Dakota War of 1862
1862 CE to 1864 CE
The Dakota War of 1862 (also known as the Sioux Uprising, Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War) is an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux or Dakota which began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota and ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota.Throughout the late 1850s, treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents had caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota.
Traders with the Dakota previously had demanded that annuity payments be given to them directly (introducing the possibility of unfair dealing between the agents and the traders), but in mid-1862, the Dakota demand the annuities directly from their agent, Thomas J. Galbraith.
The traders refuse to provide any more supplies on credit.
Thus negotiations reach an impasse as a result of the bellicosity of the traders' representative, Andrew Myrick.On August 17, 1862, five American settlers are killed by four Dakota on a hunting expedition.
That night, a council of Dakota decides to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley in an effort to drive whites out of the area.
Continued battles between the Dakota against settlers and later, the United States Army, end with the surrender of most of the Dakota forces.
An estimated 40,000 white settlers flee their homes and up to 800 white settlers and soldiers die during the month-long uprising.
By late December, more than a thousand Dakota are interned in jails in Minnesota, and 38 Dakota are hanged in the largest one-day execution in American history on December 26, 1862.
In April 1863, the rest of the Dakota are expelled from Minnesota to Nebraska and South Dakota, and their reservations are abolished by the United States Congress.
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Poor hunting grounds remain for the Dakota after their cession of lands east of the Red and Big Sioux Rivers in Minnesota and Iowa; they have become increasingly hostile to white settlers and traders, many of whom encroach on Indian territory and are unscrupulous in their dealings.
When 1862 arrives shortly after a failed crop the year before and a winter starvation, the federal payment is late.
The local traders will not issue any more credit to the Santee and the lead trader trader, Andrew Myrick, goes so far as to tell them that they are 'free to eat grass or their own dung'.
As a result, the Dakota War of 1862 begins when a few Santee men murder a white farmer and most of his family on August 17, 1862, igniting further attacks on white settlements along the Minnesota River.
The Santee now attack the trading post, and Myrick is later found among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass.
A band of warriors under Chief Little Crow ambushes and destroys an army detachment from Fort Ridgely, near New Ulm, on the upper Minnesota River, then besiege the heavily defended fort itself, on August 20.
Dakota warriors decide not to attack Fort Ridgely, and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers on August 24, 1862.
If it were not for his close political and personal ties to President Lincoln, his military career might have been completely ruined.
Instead, he has been transferred to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and command of the Army's Department of the Northwest, where he fights the Dakota War of 1862.
Major General George B. McClellan had assumed command of all Union forces around Washington on September 2, and his Army of the Potomac absorbs the forces of the Army of Virginia, which is disbanded on September 12, 1862.
The Dakota have created panic in Minnesota by their barn-burning, slaughter of men, women and children, and destruction of crops but, due to the Civil War, repeated appeals for help are required before President Lincoln appoints General John Pope to assemble troops from the Third and Fourth Minnesota Regiments to quell the violence.
Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey also instructs Colonel Henry Sibley (the state's first governor) to aid in the effort.
Sibley raises a volunteer militia force at Fort Snelling and sets out to punish the Sioux.
At Wood Lake, Sibley decisively defeats Little Crow (September 23, 1862), who escapes westward. (Returning the next year, he will be shot dead by a Minnesota farmer for the bounty on Sioux.)
Three hundred and three Santee captives are convicted of murder and rape by military tribunals and sentenced to death on November 5, six weeks after the Battle of Wood Lake.
Some trials last less than five minutes, and the Dakotas have no one to explain the proceedings to them or to represent them.
Most of the convicted Santee have their sentences commuted after President Lincoln reviews the trial records and distinguishes between those who had engaged in warfare against the United States and those who had committed the crimes of rape or murder of civilians, but thirty-eight are hanged on December 26, 1862, in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, a large military operation is begun by Sibley in cooperation with Brigadier General Alfred Sully.
Some Dakota refugees and warriors had made their way to Lakota lands following their expulsion from Minnesota.
Battles continue between the forces of the Department of the Northwest and combined Lakota and Dakota forces.
Colonel Henry H. Sibley with two thousand men had pursued the Sioux into Dakota Territory.
Sibley's army defeats the Lakota and Dakota in the Battle of Big Mound on July 24, 1863; the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake on July 26, 1863; and the Battle of Stony Lake on July 28, 1863.
Sibley’s force defeats the combined Lakota and Dakota at the Battle of Whitestone Hill on September 3, 1863.