers to decide which were the more flagrant cases.
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  Speaker 1: On the sixth day of December eighteen sixty two, the
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  Speaker 1: President made the following order, Executive Mansion, Washington, d C.
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  Speaker 1: December sixth, eighteen sixty two. Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley,
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul, Minnesota, ordered that of the Indians and half
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  Speaker 1: breeds sentenced to be hanged by the Military Commission composed
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  Speaker 1: of Colonel Crooks, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, Captain Grant, Captain Bailey,
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  Speaker 1: and Lieutenant Olin and lately sitting in Minnesota, you caused
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  Speaker 1: to be executed on Friday, the nineteenth day of December.
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  Speaker 1: Instant the following named to wit. Here follow the names
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  Speaker 1: of thirty nine Indians and their numbers on the record
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  Speaker 1: of conviction. The other condemned prisoners you will hold subject
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  Speaker 1: to further orders, taking care that they neither escape nor
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  Speaker 1: are subjected to any unlawful violence. Abraham Lincoln, President of
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  Speaker 1: the United States. Colonel Sibley had been appointed by President
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln a brigadier general on the twenty ninth of September
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two on account of his success at the
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  Speaker 1: Battle of Wood Lake. The announcement of his promotion being
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  Speaker 1: in a telegram as follows, Washington, d C. September twenty ninth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two, Major General Pope Saint Paul, Minnesota. Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Henry H. Sibley is made a brigadier general for his
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  Speaker 1: judicious fight at Yellow Medicine. He should be kept in
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  Speaker 1: command of that column in every possible assistance sent to him. H. W. Halleck,
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  Speaker 1: General in Chief. His commission as brigadier general was not
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  Speaker 1: issued until March twenty sixth, eighteen sixty four. But of
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  Speaker 1: course this telegram amounted to an appointment to the position,
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  Speaker 1: and if accepted as it was, made him subject to
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  Speaker 1: the orders of the President. So, notwithstanding his dispatch to
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  Speaker 1: me stating that the Indians, if convicted, would be fourthwid executed,
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  Speaker 1: he could not very well carry out such an extreme
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  Speaker 1: duty without first submitting it to the federal authorities of
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  Speaker 1: which he had become a part. My view of the
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  Speaker 1: question has always been that when the court martial was organized,
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Sibley had no idea that more than twenty or
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  Speaker 1: twenty five of the Indians would be convicted, which is
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  Speaker 1: partly inferable from his dispatch to me, in which he
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  Speaker 1: said he had apprehended sixteen supposed to have been connected
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  Speaker 1: with the late outrages. But when the matter assumed the
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  Speaker 1: proportions it did, and he found on his hands some
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  Speaker 1: three hundred men to kill, he was glad to shift
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  Speaker 1: the responsibility to higher authority. Any humane man would have
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  Speaker 1: been of the same mind. I have my own views
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  Speaker 1: also of the reasons of the General Government in eliminating
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  Speaker 1: from the list of the condemned all but thirty nine.
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  Speaker 1: It was not because these thirty nine were more guilty
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  Speaker 1: than the rest, but because we were engaged in a
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  Speaker 1: great civil war and the eyes of the world were
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  Speaker 1: upon us. Had these three hundred men been executed, the
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  Speaker 1: charge would have undoubtedly been made by the South that
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  Speaker 1: the North was murdering prisoners of war, and the authorities
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  Speaker 1: at Washington, knowing full well that the other nations were
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  Speaker 1: not capable of making the proper discrimination, and perhaps not
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  Speaker 1: anxious to do so if they were deemed it safer
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  Speaker 1: not to incur the odium which might follow from such
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  Speaker 1: an accusation. End of section thirty four. Recording by Jessica
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  Speaker 1: Louise Saint Paul, Minnesota,