lie creek, three miles from the
Lower Agency. At about four o'clock of the next morning, September 2,
one of their sentinels shouted, "Indians!" and almost immediately, a
shower of balls rained upon the camp. From this first fire, and during
the confusion attending it, the detachment suffered severely. They soon,
however, gained the shelter of their wagons, and from behind them and
the piles of dead horses which literally covered the ground, they
returned a vigorous fire upon their assailants, meanwhile digging a
rifle pit as they fought. It was a fierce morning's battle, and the foe,
in largely superior numbers, had nearly surrounded and captured them
when reenforcements arrived. So hot was the attack, that one of the
tents was found to have one hundred and forty bullet holes through it.

The boldness and severity of this attack, demonstrated to Colonel Sibley
the necessity for an increase of force and very cautious movements, and
accordingly he fell back to the neighborhood of Fort Ridgely. Anxious
also to obtain the release of the white prisoners in Little Crow's camp,
and fearing that if he won a decided success in battle they would be
murdered, he determined to resort to negotiation. He therefore wrote the
following note and left it fastened to a stake, on the ground where the
last battle had taken place:

'If Little Crow has any propositions to make to me, let him send a
halfbreed to me, and he shall be protected in and out of my camp.

H. H. SIBLEY,
Col. Com. Military Expedition.'

A day or two afterward, two halfbreeds came into his camp under a flag
of truce, bringing a note signed 'Little Crow, his mark,' excusing and
justifying his attack on the whites. Colonel Sibley replied, 'Little
Crow, you have murdered many of our people without cause. Return me the
prisoners under a flag of truce, and I will talk with you like a man.'
After the lapse of a few days, another message came from Little Crow,
stating that he had one hundred and fifty-five prisoners, and asking
what he could do to make peace. Colonel Sibley replied that his young
men had been committing more murders, and that was not the way to make
peace.

Having learned from several sources that serious dissensions had broken
out in the Indian camp, and having also received the needed
reenforcements, Colonel Sibley left Fort Ridgely on the 1