Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions, 1863-1864

by Paul N. Beck

Overview

In summer 1862, Minnesotans found themselves fighting interconnected wars—the first against the rebellious Southern states, and the second an internal war against the Sioux. While the Civil War was more important to the future of the United States, the Dakota War of 1862 proved far more destructive to the people of Minnesota—both whites and American Indians. It led to U.S. military action against the Sioux, divided the Dakotas over whether to fight or not, and left hundreds of white settlers dead. In Columns of Vengeance, historian Paul N. Beck offers a reappraisal of the Punitive Expeditions of 1863 and 1864, the U.S. Army’s response to the Dakota War of 1862.

Whereas previous accounts have approached the Punitive Expeditions as a military campaign of the Indian Wars, Beck argues that the expeditions were also an extension of the Civil War. The strategy and tactics reflected those of the war in the East, and Civil War operations directly affected planning and logistics in the West. Beck also examines the devastating impact the expeditions had on the various bands and tribes of the Sioux. Whites viewed the expeditions as punishment—“columns of vengeance” sent against those Dakotas who had started the war in 1862—yet the majority of the Sioux the army encountered had little or nothing to do with the earlier uprising in Minnesota.

Rather than relying only on the official records of the commanding officers involved, Beck presents a much fuller picture of the conflict by consulting the letters, diaries, and personal accounts of the common soldiers who took part in the expeditions, as well as rare personal narratives from the Dakotas. Drawing on a wealth of firsthand accounts and linking the Punitive Expeditions of 1863 and 1864 to the overall Civil War experience, Columns of Vengeance offers fresh insight into an important chapter in the development of U.S. military operations against the Sioux.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806145969
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	08/25/2014
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Paul N. Beck is Professor of History at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, and author of Inkpaduta: Dakota Leader.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

1 The Coming of War: "We ... were in a starving condition" 3

2 The Dakota War of 1862: "Let it be a war of extermination" 25

3 Preparing for the First Expeditions: "To crush the Sioux Lilliput under the ponderous heel of strategy" 50

4 Sibley's Expedition Departs: "One day was much like another" 81

5 The Battles of Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, and Stony Lake: "We must Fight for our children" 99

6 Sully's 1863 Expedition: "Your movements have greatly disappointed Me" 129

7 Whitestone Hill: "The prairie was covered with White warriors" 153

8 Sully's 1864 Expedition: "Generals Pope and Sully are anxious for another campaign" 177

9 The Battle of Killdeer Mountain: "The prairie seemed alive with Indians" 202

10 The Fight in the Badlands: "The Indians were all around us trying to break in" 220

11 Aftermath: "This whole thing is one confounded humbug" 247

Notes 255

Bibliography 293

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

Far from any traditional Civil War battlefield, the Union Army’s 1863 and 1864 excursions into the Northern Great Plains were no mere sidelight. The army’s overlooked and underappreciated expeditions of revenge against the Plains Indians set the stage for military conflicts that wrested Sioux Country from its Native inhabitants a decade later. In Columns of Vengeance, Paul Beck, a longtime student of the era, has crafted an intimate narrative that gives voice to the soldiers who made these epic, tragic treks and the Plains Indians they fought.” —R. Eli Paul, author of Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854–1856



“Peppered with fascinating accounts of battles, military life, and glimpses into the participants’ innermost thoughts.”—Kansas History

From the Publisher