The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-10-02
s AIN P A U L.
The Two Indian ExpeditfOns...An-
other Dose Of Fulsome Flattcry and
Mean Depreciation.
We find the following in the Milwaukee
Sentinel. of Monday, the 2Ist September

Mean Depreciation.
We find the following in the Milwaukee
Sentinel, of Monday, the 21st September
The Sioux WAR.-Our readers will recollect
that the campaign against the hostile Sioux,
which was commenced this Spring by General
POpe, was designed 70 consist Of Two detached
but co operative expeditions. one under Gen.
Sibley. starting from St. Paul and intended to
move i'm Northwest course, crossing into Da-
cOtah Territory near Stone Lake and thence by
the Cheyenne valley to Devils Lake. and the
other. under Gen. Sully consisting of q
mounted force, which was desi gned to move
along the eastern bank of the Missouri and in
tercept all communication between the Daco-
tab and Minnesota Sioux, and to prevent a re-
treat of the Minnesota Sioux to the westward
when routed by Gen. Sib eys force.
The Sibley Expedition fulfilled entirely its
part of the programme. In spite of a drought
which led to the general expectation that it
would prove failure, 1t moved i'm exactly the
time allotted, found the Sioux in force just
where Gen. Pope predicted they would be
found, and routed them in three decisive bat
ties. So accurately was every detail OF this
expedition planned and accomplished, that on
its return to st. Paul there remained uncon-
sumed just one days ratiOuS. Calculation was
made for eighty days, and the march and re-
turn were made in seventy-nine.
Had Gen. Suly moved with equal energy
and precision, he would have been able to have
met and stopped the Sioux who were routed
by Gen. Sibley. and there was no sufficient rea-
son why he did not do SO. We are glad to see,
however, that he has been redeeming his tar
diness in the past by vigorous pursuit of the
Sioux in Dacotah. An Omaha dispatch, based
on an official dispatch sent to Gen Pope states
that he surprised four hundred lodges OF Sioux,
about two hundred miles above Fort Pierre q
few days since. One hundred and fifty Indians
were killed, and all their supplies OF meat pro-
visions and horses captured, together with
large number of prisoners.
This is one of the most decisive blows that
has ever been inflicted upon the Sioux, and is
likely to be followed up by Others of an equal
~ terrible nature, rs he Is instructed by Gen.
Pope to continue his operations until the set
tiny in of winter cOmpels an abandonment of
the cOmpaigu. The news OF this severe ehas-
tisement OF these savages will be welcomed in
every exposed hamlet of Minnesota with q de.
gree of JOY and thankfulneSs which we. ut our
safe distance from Indian raids, can hardly APP
preciate.
An article of like tenor with the above
was published ia the Sentinel q fortnight
ago. We exposed the absurdity of its
statements, at the time, so far as it re-
lated to the success of Gen. SIBLEY's ex-
petition, and the malice of its misrep-
RESERVATIONS in respect to Gen. SULLY.
The presence of Gen. SIBLEY in Milwaukee
is made the occasion for repetition, by
the Sentinel, both of its fulsome adula-
ton of PORE and SlBIEY, and its unwar-
ranted depreciation of the only competent
fighting General officer in the Department.
We regret the appearance of such an ar
ticle in respectable journal, because in
its compliments it is absurd, and in its
structures it is ungenerOus; but we regret
all the more that it should have thus ap-
peared directly after General SIBLEY's
arrival at PORES Headquarters, for it will
be charged that the pretended facts stated,
and the unmanly slants INDUCED in, owed,
in some degree, their inspiration to his
presence. Such things proceed naturally
enough from POPE, but they are uttelly out
of character from SHELLEY.
But, from whatever source derived, it
is time such representations were exposed
and stopped. They are indecent as well
as false; unmeri5ed on the one hand, and
unjust on the other. To say that "the
SlRLEY expedition fulfilled entirely its part
of the programme" is, in the light of its
results, to say, that it had no programme
to fulfil, beyond the marching from
the Mississippi to the Missouri, and back
again. It did nothing more than this,
of practical account, and we have yet to
learn that even this was of practical ac-
count to anybody except the army con-
tractors. 1t had a chance to do vastly
more, when the Indians were overhauled;
an opportunity was then presented to do
what SU1LY has since accomplished; but
this chance was let slip,-according to
the testimony of every man and officer
connected with the expedition with whom
wehave conversed, by reason of the ineff-
ective manner in which Gen. SIBLEy man
aged his forces in the field.
The further statement that the SIBLRY
expedition found the Sioux in force just
where Gen. PORE predicted they would be
found, and routed them in three decisive
battles" is all bosh, and of the trashiest
kind. Gen. S1BIEY came upon the Sioux
a long distance to the southwest of Devils
Lake. The course he originally intended
to take from Devils Lake was to the
north, towards the international boundary
line; and this course would undoubtedly
have been adhered to, had he not, by the
merest chance, before reaching Devils
Lake, learned from some Pembina half
breeds of the location of the Sioux, where
he afterwards found them. This knowl-
edge was thus accidentally gained; and of
course Gen. POPE knew nothing of it, and
did not. as he could not, anticipate or
"predict" it. His prediction was
made after the event occurred, and it had
been officially reported to him.
Unless it is intended to bring the SIBLEY
expedition into utter and universal con-
%o1 Vxvith 1,a