The delay in making payments, after the time fixed upon by the Superintendent, was a source of great suffering and was another prominent cause of the outbreak. There was usually a delay of a month or two, and generally during the cold weather of autumn, when there would be assembled seven thousand men, women, and children, some of whom came from long distances, and all with small stores of provisions, which would soon be exhausted. Then would follow begging dances, appeals to the agent and traders, who could only give temporary relief, so that for a month or more these poor people would be scarcely half supplied with the necessaries of life, and some of the time in a state of actual starvation.

This condition would be followed by sickness and many deaths. During the long delay of the payment of 1854, smallpox broke out, and one entire band of the Upper Sioux, who had not been vaccinated, perished from the disease. The traders gave credit. during such conditions of suffering to the amount of their money annuity, and when the payment finally took place, the traders were generally faithfully paid, and the poor wards of the Government would return to their homes famished, destitute, and sullen.

Thus the sense of wrong was ever deepening, and, the future giving no promise of improvement, in their exasperated condition an event of minor importance led to open hostilities and the

massacre.

ESTIMATE OF LITTLE CROW'S CHARACTER.

Every race of human beings in its progress has passed through the stage of barbarism. The Indians, like ourselves, represent a stage of human progress; and in trying to estimate the character of Little Crow, he must be judged as a somewhat advanced type of a barbarous people.

He believed in the right of refusing to submit to injustice, and of resenting injustice by force if necessary. Every important battle in the Sioux war of 1862 was led by Little Crow in person, but it is not known that he participated in any raid upon the settlements, or was guilty of murdering women and children. His taking prisoners, and their humane treatment, evidenced a spirit superior to the inherited custom of the Indian tribes.

The final event of his life, near Hutchinson, Minnesota, in July, 1863, must ever remain a mystery. Why did he flee to a settlement of whites? It has been often stated that it was for the purpose of stealing horses; but to such as knew him intimately it is difficult to believe his proud spirit could so humiliate itself. It seems more probable that, knowing all had been lost, home, friends, and country, he sought his enemies, expecting, and perhaps seeking, the death that followed.

During the Indian war and the bitter feeling that attended it, there was some excuse for our people resorting to the extreme retaliation that was adopted, but that condition no longer exists. Other states have suffered from their Indian wars, but none have thought proper to desecrate their State Capitol with the scalp of a fallen foe. Such a spectacle reflects sadly upon the humanity of a Christian people, and all citizens who prize the good name of our state should desire its removal.

The writer's resignation took place in July, 1861. Learning of my contemplated leaving, Little Crow appealed to me to remain with his people, urging that my long residence with them and knowledge of their language had made my service acceptable; that he feared the coming of a stranger, ignorant of the ways of the Indians and their wants.

Dr. Philander P. Humphrey was appointed as my successor. He was a homeopathic physician of fair abilities and a gentleman, and he should have succeeded in a community of whites, but his system of medical practice failed to satisfy the Indians, who had always been accustomed to a more heroic treatment. The doctor and his wife and two children were victims of the massacre that occurred a little more than twelve months later. A son, John A. Humphrey, a lad of twelve years, escaped.

In conclusion, it seems to the writer that when we consider the conditions existing among these Indians for years, there is good reason to believe that had their treatment been just, humane and generous, the outbreak of 1862 would never have occurred.

CIVIL WAR PAPERS.

BY GEN. LUCIUS F. HUBBARD.

I.

MINNESOTA IN THE BATTLES OF CORINTH, MAY TO OCTOBER, 1862.*

The campaigns in the lower valley of the Tennessee river that culminated in the battle of Corinth October 3rd and 4th, 1862, mark an epoch in the progress of the Civil War.

The occupation of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi and Alabama was vigorously disputed with varying fortunes by the contending forces of Union and Confederate armies for many months during the early period of the great conflict; and, while the general tendency of events was to give the Union cause a firmer footing in the territory named, and to cause a gradual recession southward of the Confederate line of defense, yet many points of strategic importance were alternately occupied by Union and Confederate forces as the fortunes of war seemed to favor one side or the other. When the Confederates finally chose the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad as the limit beyond which they seemed disposed to dispute to the utmost the farther progress south of the Union armies, it seemed that the scene of a decisive conflict between the contending forces in the West was clearly presented.

The concentration of men and material by both contestants in the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, was of a magnitude to impress the country with the importance of the impending crisis. The bloody and somewhat indecisive battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, 1862, though claimed as a victory for the Union arms,, intensified the interest and anxiety of the country respecting the

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, January 14, 1907.