CAPTURE OF RENEGADE BANDS--MIDNIGHT MARCH.
General Sibley was apprised by his scouts that there were several lodges
of Indians up around Goose Nest Lake, and also near the mouth of the
Lac-qui-Parle River, and he dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall with
two hundred and fifty men (having six days' rations) to bring them in.
The little expedition started at midnight. They did not find Indians at
the point designated, but struck across the country, and by a forced
march of forty-five miles, found two lodges. They took the young men
prisoners, but the women and children were placed in charge of the old
men and sent away with instructions to report at Camp Release, which they
did in due time. Colonel Marshall heard of twenty-seven lodges at a place
described as Two Wood Lake, but upon arriving there, found the place
deserted, the enemy leaving behind for the benefit of other Indians, a
sign indicating that they had left two days before. In order to catch
them, the infantry were instructed to follow, while the cavalry, with a
howitzer, pushed on as fast as possible, and about midnight on the 16th
the detachment came up to the Indians, who, unsuspecting, were enjoying
their sleep. The barking of the dogs awoke them, and they realized that
something unusual was about to occur. Peering out through the opening
of their tepees, they saw horsemen and at once suspected they were
soldiers. The half-breed scouts called upon them to surrender and they
would not be harmed. Some of the younger men started to run away, but
they were overtaken and all made prisoners. In their conversation with
the interpreter they said they would have given themselves up, but were
afraid to do so. They said they knew that starvation stared them in the
face, because a cold winter was at hand, their provisions were all gone,
and that for the sake of their families they were glad to be caught. They
said also that Little Crow and some of his immediate followers had gone
farther north, near Devil's Lake.
The game having been successfully bagged, Colonel Marshall hastened with
the prisoners back to Camp Release, where everything was in readiness for
a move down to Red Wood.
Among the Indians was a negro by the name of Godfrey. He had never known
any other people and was totally ignorant concerning his parentage; but
he was among them, taking part in all their battles, and a very active
part, too, for the charge against him was "murder," in that with his
own hand he had killed seven white men, women and children. He said he
was not guilty. It is often thus--guilty men are innocent in their own
estimation. Mr. O-ta-kle (Godfrey), was in his own opinion one of this
sort. Certain it was, he had been enthusiastic over the prospect of
the excitement that would follow a general uprising, for he put on a
breech-clout and decorated his black face and legs in all the gorgeous
hues of Indian war paint. He could "whoop" as loud and yell as fiercely
as the best of them, and when the Indians returned from one of their
raids he was accounted one of the bravest of their warriors. He admitted
that he had killed seven; this he did, however, to his Indian comrades,
when it would, if a fact, add feathers to his coronet and renown to his
cruel record; but, when confronted by the men who could pass judgment
against him if found guilty, he was the most innocent creature in all
the world. In his hesitating, broken way of speaking, he gave a minute
account of his whereabouts. There was no direct evidence against him,
excepting his own confession to his comrades that he was with the Indians
in all their raids and that he had killed seven people. In his earnest
denial of the fact, he had such an honest look, and spoke with such a
truthful tone, that the court, although prejudiced against him, were
inclined to listen to his story with a reasonable degree of favor; yet
he was finally found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, the verdict
being accompanied with a recommendation that his punishment be commuted
to imprisonment for ten years. He did not go to prison, but was sent to
a reservation and compelled to stay there. Who he was, or where he came
from, no one seemed to know, and he could remember nothing beyond his
life among the Indians.