Yielding to the prayers of refugees in Fort Ridgely, whose relatives were lying unburied about the ruins of their homes or along the roadsides, Colonel Sibley decided to send out a burial party which should also serve as a corps of observation. It marched on the morning of August 31 under the direction of Major Joseph R. Brown, whom Colonel Sibley had attached to his staff. His party was made up of Captain H. P. Grant’s company of the Sixth Infantry, fifty mounted men under Captain Joseph Anderson, a fatigue detail of twenty, and seventeen teamsters. The column moved slowly, halting to bury sixteen bodies on the agency road, and at nightfall bivouacked on the bottom near the Redwood Ferry. In the morning Major Brown with the mounted men crossed the Minnesota and scouted through the villages above the agency, to find them deserted. The infantry force buried some twenty bodies of Captain Marsh’s men, moved up the north side, struck across the prairie to the head of Birch Coulie, and went into camp on a singularly ill-chosen spot, at which Major Brown arrived at sunset. The wagons were parked in open order, and the animals were tied to picket ropes stretched between them. Within the circle so formed the party went early to sleep, some in Sibley tents, but most under the open sky. At daybreak they were awakened by a blood-curdling yell and a volley of bullets apparently from all quarters and at short range. Captain Anderson, who had seen service in the Mexican War, ordered his men to lie low and fire at will. The infantry commander, after a vain effort to form his men in line, gave a like judicious order. The savages maintained a murderous fire for an hour, at the end of which ten of Brown’s men were killed and forty more wounded, himself included. Desultory firing continued throughout the day, in the lulls of which possible arrangements for defense were made. The bodies of over ninety horses were strung along, and earth, dug up with three spades and one shovel, and with sabres, bayonets, pocket-knives, and tin plates, was heaped over them. The pits thus formed served as good cover for the men who were prudent. At two in the afternoon the boom of a cannon from the eastward gave notice of approaching relief, but night fell and it did not come. The sound of the morning’s battle was heard at Sibley’s outposts, fifteen miles away. With all possible dispatch he sent a relieving party consisting of three companies of the Sixth Infantry, fifty mounted “Rangers,” and a section of artillery, and gave the command to Colonel Samuel McPhail of Houston County. The party crossed the east branch of Birch Coulie and came within sight of Brown’s camp, but the prudent commander did not think it wise to risk his men in a battle. He therefore recrossed the branch, took up a safe position for the night, and sent Lieutenant Sheehan back to Sibley for reinforcements. He reached the fort unharmed, but his horse fell dead soon after from gunshot wounds.