As I stated in Chapter Four, Gustav’s oldest son Hans joined the U.S. Navy in 1856.Therefore Hans was involved right from the start of the Civil War. I want to make this statement here, even though my Anderson family is a fictional family, I have included them in real-life events throughout the trilogy. I have also involved them interacting with real-life individuals. In the case of Hans A. Anderson, I have actually taken a real-life individual and incorporated him in the Anderson family clan. I did so when I discovered him in my research. His story proved so interesting that I couldn’t help but include him in my story. He stood 5’7″ tall, had blue eyes, brown hair, and had a florid complexion. Due to his long naval career, it can be surmised that he was a fit individual weighing somewhere around 150 pounds or so.
Anybody who has read my first two volumes of this trilogy will come to the realization that these works fall under the historical novel category. The original work was only supposed to be a two volume work, however, after finishing the second volume I found myself wanting to spend more time with the family, so I decided to take a unique tact in that I would make the final volume not only a prequel but a sequel as well. The first part covers the Anderson family emigration to the United States and covers their adventures up to the early life of Thomas Anderson (Papa Thomas). Since the Civil War played such a pivital part in our American history, I had no choice but to include it in my work. I will also include the Anderson family in the Spanish American War and the Rough Riders.
From my extensive readings I knew that the inventor of the USS Monitor was of Swedish descent, so it only stood to reason that there would be some sailors of Swedish descent serving on board the vessel and that is how I came across good old Hans. I am sure that Hans was not an only child, but I was not able to find any information about him prior to his serving in the Swedish Merchant Marines and even less in how or why he joined the American Merchant Marines. So I have no choice but to use a little poetical license. In the odd chance that if any of his relatives ever read these books and comes across my telling of their beloved ancestors life, feel free to fill me in, so I can had further annotations to this historical work of fiction.
Considering how important the Monitor was in the Civil War and in naval history in general, it was quite surprising how little material there is on the crew that served on her. The only work that I could find that actually had a complete list of seamen was the work “The Monitor Boys,” written by John V. Quarstein. One of the interesting things that I found out about our navy and the infantry in general was that first of all, there were few IDs used by anybody. So people were pretty much free to use any name they chose when they enlisted. It was just taken for granted that they would use their real names. When it came time to volunteer for service on the Monitor, mainly due to the uniqueness of the ship and the perceived danger that this particular service would entail, many people used aliases. This facilitated desertions since there were few IDs, as I stated, and certainly none included photos. This is quite contrary to todays society when virtually every citizen has not only one photo ID but several.
Even though this individual did not play any role in our hero’s story, I am going to include it to help the reader understand the prevalence of this practice actually was. It also in part explains why it was so hard to actually find an accurate and complete roster of the seamen serving on the Monitor.
While the Monitor was lying at the navy yard at Brooklyn, NY, and prior to starting for Hampton Roads, Va, all manner of uncomplimentary and satirical remarks were made with regards to her fate. When she got to sea, one declared… the first heavy sea to wash her decks would swamp her for how could such a mass of iron float if it got under water. Another old sea dog who had follwed the sea all his life remarked that if she got into a fight any ordinary ship would run over with ease, or if boarded by a strong party they could wedge the turret and work the guns in such quarters. On one occaisionan old seamen said in a very solemn and prophetic tone, “that thing you are going in will never stay up long enough to get out of sight of Sandy Hook. You fellows certainly have got a lot of nerve or want to commit suicide one or the other. “
These comments, as well as the very site of the low-lying iron warship virtually awash with the sea in calm water and the unusual living space below the water line, prompted several seamen to desert shortly after they arrived on the Monitor. Master’s Mate George Frederickson noted in the Monitor’s log on March 4, “Norman McPherson and John Atkins deserted taking the ship’s cutter and left for parts unknown so ends this day.” Coal Heaver Thomas Feeney deserted seven days after he enlisted and the very day he arrived on the Monitor. Seamen Francis A. Riddey, also known as Frank Ryeday, was a sailer from Philadelphia. He deserted on February 21, but later reenlisted and served as a gunner’s mate on the USS Princeton.
Despite these problems, many volunteered for service aboard the ironclad as a sense of duty or as an opportunity to find a place in their nation. Hans A. Anderson, originally from Gothenberg, Sweden, and had served in the Swedish Merchant Marine was one of those intrepid individuals. This is where I will start using a little poetic license and fill in some details that are not provided by the historial accounts. In 1854, after completing his 8 year commission, Sweidsh Merchant Marines Hans immigrated to the United States and served in the American Merchant Marines until enlisting in the U.S. Navy on December 29, 1856.
Hans sailed on many vessels, including the USS Falmouth (a sloop of war in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. Falmouth was launched on 3 November 1827 by Boston Navy Yard) and the USS Congress ( a United States Navy frigate in operation between 1842 and 1862. The fourth Navy ship to carry that name Congress, she served in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean. She continued to operate as an American warship until the American Civil War, when she was sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia in battle of Newport News, Virginia, in 1862) until he was discharged with the rank of coxswain (navigate boats along coastlines and on the open ocean).
He reenlisted as a seamen and was transferred from the USS North Carolina ( a 74-gun ship of the line in the United States Navy) to the USS Monitor as the ship’s number nine and filled the role of acting quartermaster ( QMs stand watch as assistants to officers of the deck and the navigator; serve as helmsman and perform ship control, navigation and bridge watch duties. QMs also procure, correct, use, and stow navigational and oceanographic publications and oceanographic charts).
Battle between the CSS Merrimack and the USS Monitor
The battle between the Confederate CSS Merrimack and the Union USS Monitor is well known by even the least knowledgeable of American citizens, so I will not devote a lot of space re-telling the story.
The Northern-built Merrimack, a conventional steam frigate, had been salvaged by the Confederates from the Norfolk navy yard and rechristened the Virginia. With her upper hull cut away and armored with iron, this 263-foot (80.2-metre) masterpiece of improvisation resembled, according to one contemporary source, “a floating barn roof.” Commanded by Commodore Franklin Buchanan and supported by several other Confederate vessels, the Virginia virtually decimated a Union fleet of wooden warships off Newport News, Virginia, on March 8, destroying the sloop Cumberland and the 50-gun frigate Congress while the frigate Minnesota ran aground.
The Union ironclad Monitor, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, arrived the same night. This 172-foot “Yankee Cheese Box on a raft,” with its water-level decks and armored revolving gun turret, represented an entirely new concept of naval design. Thus, the stage was set for the dramatic naval battle of March 9, with crowds of Union and Confederate supporters watching from the decks of nearby vessels and the shores on either side. Soon after 8:00 am the Virginia opened fire on the Minnesota, and the Monitor appeared. They passed back and forth on opposite courses. Both crews lacked training; firing was ineffective. The Monitor could fire only once in seven or eight minutes but was faster and more maneuverable than her larger opponent. After additional action and reloading, the Monitor’s pilothouse was hit, driving iron splinters into Worden’s eyes. The ship sheered into shallow water, and the Virginia, concluding that the enemy was disabled, turned again to attack the Minnesota. But her officers reported low ammunition, a leak in the bow, and difficulty in keeping up steam. At about 12:30 pm the Virginia headed for its navy yard; the battle was over.
The Virginia’s spectacular success on March 8 had not only marked an end to the day of wooden navies but had also thrilled the South and raised the false hope that the Union blockade might be broken. The subsequent battle between the two ironclads was generally interpreted as a victory for the Monitor, however, and produced feelings of combined relief and exultation in the North. While the battle was indecisive, it is difficult to exaggerate the profound effect on morale that was produced in both regions.
The two ironclads faced off once more, on April 11, 1862, but did not engage, neither being willing to fight on the other’s terms. The Union side wanted the encounter to take place in the open sea. The Virginia, on the other hand, tried unsuccessfully to lure the Monitor into another battle in Hampton Roads harbor.
On May 9, 1862, following the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk, the Virginia was destroyed by its crew. The story of the demise of the Monitor will be told below.
It can be said that our good old Hans lived a charmed life because on two separate occasions, divine intervention or just plain dumb luck saved his life. First off, he served on the USS Congress, one of the ships sunk by the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) off Hampton Roads with most of its crew perishing and he was supposedly AWOL from the USS Monitor when it sunk in a storm off Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862.
The following is an account of its sinking.
The Monitor served well in the sheltered waters of Chesapeake Bay, but the heavy, low-slung ship was a poor craft for the open sea. The U.S.S. Rhode Island towed the ironclad around the rough waters of Cape Hatteras. Since December is a treacherous time for any ship off North Carolina, the decision to move the Monitor could be considered questionable.
As the Monitor pitched and swayed in the rough seas, the caulking around the gun turret loosened, and water began to leak into the hull. More leaks developed as the journey continued. High seas tossed the craft, causing the ship’s flat armor bottom to slap the water. Each roll opened more seams, and by nightfall on December 30, the Monitor was in dire straits.
The Monitor’s commander, J.P. Bankhead signaled the Rhode Island that he wished to abandon ship. The wooden side-wheeler pulled as close as safety allowed to the stricken ironclad, and two lifeboats were lowered to retrieve the crew. Many of the sailors were rescued, but some men were terrified to venture onto the deck in such rough seas. The ironclad’s pumps stopped working, and the ship sank before 16 crew members could be rescued.
Now that we know what happened to the Monitor, let us find out what happened to our tarnished hero. Just before Hans A. Anderson was due to return to Washington D.C. from his furlow in New York City, he “fell in with some men and went into a rum hole, and took a glass of beer which was evidently drugged.” He soon found himself shanghaied on an unknown barque (A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-masted barques) is rigged fore and aft) sailing for London. No, this really happened, I am not making this shit up. Hans eventually made his way to a U.S. consul, where he found transportation back on a Packet boat(Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers) back to the United States where he surrendered himself on February 1863. Hans was allowed to return to duty with the loss of pay, of course, while he was absent from duty. Luckily, they believed his story, and he was not penalized for his misadventures. Since the USS Monitor was no more Hans A. Anderson was transferred to duty on the Passaic-class monitor* the USS Catskill where he received a promotion and served as the Chief Botswain (A boatswain, bo’s’n, bos’n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship’s hull.)
Packet Boat
*USS Passaic, first of a ten-ship class of 1335-ton ironclad monitors, was built at Greenpoint, New York. Passaic’s combat service began on 23 February 1863 in Wassau Sound, Georgia, where she took part in the capture of a blockade-running schooner. Passaic was one of nine ironclads that attacked Fort Sumter, off Charleston, South Carolina, on 7 April 1863. She received serious damage at that time and had to go to New York for repairs. Returning to the war zone in late July, Passaic kept busy over the next two months, bombarding Confederate fortifications at the harbor entrance. Among other contributions, her gunfire helped to reduce Fort Wagner on Morris Island, facilitating its capture in early September. Passaic spent the remainder of the Civil War operating in South Carolina and Georgia waters.
I guess some people lived a charmed life. Don’t you get the feeling that if Hans fell in a pig sty, he would come out smell like a petunia? As far as we know, Hans never crossed his brother Charle’s path while he served in the USS Navy during the Civil War.
Hans also served on the USS Home, USS Wabash, and the USS Princeton from 1863-1865. He participated in the assault on Fort Fisher in North Carolina on January 16, 1865, as a member of the landing party from the USS Gettysburg, where he suffered a hip and pelvis injury.
On that date, Admiral David Dixon Porter opened the morning with a point-blank, heavy bombardment of Fort Fisher. Then, in conjunction with Major General Alfred Terry’s land assault, Porter sent in a landing party of one thousand sailors and four hundred Marines to attack the sea face of the fort. These volunteers were commanded by Lieutenant Commander K. Randolph Breese. The sailors only armed with Colt revolvers and cutlasses were decimated by grapeshot, cannister, and rifle fire. Thomas O. Selfridge Jr. remembered the scene of his men”packed like sheep in a pen, while the enemy were crowding the ramparts not forty yards away and shooting into them as fast as they could fire.” The attack was a dismal failure.
He was discharged ten days later on January 1, 1865, due to his injuries. During the postwar era, Hans served on several merchant vessels, including the Alene. The Alene was a Hamburg-American Line steamship that accidentally rammed the New York Pilot boat the James Gordon Bennett. Hans was at the wheel of the Alene when the colsion occurred. True to his nature, he was absolved of any wrongdoing. Hans later worked as a night watchman.
He later purchased a small grocery store on Hall Street in Brooklyn, New York, which he ran until his death due to a gastric duodenal hemorrhage on April 23, 1909. His income from his grocery store was subsidized by a $30 month pension**.
He ended his days clinging to the belief that he was the last surviving member of the crew that manned the USS Monitor. Even his obituary stated that he was the last survivor of the USS Monitor.
As far as we know, he never made any attempt to see his family, whether it be back in Sweden, where he would have found out that his parents and siblings were now living in Minnesota. He seems to have been content with his isolation. He appears to have died a bachelor with no heirs.
**We have a little more information on Hans, and that is because he filed for an invalid (disability) pension. Hans Anderson’s attorney wrote: “The claimant is to my certain knowledge totally disabled from performing any work. Were it otherwise, he could and would, without doubt , be given some light work by Naval authorities, for they would not see a man who served on the Monitor in her fight be in want of employment, were he not totally disabled.” As I stated he finally did receive a pension, however, it was based on his injuries incurred during his service on the USS Catskill and the USS Gettysburg and not for his service on the USS Monitor.
I also used a real person for the second son of Gustav and Brigitta, Charles Anderson. Little is known of Charles except that he was 26 years old when he volunteered to fight in May 20, 1861 to with the 1st Minnesota Volunteers Company D. He mustered out on May 5, 1864. The rest of his life prior to and after the Civil War is unknown, so I am free to use my own imagination to fill in the gaps as I see fit. Again, as I stated for Hans, if anybody knows more about his life, please feel free to contact me. My contact information is in the last chapter of volume two.
Above is a map of campaigns that the First Minnesota fought in. They fought in some of the bloodiest battles in the war. It is by only a miracle that any of the original volunteers survived to be honorably discharged.
On April 14, 1861, Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey was visiting Washington, D.C. when he first heard news of the attack on Fort Sumter causing him, along with Senator Wilkinson, to rush to the office of the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, to offer 1,000 Minnesotan men to the Union Army. Two days later, the Adjutant General of Minnesota, William H. Acker issued an order for Minnesota’s Commissary General, H. Z. Mitchell, to enlist men for Minnesota’s 1st Regiment. Word spread and communities in Minnesota quickly raised companies of volunteers identified by locality. The companies trekked to the newly reactivated Fort Snelling to be mustered into the regiment on April 29. These companies were the first troops offered by any state to meet Abraham Lincoln‘s call for 75,000 men to assist the Federal Government to deal with the secession. On May 10, they were remustered “officially” for three years’ service. From Fort Snelling, they boarded river boats heading south to a rail line, whereafter they headed east.
Josias Redgate King of the St. Paul Pioneer Guard is credited as being the first northern volunteer to stand for Lincoln’s call for men to fight the Confederacy.
The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry was the first regiment from Minnesota to fight in the Civil War, and the first Union regiment to volunteer for three years of service:
The First Minnesota is the most thoroughly researched of Minnesota’s Civil War units.
The First Minnesota was raised in response to President Lincoln’s call for troops in April 1861. The regiment was mustered in on April 29, 1861.
Battles
The First Minnesota fought in many important battles, including:
Bull Run: The regiment was involved in the First Battle of Bull Run.
Antietam: The regiment fought in the Battle of Antietam.
Fredericksburg: The regiment fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Gettysburg: The regiment’s most famous action was at the Battle of Gettysburg, where they halted a Confederate assault on Cemetery Ridge. A monument on the battlefield commemorates this action.
Disbandment
The First Minnesota was mustered out on May 5, 1864, after its three-year term expired.
Casualties
The 1st Minnesota Infantry suffered the loss of 10 officers and 177 enlisted men killed in action or who later died of their wounds, plus another 2 officers and 97 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 286 fatalities and 609 wounded.
Replacement
A new battalion, the First Battalion Minnesota Infantry Volunteers, was formed to replace the First Minnesota. The battalion served until the end of the war.
First Bull Run
On July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia, the regiment fought in the first major battle of the American Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run. While straddling Rickett’s Battery in support, the regiment saw heavy fighting on Henry House Hill in close proximity to the enemy. The 1st Minnesota was one of the last regiments to leave the battlefield and suffered among the highest casualties of any northern regiment: 49 killed, 107 wounded, and 34 missing.
During the 1st Minnesota Infantry’s initiation to combat, its honorable conduct was readily distinguishable from that of the other regiments in its brigade:
The First Minnesota Regiment moved from its position on the left of the field to the support of Ricketts’ battery and gallantly engaged the enemy at that point. It was so near the enemy’s lines that friends and foes were for a time confounded. The regiment behaved exceedingly well and finally retired from the field in good order. The other two regiments of the brigade retired in confusion, and no efforts of myself or staff were successful in rallying them. I respectfully refer you to Colonel Gorman’s report for the account of his regiment’s behavior and of the good conduct of his officers and men
Antietam
During General John Sedgwick’s ill-fated assault on the West Woods, the regiment suffered significant casualties (1 officer killed, 3 officers wounded, 15 enlisted killed, 79 enlisted wounded, 24 enlisted missing, for a total of 122 of 435 engaged) as Union forces were routed on that part of the field. The brigade commander noted, “The First Minnesota Regiment fired with so much coolness and accuracy that they brought down [three times one] of the enemy’s flags, and finally cut the flag-staff in two.
Gettysburg
Even though the regiment fought in several key battles in the first three years of the war, they played their most significant role in the Battle of Gettysburg. On the morning of July 2, 1863, the First Minnesota, along with the other units of the II Corps, took its position in the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Late in the day, the Union III Corps, under heavy attack by the Confederate I Corps, collapsed, creating a dangerous gap in the Union line. The advancing Confederate brigades were in position to break through and then envelope the Union forces. At that critical moment, the First Minnesota was ordered to attack. Advancing at double time, the Minnesotans charged into the leading Confederate brigade with unbounded fury. Fighting against overwhelming odds, the heroic Minnesotans gained the time necessary for the Union line to reform. But the cost was great. Of the 262 members of the regiment present for duty that morning, only 47 answered the roll that evening. The regiment incurred the highest casualty rate of any unit in the Civil War.
The First Minnesota By Don Troiani
Later service
The 1st Minnesota continued to serve in the Army of the Potomac. In 1863, it participated in the Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns. The 1st Minnesota mustered at Fort Snelling on April 29, 1864. Many soldiers continued service as the 1st Minnesota Infantry Battalion and went on to fight in the Appomattox Campaign. On May 23-24, the 1st Minnesota Battalion marched in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C. In July, the 1st Minnesota Battalion moved to Louisville, Kentucky for duty. It was mustered out of service upon completion of its enlistment on July 15, 1865.
First Minnesota Civil War Drum 1861
Even though many opted to continue fighting till the end of the war under the 1st Minnesota Infantry Battalion, Charles had seen enough bloodshed to last several lifetimes, so on May 5th, 1864 he returned back to his family and home in Minnesota. He did so with no regrets , he felt like he had served his country and did what was right. Slavery had been abolished by the Gettysburg Address***. Well, as close as possible, while the war was still being fought. It would take three amendments to give equal rights to the black man. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment gave citizenship to all people born in the US, and the 15th amendment gave Black Americans the right to vote.
***ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” (19 NOVEMBER 1863)
[1] Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
[2] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
[3] But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Hans and Charles were not the only Andersons to have some excitement during this time. Back at home, there was a Sioux uprising due to a delay in annuity payments caused by the worsening war between the Union and the Confederacy. It was known as the Dakota War of 1862. Hungry tribesmen, desperate for food, broke into a government agency storehouse at Upper Agency to take flour and other items. Gustav and his family turned their farmhouse into an armed camp and were able to ride out the uprising. They were the fortunate ones because many of their neighbors were murdered and their farms were burned to the ground.
Fort Snelling played a central role in the war and its aftermath. In early August 1862, recruitment of the Sixth through Eleventh Infantry regiments meant for service in the Civil War had commenced. When news of Dakota attacks reached St. Paul, Governor Ramsey appointed Henry Sibley a colonel in the state’s military forces and commander of the army that would march against the Dakota. Sibley led four hastily armed companies of the Sixth Infantry Regiment from Fort Snelling to St. Peter. Over the next few days, a trickle of supplies and detachments from the other partially recruited infantry regiments and militia units left Fort Snelling to join Sibley.
The state’s military forces came under federal control on September 16, when Major General John Pope assumed command of the newly created Military Department of the Northwest. Sibley, just appointed a brigadier general of US Army volunteers, directed the US forces in the decisive Battle of Wood Lake on September 23, defeating the Dakota. Many of the Dakota combatants moved westward into Dakota Territory, while others went north to Canada, but many of the men who had fought stayed with their families, who could not move swiftly enough to escape. Numerous Dakota who had not participated in the war, as well as some who had met Sibley’s army at a place that came to be called Camp Release. When he arrived, Sibley took the Dakota into the custody of the US military.
Over the course of three weeks, a military commission tried 392 Dakota men for their participation in the war and sentenced 303 of them to death. Some of the trials lasted no longer than five minutes. At the time, and ever since, the legal authority of the commission and the procedures it followed have been questioned. After the trials, General Pope ordered that the convicted Dakota be removed to Mankato, and the Dakota non-combatants be removed to Fort Snelling. Sibley put Lieutenant Colonel William R. Marshall and 300 troops of the Eighth and Fifth Minnesota Infantry in charge of the forced removal of the Dakota from the Minnesota River Valley to Fort Snelling The Dakota who traveled to Fort Snelling beginning November 7, 1862, numbered 1,658. The vast majority were children, women, and elderly.
The Fort Snelling Concentration Camp
The Dakota non-combatants arrived at Fort Snelling on November 13, 1862, and encamped on the bluff of the Minnesota River about a mile west of the fort. Shortly after, Marshall and his soldiers moved the Dakota to the river bottom directly below the fort. In December, soldiers built a concentration camp, a wooden stockade more than 12 feet high, enclosing an area of two or three acres, on the river bottom. More than 1,600 Dakota people were moved inside. A warehouse just outside the camp was used as a hospital and mission station. Throughout the camp’s existence, soldiers of the Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiments guarded the stockade, controlling movement in and out. It is estimated that between 130 and 300 Dakota people died over the winter of 1862–63, mainly due to measles, other diseases, and harsh conditions.
The concentration camp at Fort Snelling was not a death camp, and Dakota people were not systematically exterminated there. The camp was, however, a part of the genocidal policies pursued against Indigenous people throughout the US. Colonists and soldiers hunted down and killed Dakota people, abused them physically and mentally, imprisoned them, and subjected them to a campaign calculated to make them stop being Dakota.
Removal of the Dakota and Ho-Chunk
On February 16, 1863, Congress passed an act that “abrogated and annulled” all treaties with the Dakota people. The act also stated that all lands held by the Dakota and all annuities due to them were forfeited to the US government. A second bill, providing for the removal of the Dakota from their ancestral homelands, passed on March 3, 1863. The aftermath of the US–Dakota War of 1862 also engulfed the Ho-Chunk, who were living at Blue Earth at the time of the war. The desire of colonists to remove all Indians from Minnesota led to a similar bill to evict the Ho-Chunk, who had been uninvolved in the war but resided on prime agricultural land that colonists wished to obtain.
In early May, the army put the Dakota captives from the Fort Snelling camp aboard steamers and took them to a desolate reservation at Crow Creek, Dakota Territory The removal of the Ho-Chunk people coincided with that of the Dakota. For a brief time, the US army held hundreds of Ho-Chunk at Fort Snelling before they, too, were removed from the state.
Aftermath and the execution of Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan
After the US government forcibly removed the non-combatant Dakota from Minnesota, the war against the Dakota entered a second phase, and the concentration camp at Fort Snelling served a different purpose In the summers of 1863–64, the US Army launched the Punitive Expeditions into Dakota Territory, intent on carrying war to the Dakota people. Fort Snelling became a center for marshaling supplies, stock, and troops for these efforts. From the spring of 1863 until the late summer of 1864, Dakota, who had surrendered or been captured by the army, were held at the Fort Snelling stockade before being exiled from Minnesota.
In November of the following year, an event marked the close of the US-Dakota War era at Fort Snelling. Bdewakantunwan (Mdewakanton) leaders Sakpedan (Little Six) and Wakan Ozanzan (Medicine Bottle), who had been involved in the war (though to what degree is still not certain), helped guide hundreds of Dakota people, including non-combatant women, children, and elderly, to safety in Canada after the fighting. US Army officers asked John H. McKenzie, who was then living near Fort Garry, Winnipeg if he would abduct the Dakota leaders and bring them across the border. McKenzie agreed to do so, enlisting a colleague named Onisine Giguere and others to help him capture Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan. McKenzie and his cohorts drugged the two Bdewakantunwan men using opiates, kidnapped them, and delivered them to the US Army at Pembina. The army then imprisoned them at Fort Snelling and tried them by military commission.
In separate trials, the military charged Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan with murder and general participation in “the murders massacres and other outrages committed by the Sioux Indians upon whites in 1862.” Each charge included multiple specifications related to particular acts of violence. The commission made it clear within the specifications that they deemed the two men as having been “under the protection of the United States” when the war began, and that opposing US forces and the killing of US soldiers during the war were considered crimes.
Both Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan asked permission to obtain counsel. Permission was granted, but neither was able to secure an attorney. The two Bdewakantunwan leaders pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. In both trials, witnesses gave hearsay testimony, most of them claiming they had heard Sakpedan or Wakan Ozanzan talk about committing murders during the war. Multiple witnesses provided circumstantial evidence that Wakan Ozanzan participated in the violence. However, no person called to testify had personally witnessed Sakpedan or Wakan Ozanzan kill “white settlers” or US soldiers. Both defendants submitted final defense documents professing their innocence. Wakan Ozanzan was able to obtain the services of the attorneys Gorman and David in the writing of his final statement. In it, he argued that his abduction from Canada made his trial by US authorities invalid.
The commission found Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan guilty of both charges. Their executions were approved by Brigadier General Henry Sibley and President Andrew Johnson. The approval process took nearly a year, during which time they were imprisoned at Fort Snelling. On November 11, 1865, the army hanged the Bdewakantunwan leaders outside the walls of the fort. In 1867, the Minnesota Legislature awarded McKenzie and Giguere $1,000 as payment for their services.