A Thrilling Narrative of the Minnesota Massacre and the Sioux War of 1862-63: Graphic Accounts of the Siege of Fort Ridgely, Battles of Birch Coolie, Wood Lake, Big Mound, Stony Lake, Dead Buffalo Lake and Missouri RiverConnolly, A. P. (Alonzo P.)
History
A Thrilling Narrative of the Minnesota Massacre and the Sioux War of 1862-63: Graphic Accounts of the Siege of Fort Ridgely, Battles of Birch Coolie, Wood Lake, Big Mound, Stony Lake, Dead Buffalo Lake and Missouri River
Connolly, A. P. (Alonzo P.)
Dakota Indians -- Wars -- 1862-1865
The condemned Indians were sent under strong guard to Camp Sibley, on the
banks of the Red Wood River. They were chained together and kept in a
structure built for the purpose, and their squaws, who were camped on the
outside, were allowed to cook for them under the supervision of a guard,
to prevent them from smuggling knives or a weapon of any kind on the
inside of the enclosure.
[Illustration: CAMP LINCOLN.]
After a week or ten days we again took up the line of march to a
destination known only to the General and his Staff, but which proved
to be that the Seventh Minnesota, under Colonel William R. Marshall,
should proceed with the prisoners to Mankato, and the Sixth Minnesota,
under Colonel Crooks, should report at Fort Snelling for further orders.
The two regiments marched together until we reached a point some way
below New Ulm. Nothing of importance took place until we reached this
place. The General having heard that the citizens had determined to kill
every redskin regardless of consequences if they could possibly get
hold of them, took precaution against it. It was said that every house
was supplied with hot water, hot soft soap and anything and everything
that ingenuity could invent to inflict sudden and sure punishment, and
death if possible, to those that had brought such woe to them. For this
reason the General changed his course somewhat, and making a detour to
the right, escaped the necessity or perhaps bloodshed, in trying to save
his captives from the hands of this justly furious people. Men and women
turned out en masse and hurling imprecations, flourishing butcher knives,
table knives, and even scissors, axes, pitchforks--in fact, every sort of
weapon--seemed determined to get at them, and abused soldiers and Indians
alike because they were held at bay. They followed us for two or three
miles before they became convinced that the General was determined at all
hazards to uphold the supremacy of the government in protecting these
blood-stained captives from the furies of a people who had suffered so
much at the hands of some of their tribes in the murder of their innocent
women and children.
At a point below New Ulm the command was divided, a portion taking all
the condemned men to Mankato, and the balance of the command proceeding
to Fort Snelling.
At Mankato, as the days wore away and there was some doubt as to what the
final decision of President Lincoln would be, great fear was entertained
that there would be a general uprising of the people, and an attempt
made to override military and civil law by wresting the Indians from
the soldiers and instituting a general massacre of them, irrespective of
their guilt or innocence, but Colonel Stephen Miller, the post commander,
having determined that law and not lawlessness should prevail, used the
utmost vigilance to defeat any such undertaking.
CHAPTER XXV.
PROTESTS--PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ORDER FOR THE EXECUTION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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