Battle of Whitestone Hill
The Battle of Whitestone Hill was a battle between the US Army and Sioux - Indians that on September 3, 1863 Dakota Territory in the United States took place and ended in victory for the Americans. Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a Yanktonai camp that contained some Dakota and Lakota . About 150 Indians, men, women and children and 78 US soldiers died in the battle. In addition, the tipis and vital winter supplies of the Indians were destroyed.
Historical background
In Mendota, the Treaty of Mendota was signed on April 5, 1851, in which the Dakota ceded much of their tribal territory to the United States government and undertook to move to a reservation . In return, they should receive money and food. The American Civil War (1861-1865) led to financial difficulties and sparked famine among the Dakota. As a result, many warriors left the reservation and took part in the Sioux uprising in Minnesota in 1862 , which was put down four weeks later by the American militia under Colonel Henry Sibley . 38 Dakota warriors were sentenced to death for murder and rape and publicly executed on December 26, 1862. Part of the Indian population of Minnesota had fled west to the related Sioux tribes. The US Army pursued the fugitives and in August 1863 sent Brigade General Alfred Sully on a punitive expedition with around 700 cavalrymen to the Dakota Territory.
The battle
On the morning of September 3, 1863, Major Albert E. House, battalion commander of the 6th Iowa Cavalry, led a scouting party to find the Sioux they were looking for. In the early afternoon, the soldiers discovered the remains of a recent buffalo hunt and then an Indian camp with around 300 to 600 tipis. Major House sent reporters to General Sully to call for reinforcements. In the meantime the Indians had spotted the white troops, some wanted to flee while others prepared to fight. A delegation made up of tribal elders offered to surrender some chiefs, but Major House demanded the total surrender of all villagers. With that the negotiations failed.
Towards sunset, Sully and his troops reached the Indian camp, where a general escape began. Many Sioux streamed into a narrow gorge that opened eastward behind the village. Sully ordered his officers to encircle the village to prevent them from escaping. A fierce battle broke out and Sully himself rode to the summit of Whitestone Hills to lead the battle, but the soon falling darkness ended the battle. The next morning the battlefield was littered with dead and wounded Indians, women, children, soldiers and horses. The soldiers looked after the wounded and dug graves for the dead. Some departments pursued fleeing Sioux while others destroyed the Indians' winter supplies. Tipis, buffalo hides, travois , blankets and perhaps half a million pounds of buffalo meat were piled up in piles and burned. Some fires burned on the graves of the soldiers to obscure the burial site. Army personnel threw pots, kettles, weapons and other submersible items into a nearby lake.
On September 5, a search party encountered some Indian warriors and became involved in a skirmish in which two other soldiers were killed. Sully rode his army south to the Missouri to return to the garrison on ships .
Whitestone Hill today
The site of the battle is now a Historic Site and is designated Whitestone Battlefield State Historic Site . It is located about 30 km south of the city of Kulm in North Dakota and includes part of the battlefield, a small museum and two memorials: one for the killed Indians and a second for the fallen soldiers.
See also
Indian wars , time table of the Indian wars
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Whitestone Hill
- ↑ Whitestone Hill Battlefield ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
