t. Paul,
situated from eighty to one hundred and fifty miles from the scenes of
the outbreak; and many, who were able to do so, embarked on the first
departing steamers, and hurried away from the State. It is estimated
that ten large and flourishing counties were almost completely
depopulated.

It so happened that a portion of the volunteers recruited for the Union
army had not yet been ordered out of the State. Though poorly equipped
and supplied, they were at once sent into the field against the Indians,
and they served as a nucleus around which the irregular organizations
could rally. Every old gun, pistol, knife, or other weapon was cleaned
up; every pound of powder and lead was bought and distributed; and
horses were impressed by military authority, with which to extemporize
cavalry companies. The surrounding States promptly sent what aid they
could in men, guns, and cartridges. The Governor by proclamation
authorized the formation of companies of scouts and rangers in the
threatened neighborhoods. Very soon after the outbreak, Colonel H. H.
Sibley, an experienced frontiersman, having a thorough knowledge of
Indian habits and character, was on the march against them, with about
one thousand men. The General Government augmented these forces as
rapidly as possible, and sent Major-General Pope to assume command of
the Indian Department.

Hearing of Colonel Sibley's approach, Little Crow retreated to Yellow
Medicine, taking with him a large baggage train of plunder, and about
one hundred white prisoners, chiefly women and children, whom he had
captured at different places, and whom, with a few exceptions, they did
not specially maltreat, but compelled to labor at camp drudgery.

Colonel Sibley pushed on with his forces, sending in advance a cavalry
detachment, which reached and relieved Fort Ridgely on the 27th of
August, after it had been besieged for nine days. He himself arrived at
that post with the remainder of his troops on the following day. On the
31st, he sent out a detachment of two companies, one mounted, a fatigue
party of twenty men, and seventeen teams and teamsters, to reconnoitre
the neighboring settlements and to bury the dead. They proceeded to the
Minnesota river opposite the Lower Agency, and found and buried sixteen
corpses the first day. The next day they continued their search, finding
and burying fifty-four. That night they encamped on the open prairie,
near the upper timber of the Birch Coo