FORT RIDGELY BESIEGED.
Fort Ridgely was a fort in name only. It was not built for defense,
but was simply a collection of buildings built around a square facing
inwards. The commandant's quarters, and those of the officers, also, were
two-story structures of wood, while the men's barracks of two stories
and the commissary storehouse were stone, and into these the families of
the officers and soldiers and the refugee families were placed during
the siege. On the 20th of August, 1862, about 3 p. m., an attack was
made upon the fort by a large body of Indians, who stealthily came down
the ravines and surrounded it. The first intimation the people and the
garrison had of their proximity was a volley from the hostile muskets
pouring between the openings of the buildings. The sudden onslaught
caused great consternation, but order was soon restored.
Sergeant Jones, of the battery, who had seen service in the British army,
as well as in our own regular army, in attempting to turn his guns on the
Indians found to his utter astonishment that the pieces had been tampered
with by some of the half-breeds belonging to the Renville Rangers who had
deserted to the enemy. They had spiked the guns by ramming old rags into
them. The sergeant soon made them serviceable, however, and brought his
pieces to bear upon the Indians in such an effective way as to teach them
a lesson in artillery practice they did not forget. The "rotten balls,"
as they termed the shells, fell thick and fast among them, and the havoc
was so great that they withdrew out of range to hold a council of war
and recover from their surprise. The fight lasted, however, for three
hours, with a loss to the garrison of three killed and eighteen wounded.
On the morning of Thursday, the 21st of August, the attack was renewed
by the Indians, and they made a second attack in the afternoon, but with
less force and earnestness and but little damage to the garrison. The
soldiers were on the alert and the night was an anxious one, for the
signs from the hostiles indicated that they were making preparations
for a further attempt to capture the fort. During the night barricades
were placed at all open spaces between the buildings, and the little
garrison band instructed, each man's duty specified, and directions
given to the women and children, who were placed in the stone barracks,
to lie low so as not to be harmed by bullets coming in at the windows.
On Friday, the 22d, Little Crow, the then Sioux commander in chief, had
the fort surrounded by 650 warriors whom he had brought down from the
agency. He had them concealed in the ravines which surrounded the fort,
and endeavored by sending a few of the warriors out on the open prairie
to draw the garrison out from the fort, but fortunately there were men
there who had previously had experience in Indian warfare, and the
scheme of this wily old Indian fox did not work. Little Crow, finding it
useless to further maneuver in this way, ordered an attack. The showers
of bullets continued for seven long hours, or until about 7 p. m., but
the attack was courageously and bitterly opposed by the infantry, and
this, together with the skillfully handled artillery by Sergeant Jones,
saved the garrison for another day. The Indians sought shelter behind
and in the outlying wooden buildings, but well directed shells from the
battery fired these buildings and routed the Indians, who in turn made
various attempts by means of fire arrows to ignite the wooden buildings
of the fort proper. But for the daring and vigilance of the troops the
enemy would have succeeded in their purpose. The Indians lost heavily in
this engagement, while the loss to the troops was one killed and seven
wounded. Lieutenant Sheehan, the commander of the post, was a man of
true grit, and he was ably assisted by Lieutenant Gorman of the Renville
Rangers, and Sergeants Jones and McGrau of the battery. Every man was
a hero and did his whole duty. Surrounded as they were by hundreds of
bloodthirsty savages, this little band was all that stood between the
hundreds of women and children refugees and certain death, or worse
than death! Besides, the government storehouses were filled with army
supplies, and about $75,000 in gold, with which they intended making an
annuity payment to these same Indians.
The water supply being cut off, the soldiers and all the people,
especially the wounded, suffered severely, but Post Surgeon Mueller and
his noble wife heroically responded to the urgent calls of the wounded
sufferers irrespective of danger. Mrs. Mueller was a lovely woman of the
heroic type. During the siege, in addition to caring for the wounded, she
made coffee, and in the night frequently visited all the men who were on
guard and plentifully supplied them with this exhilarating beverage. An
incident in relation to her also is, that during the siege the Indians
had sheltered themselves behind a haystack and from it were doing deadly
work. Sergeant Jones could not bring his twenty-four pounder to bear on
them without exposing his men too much, unless he fired directly through
a building that stood in the way. This house was built as they are on the
plantations in the South, with a broad hall running from the front porch
clear through to the rear. In the rear of this hall were rough double
doors, closed principally in winter time to keep the snow from driving
through. The sergeant had them closed and then brought his piece around
in front, and the Indians away back of the house could not see what the
maneuvering was. He crept up and attached a rope to the handle of the
door, and looking through the cracks got the range and then sighted his
gun. Mrs. Mueller, sheltered and out of harm's way, held the end of
the attached rope. The signal for her to pull open the doors was given
by Sergeant Jones, and this signal was the dropping of a handkerchief.
When the signal came, with good nerve, she pulled the rope and open flew
the doors. Immediately the gunner pulled the lanyard and the shell with
lighted fuse landed in the haystacks, which were at once set fire to and
the Indians dislodged. This lady died at her post, beloved by all who
knew her, and a grateful government has erected an expensive monument
over her remains, which lie buried in the soldiers' cemetery at Fort
Ridgely, where, with hundreds of others whose pathway to the grave was
smoothed by her motherly hands, they will remain until the great reveille
on the resurrection dawn.
[Illustration: LITTLE CROW.]