16. The Battle of Wood Lake
The engagement between the Sioux and the Union forces at Wood Lake resulted when a failed ambush set by the Sioux quickly evolved into a major engagement. The Sioux faced not a handful of settlers and militia, but a Union line steadied by the presence of veteran troops who had faced the Confederate Army in Virginia. The result was a battle which raged for about two hours, with the advantages quickly shifting to the Americans. The immediate result was the realization that the Sioux could not continue depredations on the Minnesota frontier in the face of reinforced American troops. Winter approached, and the Sioux faced starvation if they remained in the field.
Nearly all the Sioux warriors surrendered to the Union by the end of September, the majority of them at Camp Release on September 26. Their leader, Little Crow, fled with a small band of followers to Canada. Of the surrendering Sioux, 498 were imprisoned, awaiting trial for the raids which occurred in August and September. In November, 300 of them were convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. Lincoln ordered the executions stayed until he could review the cases one by one. General Pope warned Lincoln that clemency towards the Indians would lead to frontier justice among the settlers, and a likely return of fighting. Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but 38, and those were hanged on the day after Christmas, 1862. It remains the largest mass execution in American history.