Attack on Fort Ridgely

Fort Ridgely, by James McGrew in 1890.

On the afternoon of August 20, 1862, Little Crow led a company of roughly 400 Dakota men in an attack against Fort Ridgely. The battle lasted five hours. The battle of Fort Ridgely continued on August 22, 1862. This time the Dakota had nearly doubled their number of soldiers and heavily outnumbered the soldiers at the fort. Over the course of the battles, three soldiers and four civilians were killed; 13 soldiers and 26 civilians were wounded. Because Dakota carried away their dead, only two Dakota deaths were confirmed. Historians agree there were many more.

Theme:

1862

Topics:

Fort Ridgely
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Bibliography

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862: Minnesota’s Other Civil War. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976.

Dahlin, Curtis A. The Dakota Uprising. Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2009.

Resources for Further Research

Primary

Anderson, Gary and Woolworth, Alan. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988.

Secondary

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862: Minnesota’s Other Civil War. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976.

Dahlin, Curtis A. The Dakota Uprising. Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2009.

Glossary Terms

Fort Ridgely

Key People

Sheehan thumb
Timothy J. Sheehan
Gere thumb
Thomas P. Gere
John Jones t
John Jones
henery-sibley
Henry H. Sibley
Sheehan thumb

Timothy J. Sheehan

Timothy J. Sheehan as born in Ireland in 1836. He was 14 years old when he came to the US. He was a mechanic in New York until 1855, and worked at a sawmill in Illinois. By 1856, he lived in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where he was a farmer. At the time of the Civil War, he enlisted in the army, and became a Corporal in Company F, 4th Minnesota Infantry in 1861. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in Company C, 5th Minnesota Infantry on March 9, 1862.

Company C began garrison duty at Fort Ripley and Sheehan was then sent to Fort Ridgely, along with 50 other men. Captain Marsh was their commander at post. On June 29, 1862 the detachment was sent to the Upper Sioux Agency to maintain order during the event of a late annuity payment from the U.S. government to the Dakota, where Sheehan goaded Galbraith into distributing food, after much disagreement. On August 18, Sheehan was headed to Fort Ripley to accompany Indian Commissioner William P. Dole with a treaty between the United States and the Ojibwe. Receiving a message from Captain Marsh at Fort Ridgely requesting aid due to Dakota attacks, Sheehan and his men rode to help. After Marsh was killed, 2nd Lt. Thomas P. Gere had become post commander. Sheehan then took over command, and helped successfully defend the fort from attack on August 20 and 22 until reinforcements arrived. He then rode out to assist the battle at Birch Coulee alongside Colonel Samuel McPhail--riding again between there and the Fort to request further reinforcement for that battle.

He was promoted to Full Captain on August 31, 1862. After completing services at Fort Ripley, Sheehan and the rest of Company C joined the rest of the 5th Minnesota Regiment on December 12 in Mississippi to fight against Confederate troops. Under the leadership of Sheehan, they participated in the Siege of Vicksburg, the Battle of Nashville, the Siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely in Alabama, and the Battle of Tupelo in Missouri.

Sheehan was promoted to lieutentant colonel on September 1, 1865, but mustered out of service a few days later at Fort Snelling. He returned to Albert Lea, and was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal. Marrying Jennie Judge, he had three sons and served as Freeborn County sheriff for more than ten years.

In October 1895, he was wounded in the Battle of Leech Lake, also known as the Battle of Sugar Point, between the Pillager band of Ojibwe and U.S. troops--considered the "last of the Indian uprisings," coming nearly five years after the Battle of Wounded Knee at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

By 1900, he and his family had moved to St. Paul, where he died in 1913.

View full article: Timothy J. Sheehan

Gere thumb

Thomas P. Gere

Lieutenant Thomas P. Gere was born in 1842 in Wellsburg, New York. He enlisted in the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at age 19, mustering in on January 17, 1862. He was promoted to first sergeant on March 5 of that year and then to second lieutenant on March 24. He later became first lieutenant and adjutant.

He was nineteen years old and based at Fort Ridgely in 1862 when the U.S.-Dakota War broke out. On the morning of August 18, he was in charge at the fort when Capt. John Marsh left to see about reports coming from the Lower Sioux Agency about Dakota attacks. Commanding 25 soldiers, and caring for hundreds of terror-ridden refugees fleeing attacks, Gere Gov. Ramsey and Fort Snelling asking for reinforcements. Organizing his soldiers and some refugees to prepare for attack, he awaited help. He was finally joined by Sheehan and his soldiers, along with Indian Agent Galbraith and the Renville Rangers, and the fort held out for the next ten days.

Gere later fought in the Civil War. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1865 for his actions at the Battle of Nashville in 1864. He mustered out of the military in 1865 and began work in the railroad business. He died in 1912 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

View full article: Thomas P. Gere

John Jones t

John Jones

John W. Jones was a combat-wounded veteran of the Mexican War (1846-47) who in 1862 was serving as ordnance sergeant at Fort Ridgely. In charge of the government artillery there, he trained soldiers of the Fifth Minnesota Infantry garrison. During the two battles at Fort Ridgely, the artillery was instrumental in holding off an overwhelming number of Dakota soldiers. After the battles at Fort Ridgely, Jones made this list of the casualties as part of his report to superiors.

Sgt. Jones was later commissioned captain of the Third Battery, Minnesota Volunteer Artillery, and served on the 1863 Sibley Expedition and the 1864 Northwestern Indian Expedition.

View full article: John Jones

henery-sibley

Henry H. Sibley

In 1834, Henry Sibley became a partner in the American Fur Company and settled in Mendota, Minnesota. Like a number of other traders, Sibley entered into a relationship with a Dakota woman, Red Blanket Woman. Their relationship produced a daughter, Helen Sibley, before the couple parted to live separate lives. Sibley acknowledged his daughter, protected her interests and education, and remained involved in her life. After the fur trade dwindled, Henry Sibley became a successful businessman, investing in lumbering, river transportation, railroads, and land. He played a pivotal role in the 1851 treaty negotiations and later commanded U.S. troops during the war and on the 1863 punitive expeditions. From 1867-70, he served as president of the Minnesota Historical Society.

During the war, Sibley was vilified in the press for his slowness in advancing to Fort Ridgely to liberate captive settlers. He wrote to his wife on September 4, 1862:

"I see . . . that the people are dissatisfied with my slow advance. Well, let them come and fight these Indians themselves, and they will [have] something to do besides grumbling. I have told Gov. R. in my dispatch that he can have my commission when he sees fit, as I would be too glad to let some one take my place. . . . I have not slept more than an hour in two nights, and have been in the saddle almost [all] of the time for two days and nights. . . ."

Colonel Sibley to Governor Ramsey, August 25, 1862:

"My heart is steeled against them, and if i have the means, and can catch them, I will sweep them with the besom of death."

Sibley convened the military commission that condemned 303 Dakota men to death in the wake of the war.

Letter From Col. Henry Sibley to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, December 19th, 1862.

"[I]t should be borne in mind that the Military Commission appointed by me were instructed only to satisfy themselves of the voluntary participation of the individual on trial, in the murders or massacres committed, either by voluntary participation of the individual on trial, in the murders or massacres committed, either by his voluntary concession or by other evidence and then to proceed no further. The degree of guilt was not one of the objects to be attained, and indeed it would have been impossible to devote as much time in eliciting details in each of so many hundred cases, as would have been required while the expedition was in the field. Every man who was condemned was sufficiently proven to be a voluntary participant, and no doubt exists in my mind that at least seven-eighths of those sentenced to be hung have been guilty of the most flagrant outrages and many of them concerned in the violation of white women and the murder of children."

Source: Executive documents, MNHS collections and Henry H. Sibley: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society and Governors of Minnesota.

View full article: Henry H. Sibley

Related Images

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Fort Ridgely Marker
Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely Drawing
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Fort Ridgely Marker

The historical marker for Fort Ridgely.

Three historical markers with outdated language were replaced and ready for viewing in 2012. The content of the sign was reviewed by an MNHS historical marker committee, as well as by Dakota consultants and the MNHS Indian Advisory Committee.

The sign reads: "Fort Ridgely both contradicts and fits the popular culture stereotype of a frontier fort. Following its 1855 completion, the Fort’s primary role was to assist the federal government with an orderly transition of land ownership from American Indians to the growing number of European immigrant farmers. Nothing in that definition suggests the need for a stockade for defense against dramatic attacks. Yet that is what happened. When the six-week U.S.-Dakota War began in August, 1862, the fort assumed great importance as the only military post in the area. On August 20 and 22, 1862, as many as 400 Dakota warriors attacked the fort, defended by just 280 soldiers and refugees. The use of artillery compensated for the lack of a stockade and for the fort’s vulnerable location, compelling Dakota forces to withdraw. Up until the events that led to war in 1862, loneliness and boredom afflicted the Fort Ridgely soldiers: records described complaints about housekeeping detail and harsh winters. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Minnesota’s citizen soldiers relieved regular Army soldiers needed in the South. When the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 erupted, those same volunteer soldiers were among the first to respond and the first to fall in combat. Hundreds of European immigrant families fled to Fort Ridgely for protection. The U.S. military abandoned the fort in 1872, and most of the buildings deteriorated or were converted for other uses. The state erected a battle monument in 1896. In 1911, the Minnesota Legislature created Fort Ridgely State Park. Excavations in 1935 revealed eight building foundations. The fort’s stone commissary was preserved and today serves as a visitor center."

Fort Ridgely

Fort Ridgely Drawing

A drawing of Fort Ridgely in 1862, by anonymous.

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Return of the Killed and Wounded at Fort Ridgely, Minnesota

This list was made by John W. Jones after the battles at Fort Ridgely. Jones made this list of the casualties as part of his report to superiors.

John W. Jones was a combat-wounded veteran of the Mexican War (1846-47) who in 1862 was serving as ordnance sergeant at Fort Ridgely. In charge of the government artillery there, he trained soldiers of the Fifth Minnesota Infantry garrison. During the two battles at Fort Ridgely, artillery was instrumental in holding off the overwhelming number of Dakota soldiers.

Sgt. Jones was later commissioned captain of the Third Battery, Minnesota Volunteer Artillery, and served on the 1863 Sibley Expedition and the 1864 Northwestern Indian Expedition.

From the Minnesota Historical Society archives.