ty was felt for Colonel Fisk,
who, with a squad of fifty troops, had left the fort as an escort for a
train of Idaho immigrants, and had been attacked 180 miles west of the
fort, and had been compelled to intrench. He had sent for
reenforcements, and General Sully sent him three hundred men, who
extricated him from his perilous position.

The Minnesota brigade returned home by way of Fort Wadsworth, where they
arrived on September 27th. Here Major Rose, with six companies of the
Second Cavalry, was left to garrison the post, the balance of the
command reaching Fort Snelling on the 12th of October.

In June, 1865, another expedition left Minnesota for the west, under
Colonel Callahan of Wisconsin, which went as far as Devil's lake. The
first, second and fourth sections of the Third Minnesota battery
accompanied it. Again, in 1866, an expedition started from Fort
Abercrombie, which included the first section of the Third Battery,
under Lieutenant Whipple. As no important results followed from these
two latter expeditions, I only mention them as being parts of the Indian
war.

The numbers of Indians engaged in this war, together with their superior
fighting qualities, their armament, and the country occupied by them
gives it rank among the most important of the Indian wars fought since
the first settlement of the country on the Atlantic coast. But when
viewed in the light of the number of settlers massacred, the amount of
property destroyed, and the horrible atrocities committed by the
savages, it far surpasses them all.

I have dwelt upon this war to such an extent because I regard it as the
most important event in the history of our state, and desire to
perpetuate the facts more especially connected with the gallant
resistance offered by the settlers in its inception. Not an instance of
timidity is recorded. The inhabitants engaged in the peaceful pursuits
of agriculture, utterly unprepared for war, sprang to the front on the
first indication of danger, and checked the advance of the savage enemy
in his initial efforts. The importance of battles should never be
measured by the number engaged, or the lists of killed and wounded, but
by the consequences of their results. I think the repulse of the Indians
at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm saved the State of Minnesota from a disaster
the magnitude of which cannot be estimated. Their advance was checked at
the very frontier, and they were compelled to retreat, thus affording