Early the next morning Colonel Sibley left Fort Snelling by steamer, with four companies of the Sixth Minnesota Infantry. At Shakopee he was obliged to disembark. It was not till late on Friday, August 22, that he reached St. Peter, which was to be his base of operation. Here Jack Frazer, who had escaped from Fort Ridgely, brought him the information that the whole body of Sioux chiefs and braves, probably two thousand in number, were on the warpath. His four hundred raw infantry men would be no match for them, the more because the Austrian rifles furnished them at Fort Snelling were unfit for use. Sending down to Governor Ramsey for reinforcements, with suitable arms and ammunition, Colonel Sibley devoted himself to impressing teams, provisions, and forage, and making other preparations for his campaign. Governor Ramsey in a proclamation issued on the 21st called on the militia of the Minnesota valley and frontier counties to arm and mount and join Sibley’s expedition with a few days’ subsistence. Companies from the valley towns, from Minneapolis, Faribault, and elsewhere reported. The remaining companies of the Sixth came up with Springfield rifles. On the morning of the 26th the expedition marched for Fort Ridgely. An advance party of mounted men reached the post on the following day, to the joy and relief of the long imprisoned garrison. The main body came up on the 28th and made an intrenched camp outside the fort. To protect the column from rear attack around its left flank, Governor Ramsey appointed Judge Flandrau colonel, and authorized him to collect and dispose the militia companies coming in from the southeastern counties. He presently formed a line of posts from New Ulm and Mankato up the valley of the Blue Earth and on to the Iowa line.