painter or sculptor, and that some time it will be placed upon canvas or in imperishable marble for the adornment of our magnificent Capitol. Where did you ever read of anything more grandly heroic? The terrible alarm was turned in an instant into an abandonment of equally wild rejoicing, for the comers were a detachment from the expedition under Major Williams, and Mr. Church was with them. Mrs. Church and her young sister had worn their dresses off to the knees in walking through the crusted snow, and their shoes were nearly gone. They were almost exhausted from the toilsome march, lack of food, exposure to the inclement weather, and the terrible anxieties of the preceding week. "But I need take no more time with this narrative. The Churches returned to this county, where they resided until the spring of this year (1887), when they went to Washington Territory, whither two of their children and Miss Swanger (now Mrs. Gillispie) had preceded them. Mr. Church was also a soldier of the Union army as well as a veteran of the Mexican War. All who have known them will agree with me that the permanent record of their actions and sufferings, the heroism of these matchless women in our pioneer days, has been well deserved." CHAPTER X. TROOPS FROM FORT RIDGLEY REACH SPRINGFIELD BACK-INKPADUTAH RETURN TRIP-ARRIVE AT THE AGENCY-THE WAR HE next day after the attack on the settlement and the day before the Indians broke camp at Heron Lake, and while the refugees were slowly making their way through snow and slush into Iowa, the messengers, who had been sent to Fort Ridgley for aid, returned, accompanied by a company of regular troops under the command of Captain Bee and Lieutenant Murray. Could they have arrived thirty hours earlier the Springfield massacre would have been prevented, and possibly the savages brought to justice. But that was not to be. In point of suffering, hardships and privation the trip of this band of regulars from Fort Ridgley was the counterpart of that of Major Williams' volunteers from Fort Dodge, and on their arrival they were well nigh exhausted. Judge Flandrau, in writing of this expedition, says: "The people of Springfield sent two young men to my agency with the news of the massacre. They brought with them a statement of the facts as related by Mr. Markham, signed by some persons with whom I was acquainted. They came on foot and arrived at the agency on the eighteenth of March. The snow was very deep and was beginning to thaw, which made the traveling extremely difficult. When these young men arrived they were so badly afflicted with snow blindness that they could scarcely see at all and were completely worn out. I was fully satisfied of the truth of the report that murders had been committed, although the details of course were very meager. I at once held a consultation with Colonel Alexander, commanding the Tenth United States Infantry, five or six companies of which were at Fort Ridgley. The Colonel, with commendable promptness, ordered Captain Barnard E. Bee with his company to proceed at once to the scene of the massacre and do all he could, either in the way of protecting the settlers or punishing the enemy. our "The country between the Minnesota River at Ridgley and Spirit Lake was, at that day, an utter wilderness, without an inhabitant. In fact, none of us knew where Spirit Lake was, except that it lay about due south of the fort at a distance of from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five miles. We procured two guides of experience among Sioux half-breeds. * * * These men took a to pony and a light train carry the blankets and provisions, put on their snowshoes and were ready to go anywhere, while the poor troops, with their leather shoes and their backloads, accompanied by a ponderous army wagon on wheels, drawn by six mules, were about as fit for such a march as an elephant is for a ballroom. But it was the best the government had, and they entered upon the arduous duty bravely and cheerfully. We started on March nineteenth, at about one o'clock, P. M., at first intending to go straight across the country, but we soon decided that course to be utterly impossible, as the mules could not draw the wagon through the deep snow. It became apparent that our only hope of reaching the lake was to follow the road down by the way of New Ulm to Mankato, and trust to luck for a road up the Watonwan in the direction of the lake, we having learned that some teams had recently started for that place with some supplies. * * * PURSUIT BY U. S. TROOPS 123 The first days of the march were appalling. The men were wet nearly up to their waists with the deep and melting snow and utterly weary before they had gone ten miles. * * * "Neither of the officers had ever made a snow camp before and when we had dug out a place for our first camp and were making futile efforts to dry our clothes before turning in for the night, I felt that the trip was hopeless. So much time had elapsed since the murders were committed, and so much more would necessarily be consumed before the troops could possibly reach the lake, that I felt assured that no good could result from going on. I told Captain Bee that if he wanted to return I would furnish him with a written opinion of two of the most experienced voyageurs on the frontier that the march was impossible of accomplishment with the inappropriate outfit with which the troops were furnished. The Captain agreed with me that the chances of accomplishing any good by going on were very small, but he read his orders and in answer to my suggestion, 'My orders are to go to Spirit Lake and do what I can. It is not for me to interpret them but to obey them. I shall go on until it becomes physically impossible to proceed further. Then it will be time to turn back.' And go on he did. We followed the trail up the Watonwan until we found the teams that had made it stuck in a snow drift, and for the remaining forty or fifty miles the troops marched ahead of the mules and broke a road for them, relieving the front rank every fifteen or twenty minutes. "When the lake was reached the Indians were gone. A careful examination was made of their camp and fires by the guides, who pronounced them three or four days old. Their trail led to the west. A pursuit was made by a portion of the command, partly mounted on mules and partly on foot, but it was soon abandoned on the declaration of the guides that the Indians were by the signs several days in advance. * * * I learned afterwards by Mrs. Marble, one of the rescued women, that the troops in pursuit came so near that, the Indians saw them and made an ambush for them, and had they not turned back the prisoners would have all been murdered. The guides may have been mistaken or they may have deceived the troops. I knew the young men so well that I never have accused them of a betrayal of their trust, but it was probably best as it was in either case, because had the troops. overtaken the Indians the women would have certainly been butchered and some of the soldiers killed. The satisfaction of having killed some of the Indians would not have compensated for this result." The Indians were absent from their camp at Heron Lake in making their attack on Springfield two days, when they returned laden with plunder. Mrs. Sharp says: "They had twelve horses heavily laden with dry goods, groceries, powder, lead, bed quilts, wearing apparel, provisions, etc. Among this plunder were several bolts of calico and red flannel. Of these, especially the flannel, they were exceedingly proud, decorating themselves with it in fantastic fashion. Red leggings, red shirts, red blankets and red in every conceivable way was the style there as long as it lasted." The next morning after their return from the attack on Springfield, they broke camp at Heron Lake and started west with their prisoners and plunder. The incidents of this weary march through the melting snows and across swollen streams are vividly portrayed by Mrs. Sharp in her thrilling narrative, but are too lengthy to be given here in detail. A few of the main events will be briefly noticed. The Indians must have been very deliberate in their movements from place to place after leaving their Heron Lake camp, or rather after the pursuit was abandoned. According to Mrs. Sharp's account they were six weeks in making the journey from Heron Lake to the place of crossing the Big Sioux, near the present town of Flandrau. Now, the distance from Heron Lake to Flandrau is not far from one hundred miles, so their progress could not have averaged more than twenty miles a week. It has already been stated that Captain Bee's company of regulars arrived from Fort Ridgley the day before the Indians. broke camp at Heron Lake. Their terrible hardships and suf |