78. The Effect of the War.-What terrible days those were to the people of Iowa! Their thoughts and energies were intent upon the war. The State

IOWA SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MON

UMENT.

was simply a recruiting station for the army. The railroads and ex

press lines were carrying away the strong and the vigorous and returning, to the desolate homes, the bodies of the cherished dead. The social life of the people was connected with meetings to raise means for sanitary and hospital supplies. Sociables, concerts, festivals, all had

encouraged and everything done to protect the soldier in the field and his family at home. Laws were passed that suspended all suits against soldiers in the service, and all suits of attachment or execution against their property. County boards of supervisors were authorized and commanded to vote bounties for enlistments and pecuniary aid to the needy families of those in the service. To the people, the maintenance of slavery meant the continuance of the support of the Southern cause, and was the very strength of the Rebellion. Therefore the belief prevailed that when slavery ended the War would end, and the Emancipation Proclamation was received with great satisfaction, as meaning the saving of fathers', brothers', sons', and lovers' lives, and, at the same time, gave triumph to liberty and freedom through mercy and justice.

79. Iowa in the War of the Rebellion. In the great War of 1861-65, Iowa sent to the front to defend and support the National Government, in putting down the Rebellion 78,000 men. Of these, nine regiments were cavalry and forty-eight were infantry. In addition there were four batteries, one regiment of colored infantry, and a few sailors. War always plays havoc with human life, whether in camp or in the field. When the war closed in 1865, 12, 368 were dead, 8,848 had been wounded in battle, and 9,987 were discharged for wounds received in battle or for ruined health. Iowa men won rank and distinction in the service. The record shows the names of four majorgenerals, thirteen brevet major-generals, six brigadiergenerals, and thirty-six brevet brigadier-generals. The most signal events that the Iowa soldiers were

connected with were the battles of Wilson's Creek, Belmont, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Prairie Grove, Helena, Missionary Ridge, Jenkins's Ferry, Winchester, the siege of Vicksburg, the storming of Fort Donelson, and the March to the Sea. The War of the Rebellion was one of the most mighty conflicts that has ever occurred. Of a population of less than 700,000 people, Iowa sent nearly 80,000 to the War. Every other able-bodied man in the State was in the ranks of the army of the United States. It was a fearful price to pay for honor and renown, but it was cheerfully given in valor, in faith, and in sacrifice that this Great Republic might live, and that liberty and freedom might be the perpetual heritage of the generations then unborn, but now in the schools and enjoying the great privileges thus bought with blood and treasure.

80. The Sioux Indian and the Settler.-During the intense political controversies that were pending in the Nation, little attention was given to the Indian outrages on the frontier. These were so small and so unimportant, as compared to the great struggle going on in the Nation, that public interest was not aroused to any extent. So much so was this true, that no attempt was ever made by the Government to bring to justice the roving band of Sioux Indian outlaws, who ruthlessly and brutally murdered the settlers in northern Iowa in 1857. The soil of Iowa had been singularly free from Indian outbreaks, the treaties for the removal of the Indians being faithfully kept. Before Territorial times, the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley had an experience in the Black Hawk war that

gave them an insight into the savage character of the Indian on the war path. Later, during the Rebellion in 1862, the Sioux war in Minnesota, that cost the lives of 1,000 white settlers, and that would have been regarded as a most serious and terrible outbreak, lost its prominence because of the more terrible civil conflict even then in progress in the Union. Both of these Indian wars had causes in injustice and in failure of the Government to promptly comply with treaties and also in seeming invasion of rights and guarantees.

81. The Spirit Lake Massacre.-The massacre that occurred in 1857 at Spirit Lake cannot be explained by any wrong on the part of the white man, as its perpetrators were a lawless, reckless band of thieves, robbers, and murderers. In this massacre more than fifty white people lost their lives, at the very time when they were kindly ministering to the wants of these needy but treacherous savages. This massacre was carried out by an outlaw band of Sioux Indians, who were so cruel and so criminal that they were not even respected by the other more honorable bands of the tribe, and hence kept themselves farther away from the pale of civilization and made their home in South Dakota, where a white man had never trespassed. They were the worst band of the Sioux tribe, and were known by their chief as Ink-pa-du-ta's* band. They had attracted to themselves all the roughs and outlaws of the whole tribe, and became thereby the terror of all exposed settlements.

82. The Outrages Committed. The winter of 1856-57 had been unusually cold and this band of

*The Scarlet Point.

In

outlaws found it very difficult to exist. Hence they left their inhospitable quarters and drifted into Iowa to subsist off of the settlers by stealing, robbery, and outrage. Being repudiated by the tribe in the treaty of 1851 that was made at Mendota, they had taken no part in that treaty, and were not thus able to share in the grants and the privileges made by the General government. They thus felt that they had a right to get even with the white man, by such incursions in mid winter when the settler was helpless. The scarcity of game and the difficulties they encountered in dealing with the whites, in the more thickly settled communities on the Little Sioux river incensed them. Their stealing and outlawry being resisted, they became more desperate and more bloodthirsty when they came, in their wanderings, into the more sparse settlements. Buena Vista county, they robbed the houses, shot the cattle, abused the families of the settlers, and threatened them with more dire penalties, if they resisted. In Clay county, their outrages increased in violence and impudence, and in Dickinson county, at Okoboji and Spirit lakes, they entered the homes of the settlers under the guise of friendship, and, after being fed and ministered unto in their distress, they treacherously murdered men, women, and children, saving the lives of none except a few of the younger women, whom they carried away as captives. From Spirit Lake, they proceeded to the little settlement of Springfield on the Des Moines river, but here met resistance, as these settlers were apprised of the result at Okoboji lake and gave them no chance to perpetrate their cruel outrages. A few, however, who relied on the friend