First Battle of New Ulm
Sunday, August 19, 2012
A large party of Dakota Sioux attacked New Ulm, Minnesota, on this date in 1862 and began a siege of the small prairie outpost. The attack was one of the first battles of the Dakota War of 1862, in which nearly 800 settlers were killed in eastern Dakota Territory and western Minnesota.
The Sioux, facing starvation, were fueled by a decade of injustices that had resulted in the loss of their ancestral lands and hunting rights. Hoping to rid the northern plains of white settlers, Sioux warriors attacked settlements, military outposts, and even lone farmsteads along the Red River. Between August and September, several settlements were “…surrounded, burned, and their populations nearly exterminated.” Finally, on September 26th, the uprising ended with the surrender of the Sioux near Montevideo, Minnesota.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme Job
Sources:
Lounsberry, Clement Augustus. 1919 Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines
of American History. Liberty Press: New York: p. 210.
http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/his260/defaultsioux.html
