The History of Minnesota and Tales of the FrontierFlandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
History
The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier
Flandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- History
These were Unca-Papa Sioux, who had murdered a party
of miners from Idaho the year before, and had given aid and comfort to
the Minnesota refugee Indians. They were attacked, and a very spirited
engagement ensued in which the enemy was badly beaten and suffered
severe losses. The place where this battle was fought was called
Ta-ka-ho-ku-tay, or "The bluff where the man shot the deer."
On the next day, August 3d, the command moved west through the Bad
Lands, and just as it emerged from this terribly ragged country it was
sharply attacked by a large body of Indians. The fight lasted through
two days and nights, when the enemy retired in haste. They were very
roughly handled in this engagement.
General Sully then crossed to the west side of the Yellowstone river,
where the weary soldiers found two steamboats awaiting them, with ample
supplies. In crossing this rapid river the command lost three men and
about twenty horses. From this point they came home by the way of Forts
Union, Berthold and Stevenson, reaching Fort Rice on the 9th of
September.
On this trip General Sully located Forts Rice, Stevenson and Berthold.
On reaching Fort Rice, considerable anxiety was felt for Colonel Fisk,
who, with a squad of fifty troops, had left the fort as an escort for a
train of Idaho immigrants, and had been attacked 180 miles west of the
fort, and had been compelled to intrench. He had sent for
reenforcements, and General Sully sent him three hundred men, who
extricated him from his perilous position.
The Minnesota brigade returned home by way of Fort Wadsworth, where they
arrived on September 27th. Here Major Rose, with six companies of the
Second Cavalry, was left to garrison the post, the balance of the
command reaching Fort Snelling on the 12th of October.
In June, 1865, another expedition left Minnesota for the west, under
Colonel Callahan of Wisconsin, which went as far as Devil's lake. The
first, second and fourth sections of the Third Minnesota battery
accompanied it. Again, in 1866, an expedition started from Fort
Abercrombie, which included the first section of the Third Battery,
under Lieutenant Whipple. As no important results followed from these
two latter expeditions, I only mention them as being parts of the Indian
war.
The numbers of Indians engaged in this war, together with their superior
fighting qualities, their armament, and the country occupied by them
gives it rank among the most important of the Indian wars fought since
the first settlement of the country on the Atlantic coast. But when
viewed in the light of the number of settlers massacred, the amount of
property destroyed, and the horrible atrocities committed by the
savages, it far surpasses them all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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