The Redwood gazette., 1902-11-19
BIRCH COULlE BATTLE.
Incidents Leading Up to Fight and Some
Interesting Details.

The incidents leading to the fight
may be very briefly related. Gen.
Sib]ey occupied Fort Ridglely with
his relief force on the eth of Aug
ust, nine days after the beginning
of the outbreak. On the 3lst he
dispatched force of about l5O men
to the lower agency with instruc-
tions to ascertain if possible the po-
sition and condition of the Indians,
and to bury the bodies of the vic
tins of the massacre, which might
be found en- route. This force,
which was under the command of
Mai. Joseph R. Brown, the we'll
known prominent character in early
Minnesota history and then ;ting
as major Of newly organized mill
tia regiment. was composed OF Com
panv A. Sixth Minnesota Infantry,
under Capt. H. P. Grant: seventy
mounted men of the Cullen Guard
under Capt. Joseph Anderson: some
volunteers. soldiers, and citizens:
d deuail of other soldiers from the
Sixth regiment and the militia force,
and seventeen teamsters with teams.
The next evening several Of the cit
liens returned to the fort.
The command reached the agency
on the first of September. Capt.
Grant, with his company and the
wagons, proceeded up the valley
on the north side of the Minnesota
to the mouth Of Beaver Greek. thence
up the creek about three miles, and
then marched east about six miles
to near the head of Birch Coulie.
This portion of the command buried
the bodies of Capt. Marsh S men
killed at the Redwood Ferry, and
those of perhaps forty citizens at
various points on the route. On
Beaver Greek ''some thirty bodies -
were buried' according to Capt.
Grant. On the way, too, in the
Minnesota bottom, a German wom-
an, named Mrs. Justina Krieger,
who mad been badly wounded by
the Indians, and was hiding in a
marsh, was rescued and was car
ried along.
Maj Brown and Capt, Anderson,
with the "Cullen Guards, crossed
the river at the Redwood Ferry,
went to the agency, buried the bod
les of the slain there, and went up
the river, or westward, to the loca-
ton Of Little Grow S village, which
the Indians had abandoned a few
days previously. Nothing was
seen, which, in the opinion of Mai.
Brown, who for thirty years had
been intimate with the Indians and
the country; Maj. T. J. Galbraith,
the Indian agent: Alex. Faribault,
for whom the city by that name was
called, and his son, George Fari-
bault, boLh mixed blood Sioux, and
Jack Frazier, a mixed bloody indi-
Gated that a hostile Indian had been
in that vicinity for four days, al
though careful examination was
made. Recrossing the Minnesota at
ford opposite Little Grow S village,
the party assembled the bluff on the
north side and reaching the prairie
rode eastward to the Birch Coulie,
where Capt. Grants S company had
already encamped.
The camp selected by Capt. Grant
was on an excellent site 1t was
upon level ground, convenient to
wood and water, and less than half
mile from a road running between
Fort Ridgely and Fort Abercrom-
bic, on the Red River of the North.
\ growth of fairly good timber
fringed the Coule on either ide.
and in the channel was plenty of
good running water To the west,
north and east stretched level
prairies miles in extent. In his re-
port Maj. Brown says:
This camp was made in the usual
way on the smooth prairie, some 200
yards from the timber of Birch Coulie.
with the wagons packed around the
camp and the team horses fastened to
the wagons. The horses belonging to
the mounted men were fastened to q
stout picket rope, between the tents
and the wagons, around the south half