15. Sioux raids in Minnesota
Beginning on August 18, 1862, Sioux bands raided settlements and farms in western Minnesota. Several settlements were razed, and the occupants were killed or carried away as captives. The Lower Sioux Agency at Redwood was attacked and destroyed, and a detachment of Union troops sent to defend it nearly wiped out. In early September, Minnesota militia suffered a defeat at the Battle of Birch Coulee, and were rescued by a detachment sent to relieve them from Fort Ridgely. By the end of the month, Sioux attacks brought trade along the Red River, most of it conducted by flatboats and steamboats, to a complete halt. Pleas to Washington for help went largely unheard, with the military preoccupied with the Confederate invasion of Maryland, as Little Crow had predicted.
President Lincoln created the military Department of the Northwest and appointed General John Pope to command Volunteer troops to defeat the Sioux. Pope’s appointment followed his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and ended the significant blame exchange for that debacle among Union Generals. Pope moved with alacrity, and the reinforced troops in Minnesota faced the Sioux on September 23, 1862, less than a week after the bloody Battle of Antietam in Maryland. The troops in the field were commanded by Colonel Henry Sibling Hastings and volunteer Charles Flandrau. Their roughly 1,500 men were opposed by just under 1,000 Sioux warriors.