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

Fort Ridge1y the next day. OF 81
party OF FIVE that had taken refuge in
another thicket three were killed be-
fore dark. One OF the. survivors,
Thomas Parsley, remained IN the
thicket with his dead comrades until
late ct night when he too escaped and
made his way to the fort. II
~ Gradually the imperiled soldiers
worked. their way through the thick
grass and brush Of i the jungle in
which they were concealed until they
had gone some distance east: Of the
ferry. Meantime they had kept up q
fight, using: their ammunition care
fully, but under the circumstances al
most Intellectually. The Indians did
not attempt to charge them or rush"
their position, for this was not the
Indian style of warfare in such con-
tingency.
T. About 4 clock p. M, when the am
munition@ was reduced to not more
than four rounds to man, Capt..
Marsh ordered his men to swim the
river and try and work their way
down on, the west SIDE: He entered
the river first and swan to about the
center and there went down with a.
cramp. Some of the men went to his
assistance, but were unable to save
him. He was unwounded and died
from the effects of the paralyzing
cramps which seized him. Some days
afterward his body was found in a.
drift, miles below where it sank.
After the drowning of Capt. Marsh,
the command, then consisting OF fif-
teen men, devolved upon Sergeant
John F. Bishop. The men then re-
sumed their slow and toilsome prog
ress toward the fort Five of them,
including the sergeant, were wound
ed, one Of them. Private Ole Svend-
son, so badly that he had to be car
ried. The Indians, for some reason,
did not press the attack further, after
the drowning of Capt. Marsh, and all
of them, except Ezekiel Rose, who
was wounded and lost his way,
reached Fort Ridgely that night. Rose
wandered off into the country, and
was finally picked up near Hendrick-
son. Five miles from the fort, Bishop
sent forward Privates James, Dunn
and w. B. Hutchinson, with informa-
ton of the disaster, to Lieut.. Gere.
The loss of the whites was one Off
Ger (Capt. Marsh) drowned twenty
four men-including twenty-three SOL
diers and Interpreter Quinn-killed.
and five men wounded. The Indians
had one man killed, young warrior
of the Wah-pa-koota band, named To-
wa-to, or All Blue. When the band
lived at or near Faribault this iowa
to was known for his fondness for fine
dress and for his gallantries He was
a dandy and Lothario, but he was no
coward.
The affair at Redwood Ferry was
most influential upon the character of
. the Indian outbreak. It was COM
plete Indian victory A majority OF
the soldiers had Eeen killed, their
guns, ammunition, and equipments
had fallen into the hands of the VIC
tors, the first attempt to interfere
with the savage program had been
signally repulsed. all with the loss of
but one man. Those of the savages
who had favored the war from the
first were jubilant over what had been
accomplished and confident of the
final and general result. There had
been but the feeblest resistance on
the part of the settlers who had been
murdered that day, and the defense
made by the soldiers had amounted to
nothing. There was the general re-
mark in the Indian camps that the
whites, with all of their vaunted brav-
cry, were "as easy to kill as Sheep
If Capt. Marsh had succeeded in
fighting his way across the river and
into the agency, thereby dispensing
the savages. it is probable that the
great red rebellion would have been
suppressed in less than half the time
which was actually required. The
friendly Indians would doubtless have
been encouraged and stimulated to
open and even aggressive manifesto
lions of loyalty; the dubious and the
timid would have been awed into mac
tivity and quiescence. AS it was, the
disaster to the little band of soldiers
famed the fires of the rebellion into
& great confagration of murder and
rapine. Redwood Ferry was minia-
ture Bull Run in it's effects.
Concluded Next Weekly
niAnS$ Art