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As soon as Gen. Sibley had collected a sufficient force to enable him to move with safety he decided upon offensive operations. He had collected about 2,000 men from the regiments then forming, including the Third regiment, recently paroled, and a battery under command of Capt. Mark Hendricks. The expedition marched for two or three days without encountering opposition, but on the morning of the 23d of September several foraging parties belonging to the Third regiment were fired upon in the vicinity of Wood Lake. About 800 of the command were engaged in the encounter and were opposed by about an equal number of Indians. After a spirited engagement Col. Marshall, with about 400 men, made a double-quick charge upon the Sioux and succeeded in utterly routing them. Our loss was four killed and forty or fifty wounded. This was the only real battle of the war. Other Day was with the whites and took a conspicuous part in the encounter. After the battle Gen. Pope, who was in command of the department of the Northwest, telegraphed the war department that the Indian war was over and asked what disposition to make of the troops then under his command. This request of Gen. Pope was met with a decided remonstrance by the people of Minnesota, and they succeeded in preventing the removal of any of the troops until they had made two long marches through the Dakotas and to Montana. Gen. Sibley's command reached Camp Release on the 26th of September, in the vicinity of which was located a large camp of Indians, most of whom had been engaged in the massacres. They had with them about two hundred and fifty mixed bloods and white women and children, and the soldiers were very anxious to precede at once to their rescue. Gen. Sibley was of the opinion that any hostile demonstration would mean the annihilation of all the prisoners, and therefore proceeded with the utmost caution. After a few preliminary consultations the entire camp surrendered and the captives were released. As soon as possible Gen. Sibley made inquiries as to the participation of these Indians in the terrible crimes recently perpetrated, and it soon developed that a large number of them had been guilty of the grossest atrocities. The general decided to form a military tribunal and try the offenders. After a series of sittings, lasting from the 30th of September to the 5th of November, 321 of the fiends were found guilty of the offenses charged, 303 of whom were sentenced to death and the rest condemned to various terms of imprisonment according to their crimes. All of the condemned prisoners were taken to Mankato and were confined in a large jail constructed for the purpose. After the court-martial had completed its work and the news of its action had reached the Eastern cities, a great outcry was made that Minnesota was contemplating a wholesale slaughter of the beloved red man. The Quakers of Philadelphia and the good people of Massachusetts sent many remonstrances to the president to put a stop to the proposed wholesale execution. The president, after consulting his military advisers, decided to permit the execution of only thirty-eight of the most flagrant cases, and accordingly directed them to be hung on the 26th of December, 1862.
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Previous to their execution the condemned prisoners were interviewed by Rev. S.R. Riggs, to whom they made their dying confessions. Nearly every one of them claimed to be innocent of the crimes charged to them. Each one had some word to send to his parents or family, and when speaking of their wives and children almost every one was affected to tears. Most of them spoke confidently of their hope of salvation, and expected to go at once to the abode of the Great Spirit. Rattling Runner, who was a son-in-law of Wabasha, dictated the following letter, which is a sample of the confessions made to Dr. Riggs: "Wabasha, you have deceived me. You told me if we followed the advice of Gen. Sibley and gave ourselves up, all would be well—no innocent man would be injured. I have not killed or injured a white man or any white person. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet to-day I am set apart for execution and must die, while men who are guilty will remain in prison. My wife is your daughter, my children are your grandchildren. I leave them all in your care and under your protection. Do not let them suffer, and when they are grown up let them know that their father died because he followed the advice of his chief, and without having the blood of a white man to answer for to the Holy Spirit. My wife and children are dear to me. Let them not grieve for me; let them remember that the brave should be prepared to meet death, and I will do as becomes a Dakotah."
Wabasha was a Sioux chief, and although he was not found guilty of participating in any of the massacres of women and children, he was probably in all the most important battles. Wabasha county, and Wabasha street in St. Paul were named after his father.
After the execution the bodies were taken down, loaded into wagons and carried down to a sandbar in front of the city, where they were all dumped into the same hole. They did not remain there long, but were spirited away by students and others familiar with the use of a dissecting knife.
Little Crow, the chief instigator of the insurrection was not with the number that surrendered, but escaped and was afterward killed by a farmer named Lamson, in the vicinity of Hutchinson. His scalp is now in the state historical society. Little Crow was born in Kaposia, a few miles below St. Paul, and was always known as a bad Indian. Little Crow's father was friendly to the whites, and it was his dying wish that his son should assume the habits of civilized life and accustom himself to the new order of things, but the dying admonitions of the old man were of little avail and Little Crow soon became a dissolute, quarrelsome and dangerous Indian. He was opposed to all change of dress and habits of life, and was very unfriendly to missionaries and teachers. He was seldom known to tell the truth and possessed very few redeeming qualities. Although greatly disliked by many of the Indians, he was the acknowledged head of the war party and by common consent assumed the direction of all the hostile tribes in their fruitless struggle against the whites.
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Between the conviction and execution of the condemned Indians there was great excitement throughout the Minnesota valley lest the president should pardon the condemned. Meetings were held throughout the valley and organizations were springing into existence for the purpose of overpowering the strong guard at Mankato and wreaking summary justice upon the Indians. The situation became so serious pending the decision of the president that the governor was compelled to issue a proclamation calling upon all good citizens not to tarnish the fair name of the state by an act of lawlessness that the outside world would never forget, however great was the provocation. When the final order came to execute only thirty-eight there was great disappointment. Petitions were circulated in St. Paul and generally signed favoring the removal of the condemned Indians to Massachusetts to place them under the refining influence of the constituents of Senator Hoar, the same people who are now so terribly shocked because a humane government is endeavoring to prevent, in the Philippines, a repetition of the terrible atrocities committed in Minnesota.
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