Almost simultaneously with the attack on Fort Ridgely the Indians in large numbers appeared in the vicinity of New Ulm, with the evident intention of burning and pillaging the village. Judge Charles E. Flandrau of this city, who was then residing at St. Peter, organized a company of volunteers and marched across the country to the relief of that place. The judge received several acquisitions to his force while en route, and when he arrived at New Ulm found himself in command of about 300 men, poorly armed and wholly without military experience. They arrived at New Ulm just in time to assist the inhabitants in driving the Indians from the upper part of the village, several citizens having been killed and a number of houses burned. Two or three days afterward the Indians appeared in large force, surrounded the town and commenced burning the buildings on its outskirts. After a desperate encounter, in which the force under command of Judge Flandrau lost ten killed and about forty wounded, the Indians retired. There were in the village at the time of the attack about 1,200 or 1,500 noncombatants, and every one of them would have been killed had the Indian attack been successful. Provisions and ammunition becoming scarce, the judge decided to evacuate the town and march across the country to Mankato. They made up a train of about 150 wagons, loaded them with women and children and the men who had been wounded in the fight, and arrived safely in Mankato without being molested. Nearly two hundred houses were burned before the town was evacuated, leaving nothing standing but a few houses inside the hastily constructed barricade. The long procession of families leaving their desolated homes, many of them never to return, formed one of the saddest scenes in the history of the outbreak, and will ever be remembered by the gallant force under the command of Judge Flandrau, who led them to a place of safety.
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As soon as Gen. Sibley arrived at Fort Ridgely a detail of Company A of the Sixth regiment, under command of Capt. H.P. Grant of St. Paul, and seventy members of the Cullen Guards, under the command of Capt. Jo Anderson, also of St. Paul, and several citizen volunteers, all under the command of Maj. Joseph R. Brown, was sent out with instructions to bury the dead and rescue the wounded, if any could be found, from their perilous surroundings. They were St. Paul organizations and most all of their members were St. Paul boys. They never had had an opportunity to drill and most of them were not familiar with the use of firearms. After marching for two days, during which time they interred a large number of victims of the savage Sioux, they went into camp at Birch Coulie, about fifteen miles from Fort Ridgely. The encampment was on the prairie near a fringe of timber and the coulie on one side and an elevation of about ten feet on the other. It was a beautiful but very unfortunate location for the command to camp, and would probably not have been selected had it been known that they were surrounded by 400 or 500 hostile warriors. Maj. Brown had about one hundred and fifty men under his command. About 4 o'clock on the following morning the Indians, to the number of 500 or 600, well armed and most of them mounted, commenced an indiscriminate fire upon the almost helpless little command. For two days they bravely defended themselves, and when relief finally arrived it was found that about half their number had been killed or wounded. When the news of the disaster reached St. Paul there was great excitement. Relatives and friends of the dead and wounded were outspoken in their denunciation of the civil and military authorities who were responsible for this great sacrifice of the lives of our citizens. It was feared that the city itself was in danger of an attack from the savages. Home guards were organized and the bluffs commanding a view of the city were nightly patrolled by citizen volunteers. There was no telegraph at that time and rumors of all sorts were flying thick and fast. Every courier reaching the city would bring news of fresh outrages, and our panic-stricken citizens had hardly time to recover from the effect of one disaster before the news of another would be received. Settlers fleeing from their homes for places of safety were arriving by the score, leaving crops to perish in the field and their houses to be destroyed. The situation was appalling, and many of our citizens were predicting the most direful results should the army fail to check the savage hordes in their work of devastation and ruin.
Every boat from the Minnesota river would be crowded with refugees, and the people of St. Paul were often called upon to assist in forwarding them to their place of destination.
Home guards were organized in almost every village of the threatened portion of the state, but the authorities could not furnish arms or ammunition and their services would have been of little account against the well-armed savages in case they had been attacked.
Advertisements appeared in the St. Paul newspapers offering rewards of $25 a piece for Sioux scalps.
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Gov. Ramsey endeavored to allay the apprehensions of the people and published in the papers a statement to the effect that the residents of the Capital City need not be alarmed, as the nearest approach of the Indians was at Acton, Meeker county, 80 miles away; Fort Ripley, 150 miles away, and the scenes of the tragedy in Yellow Medicine county, 210 miles distant. This may have been gratifying to the residents of the Capital City, but was far from reassuring to the frontiersmen who were compelled to abandon their homes and were seeking the protection of the slowly advancing militia.
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About 12 o'clock one night during the latter part of August a report was circulated over the northern and western portion of St. Paul that the savages were near the city, and many women and children were aroused from their slumber and hastily dressed and sought the protection of the city authorities. It was an exciting but rather amusing episode in the great tragedy then taking place on the frontier. Rumors of this character were often circulated, and it was not until after the battle of Wood Lake that the people of St. Paul felt that they were perfectly safe from raids by the hostile Sioux.