The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-09-12

their little life in mortal agony, or torn IN,
timely from the womb of the murdered mo.
Their and in cruel mockery cast in fragments
on her pulseless and bleeding breast; rape
Joined to murder in one awful tragedy;
young girls, even children of tender years,
outraged by their brutal ravishers till death
ended their shame women held in
captivity to undergo the horrors of living
death; whole families burned alive; and, as
if their devilish fury could not glut itself
with outrages on the living, its last efforts
exhausted in mutilating the bodies of the
dead, such are the spectacIes, and a thou.
sand nameless horrors besides, which their
first experience of Indian war has burned
into the brains and hearts of our frontier
people; and such the enemy with whom we
have to deal.
1t is estimated that 500 persons of every
age and sex persisted, and worse than per-
ished, by the hands of these remorseless
butchers, in the course of the two or three
days succeeding the outbreak, before their
progress was checked by our forces; and
hundreds of them lie yet unburied where
they fell, hidden in the grass and bushes of
prairies and ravines. Many doubtless in
the attempt to escape, have become lost, or
fainting from exhaustion and terror, have
died of starvation.
The theatre of depredations as far as as.
certained, has extended from Otter Tail
Lake and Fort Abercrombie, on the Red
River to the Iowa boundary, on front of
two hundred miles, and from the western
border of the State eastwardly to its heart
at Forest City, an area of 10000 square
miles.
The property destroyed or carried off as
booty, is estimated at millions of dollars,
including large supplies of arms and ammu-
milton pillaged from the government and
private stores on the reservation, and the
cattle, horses and household effects of set.
tiers.
The indirect damage to our citizens is
vastly greater, and if we include its proba,
BILE effects on our future prosperity is be-
yond calculation.
As if the catastrophe were designed to
embrace every element of mischief, it occurs
red at time when all the exertions OF our
agricultural population, already depleted by
their contributions to the army, were need
ed to save the splendid harvest from de.
struction women and children were toiling
the train of the reaper to supply the
place of enlisted husbands, brothers and
sons. 1t was at this juncture that the ter
rible cry ofmurder and havoc came from the
west. Rumor magnifed the danger. A
fearful panic depopulated our western coun.
ties. Fields and homes were deserted to
save wives and babes from massacre.
lens OF thousands OF acres of crops which
comprised all the wealth of their owners,
have thus been abandoned to destruction,
and thousands of prosperous and happy
families reduced at one blow to poverty and
often to beggary.
Throughout the whole district, embrace
ing the counties of Brown, Cottonwood,
Faribault, jackson, and other counties in
the Southwest, through the beautiful lake
country of Kandiyohi, Douglas, Mononga.
liza, Meeker, McCloud, a large part of
Stearns and Wright, and throughout the
new settlements in the Red River Valley
but few days since the abode of busy and
happy communities-desolation and solitude
now reign supreme or, if any remain, it is
in fear and terror-armed against surprise
suspicious of every shadow that falls up,
on the grass-the log cottage loop-holed for
defence-and the peaceful village turned
into fortified post. The danger may be
exaggerated, but the effect is too real.
Brown county, adjacent to the Sioux
Reservation, has felt the worst effects OF
this calamity. 1t was peopled chiefly by
Germans, and their neat cottages and fine
farms gave evidence of the superior thrift
and industry which distinguish this class of
our foreign born citizens. Driven from
their hoLces-their property destroyed and
plundered- robbed even of their household
goods--many of them mourning wives, hus
bands, children and parents murdered
their beautiful ard busy town of New Ulm,
and their own homes, a blackeped heap OF
ruins these poor fugitives, many of whom
cannot speak our language, are especially
deserving of our sympathiss.
In all, probably not less than 80 900 peo-
pie are involved directly or indirectly in
the loss of life or loss of property from pill
lage, destruction or abandonment.
The towns and villages have been and
are Low overrun with fugitives reduced to
penury, many of them without food or
clothing except what is furnished by public
and private charity. TO relieve the tempo.
rary wants OF these people, for which The
resources fprivate bounty were inadequate,
l authorized Capt. Berkey, of St. Paul,
and Hon. Henry A. Swift, of st. Peter,
and MIR. Bassett, of Minneapolis, to provide
subsistence and shelter for the time being
at the expense OF the State.
An account o. these expenditures will be
transmitted to you; and while their assun,p-
ton by the State will require, and doubt
not will receive your approval, humanity
demands that still more comprehensive
measures be taken to provide temporary
relief for the numerous cases of distress
which this calamity will throw upon the
community--a burden too great for indi-
vidual charity. Further on, shall ask
your attention to a measure of general pol.
icy in connection with this subject.
The numbers of Indian warriors actually
engaged in the raid, as far as known, would
seem inadequate to the infection of so much
havoc and terror, if they had not been aid
ed by the suddennees of the outbreak, the
peculiar secrecy and rapidity of movement
which characterizes their mode of warfare,