Battle of Birch Coulee The Battle of Birch Coulee occurred September 2 , 1862 during the Dakota War of 1862 . After the Battle of Fort Ridgely and the Battle of New Ulm , Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley was planning to punish the Sioux and to obtain the release of the settlers they were holding captive . While Sibley was training soldiers and attempting to organize supplies , he was reminded that the bodies of many settlers killed by the Indians still remained unburied on the battlefields . Sibley sent out a burial party of about 170 men from Fort Ridgely on August 31 , 1862 . The battle . The troops , commanded by Major Joseph R . Brown , left Fort Ridgely and continued to Redwood Ferry , stopping to bury about sixteen settlers ' bodies along the way . The next morning , Brown and a group of cavalry crossed to the south side of the river , while Grant and his infantry stayed on the north side . At the end of the day , Brown ' s and Grant ' s soldiers met up again at a campsite near Birch Coulee . The two detachments had buried 54 bodies , and since neither group had seen any Indians , they figured they were safe . Meanwhile , Chief Little Crow was leading a force of 110 northeastward from New Ulm , while his chief warrior , Gray Bird , was heading down the south side of the Minnesota River with a force of 350 Indians . Gray Bird ' s party and Brown ' s troops missed encountering each other during the day , but some Indian scouts discovered that Brown ' s troops were moving toward the campsite at Birch Coulee . The Sioux planned to ambush Brown ' s troops in the morning , thinking that only the cavalry was present and that they could be easily destroyed . The Birch Coulee campsite was not easily defensible , since the Indians could approach from all sides and still remain under cover . During the night , Gray Bird , along with chiefs Red Legs , Big Eagle , and Mankato crossed the Minnesota River and surrounded the camp . In the morning , the Indians commenced their ambush , wounding at least thirty United States soldiers and killing most of the cavalry ' s horses within the first few minutes . The heaviest part of the fight lasted about an hour , but the siege continued for many hours past then . Colonel Sibley could hear the sounds of the battle from Fort Ridgely , about sixteen miles away , so he sent out a relief party of 240 men . Colonel McPhail , heading up the relief party , thought he was almost completely surrounded by the Sioux and sent back for more reinforcements . Sibley returned with more reinforcements and an artillery brigade . The shelling forced the Sioux to disperse , and Sibley entered Brown ' s camp around 11 am on September 3 . He encountered a " sickening sight " , with thirteen men and ninety horses dead , forty - seven men severely wounded , and others less severely hurt . The survivors were exhausted from a thirty - one hour siege without water or food . Aftermath . The battle of Birch Coulee was the most deadly for the United States forces in the Dakota War of 1862 . Colonel Sibley decided against taking responsibility for the disaster . In his military reports and in press dispatches he started to refer to the encounter as the ' attack on J . R . Brown ' s party . ' The monument at Birch Coulee Battlefield states that Captain Hiram P . Grant was in command , but historians generally acknowledge that Brown was in command . The battle may have distracted the Sioux from continuing down the Minnesota River toward more settlements , but the Americans forces learned that it was foolish to travel in hostile Indian territory with too few untrained troops . Captain Joseph Anderson Company of Mounted Men " The Cullen Guard " went to the relief of New Ulm and was at the Battle of Birch Coulee . Casualties : The Birch Coulee battlefield is listed on the U . S . National Register of Historic Places .