Four Dakota hunters killed five white settlers in Acton Township, Meeker County, Minnesota, on August 17, 1862. Some Dakota then seized the moment to declare war against the United States and reclaim their homelands. After all, hopefully, the US Army would be too involved with the Confederacy to do much about what was happening in Minnesota.
However, the US government found the troops and set out to smash the uprising. A letter from the Union commander, General John Pope to Henry Sibley on September 28, 1862, essentially summed up his ideas as to what to do. "The horrible massacres of women and children and the outrageous abuse of female prisoners, still alive, call for punishment beyond human power to inflict....It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so....Destroy everything belonging to them and force them out to the plains....They are to be treated as maniacs and wild beasts...."
General Pope had been relieved of command of the Army in Virginia after he was soundly defeated by Robert E. Lee at the Second Battle of Manassas and now found himself in command in Minnesota.
I Don't Think he Liked Them. --Old Secesh
No comments:
Post a Comment