Birch Coulee

The Battle of Birch Coulee, Dorothea Paul, about 1975On September 2, 1862, a burial party of 170 men under the command of Maj. Joseph R. Brown was camped at Birch Coulee when they were surrounded and attacked by a group of 200 Dakota soldiers. Over the next 30 hours Brown’s forces lost 13 men and 90 horses, and more than 50 men were injured. There were two recorded Dakota deaths. The fighting finally ended on the morning of September 3rd, when Henry Sibley arrived with reinforcements and artillery.

Theme:

1862

Topics:

Military U.S. Government
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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

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.

Key People

Joseph Brown (1)
Joseph R. Brown
Joseph Brown (1)

Joseph R. Brown

Joseph Renshaw Brown was born in York County, Pennsylvania, on January 5, 1805.

After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1820, he was assigned to the Fifth Infantry Regiment, which had been sent to the upper Mississippi River area in order to build a military post at the river's confluence with what is now known as the Minnesota River. The post--Fort St. Anthony--was later renamed Fort Snelling. After leaving the army in 1828, Brown remained in the area, and in the ensuing years he was at various times a fur trader farmer; lumberman; stagecoach line owner; justice of the peace, clerk of court, and register of deeds; printer; newspaper editor, owner, and publisher; and U.S. Indian agent in Minnesota (1857-61).

Actively involved in politics, he served in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, as a delegate to the conventions that organized Minnesota Territory and drafted the state's constitution, and in the Minnesota Territorial Council and Legislature. He was also an avid promoter of a steam-powered traction engine which he purchased from a New York engineer. Brown was associated with the development of several Minnesota communities, including the town of Henderson.

In 1850, the twice-divorced Brown married Susan Frenier, whose forebears included a French fur trader, a Mdewakanton Dakota chief, and a Yankton Dakota chief.

During the U.S.-Dakota War, while he was away from Minnesota on business related to the steam wagon, Brown's house near what is now the town of Sacred Heart was burned and his family captured. They were later released. Following his return to Minnesota he served as superintendent of the Indian prison at Mankato, participated in the military campaigns against the Dakota, and was special military agent at Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory. He died in New York City in 1870, while on a business trip in connection with the steam wagon.

For more information, see: Nancy Goodman and Robert Goodman, Joseph R. Brown: Adventurer on the Minnesota Frontier, 1820-1849, Rochester, MN: Lone Oak Press, 1996

View full article: Joseph R. Brown

Related Images

W7SS1a_0
Corral
W7SS1a_0

Corral

Robert Knowles Boyd, Battle of Birch Coulee: Ground Plan of the Corral, about 1926