The Dakota War of 1862: The West's Other Front
War broke out on the Minnesota River in August 1862, while the Union army was losing in Virginia. In treaties signed in 1851 and 1858 the Dakota had given up most of their land. They were living on a narrow reservation and relied on annuity payments and food that arrived late or never arrived. Traders refused them credit, and one trader, Andrew Myrick, is widely reported to have said the hungry could eat grass. On August 17 four young Dakota men killed five settlers near Acton. Within a day, factions led by Taoyateduta (Little Crow) attacked the Lower Sioux Agency.
The trials and the Mankato executions
The fighting went on for about six weeks. Hundreds of settlers died, and an unknown number of Dakota. Fort Ridgely and the town of New Ulm held out against attacks. The war ended after the battle of Wood Lake on September 23, and more than 260 captives were released at Camp Release.
Afterward, military commissions tried 392 Dakota men. Some hearings took only minutes. The commissions sentenced 303 to death. President Lincoln went over the trial records and reduced the list to 39, and one more man was later reprieved. On December 26, 1862, 38 men were hanged at Mankato. It remains the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The following year Congress voided the Dakota treaties, and most Dakota were forced out of Minnesota.
The war pulled Union troops west, too, and that is the part of the story West of the War picks up. In 1863 and 1864 General John Pope and Henry Hastings Sibley led punitive campaigns into Dakota Territory, stretching the Civil War onto the northern plains.
Sources: Minnesota Historical Society, "The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862" (usdakotawar.org); Gary Clayton Anderson, Massacre in Minnesota (2019); Kenneth Carley, The Dakota War of 1862 (Minnesota Historical Society Press).
Illustration: AI-generated, artistic interpretation.