By daylight Colonel Sibley reached McPhail’s bivouac with the remaining companies of the Sixth and five companies of the Seventh, which had arrived the day before. The Sioux, seeing themselves outnumbered, made but feeble resistance to his advance and rapidly left the neighborhood. When Colonel Sibley rode into the impounded camp thirteen men lay dead, three more were soon to die, forty-five were severely wounded, and others had received abrasions. For more than twenty-four hours the men had lain without water, and they were worn with their ceaseless watch. The “Battle of Birch Coulie” has been commemorated by a monument erected at the expense of the state, in regard to which an unfortunate controversy has raged. Through misinformation the commissioners accredited the command of the expedition to another than Major Joseph R. Brown. To one looking back after the lapse of a generation it would seem that no one would care to be credited with the leadership of the disastrous affair. Colonel Sibley had given the most precise and emphatic directions to guard against surprise and ambush. Colonel Sibley now had a double problem before him. He must overtake and destroy the Indian forces, and that without giving their commander pretext to slaughter the three hundred prisoners in his possession. It was rumored, probably by Little Crow’s instigation, that if attacked he would put these prisoners between his men and the whites. A policy of caution and delay was therefore desirable. It was also necessary for the reason that the command at Fort Ridgely was in no way prepared for war. The men were not yet clothed, the supply of food was insufficient and precarious, and ammunition had not yet been provided in sufficient quantity. The mounted citizens who had rallied so promptly on Governor Ramsey’s call began to disappear as soon as there was “a prospect of meeting the red-skins.” In the middle of the month (September 14) Sibley reported to Governor Ramsey that he had but twenty-eight of that “description of force,” and would not be surprised at a stampede among them. Elsewhere he speaks of it as “base desertion.” These men returning to their homes were able to correct a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with Colonel Sibley for needless delay in chasing Little Crow to his lair. Some newspapers threw out the vile insinuation that he did not pursue and destroy the Indians because he had so many friends among them.