It was a singular fact that farmer Indians,
whom the government officers and missionaries had tried so hard
to civilize, were guilty of the most terrible butcheries after
hostilities had actually commenced.
* * * * *
A few days previous to the attack upon the whites at the upper agency
a portion of the band of Little Six appeared at Action, Meeker county.
There they murdered several people and then fled to Redwood. It was
the first step in the great massacre that soon followed. On the
morning of the 18th of August, without a word of warning, an
indiscriminate massacre was inaugurated. A detachment of Company B of
the Fifth regiment, under command of Capt. Marsh, went to the scene
of the revolt, but they were ambushed and about twenty-five of their
number, including the captain, killed. The horrible work of murder,
pillage and destruction was spread throughout the entire Sioux
reservation, and whole families, especially those in isolated portions
of the country, were an easy prey to these fiendish warriors.
* * * * *
The Wyoming massacre during the Revolution and the Black Hawk and
Seminole wars at a later period, pale into insignificance when
compared to the great outrages committed by these demons during this
terrible outbreak.
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