MARCH TO FORT RIDGELY.
In the interval the companies were drilled and the command otherwise
prepared to act effectively against the formidable body of hostile
warriors, who were well armed and plentifully supplied with powder and
ball. Colonel Sibley, having looked the ground over with a critical
eye, uninfluenced by the public clamor and fault-finding of the press,
remained firm in the determination not to take the field until assured
of success in his operations. He knew the Indians well, and knew it was
necessary to fight or failure, there would be no adequate barrier to the
descent of the savages upon St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the desolation
of the state generally. The Chippewas on the north were known to be in
secret communication with Little Crow, the head of the Sioux hordes, and
ready to them cautiously if he would succeed, for, in case of defeat
co-operate with him if victorious, while the Winnebagoes were also in
active sympathy with him, for two or three of their warriors were found
among the dead after the battle of Wood Lake, which occurred later on.
Arms, ammunition and supplies arriving, we took up the line of march for
Fort Ridgely, which was then in a state of siege. Our advent at the Fort
was hailed with delight, for the little garrison was pretty well tired
out with the fighting and watching that they had had on their hands for
the eight days previous. Barricades had been erected at all weak points,
but the Indians so far outnumbered the soldiers that they approached near
enough to fire the wooden buildings of the fort proper in many places.
Our march to Fort Ridgely was the first we had made as an entire
organization, and under an able commanding officer we profited by it. On
the way we found the dead body of a colored man from St. Paul by the name
of Taylor. He was a barber by trade, but also quite a noted gambler, and
had been up to the agency to get his share of the money when the Indians
got their pay.
He played one game too many, and lost--his life.
Before we reached the Fort the Indians took alarm and sullenly retreated
upon our approach, after having done all possible damage to men and
property. As we entered, the brave little garrison accompanied by the
women and children turned out to greet us, and a right joyous time we
had. A detachment of thirty men of the Fifth Minnesota, under Captain
Marsh, the commander of the fort, upon receipt of news of the outbreak,
had marched in the direction of the Lower Sioux Agency, distant a few
miles. The Indians, perceiving the advance of this small detachment,
placed themselves in ambush in the long grass at the crossing of the
Minnesota River and awaited the oncoming of their unsuspecting victims,
and, when in the toils, they opened a terrific fire upon them, which
destroyed almost the entire party.
Colonel Sibley hurried forward supplies and ammunition for an extensive
campaign, for, from his knowledge of the Indians, he knew it was no boy's
play. The moving spirit among the hostiles was Little Crow, a wily old
chief, without principle, but active and influential. He had harangued
his people into the belief that the fight going on among the whites in
the South had drawn off all the able-bodied men, leaving none but old
men, women and children. "Now," he said, "is the time to strike for
Minnesota. These fertile fields, stolen from us, are ours; the buffalo
are gone; we have no food, and our women and children are starving. Let
the warriors assemble in war paint and drive the pale-faces from the
face of the earth!" He told his people they could pitch their wigwams
the coming winter in St. Paul and hold high carnival in the legislative
halls. So widespread had the alarm became that it reached St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and "minute men" were on duty on the bluffs adjacent for
several days. In addition to the Sioux, the Chippewas and Winnebagoes
were becoming very restless, and this caused additional uneasiness in the
two cities.
Colonel Sibley, upon his arrival of the fort, sent out scouts to
ascertain the whereabouts of the Indians. The news they brought was that
a large camp of hostiles was located above the Yellow Medicine, where
they held as captives about four hundred white women and children, and
one white man. They also reported that the Indians were preparing to make
a raid on the small towns below the fort.
It was also known that a large number of citizens who had been killed
near the agency were yet unburied, and the fate of Captain Marsh and his
men was in doubt. To this end a small command was organized, as narrated
in another chapter, to go out to bury the dead and relieve Captain Marsh
and his men if they were found alive.