The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-06-28


They had been there but little more
than a week, when the officer Of
| the day, making his morning in
spection, which was very formal
thought that he saw a Ratchet or 9
knife under the blanket of one O
the Indians. Without a change Of
countenance or suspicious move
ment he proceeded with the inspec
ton until it was completed, and re
tired from the barracks, and al
once caused to be quietly mustered
around the barracks every soldier il
the city with loaded guns and fixeC
bayonets, and then with a squad OF
soldiers he entered the barracks
and searching every Indian, he Sc
cured a large number of hatchets
knives, clubs, and other weapons
These weapons, it was learned, had
been gotten at Winnebago agency
about twelve miles from Mankato
by several squaws who prepared food
for these Indians, and who were
allowed to go to the woods to gather
fuel for their fires.
Immediately after this discovery
the Indians who were under SEN
| tence of death were removed to a
stone building but few feet distant
where they were kept under heavy
guard.
The guard which had been kept
around the barracks had been com
paratively light, and had the Indians
moved in the nighttime before their
plans were discovered, they would
probably have escaped.
But a few days after this incident,
and on December 26, 1862, my com
pany came from st. Peter to Man
kato to act as a guard on one side
of the scaffold at the execution OF
the thirty-eight Indians which were
then hanged, about one hundred and
fifty feet northerly from the present
location of the Saulpaugh hotel, and
between Front street and the river,
and Of which execution so much
has been written and said.
In the very early spring of 1863
my company was ordered from st.
Peter to Judson on the west side of
the Minnesota river, very near where
Judson station now is, about mid
way between Mankato and New
Ulm.
Here we built a sod fort about
$50 feet square and about ten feet
high, making an excellent fort for
resisting Indian attacks, and we here
remained until May of that year,
scouting the prairies and timber
lands, and bearing dispatches be-
tween New Ulm, st. Peter, South
Bend and Mankato. The remains of
this fort can still be seen, and an
engineers draft of it is in the files
of the State Historical society.
While in this fort l was ordered
to go to the stables, and saddle the
fieetest mule and carry certain i'm
portant dispatches to Mankato. Rid
ing mules was not my long suit, but
l obeyed. l had proceeded about
two miles, when l came to mar
row bridge which my mule refused
to cross We fought it out and the
mule conquered. l succeeded in
getting him so unmanageable that
he turned and ran back to Judson
with me, in spite of all that / could
do. | was so mortified, that rather
than go to the fort, l let him go
direct to the stables, where l dis
mounted and secured drivers
"black snake" and remounted and
applied it so vigorously that when
we reached the bridge the second
time, neither of us knew it. | was
complimented for making such ex-
cellent time.
In early May, 1868, one platoon
of our company was ordered to Fair
mont. in Martin county, and the
lako 70
in the same county about eleven
miles northwest from Fairmont, and
a short distance north of Elm Creek,
then called Chanyaska Lake.
March to Fairmont.
/ was with the platoon under
CAPTAIN Skaro ordered to Fairmont.
We marched from Judson by the
way of Garden City, Vernon Center
and Shelbyville to Winnebago City,
and from there we marched across
the prairie as nearly in direct line
as possible to Fairmont. If there
were any roads, we did not see
them; our course the whole distance
was through prairie grass.
We approached Fairmont from
northeasterly direction, and halted
upon a hill or elevation short dis
lance from there. Here we caught
the first sight of our destination.
From this standpoint the landscape |
was most beautiful and attractive.
To the east from whence we came
could be seen a sea of rolling prairie,
with the timber on the Blue Earth
river eighteen or twenty miles away,
and extending from the Blue Earth /
line, southerly to Blue Earth !
City and beyond. To the south our
vision extended across the prairies
% the Iowa line, with the timbers of
East Chain Lakes as the only OBJ
,truction to our view.
To the north was Elm Creek which
could be traced by the skirting trees
rom distance westerly of Chain
.akes, in an easterly direction to
he Blue Earth river, with the
mounds in Blue Earth county, near
which | lived, plainly visible beyond
he valley of Elm Creek, twenty
niles away.
The Chain Lakes.
To the westerly could be seen, as
,lacid as moulten silver, the waters
# two of the Chain Lakes, and the
imber skirting two or three more,
,eyond which was an endless sea '
# rolling prairie. Immediately in
ur front, sleepy and quiet, was the {
title log fort which we were to
occupy. K
The few little homes upon the S
axes then occupied, were hidden in K
bo uoods and the little fort was