ocure boats
which could be used in the pursuit of the Winnebagoes up the Wisconsin
River. On the 16th of August Colonel Snelling arrived at his post, and
on the following day Major Fowle started downstream with four other
companies of the Fifth Infantry in two keel boats and nine mackinac
boats, arriving at Fort Crawford on August 21st. The Indians, overawed
by the rapidity of these military movements and the size of the force
sent against them, immediately became peaceable. As a precaution,
however, Major Fowle was kept at Fort Crawford, and the post was
provisioned for a year.[95]

During the next twenty years the force maintained at Fort Snelling was
small, and the garrison was occupied in routine tasks, the regulation of
Indian affairs, and the fur trade. At the time of the Black Hawk
War there was quiet about Fort Snelling, and Major Taliaferro offered
his services and those of the Sioux warriors in the campaign against the
Sacs and Foxes. But the government did not think it advisable to
formally accept the proffered help, although a number of the Sioux did
take part in pursuing the remnants of Sacs who succeeded in crossing the
river.[96]

In June, 1848, the company of infantry stationed at Fort Snelling
received an urgent call to come to Wabasha's Prairie--near Winona,
Minnesota. The Winnebago Indians were being transferred from their
former home in the Turkey Valley region in Iowa to a new reservation
obtained for them from the Chippewas. But when the Prairie was reached,
the Winnebagoes visited with Wabasha and he sold it to them for a home.
When Captain Seth Eastman arrived from Fort Snelling he was put in
charge of the military forces which had been hastily brought together to
force the Winnebagoes to continue their march. There were volunteers
from Crawford County, Wisconsin, dragoons from Fort Atkinson, Iowa, and
the infantry from Fort Snelling, besides sixty armed teamsters.

These military forces lay encamped, separated from the Indians by a
slough. In the morning a deputation of Indians came to ask the meaning
of the martial appearance of the whites when all _they_ desired was a
council. This suggestion of a council was quickly assented to, but the
Indians approached with such a rush and with such blood-curdling
yells that the cannon were loaded and the soldiers stood ready to fire.
During the council the Winnebagoes refused to move until one small band
gave in to the entreaties of the agent and were