648 



MINNESOTA. 



The State has done its full part for the war. 

 Up to the 30th of Nov. 1863, it had furnished 

 the following troops : 10 regiments of infantry, 

 9,053 men; 2 regiments of cavalry (one a 

 twelve-months regiment), 1,556 men; three 

 companies of cavalry attached to 5th Iowa 

 cavalry, 271 ; one mounted battalion for In- 

 dian war, 287; two batteries of light artillery, 

 298 ; one company of sharpshooters, 103 ; re- 

 cruits for these regiments and companies, 666 ; 

 men from Minnesota drafted in other States but 

 credited to Minnesota, 37; one regiment of 

 three-months men, 930; making a total of 13,201 

 men, or nearly one in thirteen of the inhabit- 

 ants. Omitting the three-months men and re- 

 ducing the twelve-months cavalry to three-years 

 men, the aggregate of three-years men furnish- 

 ed by the State is 11,549. In addition to these 

 troops, 2,779 volunteers were raised for the de- 

 fence of the State in the Indian war of 1862, and 

 a considerable number in the war of 1863. 



Minnesota again experienced trouble with 

 the Indians in the summer of 1863, though 

 there was no general massacre like that of Au- 

 gust and September, 1862. Although the fron- 

 tier was guarded by a force of 2,000 men, yet 

 the Indians of Little Crow's band, in companies 

 of half a dozen or more, penetrated within the 

 lines and even approached to within a few 

 miles of St. Paul. They had murdered, before 

 the first of July, about thirty persons, and 

 about a dozen Indians had been killed. This 

 prowling of the Indians through the State kept 

 the entire body of citizens in a constant con- 

 dition of excitement and anxiety, and the mili- 

 tary authorities were bitterly denounced for 

 their supposed inactivity. 



General Sibley, who was in immediate com- 

 mand on the frontier, was not, however, so re- 

 miss in his duty as the complaining parties 

 supposed. He had kept constant watch, by 

 means of his spies, of all the movements of the 

 Indians from the time of their defeat in the au- 

 tumn of 1862. He knew that these marauding 

 bands composed but a small part of the Indian 

 force ; that the main body of that force was 

 still in Dakota Territory ; that Little Crow had 

 endeavored to enlist the other tribes in a gen- 

 eral war against the whites, but had been un- 

 successful ; that he had in the spring visited 

 St.. Joseph and Fort Garry in the British pos- 

 sessions, and asked for a grant of land to settle 

 with his band and the other Indians who had 

 been concerned in the massacre, and had been 

 refused ; that he had gone a second time and 

 asked for ammunition, and had been refused 

 that also. The great body* of the insurgent In- 

 dians, Gen. Sibley had ascertained, were in the 

 vicinity of Miniwakan or Devil's lake, a salt 

 lake nearly five hundred miles northwest from 

 St. Paul. The number of Indians gathered 

 here, including women and children, was not 

 far from five thousand, the greater part of them 

 belonging to the Minnesota tribes of Sioux, to 

 whom had been added- perhaps one thousand 

 Yanktonais Sioux. 



In the early part of June General Sibley, with 

 a force of between two and three thousand 

 men, set out for Devil's lake by way of the 

 Minnesota river and Fort Abercrombie. About 

 the same time Gen. Pope sent Gen. Sully, an 

 officer of the regular army who had had large 

 experience as an Indian fighter, from Sioux 

 City up the Missouri river to cut off the retreat 

 of the hostile Indians whom General Sibley 

 might drive before him from Minnesota and 

 Eastern Dakota, and eventually to form a junc- 

 tion with Sibley. The two movements were 

 not accurately timed and no junction was effect- 

 ed. "While these two expeditions were making 

 their toilsome progress over the plains scorched 

 by the terrible heat of the summer, and suffer- 

 ing from the intense drought, which more than 

 once threatened to destroy their horses and 

 cattle, the Indian leader, Little Crow, who, ac- 

 companied ' by one of his sons, had ventured 

 within the lines in the neighborhood of Hutch- 

 inson, Minnesota, was killed by a settler named 

 Lampson, but his body was not recognized with 

 certainty till nearly a month later. His eldest 

 son succeeded him as chief of the insurgent In- 

 dians. 



Gen. Sibley pursued his line of march, en- 

 countering but few Indians, and these generally 

 flying before him, some into British territory, 

 but the greater part retreating toward the 

 Missouri river, whither, as rapidly as his train 

 and troops, greatly distressed by the heat and 

 drought, could move, he pursued them. Ar- 

 riving at Big Mound near a lake on the west- 

 ern base of the hills of the C6teau du Missouri, 

 on the 24th of July Gen. Sibley first encounter- 

 ed the Indians in force, and after a sharp 

 action, begun on their part by the treacherous 

 murder of a surgeon who approached them to 

 meet a flag of truce, they fled, and were pur- 

 sued about ten miles across the prairie. Sib- 

 ley's loss in this battle was four killed and ono 

 wounded. The Indians lost heavily and aban- 

 doned the greater part of their wagons and 

 stores. On the 26th at Dead Buffalo lake, the 

 Indians made a dash at the horses and mules 

 of the command, but were repulsed with great 

 promptness and a considerable number of them 

 slain. On the morning of the 28th of July they 

 had another skiwnish with the Indians at Stony 

 lake, in which the whites suffered no loss but 

 several Indians were killed. On the 29th Gen. 

 Sibley's force reached the banks of tho Mis- 

 souri, in lat. 46 42', Ion. 100 35', but had the 

 mortification to find that the Indians had made 

 good their escape across the Missouri, and were 

 posted upon the opposite bank. They had 

 abandoned almost all their provisions, and were 

 evidently disabled from doing any further seri- 

 ous mischief. Gen. Sully had not been heard 

 from, and as Gen. Sibley had but fifteen days' 

 rations, and no hope of obtaining more till lie 

 reached the settlement, almost four hundred 

 miles distant, he reluctantly abandoned the pur- 

 suit and turned his face eastward. In these 

 successive battles the loss of the Indians had 





