The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-10-18

and prominent citizen of the state,
and the work OF the organization, espe-
cially the incidental expenses, has
been almost wholly under his patron
age
The publication referred to was writ
ten by Maj. R. I. Holcombe, the socie-
tvs historian. 1t describes the vari-
Gus monuments and tablets built by
the society to preserve the sites of GER
tain incidents and in honor of the de-
votion and important services of some
OF the characters, both whites and In
dams, connected with the great Sioux
Indian outbreak of the fall of 1852 in
that part of the state, now embraced
in RenVille and Redwood counties.
According to the society's pamphlet,
it is not generally understood, even py
the citizens of Minnesota, that the vio-
lent outbreak and rebellion of the
Sioux Indians in this state, in the fall
of 1862, constituted in many respects
the most formidable and important In
dian war in American history. More
Indians were engaged, more whites
were killed, and more property was de-
strOyed than in any other conflict or
series of conflicts with the savages
since the first settlement of the coun-
try.
In any former Indian wars not more,
in the aggregate, than 500 white per-
sons lost their lives. In the few days
OF the Minnesota massacre 1858 men,
women and children persisted by actual
count. Those killed whose remains
were never found and the soldiers and
citizens killed or MORALLY wounded in
The hostile engagements with the In
dams made the total death list number
ct least $50. The value of property
destroyed was fully $1,000,00O
The massacres of Wyoming and
Cherry Valley, which have been so
often described, so befittingly COM
memorated in song and story and mon
ument, and whose details are well
known, are hardly to be compared in
character and extent with the massa-
cres of Sacred Heart and Beaver
Creek, of which not one American in a.
hundred has ever heard. The defens-
es OF New Ulm, Fort Ridgely and
Birch Coulie were as gallant episodes
as any that are recorded in the mill
tary annals of the Republic, and yet
the American historian commonly
gives them but the priefest mention.
or omits them entirely from his pages.
The outbreak occurred in August,
1862, during a stirring and important
period of the War of the Rebellion,
when the attention of the country was
engaged with the operations of the
Union and Confederate armies in Vir-
ginia and Maryland, in Kentucky and
Tenness 9e, and in Missouri and Ar.
| kansas. Writers and chroniclers of
the time gave but passing attention
and comment to what were alluded to
! as the Indian troubles in Minnesota
and busted themselves with the great.
or events, involving the life of the ma.
ton.
The most important scene of the
outbreak was at the Redwood Agency
Tor the Lower, Agenty''l Of the Sioux;
on the south bank of the Minnesota. in
what is now Redwood county, two
miles southeast of the village Of Nor.
ten. There were two Sioux agencies
the Redwood and the Yellow Medicine
4 the latter situated near the confluence
of the Yellow Medicine river with the
| Minnesota, and often called the Upper
| Agency. The Redwood agency was
named for the little, river about ten
miles to the westward, or up the Min.
ncsota from the Agency. ' $%...
All about the former sitcgof the Red