vii, [1], [13]-304 pp. Mounted original albumen photograph portrait of Gen. Henry H. Sibley as frontispiece; 4 wood-engraved plates. 7x4¼, original cloth, custom-made half morocco folding box. First Edition.
The very scarce original edition of one of the few eye-witness accounts of the Sioux attacks on the Minnesota settlers during the Civil War. The author had "seen and conversed with many of the sufferers, and knows well the ground which has been the theatre of the horrid tragedies related." Concentration upon upper Minnesota River reservations, without hunting areas, following the cession of their lands resulted in semi-starvation for the Sioux. After wanton murders near Acton, Minn., on August 17, 1862, the outbreak came at the Redwood Agency the following day, and for two weeks raiding bands swept through southwestern Minnesota, murdering and pillaging. Despite the loss of twenty-four soldiers from Fort Ridgley, ambushed at the Redwood Ferry late August 18, the successful defense of New Ulm and Fort Ridgley (Aug. 19-24) against Little Crow's warriors, permitted the movement up from Fort Snelling of troops under Col. H. H. Sibley. The white victory at Wood Lake, Spet. 23, following the Birch Coulee defeat Sept 2, crushed the uprising, except for sporadic incidents like the Dustin murders. The Sibley and Sully expeditions in the Dakotas freed the frontier. Thirty-eight Sioux were executed at Mankato Dec. 26, 1862. The uprising cost about 460 lives. The second edition of the following year did not include the original albumen photograph portrait of Sibley. Howes M-58; Eberstadt 132:656; Holliday Sale 714; Decker 37:191; AII Minnesota, 487; Sabin 43085; Graff 2857; Streeter Sale 1974; Siebert Sale 722. Bookplate of F.C. Knotts, dated 1867, to front pastedown, with inscriptions to him on the front and rear endpapers.
Condition:
Some fading and spotting to cloth; stain to lower margin of first third of the text, marginal tear to plate facing p.41, else very good.