citizens under the Constitution, and had no rights as such which the white man was bound to respect.

The most important event that occurred at the fort in 1837, was a treaty with the Ojibways, by which their lands in Minnesota, between the Mississippi and Lake Superior, were opened for occupation by white settlers.

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General Dodge, as United States Commissioner, in July, met twelve hundred of this tribe, and on the 29th, amid some excitement, concluded a treaty.

The American Fur Company in 1830 succeeded in having inserted in a treaty a provision by which a tribe was held responsible for all the debts contracted with traders by lazy and worthless members of the tribe. While the treaty with the Ojibways was pending, two prominent traders entered the Indian agent's office and asked for pen and paper. A claim was soon made out and given to Commissioner Dodge, asking five thousand dollars for some mills for lumber that had been erected in the Indian country. The chief men of the Ojibways were astonished that they should be called upon to pay for what white men had erected for their own benefit and at their risk. Old Hole-in-the-Day was vehement in his protestations, and about this time a trader, followed by yelling Indians, presented another claim. The Indian agent, indignant at the audacity of this trader, pointed a pistol at him, but General Dodge begged him not to shoot. The traders outwitted the

agent, and the claims were allowed. The same year a treaty was concluded at Washington with the Sioux by which the region where the city of St. Paul now is, was ceded to the United States.

An old Sioux who had been one of the delegation, told me that the President did not appear as great as he had anticipated, but one night he and his companions were taken to a hall where they saw a most wonderful person.

He asked him and his companions to rise and shake their blankets, and pennies fell on the floor. Then he stood up and pulled ribbons of different colors out of his mouth, and last of all he swallowed a knife. He said none of the Sioux delegation could ever forget that great man.

On the morning of the 26th of June, 1838, the steamboat Burlington arrived with about one hundred and fifty recruits and a few tourists. Among the latter was a venerable woman, the daughter of General Philip Schuyler, who at the age of twentytwo had married Alexander Hamilton, in 1780, then the aide and military secretary of General Washington. It was soon after sunrise when the boat reached the fort, and at 8 o'clock the officers in full dress came on board to pay their respects to one whose husband was the officer in command of the army when Washington died.

During the day she visited the Falls of Saint Anthony, and in the afternoon was received at the gates of the fort, leaning upon Commandant Plympton's arm. She was escorted to

covered their foes in a ravine not far from where the State penitentiary now is, and waiting until dawn of the next day, commenced firing down upon the Ojibways, and killed or wounded forty or fifty. Among the wounded Sioux was one who lost his leg, and was known in St. Paul as One Legged Jim, and in May, 1853, he was killed in the streets of St. Paul by some Ojibways.

After the treaty ceding the land east of the Mississippi was ratified, the officers of the fort were much annoyed by white whisky sellers in truding on the reservation, and demoralizing the soldiery. The first steamboat that arrived in 1839 was the Ariel, which brought twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph B. Brown, a discharged soldier who lived with an Indian wife and traded at Grey Cloud Island. In May, the steamboat Glancus brought six barrels of whisky for David Faribault, who traded with the Indians, near the site of what is now St. Paul.

During the summer, Joseph R. Brown and others erected a groggery opposite the fort, not far from the point where the bridge crosses the river, and on the 3rd of June soldiers visited the place, and that night fortyseven were confined in the guardhouse for drunkeness.

The surgeon

of the fort wrote to the surgeon-general at Washington : "Since the middle of winter we have been completely inundated with ardent spirits, and consequently the most beastly

scenes of intoxication among the soldiers of this garrison and the Indians in this vicinity. The whisky is brought here by citizens pouring in upon us and settling themselves on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set at naught.

"At this moment there is a citizen named Brown, once a soldier in the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at this post when Colonel Snelling commanded, and who has since been employed by the American Fur Company, actually building on the land marked. out as the reserve and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very expensive whisky shop."

On the 8th of September, in 1839, some Sioux Indians crossed over and destroyed the groggery. The Indian agent was suspected of inciting the Indians, and Menk, a foreigner, and one of Brown's associates, managed to obtain a commission as deputy sheriff of Clayton county, Iowa, and went over and arrested the agent as assisting by advice in destroying the groggery. The agent was then sick, and the barefaced scamp surprised him as he sat in his morning gown, threw him down, placed his knee on his stomach and a pistol to his ear. As soon as the commandant heard of the outrage, Menk, both an alien and intruder, was ordered to leave the country.

Joseph Plympton made a pleasant commanding officer. When the war with Great Britain began in 1812, he

was engaged in commercial pursuits, but that year was commissioned a second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, and in June, 1821, was a captain of the Fifth Infantry. He was a handsome, courteous blue-eyed young officer, and in 1824 married Eliza Beekman Livingston of New York, known. among her associates for energy and vivacity.

His first term of duty at Fort Snelling was soon after his marriage, and here was born his daughter, Emily Maria, in August, 1825, who married. in 1850 Mansfield Lovell, then a lieutenant of the Fourth United States Artillery, and during the late civil war a major-general in the insurgent army. From Fort Snelling Plympton went to fight the Seminoles in Florida. During the Mexican war he was lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh United States Infantry, and led the regiment. at the battle of Cerro Gordo. health was impaired in Mexico. In 1854 he was made colonel of the First Infantry, and in June, 1860, died at Staten Island.

His

Of all the commanders of the fort, Captain Seth Eastman was the most literary. He was a native of Maine, and before coming to Fort Snelling had been for several years assistant professor of drawing at West Point. In 1835 he married Mary, the daughter of Surgeon Thomas Henderson of the army, who sympathized with him in his studies and pursuits. At Fort Snelling Captain Eastman devoted his leisure in painting pictures of the

scenery and Indians of Minnesota, while his wife noted their manners and customs. In 1849 she published "Dacotah : or Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling," and at a later period two other works on Indian life.

Captain Eastman was the last in command at Fort Snelling before the Mexican war. During this period few troops were left in the valley of the upper Mississippi.

During the latter part of Eastman's life he was on duty a: Washington, and was employed by the government to illustrate Schoolcraft's work on the Indian tribes, and to decorate with his brush the rooms of the Committee on Military and Indian Affairs in the Capitol.

The troops of Fort Snelling left for Mexico in the winter.

As there were no roads to Prairiedu-Chien, they were obliged to march on the frozen Mississippi, and probably in the history of the United States army there is no similar journey recorded.

The first commander of Fort Snelling after the Mexican war was Brevet Major Samuel Woods, then Lieut.-Col. Gustavus A. Loomis of the Sixth Infantry succeeded. He was a native of Vermont, and one of the earlier graduates of West Point. He was familiar with the post, having while captain been on duty here for several years. While in early life he had been fond of cards and the wine cup, in time he was recognized as one of the

In

On the 15th of April, 1850, Major Samuel Woods of the Sixth Infantry was united in marriage to Miss Barney of Baltimore. The ceremony took place at the fort, and she had the prospects of a long and happy life. a few years her husband was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and she accompanied him to this new post, where was also stationed Major E. A. Ogden, who in 1835 was married to the daughter of then Captain G. A. Loomis. The cholera broke out in the garrison, and both Major Ogden and Mrs. Woods died.

Loomis, when made colonel of the Fifth Infantry in 1851, was succeeded at the fort by Lieut. Colonel Francis Lee of the Sixth Infantry, who had distinguished himself in Mexico at Contreras, Churubusco and El Molino del Rey.

His wife was a native of Louisiana, a

refined Christian woman, who died within the fort in 1852.

The snow was on the ground the day she was interred, and there was none of the "pomp and circumstance" of military life. First in the procession was the pastor, a minister of St. Paul, who was with her in her last hours, and the surgeon of the Fort; then came the coffin with officers as pall-bearers, and the sorrowing commander. The only funeral march was the beating of sad hearts for one who while living and dying manifested an unfaltering faith.

Thomas W. Sherman, a native of Rhode Island, a graduate of the class of 1832 at West Point, a brevet major of 3d U. S. Artillery, was the next post commander. He was then unmarried, a strict disciplinarian, somewhat choleric, with a pure sense of honor. He trifled with no one, and reckless was the man who would trifle with him. After he was ordered to another post, Major E. B. Alexander, then of the 8th Infantry, was placed in command. For years he was an officer of the Third Regiment. After leaving West Point in 1823, he was appointed a second lieutenant of the Third Infantry. He rode on horse back from St. Louis to Council Bluffs, to join his company, and, in 1825, a part of the regiment was ordered to Green Bay, Missouri. In 1826, the soldiers left this post, and in thirty or forty keel boats descended the Wis consin and Mississippi rivers, and erected the first log huts at Jefferson Barracks.

In 1847, he was the senior captain of

the regiment, and on the 17th of April was in the attack at Cerro Gordo, and the Third was a portion of the storming. party. The adjutant of the regiment Don Carlos Buell, was shot through the shoulders, but survived to become a major general of Union troops during the late civil war.

On the 19th of August, the Mexicans were strongly entrenched at Contreras, but the Third Infantry, attached to the brigade of General Persifor F. Smith, crossed the lava beds, impassable for cavalry or artillery, and during a rainy night tried to rest, and the next morning the stronghold was successfully stormed. The enemy was followed to Churubusco, and the Third Infantry and the First Artillery made an assault, and planted their colors on the works, just as the Mexicans displayed the white flag of surrender. General Twiggs sent Alexander as commanding officer of the Third, with an orderly who spoke Spanish, to order all Mexican officers to a certain church. He had proceeded but a little distance, when he met an officer with a broad Mexican hat, and told the orderly to tell him to go to the church. The officer smiled and said: "Alexander, don't you know me? I am Pemberton, of General Worth's staff, on my way to receive the surrender of the enemy."

Alexander in his quiet way told him he was a little too late, that the flags of the Third Regiment and others of Smith's Brigade were already waving on the works. Pemberton became the insurgent general, who held out so

long against General Grant at Vicksburg.

In 1855, Alexander was Colonel of the Tenth Infantry and in command at Fort Snelling. After he was retired from active duty on account of years, he made Saint Paul his home, and was honored as the modest officer and true gentleman.

During the time of his service negotiations began, to give up Fort Snelling as a military post, and in July, 1858, it was sold to a citizen of Minnesota, although after the civil war it again became one of the most important forts of the United States.

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After Minnesota was organized as a Territory in 1849, the commander of Fort Snelling had many delicate and difficult duties to perform. The signature of the President approving the act creating Minnesota was hardly dry before speculators began to scheme obtain claims on the military reservation. A memberof Congress living seven hundred miles distant on the 3d of March, 1849, humbly petitioned to to repair a dilapidated mill at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and thus be able to furnish the soldiers with corn meal. He obtained possession by paying a nominal rent. He then wished to open a farm, but Colonel Loomis told him that he could be a miller but not a farmer on the reservation, as the latter vocation was not provided for in the bond. He then wrote to the authorities in Washington, although living at Alton, Illinois, that provisions were dear at St.