These early forts were established to protect the settlers along the frontier and to keep the Indians in order. It was after the Sioux outbreak in Minnesota in 1862 that Gen. Henry H. Sibley was sent to punish the Sioux. In June of 1863 he headed his army west from Minnesota toward the Devil's Lake region, where he arrived to find the Indians had gone south. He pursued them and on July 24 engaged them in battle at Big Mound about seven miles north of the present town of Tappen. They retreated, and he followed them to Dead Buffalo Lake, northwest of Dawson, where July 26 another engagement was fought. Two days later he met them again at Stony Lake northeast of Driscoll, but the Sioux retreated rapidly and there was no fighting. Moving on toward the Missouri, Sibley encamped on Apple Creek, seven miles east of the present site of Bismarck, and again near its mouth. The Sioux fled across the river.
Sibley, all along the route, had thrown up defensive earthworks at each of his camps. All of these camp sites which were not plowed under have been definitely located under direction of the State historical society.
Gen. Alfred H. Sully was to have met Sibley on the Missouri, but no contact could be made and Sibley set out for Minnesota on August 1, 1863. Sully came up the river from Sioux City, and was near Long Lake when he learned that Sibley had gone home and the Sioux had recrossed the Missouri and departed for the James River. Sully gave chase—he had been sent out to fight Indians, and fight them he would. The Battle of Whitestone Hill, near Ellendale, followed. Whether the Indians Sully fought had taken part in the Minnesota uprising is today regarded as dubious, but the battle is said to have been the fiercest ever fought on North Dakota soil. The field is now marked by a monument of a cavalry trooper (see Tour 2).
Sully returned to Sioux City but was sent back the following year to deal out still more punishment to the Sioux. After Fort Rice had been established a scouting detachment was sent after the evasive red men, and soon reported Sioux near Killdeer Mountain. Here an engagement was fought July 28, 1864, in which the Indians were severely punished, although afterwards it developed that few of them were Minnesota Sioux.
The troops proceeded up the Little Missouri, where Indians were discovered near Medora. With difficulty Sully traversed 12 miles of Badlands buttes and gullies, continually harassed by the sniping fire of Indians along the route. The fighting of this day is known as the Battle of the Badlands. Following this encounter Sully reached the Yellowstone and returned down the Missouri.
Before he arrived at Fort Rice, he was informed that Capt. James L. Fisk, with a party of immigrants, was in danger. Fisk, who had made expeditions through North Dakota in 1862 and 1863, on this trip followed Sully's trail, and in the Badlands was attacked September 1 by Indians, with the loss of several men. During the next few days several other attacks were made, although no one was killed. Messengers were sent to Sully for aid, and meanwhile the party threw up what fortifications they could in the form of sod walls, and, awaited help. After several days the soldiers arrived and brought the immigrants back to Fort Rice, whence most of them returned to their homes. The remains of their impromptu fortification, known as Fort Dilts, can still be seen (see Tour 9).
One of the most valuable expeditions made through this State was the Stevens Survey of 1853, sent out to discover the most advantageous routes to the Pacific for future railroads. The party was financed by a Federal appropriation, and the northern route, through present North Dakota, was under the direction of Gen. I. I. Stevens.
The guide on this expedition was Pierre Bottineau, one of the outstanding personalities in the history of North Dakota and Minnesota during this period. Of him it has been written that
"It was the guide Bottineau who walked from Winnipeg to St. Paul with James J. Hill, it was the scout Bottineau who headed Jay Cooke's first Northern Pacific survey across the continent, it was the chief Bottineau who gave his name to Bottineau County, and it was the gambler Bottineau who had three queens in his hand, staked Nicollet Island, and lost."