ll,
Aides-de-camp Lieutenants Pope, Beever, Hawthorne and A. St. Clair
Flandrau, Chaplain, Rev. S. R. Riggs.

The column moved from Camp Pope on June 16, 1863. The weather was
intensely hot, and the country over which the army had to march was wild
and uninhabited. At first the Indians retreated in the direction of the
British line, but it was discovered that their course had been changed
to the direction of the Missouri river. They had probably heard that
General Sully had been delayed by low water and hoped to be able to
cross to the west bank of that stream before his arrival to intercept
them, with the future hope that they would, no doubt, be reenforced by
the Sioux inhabiting the country west of the Missouri. On the 4th of
July the expedition reached the Big Bend of the Cheyenne river. On the
17th of July Colonel Sibley received reliable information that the main
body of the Indians was moving toward the Missouri, which was on the
20th of July confirmed by a visit at Camp Atchison of about three
hundred Chippewa half-breeds, led by a Catholic priest named Father
Andre. On becoming satisfied that the best fruits of the march could be
attained by bending towards the Missouri, the general decided to relieve
his command of as much impedimenta as was consistent with comfort and
safety and would increase the rapidity of its movements. He therefore
established a permanent post at Camp Atchison, about fifty miles
southeasterly from Devil's lake, where he left all the sick and disabled
men, and a large portion of his ponderous train, with a sufficient guard
to defend them if attacked. He then immediately started for the
Missouri, with 1,436 infantry, 520 cavalry, 100 pioneers and
artillerymen, and twenty-five days' rations. On the 22nd he crossed the
James river, forty-eight miles west of Camp Atchison, and on the 24th
reached the vicinity of Big Mound, beyond the second ridge of the
Missouri coteau. Here the scouts reported large bodies of Indians, with
Red Plume and Standing Buffalo among them.

BATTLE OF BIG MOUND.

The general, expecting an attack on the 24th, corralled his train, and
threw up some earthworks to enable a smaller force to defend it. The
Indians soon appeared. Dr. Weiser, surgeon of the First Rangers,
supposing he saw some old friends among them, approached too close and
was instantly killed. Lieutenant Freeman, who had wandered some distance
from the camp, was also killed. The battle opened a