Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on August 18, 2012

By Jay Furst The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

FORT RIDGELY STATE PARK, NEAR FAIRFAX Traces of history are everywhere near what's left of Fort Ridgely. You just need to know where to look for it. In the woods along the seventh fairway on the nine-hole golf course at Fort Ridgely, where you're as likely to find golf balls as arrow points or a button from a soldier's uniform, is an earthen barricade built by soldiers on Aug. 21, 1862 one day after a fierce attack by Dakota fighters and one day before a second attack. The knee-high embankment overlooking the Minnesota River valley offered at least one defensive position for the otherwise wide-open fort, which had no stockade. There's no path cleared to the embankment, though it's only a hundred yards off the groomed fairways that are threaded through the historic site.

"From here, they would have had a commanding view of the valley," said Ben Leonard, who directs the Nicollet County Historical Society, as he tromped through tall grass and brush to the site last week. The roughly 100-200 Army volunteers and other militia who defended the fort during the early days of the battle needed every advantage they could get.

The Dakota War began 150 years ago today, at the nearby Lower Sioux reservation, and by the end of that day in 1862, hundreds of white pioneers had rushed to Fort Ridgely for protection as Dakota fighters began a killing spree all along the valley.

On Aug. 20, 1862, an estimated 400 Dakota fighters led by Taoyateduta, the famous Mdewakanton chief Little Crow, attacked but were unable to take the fort after five hours of battle. The next day, it rained and soldiers had a chance to regroup, rebuild defenses and await reinforcements from St. Paul. Two days later, twice as many Dakota fighters attacked but were turned back by cannon fire. Dakota warriors continued to lay siege to the fort until 1,400 soldiers led by Col. Henry Sibley arrived from St. Paul on Aug. 27. That marked the beginning of the end of what's now called a war but was once called a conflict or an uprising. Barely a month later, the war was over and the Dakota leaders were dead, captured or had fled to Dakota Territory and Canada.

Three months after a final skirmish at Wood Lake in late September, 38 Dakota men were executed in Mankato and the Dakota people were banished from Minnesota.

That law, passed by Congress in 1863, remains on the books, which explains a great deal about how Dakota people remember the conflict in 1862, and how those memories differ from how Minnesota history books have told it for generations.

The fort was quickly abandoned after the Dakota outbreak and the Civil War an indication of how effectively the Dakota "threat" had been eliminated. There's almost nothing left of it but some limestone foundations and the restored commissary building, now the interpretive center, which was rebuilt in the 1930s by the CCC.

Fort Ridgely is better known now as a state park with great horse riding trails, picnic grounds and a horseshoe pit, volleyball, a campground and the golf course that runs alongside the ruins area. But it's getting a fresh look from visitors this year who want to know more about what happened here during those crucial days 150 years ago.

"This summer's been very busy" at the fort's history center, Leonard said. "People are interested in learning more about the events" of 1862. The war has been commemorated, to some degree, in every major anniversary year, but with new media, new technology and a much greater diversity of perspectives, there's "more background knowledge about the war this year than in years past," said Leonard, who has directed the Nicollet County historical society for eight years and previously worked for the Minnesota Historical Society.

More:
Dakota War has left lasting scars

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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