The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-08-31

I not yet arrived, it was agreed that tn,
! annuity goods should be allotted to tn,
Indians, and that they shoGld return t.
/ their homes and await notice that tx
| money had arrived. This arrangement
was carried out, and by August 10, tn,
Indians had all departed from the agency
| All trouble now seeming to have avoid
ed, the detachments of Company b ant
G on August IL marched for For
Ridgely, here they arrived on the mex
| day.
l. On Sunday morning, the 18th, Lieu.
tenant Sheehan with the detachment Of
Fort Ripley. There were left at For
Ridgely two officers and seventy si1
men. On the morning of the 18th wore
came that an outbreak of the Indians haC
| occurred at the lower agency, and that
| men, women and children were being
murdered.
Captain Marsh at once dispatched 6
| messenger to Lieutenant Sheehan to re-
| turn at, once to the fort, and with AZ
men and Interpreter Quinn started to the
rescuef of the lower agency He was or
| the way within thirty minutes after re.
This left Lieutenant Gere and 20 mer
in charge of the fort. 29b
The tarnbush Of Captain Marsh and his
men az Redwood Ferry, 4 in which Cap
tain Marsh and "a of the men were
killed, and five were wounded, is well
known history and must pass it by
On that day large numbers of refu-
gees were congregating at the fort, seek
ing protection for themselves, their wives
and children. - tlt.
At this eritical time the annuity money
$4,000 IN gold, arrived at the fort in
charge Of c. G. Wykoff and four men
This was wholly unknown to the Indians
About dark, Lieutenant Gere, learning
of the fateful termination of the expedi-
ton by Captain Marsh, sent a meSsen-
ger on e. fleet horse to St. Peter and
Fort Smelling for assistance.
Il may pause here to say that our little
squad of volunteers from Blue Earth
county were at Fort Smelling consolidated
with others from Nicollet and Fari-
bault counties, and formed into Company
d. Ninth Minnesota volunteers, and were
on the Goth or 21st started on forced
march, up the Minnesota Valley, half
clad. and armed with old Austrian and
Belgian muskets, many of which were
SO damaged and rusty as to be wholly
useless On arriving at St. Peter and
learning that the assaults upon Fort
Ridgely and New Ulm had been success
fully resisted, we proceeded no farther,
but proceeded to garrison that town
and scout the surrounding country
You, who are assembled here today,
can well see that for defensive purposes,
Fort Ridgely as very unhappily locat-
ed. A small acreage of table land, al
most entirely surrounded by steep bluffs
and deep ravines, all within easy gun
shot of the fort, made it peculiarly vul-
nerable to attack 1 suggest that if it
had been located a short distance far
Their north or northwest that the location
would have been much more preferable
Then, too, the word Fort was a
misnomer. The sG-called fort was small
collection Of buildings, all facing hol-
low square, and all wooden, except the
barracks, which were built of stone
On the morning of Tuesday, August 49,,
Lieutenant Sheehan and his so men, hav-
ing received his message to return, en-
tered the fort amid cheers of welcome,
having marched AZ miles during the
night.
Indians were seen in the vicinity, but
there was no hostile demonstration
The courier from Lieutenant Gere hav-
ing. arrived at ST. Peter in the very
early morning of the 18TH Lieutenant
German and SO men, the newly re-
cruited Renville Rangers, started at six
o'clock, and at 6 o'clock in the evening
they had reached the fort
This, with about twenty five armed
citizens 1870 men in all, constituted the
defenders of the fort.
There were two twelve FOUNDER mounted