Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, September 23, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. INF.,

CAMP ON HERNANDO ROAD, NEAR MEMPHIS,

Sept. 23, 1862.

MY DEAR MOTHER:

This anniversary¹ will be remembered by you and me, probably the most interested parties to the transaction it commemorates. As the matter is unimportant to all the world and the rest of mankind, perhaps at this late day the less we say about it the better. I know you are thinking of me, wherever you are, or whatever you may be doing at this very moment, and by the present writing you will be assured of being in my thoughts.

There are one or two facts in my history connected with the month of September. All the important changes that have transpired to me date in that month, and on the 23d I am never at home. I have no recollection of passing that day with my family for very many years, back even to my childhood, always travelling like the Wandering Jew.

It is a good while since I have heard from you or from wife. I suppose mail communication is in a great way suspended. I write letters with some anxiety. From the publication in the Commercial of 19th inst., I imagine wife was in Cincinnati at that time. I shall expect soon to hear of your being with her. The fate of that city is not yet decided. I think it rests with Buell. If Bragg outgenerals him, Cincinnati will be burned. We have exaggerated rumors of McClellan's success; I cannot yet believe them. Halleck has massed his forces and hurled them upon Lee's army in retreat. Massing forces is Halleck's forte. I do not see now the annihilation of the enemy's Army of the Potomac. That will have a strange effect upon this war. Then we shall begin to change front. I expect stirring times here in two or three weeks, not sooner. My pickets had a little brush with guerillas last night. Guerillas are utterly contemptible; they possess neither honor nor courage. Save in light affairs of this character and one expedition into Mississippi, some account of which I gave in a recent letter to dear Helen, my time has been actively occupied during my sojourn here in perfecting the drill of my regiment and fitting it for active service in the field.

Memphis, as I have remarked in former letters, has been a very opulent city. The centre of a vast system of railways, favorably situated upon the banks of the Mississippi, with a splendid landing; a great mart for cotton, the staple of a widespread and most fertile bottom in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, by which it is immediately surrounded; wealth in actual cash, gold, and bullion from European factors has flowed in upon its inhabitants with continuous tide and now is evidenced by luxury and taste in the building, furnishing, and adorning of their residences and public buildings. The people I have met are sufficiently well educated and refined. All of course are intensely Southern. There are to-day, perhaps, six hundred Union people in Memphis to six thousand secessionists dyed in the wool. Its climate is delightful and the country about is remarkable for its adaptability to the cultivation of fruits and flowers. It is historical; from here De Soto saw for the first time the wide and turbid stream of the Father of Waters. Thus far through swamp and wilderness he had forced his weary way in search of gold and precious stones. Fort Pickering, now manned and armed for offence and defence, was the site of his first camp. Immortalized by our Western artist Powell in his painting which fills the last panel that was vacant in the rotunda of the Capitol, its name will perhaps go down to posterity as the scene of bloody conflict during the civil war. Our history now is red in blood, and scarlet dyed are the sins of the nation. I have just been reading Governor Ramsey's proclamation and message to the legislature of Minnesota. The Northwestern Indians are up in arms to renew the massacres that chilled us with horror in the annals of the early pioneers. Again is the reeking scalp torn from the living victim's head. Again is the unborn child torn quivering from its mother's womb and cast quivering upon her pulseless heart; again is the torch applied to the settler's cabin, the forts and blockhouse besieged by the ruthless savage, the tomahawk and rifle ever busied in their murderous work. Many hundreds of men, children, and women are known to have been butchered in a manner too sickening and revolting to write about, and the homes of thirty thousand made desolate.

Distracted by civil war in which no issue is fairly made, harassed by the savage tribes in the front and rear, England only waiting for a salient point — the Republic totters. What and when will be the end?

I did myself the pleasure of copying for Helen's benefit some lines of wife, which you have doubtless received and read ere this. They are the reflex of her pure mind — chaste, sweet in expression, and the surcharge of her agonized spirit. “Waiting, watching, and weeping, her heart's blood is running to tears.” God bless her and you; verily the evil days are upon us. “When the brother delivers up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.'”

We hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . It is woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in these days. My poor wife! how often I think of these prophecies as I reflect upon her condition, charged with the sole care of those five helpless children. God help and sustain her in this hour of trial. You can now better understand, and perhaps better than ever before, why I wanted my family, all I have on earth, to love to be together to mutually sustain each other. No property in times like these, however vested, is safe. I could tell you of heartrending instances of deprivation of property and its consequences here at the South. We are passing through a great revolution, truly; “the end is not yet.”

As servants of the government, we do not know where next we may be called to perform service. My impression is that our corps will be retained in the valley of the Mississippi and do battle to keep open its navigation. We shall probably take Vicksburg and garrison the principal towns on the Mississippi to the Gulf and up the Red River. The events of the next few weeks will determine. I do not expect to be inactive long. I hope not. My horses are waxing fat and neigh impatiently in their stalls. I prefer the field to the camp.

_______________

¹ His forty-second birthday.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 239-42

Major General John Pope to Abraham Lincoln, November 24, 1862 – 12:20 p.m.

SAINT PAUL, MINN.,

November 24, 1862 – 12.20 p m.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

Official information has reached me from the officer in charge of the condemned Indians that organizations of inhabitants are being rapidly made with the purpose of massacring these Indians. He has been obliged in consequence to concentrate a considerable force for their protection, and during the cold weather it is impracticable to protect so large a body of troops and Indians from the weather. I trust that your decision and orders in the case will be transmitted as soon as practicable, as humanity to both the troops and Indians requires an immediate disposition of the case. I apprehend serious trouble with the people of this State, who are much exasperated against the criminal Indians.

 JNO. POPE,

Major-general.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 22, Part 1 (Serial No. 32), p. 790-1

Major General John Pope to Abraham Lincoln, November 11, 1862

SAINT PAUL, MINN., November 11, 1862.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

Your dispatch of yesterday received. Will comply with your wishes immediately. I desire to represent to you that the only distinction between the culprits is as to which of them murdered most people or violated most young girls. All of them are guilty of these things in more or less degree. The people of this State, most of whom had relations or connections thus barbarously murdered and brutally outraged are exasperated to the last degree, and if the guilty are not all executed I think it nearly impossible to prevent the indiscriminate massacre of all the Indians – old men, women, and children. The soldiers guarding them are from this State and equally connected and equally incensed with the citizens. It is to be noted that these horrible outrages were not committed by wild Indians, whose excuse might be found in ignorance and barbarism, but by Indians who have for years been paid annuities by Government, and who committed those horrible crimes upon people among whom they had lived for years in constant and intimate intercourse, at whose houses they had slept, and at whose tables they had been fed. There are 1,500 women and children and innocent old men prisoners, besides those condemned, and I fear that so soon as it is known that the criminals are not at once to be executed that there will be an indiscriminate massacre of the whole. The troops are entirely new and raw, and are in full sympathy with the people on this subject. I will do the best I can, but fear a terrible result. The poor women and young girls are distributed about among the towns bearing the marks of the terrible outrages committed upon them, while daily there are funerals of those massacred men, women, and children whose bodies are being daily found. These things influence the public mind to a fearful degree, and your action has been awaited with repressed impatience. I do not suggest any procedure to you, but it is certain that the criminals condemned ought in every view to be at once executed without exception. The effect of letting them off from punishment will be exceedingly bad upon all other Indians upon the frontier, as they will attribute it to fear and not to mercy. I should be glad if you would advise me by telegraph of your decision, as the weather is growing very cold and immediate steps must be taken to put all in quarters.

 JNO. POPE,

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 788

Abraham Lincoln to Major General John Pope, November 10, 1862

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, November 10, 1862.

Major-General POPE, Saint Paul, Minn.:

Your dispatch giving the names of 300 Indians condemned to death is received. Please forward as soon as possible the full and complete record of their convictions; and if the record does not fully indicate the more guilty and influential of the culprits, please have a careful statement made on these points and forwarded to me. Send all by mail.

 A. LINCOLN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 787

Major General John Pope to Major General Henry W. Halleck, October 9, 1862

SAINT PAUL, MINN.,

October 9, 1862 – 10.45 p.m.

 Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

The Sioux war may be considered at an end. We have about 1,500 prisoners – men, women, and children – and many are coming every day to deliver themselves up. Many are being tried by military commission for being connected in the late horrible outrages, and will be executed. I have disarmed all, and will bring them down to Fort Snelling until the Government shall decide what to do with them. I have seized and am trying a number of Winnebagoes who were engaged with the Sioux.

The cavalry forces march immediately for the Yankton village, and will arrest the perpetrators of the murders at Spirit Lake. Posts must be kept up all along the frontier this winter to induce the settlers to go back. They are already returning in large numbers. It will in all views be advisable in the spring to make strong military demonstrations on the plains. The Indians are greatly terrified. I have destroyed all the fields and property of the Sioux. An expedition must be made to Red Lake as soon as possible. I am sending one into the Chippewa country.

 JNO. POPE,

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 722

Alexander Ramsey to Abraham Lincoln, August 26, 1862

SAINT PAUL, MINN., August 26, 1862 – 10 p.m.

President LINCOLN:

With the concurrence of Commissioner Dole I have telegraphed the Secretary of War for an extension of one month of drafting, &c. The Indian outbreak has come upon us suddenly. Half the population of the State are fugitives. It is absolutely impossible that we should proceed. The Secretary of War denies our request. I appeal to you, and ask for an immediate answer. No one not here can conceive the panic in the State.

ALEX. RAMSEY,

Governor of Minnesota.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 597

Abraham Lincoln to Alexander Ramsey, August 27, 1862

EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 27, 1862.

Governor RAMSEY, Saint Paul, Minn.:

Yours received. Attend to the Indians. If the draft cannot proceed of course it will not proceed. Necessity knows no law. The Government cannot extend the time.

A. LINCOLN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 599

Review: Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862

Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862
By Hank H. Cox

For four young Sioux men returning home from an unsuccessful hunting trip August 17, 1862 was a day just like any other in Southwestern Minnesota. But what started as an ordinary Sunday ended in tragedy when juvenile taunts lead to the slaying of a number of white settlers that afternoon and ignited a rebellion of the Sioux and ended in the largest mass execution in American history.

If you’ve never heard of the Sioux Uprising of 1862 you are not alone. Had it not happened during the cataclysmic events of the American Civil War, it would surely be as well known as the Battle of Little Bighorn. But American attention was diverted elsewhere to the South and East. For many white and black Americans, the Indians on the western frontier were not a going concern.

Since the close of the Civil War tens of thousands of books have been written about the war and its participants, and few of them mention the bloody events which occurred in Southwestern Minnesota during the late summer and early fall of 1862. If they do at all, it is only a passing mention. It was David Donald’s mentioning of this episode of American history in his biography of Abraham Lincoln that caught the attention of author Henry H. Cox. His book, “Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862,” attempts to fill this historical void.

Mr. Cox has written an entertaining and easily read narrative of the Sioux uprising, alternating between events in Minnesota and juxtaposing them against those of Washington and the battlefields to the south and east. The author early on points out the injustices done to the Native Americans, the broken treaties, the late payments, and corrupt agents, and though that does not justify the Indians’ actions it does help illuminate their feelings of mistrust and betrayal towards the white settlers and the United States government.

Though Mr. Cox’s narrative is engaging to read his book is not without its share of problems. Primarily among them is the complete lack of either footnotes or endnotes. Without proper noting it is impossible for readers to track back and verify sources of a particular piece of information. Glancing at his skimpy bibliography, it appears that Mr. Cox has gathered most of his information from secondary sources. One extraordinary title listed in his bibliography is Gore Vidal’s “Lincoln,” a novel, which surely leads to a credibility issue.

Secondly the book’s bias is heavily tilted toward the white settlers, he seems to have lifted descriptions of the Native Americans directly from the accounts of the white survivors, though judging from his bibliography, it’s more likely that he pulled those references from only secondary sources. At least once he uses the politically incorrect “squaw” to describe a Native American woman. He also tends to lean to the sensational, mentioning several times an episode that he claims to be the largest and most prolonged gang rape in American history with no supporting evidence or documentation of the event. There is no Native American viewpoint to counter balance that of the white settlers.

Mr. Cox does a great job painting a larger picture of the events transpiring in the United States, explaining the difficulties and political realities President Lincoln faced during the summer and fall of 1862, but by presenting information about those events, as well as the political mechanizations in Washington, D.C., he spends too much time away from the events in Minnesota, resulting in the obfuscation of his subject matter.

John Pope was sent to put down the Indian insurrection in Minnesota, and judging from Mr. Cox’s work, doesn’t seem to have done much to bring the conflict to an end. Rather, he gives credit to ending the conflict to the local troops garrisoned in the forts in the area. When the rebellion was ended, 303 Native Americans found themselves in the custody of Federal Troops and condemned to be executed for their crimes. It was only through the direct intervention of President Lincoln who, at great political peril, prevented General Pope from executing them all. In the end he sentenced 38 Native Americans to be executed for their part in the uprising.

With “Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862,” Hank Cox does an admirable job of bringing to public attention this little known historical event. It is a great starting place for someone interested in this topic, but by no means, should this book be the only book one should read.

ISBN 1-58182-457-2, Cumberland House Publishing, © 2005, Paperback, 242 pages, Appendix, Bibliography & Index. $14.95