"When the men in advance reached Little Crow's village...they saw a column of mounted men and some wagons...going eastward."
? ??? ??? ????????? ????????? Wamditanka
The "men in advance" were Dakota scouts. According to Wamditanka, they were traveling in a group of several hundred toward New Ulm, where an attack was planned. They had stopped at the village of the Mdewakanton chief Taoyateduta (Little Crow) to gather belongings left behind during the siege.
The "mounted men" were Anderson and his command. They were part of a burial detail—150 volunteer soldiers and civilians sent from Fort Ridgely to bury victims of the war that had been raging across the region.
Scenes from a War Zone
Many of the sketches reproduced along this trail were made by Albert Colgrave, a 22-year-old artist who joined Company G, 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in September 1862. Around the time the U.S.-Dakota War broke out, he was becoming well known in St. Paul for his theatrical backdrops. "May he become as proficient in handling the musket as the pallet," the St. Paul Daily Press noted when he enlisted.
Colgrave sketched dozens of battle scenes during the war. But his career was cut short: he died of typhoid fever in Glencoe, Minnesota, in March 1863.
Minnesota Historical Society
Birch Coulee Battlefield
Comments 0 comments