Memorial addresses in honor of Judge Charles E. Flandrau : at the monthly council meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, in the State Capitol, St. Paul, Minn., Monday evening, November 9, 1903

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
VOL. X. PLATE XIX.

MEMOKIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE
CHARLES E. FLANDRAU, AT THE MONTHLY
COUNCIL MEETING OF THE MINNESOTA HIS-
TORICAL SOCIETY, IN THE STATE CAPITOL, ST.
PAUL, MINN., MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER
9, 1908.

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS.

BY THE PRESIDENT, GEN. JOHN B. SANBORN.

Ladies and Gentlemen : The Executive Council of this So-
ciety has directed that the remaining portion of this evening shall
be devoted to memorial addresses upon the life and services of our
deceased councilor, friend, and brother, Hon. Charles E. Flan-
drau. These addresses must impress us with the great obliga-
tions that the citizens of the State and society generally owe to a
few of the leading citizens of the generation that has passed or is
rapidly passing away.

An organized State, containing two millions of people, with
all its institutions of learning, of benevolence, and charity, dis-
pensing knowledge, health, and happiness to all classes, that has
grown up within the short period of fifty-four years, is not the re-
sult of mere chance and natural development. There must have
been foresight, wisdom, energy, constantly applied to its organi-
zation, development, and establishment. The wisdom has been
that of the ablest and best minds, and the energy that of the most
vigorous and strong men, while the beneficial results come to all
citizens of the State, and to all falling within its sphere of influ-
ence.

In looking back over the fifty-four years since the organiza-
tion of Minnesota Territory, and scanning the names of those
who have been most prominent and influential in promoting the
growth of the State and the happiness of its people, we observe
none who have wrought more constantly or zealously for the
public welfare than our departed brother. It was his privilege to
stand at the head of the stream from and through which have
flowed all those great results which we are permitted to witness
and enjoy. His hand is visible in nearly every provision of our

770 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

state constitution, and in the construction and application of those
provisions to the real necessities and conditions of Minnesota
life ; in the enactment and interpretation of the laws passed by our
legislature; and in the general policies of the state, which now
affect all its citizens, and which will continue to affect all sub-
sequent generations.

This Historical Society, as much as any branch of the state
government, has been placed under especial obligations to our
deceased brother. He has formulated more of the early history
of the state than any other member of our Society, or than any
citizen of the State, unless it be the Rev. E. D. Neill. He has
been a regular attendant of the monthly meetings of the Society
for more than twenty years, and it is altogether appropriate that
here, above all other places, his memory should be kept green,
and the traits of his character, among which are benevolence and
beneficence to an extraordinary degree, should be preserved as
ensamples to all .

I have the pleasure of introducing to you Hon. Greenleaf
Clark, who was for many years a law partner of Judge Flandrau,
who is most familiar with all phases of his character, who will
now address you.

THE LIFE AND INFLUENCE OF JUDGE FLANDRAU.

BY HON. GREENLEAF CLARK.

It is the pious duty of this Society, our privilege, and our
consolation, to set forth in connected outline a notable career. It
would be strange, indeed, if this Society should not redeem its
office of preserving the materials of history and biography, and of
portraying "the very pith and marrow of the times," by the pres-
ervation of the record of the life and character of one who had so
great a share in making history, and who did so much in the
counsels of the society to preserve it. It would be stranger still,
when the public press, and varied associations and bodies of men,
are bearing tribute and homage to the memory of Charles Eu-
gene Flandrau, if we should not bring a few affectionate and
grateful leaves to set in the garland with which they are binding
his brow.

He died on the 9th day of September, 1903, a member of our
Executive Council, after nearly twenty-two years of consecutive
service therein, during which he was constant in attendance on
its meetings, contributed to its stores many valuable writings,
sketches, episodes, books, relics, and mementoes, engaged in its
free discussions, and was interested, devoted, and helpful in all
its work. He contributed, it is thought, to the Society, in one
way and another, more of the materials of history than any other
one man, save only the Rev. Dr. Edward D. Neill.

Charles E. Flandrau was no ordinary man. He was not
of the ordinary type of man . He was original, unique, pictures-
que, versatile, adventurous; and his career is illuminated by the
light of an heroic spirit. He was born in New York, July I5th,
1828. He was descended on his father's side from the Hugue-
nots, that wonderful people, who by the abiding power of earnest

772 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

conviction, through marvelous vicissitudes of toleration and per-
secution, of peace and woe, kept alive in France the spirit of con-
stitutional and religious liberty, from the middle of the sixteenth
century to the close of the eighteenth; the forerunners of the
French Republic. The blood ran true on the line of personal
and religious freedom. Judge Flandrau was absolutely tolerant
of all sects and creeds, and had little sympathy with the sectarian
disputes and contentions of the day, and still less for the warring
religious factions revealed in history as "fighting like devils for
conciliation, and hating each other for the love of God . "

In his boyhood he was put to school in Georgetown, District
of Columbia. At the age of thirteen he left school, and shipped
as a common seaman on a United States revenue cutter, in which
service, and a few voyages on merchant vessels, he continued for
more than two years. So early appeared the restless spirit of
adventure. It was a turning away from the trite and ordinary,
to the strange, new, and majestic; a turning away from the nar-
row and uneventful confines of a schoolroom, to know and feel
the spell and power of the mighty deep. It was the same spirit
that took Henry M. Rice and Henry H. Sibley to the wilds of
Minnesota. He then returned to his books in Georgetown, but
only for a short time; after _which he worked three years with his
hands, at the trade of sawing mahogany veneers for cabinet
making.

After these two exploits, he settled down to the earnest
study of the law in his father's office in Whitesboro, New York ;
and, after his admission to the bar, he practiced for two years in
association with his father, and then left in company with his life-
long friend, the late Horace R. Bigelow, for the west; and the
two reached St. Paul on the 2nd day of November, 1853, anc*
formed a partnership for the practice of the law. Business did
not flow in upon them very fast ; indeed, there was not very much
to flow anywhere; and Bigelow went to teaching school in St.
Paul, while Flandrau, true to his star, started for the border.

Such was the start of two men, who, afterwards, became emi-
nent in the law.

Mr. Flandrau travelled extensively through the virgin forests
and majestic prairies, dotted with lakes set in the landscape like
gems, and by the rivers whose sweet waters flowed through banks

MEMORIAL [ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 773

of pristine form and beauty, far away to swell the tide of the
mighty ocean, upon whose restless billows he had sailed, to see
what nature had wrought in this his adopted land ; and finally he
settled down, among the settlers at the little hamlet of Traverse
des Sioux, on the banks of the beautiful - Minnesota river, where
he afterwards built a dwelling for his border home, and com-
menced again the practice of the law. The courts, land offices,
and justices, in, and before whom, he practiced, were widely
scattered, and some of them at long distances from his home;
and he would travel on foot in summer and winter to attend them.
He had a strong, wiry physique, in which muscle predominated,
and legs like an antelope. He would walk to Winona, a distance of
one hundred and fifty miles, in three days, to attend to the adjust-
ment of the rights of his neighbor settlers before the land office
there, and would go on foot from his home near St . Peter to St .
Paul, a distance of about seventy-five miles, stopping over only at
Shakopee. Up to two years before he died he would walk a
dozen miles for recreation. In this border life he soon became
known throughout the Minnesota valley, and acquired a com-
manding influence upon its people. They respected, believed in,
relied upon, trusted him, and looked to him for leadership and
guidance, aye! and for help, too, in time of trouble. They sent
him to represent them in the Territorial Council, and in the Con-
stitutional Convention which framed the constitution under which
the State was admitted to the Union. This trust and confidence
enabled him to do mighty things for them on a subsequent fate-
ful day.

In 1856 he was appointed by President Pierce as Indian
Agent for the Sioux nation, and continued in that service till he
was appointed, in 1857, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
the Territory . The former position brought him in close con- •
tact with the Indians, and he learned something of their language,
and much of their character, capacity, and habits of life; and he
came to have more respect for them than was entertained by those
who knew them less.

Here let it be said that the men who were brought in closest
contact with the Indians who occupied Minnesota, and knew them
best, placed the highest estimate on their mental endowments and
traits of character; and I instance Rice, Sibley, Bishop Whipple,

774 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

and Flandrau. General Sibley, pleading in the halls of Congress
for the amelioration of their condition, characterized them as "a
noble race, gifted with a high degree of intellect, and an aptitude
for acquiring knowledge fully equal to that possessed by white
men." Judge Flandrau, in his History of Minnesota, designates
the Sioux and Ojibways as "splendid races of aboriginal men."
Bishop Whipple, in a communication to the authorities at Wash-
ington, says: "The Indian is superior to any savage race on
earth. In all the features of his character he is like our own
Saxon race, before the cross had changed the heathen Saxon to
a manly Christian." And as respects skill in warfare, I may add
the testimony of army officers to the sagacity of their operations,
notably the remarkable retreat of Chief Joseph from the southern
part of the country to the British line, a retreat comparable to that
of the "Ten Thousand."

The Indian massacres are all traceable, in the last analysis,
to the encroachments upon their hunting grounds, their birthright,
as they considered them, and to the means by which they were
deprived of them, or forced to give them up ; not that the Govern-
ment or its agents meant to be unjust, but because such compensa-
tion as they got for these lands, by a treaty system of questionable
wisdom, was dissipated by their own improvidence, or filched from
them by the selfish greed and cupidity of white men, from both
of which they should have been protected. The lordly Sioux,
who had for centuries held it as his right to receive his sustenance
from the open hand of nature, by the pursuit and capture of wild
animals, birds and fishes, and the gathering of the berries, nuts,
and wild rice, and \vho, by the roving blood of centuries in his
veins, disdained to settle down on a little plot of ground, and
tease from reluctant nature the means of subsistence for a com-
pensation of toil, must needs give up his noble heritage to open the
way for the new civilization. It was cruel at best; and his
wrongs in the process added to the cruelty. No wonder that his
untutored mind was, now and then, driven to the distraction of
savage vengeance. Whatever others may have thought, or now
think, such in epitome, was the view of these men, and obedience
to the truth requires that their combined testimony should be
stated.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 775

The first serious Indian massacre in Minnesota, or in the
country northwest of the Mississippi to the Rocky mountains, —
the so-called Spirit Lake massacre, — occurred during Flandrau's
agency in 1857; and an incident of it illustrates saving traits of
Indian character, as well as the sagacity and efficiency of the In-
dian agent.

A small roving and predatory band of Sioux, not treaty In-
dians, under the leadership of Chief Inkpaduta, fell upon Spirit
Lake and Springfield, two small settlements pushed to the ex-
treme border, and killed all their inhabitants to the number of
forty-two, save four women whom they carried into captivity.
While Flandrau was trying to devise means for their rescue, well
knowing that any demonstration of force would cause their mur-
der, two of his agency Indians, brothers, who had been under the
influence of the well known Rev. Stephen R. Riggs and other
missionaries at the agency, while on a hunting party, ran across
Inkpaduta's band, learned of his captives, bought one of them,
giving for her all they had, and brought her to the missionaries,
who turned her over to the agent. This solved the problem.
Judge Flandrau gave the brothers who brought in the captive a
large reward, $1,000, of which $500 was in cash contributed by
himself and the post traders, and $500 in an obligation of the
Territory of Minnesota, signed in its behalf by himself and the
Rev. Mr. Riggs, which, though unauthorized, was promptly
paid; the first bond, as Judge Flandrau naively said, ever issued
by Minnesota. He then called for volunteer Indians to go and
find Inkpaduta and purchase the other captives ; and, stimulated
by the hope of a like reward, there were plenty of volunteers, from
whom he selected three and dispatched them, with an outfit of such
things as tempt the savage, to find Inkpaduta and buy the remain-
ing captives. They found two of them had been slain, but they
bought and brought to the agency the other, for which they were
abundantly rewarded. The full details of this massacre, and the
military operations consequent upon it, — which were without re-
sults save the killing of a son of Chief Inkpaduta, — are now mat-
ters of history, made such by Judge Flandrau's .pen .

At the first State election he was elected, at the age of twenty-
nine years, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on the Demo-
cratic ticket, headed by Henry H. Sibley for governor; and it is

776 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

interesting to know that upon the opposing ticket, headed by
Alexander Ramsey for governor, was his friend and companion,
Horace R. Bigelow, as a candiate for Chief Justice of the same
Court . The Sibley ticket was declared elected, and with it Judge
Flandrau, who thus became a judge of the first Supreme Court
of the State; but the doubt that hung over the decision of that
contest has never been dissolved, but rather intensified by time.
He resigned from the bench in 1866, before his term expired, and
went to Carson City, in the Territory of Nevada . It was a change
from the green prairies of Minnesota to dwell, for a time, under
the brightest of skies, looking down upon a vast, tumultuous,
rock-ribbed expanse of silent, arid, awe-inspiring desolation; a
change from the new civilization which he had helped to usher in
in Minnesota, to the rough, adventurous, lawless, desperate, and
unformed community of an isolated mining town, to practice law
in courts where weapons were sometimes exhibited, and tolerated,
too, for intimidation or protection ; still cavalier of the border, as
he has been fitly designated.

After a few years' experience of this life, he returned to Min-
nesota, his adopted home, which I doubt if he ever intended to
leave permanently, practiced law for a while in Minneapolis in
association with Judge Isaac Atwater, his erstwhile associate on
the bench, and, in 1870, settled down for good to the practice of
the law in St. Paul, as a member of the firm of Bigelow, Flandrau
& Clark. He was thus again brought into business association
with his old friend and companion, Horace R. Bigelow, who back
in 1853 had first essayed with him the practice of the law in Min-
nesota; and the relation continued until the retirement of Mr.
Bigelow from practice. There was a strong tie between these
two men, though they were contrasts. Mr. Bigelow was a rare
man, endowed with clear perception, solid learning, professional
courage, a spirit of patient investigation, and a devotion to duty
that knew no bounds. He had few peers and no superiors in
the Northwest. Judge Flandrau was impulsive and spontane-
ous. His first impressions were intuitions of legal truth, and he
was always ready for the fray. Bigelow was a legal conscience,
Flandrau a legal knight-errant, sans peur et sans reproche.

Of Judge Flandrau as a lawyer and a jurist I shall only add,
that there was such appreciation of him as a judge, that he was

MEMORIAL 'ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 777

again made a candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
but was not elected, — his party being in a minority, — and the
expression of an opinion that his gifts were better adapted to the
trial court than the bench ; and that, in fact, the arena and the
forum were more congenial and grateful to him than the seclusion
of the consultation room ; and with this I leave the exhibition and
characterization of his professional and judicial career in the
competent hands of another.

He had marked and famous contemporaries with and among
whom he wrought. In the law, I have already spoken of Mr.
Bigelow ; and there was James Gilfillan, the great Chief Justice,
a giant of jurisprudence anywhere; and Francis R. E. Cornell,
keen, penetrating and incisive, the Bradley of the Minnesota
bench; and John M1. Oilman, whose logic cuts like a knife, and
who is sometimes seen renewing the attempt to "cut blocks with
a razor;" and Cushman K. Davis, classical and scholarly, whose
brilliant rhetoric carried with it the power to persuade as well as
to charm. In civic affairs there were, naming them in the order
in which they appeared on the scene, Henry H . Sibley, Henry M .
Rice, and Alexander Ramsey, the State builders.

I come now to speak of a service of an episodal nature, out-
side of the then smooth current of his life, splendidly illustrative
of his spontaneity, intrepidity and unconquerable spirit, for which
I am constrained to think that he never received the full and
ample plaudits that heroic deeds inspire and justify; probably for
the reason that they were done at a time when people's minds were
diverted to striking and absorbing events on larger fields, but not
more heroic or memorable. It is the privilege of this society to
accord to Flandrau, dead, the meed of praise to which he was
entitled when living. While Judge Flandrau, then a judge of
the Supreme Court, was quietly spending his vacation at his coun-
try home in Traverse des Sioux, a courier arrived at his house at
four o'clock in the morning of the iQth of August, 1862, and told
him that the Indians were killing the people in all directions, and
that New Ulm was threatened. About noon of the same day he
left St. Peter, which was near his home, in command of an im-
provised company of one hundred and sixteen men, and arrived
at New Ulm about eight o'clock of the same day, after a march
of thirty-two miles through a drenching rain. Reinforcements

778 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

of brave men came into the town from other places; and Judge
Flandrau was, by general acclaim, made commander in chief of
all the forces.

It is not my purpose to relate the history of that desperate
struggle . This is in more competent hands ; and it will be given
by the favor of one who was present all the time, was near to
Flandrau as an officer of his staff, and who shared with him the
glories of the struggle, Major Salmon A. Buell. I shall only
mention some of the general features of this memorable service,
so as to give it a proper setting in this picture of his life which I
am attempting. He made the disposition of his forces behind
the improvised barricades, and exhorted the men, by all that life
held for them, to stand against the insidious attacks of the red-
handed demons, who were thirsting for their blood . He shared the
peril, and set them an example of superb courage and unconquer-
able determination. He devised and led the desperate offensive
movement which drove the Indians from the cover of the buildings
they had taken, and saved the day. He burned, before the faces
of their owners, 125 houses and stores, from the cover of which
the Indians had been driven, in order that they might be compelled
to attack the barricades in the open. He transferred the entire
population of New Ulm, consisting of from twelve to fifteen hun-
dred men, women, and children, to Mankato, leaving behind them
their property, their homes, and their household gods, in order
that they might be saved alive. No despot ever exercised more
absolute power, or was more implicitly obeyed. He told me, with
great glee, that a staid old German, who did gallant service in the
struggle, seriously proposed to him to try two men at drum head
court martial, and to hang them, for some irregularity or neglect
cf duty. And yet he took all this responsibility without a scratch
of a pen, without even a verbal order by way o<f authority.

As Ethan Allen, when asked by the British general by what
authority he demanded the surrender of Ticonderoga, answered,
"In the name of the great Jehovah and the continental congress ;"
so Flandrau, if interrogated as to his authority, might well have
answered, by the authority of the great Jehovah and the people
of the Minnesota valley. Governor Ramsey addressed him as
"Hon. Charles E. Flandrau," up to September 4th, he having
been commissioned a colonel about that date.

MEMORIAL rADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 779

Again, in talking with military men I have never met with
one who did not say that the battle of New Ulm was ably con-
ducted from a military point of view, though Flandrau was with-
out military education or experience . On the 5th day of October
he resigned his commission, and went quietly back to his duties
as judge. If Flandrau had not been at New Ulm, what would
have been its fate ? Would the whole population have gone down
in one maelstrom of wretched destruction? Who can tell?
Would the besom of savage desolation have been pushed on down
the valley? Who knows? It is useless to speculate. But the
people of New Ulm and the valley had abundant reason to thank
God for Flandrau in those fateful days. If one blast upon the
bugle horn of Roderick Dhu was worth a thousand men, so the
inspiration, intrepidity, and magnificent leadership of Flandrau
in those desperate extremities were worth a host. The people of
New Ulm always recognized the debt of gratitude . His presence
there was known and felt as that of no other man was known and
felt. He was received with a general acclaim that no other man
was receivd with. And he had a warm spot in his heart for
them. A community of peril had made them akin. When he
died, they sent, not a delegation to attend the funeral, for that
would be too cold and formal, — not words, for they had lost the
power of adequate expression, — but New Ulm, not a personal
friend or a few friends in New Ulm, but New Ulm sent to the
sorrowing family a wreath of flowers, which was buried with him
in the grave. Go, assemble the records of chivalry; point out
the most memorable deeds recorded there, and those that surpass
in heroism the deeds of Flandrau at New Ulm will be found to
be few indeed. I hope that at no distant day a lofty pedestal will
be erected in New Ulm, or on the grounds of the capitol, which
shall be surmounted by his statue and shall bear the inscription,
"Charles Eugene Flandrau, defender of New Ulm."

Among the gentle traits that characterized Judge Flandrau
were remarkable evenness and sweetness of temper and disposi-
tion. In ten years of close association with him I never saw him
perturbed, much less thrown off his base, by anger. He was
kind and considerate, and, under all circumstances, a gentleman.
In the most strenuous law suit he was courteous to the Court, the
opposing counsel, and the witnesses . He was not vituperative of

780 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

others, even under great provocation, but was generous and char-
itable to their faults and frailties. If he left an enemy when he
died, I know him not. Like every strong and high-minded man,
he was deferential to women .

His published writings comprise a condensed history of
Minnesota, published in 1900, as a preface to an Encyclopedia of
Biography of Minnesota, and later as a separate book; articles
published in the magazines of the day ; and many papers scattered
through the publications of this Society. He was one of a board
of six commissioners who prepared and published, by authority
of the Legislature, the military history known as "Minnesota in
the Civil and Indians Wars, 1861-1865," for which he wrote the
part pertaining to the Indian War. Most, if not all, of these
writings were historical, biographical, or episodic in their nature.
He rescued from oblivion interesting episodes of the early days,
some of which changed the course of events of some importance,
as, for example, the unique if not creditable way in which the
almost accomplished removal of the capitol to St. Peter was de-
feated, though he had no hand in it.

His style was flowing, and in plain, unadorned narration,
destitute of metaphor and of classic allusion. His early edu-
cation in the schools was, as already appears, defective; but,
as far as possible in a busy life, the defects in his early educa-
tion were repaired by extensive reading and observation. His
schools were a large miscellaneous library, kept for convenient
use, not for ornament, and the great, ever changing kaleidoscope
of the world. In speech he was easy and fluent, and always
ready . I never knew a readier man . He had all his knowledge
and all his faculties subject to call. In a great variety of dis-
course he always said something that held the attention of his
audience .

Judge Flandrau was near to the people, and knew what in
their lives concerned them most, and their way of thinking about
things. This gave him power to reason with them and persuade
them, and made him a most forceful and effective man in his ad-
dresses to the jury, a most dangerous adversary. Not the schol-
arly and classic Davis, nor any others, had advantage of him in
this field.

In his social life he was genial, cordial and kind to all . The

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 781

lowly friend got the same cheery greeting on the street as the
man of high degree. In his hospitable home, ever presided over
by a graceful, accomplished and refined helpmeet, there was
good cheer for the body, and charming entertainment for the
mind. He was an easy and ready conversationalist, and as a
raconteur he had few equals. A versatile life had enriched his
mind with an ample supply of anecdote and episode. He was the
life of many a small gathering, and he and his were always lead-
ers in the enlarged social life. No social affair, whether of a
formal character, or for free social enjoyment, was complete with-
out them. He left his business in his office, and the rest of the
day was given to his family, to his library, and to society. His
buoyancy of spirits was perennial. Grief never presented itself
to his fellow men in the shape of Judge Flandrau.

I should say he was the best known man in the State after
the death of Governor Ramsey. He had made political addresses
in all parts of the State. He was a candidate for Governor on
the Democratic ticket, the leader of a forlorn hope, but he entered
upon the campaign with the same spirit and intrepidity as though
there was a probability of his election, and expounded to the peo-
ple, without abuse of his opponents, principles and policies, of the
truth of which he had a profound conviction . He yielded to pres-
sure, though very busy in his profession, and spoke in other cam-
paigns, almost to the close of his life. In passing I wish to say,
that, though he was a strong partisan, he was a patriot first. In
a recent presidential campaign, he openly joined a minority fac-
tion of his party, and so aided in its defeat, because it had pro-
mulgated policies which he deemed prejudicial to the public wel-
fare,— the same policies for which his party had deserted Presi-
dent Cleveland.

His fame was further spread by his professional reputation
and labors in the courts, and by his addresses on many occasions
and on varied subjects, and especially by the glory of New Ulm.
The older citizens remembered it, and handed down to the new
comers the fame of his glorious deeds in its defense . Minnesota
owned Flandrau. They called upon him for addresses upon all
sorts of occasions, whether to act as toastmaster or make a speech
at a banquet, to celebrate an important historical event, to grace
a reception, to make a memorial address, to preside at a conven-

782 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

tion, or to open a fair, anything and everything ; and it seemed to
be expected that he would comply, as indeed he did, whenever he
could. The people respected, honored, and were proud of him.
His responsive, brilliant, dashing qualities charmed them. He
was a natural leader of men, and was recognized and called upon
as such. I say it with the utmost assurance, that, if his political
party had been in the ascendancy, there is no public position with-
in the gift of the people of the State, to which he might not have
successfully aspired.

Judge Flandrau was adapted by nature to a frontier life.
It was grateful to him, gave scope to his adventurous spirit, en-
larged his understanding, and broadened his sympathies. Min-
nesota will never have another Flandrau; for if a man of like
gifts should arise, there would be no environment in which to
set him.

In this epitome of his life and character I have had no occa-
sion to draw upon any supposed license of panegyric. My only
task has been to make the picture true to the life. The name
and fame of Charles E. Flandrau are interwoven with the up-
building of Minnesota, and will be perpetuated to future genera-
tions so long as history shall endure and heroic deeds shall receive
the veneration of mankind.

r

•«|^^^^^

2

i

MINNESOTA HISTOKICAL SOCIETY,
VOL. X. PLATE XX.

JUDGE FLANDRAU IN THE DEFENSE OF NEW ULM
DURING THE SIOUX OUTBREAK OF 1862.

BY MAJOR SALMON A. BUELL

The writer has been honored by an invitation from the Min-
nesota Historical Society, through a letter from its secretary, as
stated therein, "'because we associate you with Judge Flandrau
as his adjutant at New Ulm," to write an article "on the services
of Hon. Charles E. Flandrau in the Defense of New Ulm. . . .
Our Publication Committee desire you to write as fully as may be
agreeable to you, all to be used for our printing" : hence the fol-
lowing article.

This narrative will necessarily be somewhat confined to those
matters of which the writer had knowledge, either by observation
or otherwise ; though much will be related which came to him ,
from the report of others, at the time. So many years have
passed, that memory may fail him, as to specific details, particu-
larly names of persons; and should omission or mistake occur,
which is more than possible, no one will be more disappointed
or grieved by it than the writer himself .

Late in the fall of 1857, the writer became a resident of the
town of St. Peter, in Nicollet county, Minnesota, and in the fol-
lowing winter or spring made the acquaintance of Hon. Charles
E. Flandrau. He was then, and for some years before, a resi-
dent of Traverse des Sioux, situated in the same county, but
about a mile farther down upon the Minnesota river. That ac-
quaintance soon became a warm friendship, never interrupted,
even through years of separation .

On the date of the admission of Minnesota into the Union
(May n, 1858), Judge Flandrau had been for some time the
Federal Judge of that District of the Territory, and had already
been elected one of the three judges of the Supreme Court of
the new State.

50

784 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

At the time of the Indian Outbreak, August, 1862, he was
still residing at Traverse des Sioux, and had been, before his first
judgeship, the agent of the Sioux Indians who took the principal
part in that movement. He was generally known as "Major"
(then the title by custom of an Indian agent) or "Judge" Flan-
drau ; and was often referred to, but always with respect or affec-
tion, as "Charlie" Flandrau.

FIRST NEWS OF THE OUTBREAK.

Late on Monday, August 18, 1862, report was rife in St. Peter
that, early in the morning of that day, the Indians had "broken
out" and killed several whites, at the Lower or Redwood Sioux
Agency, about sixty miles northwest of St. Peter, and beyond the
Minnesota river. Early the next morning Judge Flandrau came
to St. Peter from Traverse and informed the citizens that about
four o'clock that morning he had received a message from New
Ulm, brought to him by Henry Behnke, one of the leading
citizens of that town, to the effect that on the day previous (Mon-
day), and at a place only a short distance west of New Ulm, some
white men had been attacked by Indians, several of the whites
being killed ; that refugees, flying from Indians, were coming
into New Ulm from every westerly direction; and that a general
Indian attack upon the white settlers along the whole western
frontier was believed, there, to have taken place. Judge Flandrau
stated that he had forwarded the message into Le Sueur county
and down the Minnesota valley, and that he now desired to raise,
at once, as large an armed force as possible for the protection of
New Ulm and the frontier west of it .

Note here that this message was for Charles E. Flandrau, and
from a community thirty miles distant, in which he was not so fre-
quent a visitor as many other leading men of the Minnesota val-
ley. The shock of the Indian attack had almost paralyzed the
people, and they turned at once to him for help .

His response was instant, and, sending his wife and infant
daughter (one year old) to a place of safety, he took steps im-
mediately to arouse the whole community thereabout, and down
the river, to the danger, and to raise troops in Traverse, St. Peter,
and Le Sueur county. Men of all classes rushed to his standard,

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 785

and he was made captain of over one hundred men, from Nicol-
let and Le Sueur counties.

ORGANIZATION OF VOLUNTEERS FOR DEFENSE.

In "Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars/' Volume I, page
731, Judge Flandrau, writing in 1890 as one of the commissioners
appointed by the State, said of this organization:

Volunteers were called for, and in a very short time about one hun-
dred and sixteen men were enlisted for any duty that might present itself.
An organization was formed by the selection of myself as captain, William
B Dodd as first lieutenant, and Wolf H. Meyer as second lieutenant. I
do not think we had time or inclination to complete the organization by
sergeants and corporals. Immense labor was performed in the next few
hours in the way of outfit.

His first marching order was, that eighteen men, who could
immediately raise arms and horses, should hasten to New Ulm,
as an advance guard, to report his coming with the main body, as
well as to bring word of the situation there back to him, and to
give all aid in their power . He well knew that a few armed men
might count for much in such a crisis, both as aid and in giving
encouragement . Henry A . Swift, who was afterward Governor,
and William G. Hay den, both of St. Peter, were the first to obey
this order, soon followed by sixteen men, commanded by one of
their number, L. M1. Boardman, sheriff of Nicollet county; the
others being J. B. Trogdon, Horace Austin (afterwards Judge
and Governor), P.M. Bean, James Homer, Jacob Stelzer, Philip
Stelzer, William Wilkinson, Lewis Patch, Henry Snyder, Joseph
K. Moore (postmaster at St. Peter), a Mr. Tomlinson, S. A.
Buell, and three men whose names the writer cannot now recall
with certainty, but thinks they were I. Birdsal, John Dorrington,
and L. Martindale. All were, as he recollects, from Nicollet
county, or from and about St. Peter.

In his first report from New Ulm to Governor Ramsey, dated
August 20, 1862 (see the same work, Vol. n, page 165), Colonel
Flandrau wrote: "We immediately on hearing of it [the Indian
outbreak] raised 90 men and started for this point, where we
arrived last night, between 9 and 10 o'clock." This number
evidently was not intended to include this "advance guard of

786 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

[eighteen] horsemen, sent out by us," who were also mentioned
by him in this report.

Boardman's command rode as swiftly as a prospective trip of
thirty miles made prudent, but, when within about ten miles of
New Ulm, stopped at an unoccupied farm house to escape a most
terrific rain storm, and to rest their jaded horses. Cessation of
the rain, and a short rest for their horses, sent them hurriedly
onward .

Swift had already reached New Ulm, and, as soon as he could
inform himself, reported in an open note to Captain Flandrau, by
Evan Bowen, of Nicollet county, a volunteer messenger, the situ-
ation and the necessity of haste ; in effect, that an attack was then
being made upon the town by over a hundred Indians .

THE FIRST ATTACK AT NEW ULM.

Boardman met the messenger, read the message, hurried both
on to Captain Flandrau, made all possible speed with his own
party towards New Ulm, and in a short time, from some high
ground passed over for the purpose, could see the town across
the Minnesota river, still however a few miles distant . Over and
back of its upper part (by the river) was a dense black cloud,
against which, as a background, could be plainly seen the flash
of guns, fired in either attack or defense, nnd burning stacks or
buildings. The smoke and sparks were blown upon the town
by the prevailing wind, its direction having probably dictated the
point of attack, which seemed wholly confined to such upper part.

There were then two rope ferries across the Minnesota river,
by which New Ulm could be reached, one abreast the town, the
other at Redstone, about two miles below. Upon consultation
with his party, Boardman determined to use the latter, with the
hope, warranted by the appearance of the attack then going on,
that the lower end of the town was not surrounded by the
Indians. He proceeded to the Redstone ferry, but found that
the ferry boat was on the other or New Ulm side, with no means
of reaching it save by swimming . One of the party, whose name
the writer cannot now recall, volunteered for the purpose and
brought the boat over, the river being about fifty yards wide .

On tfie Nicollet county side the ground was high and com-

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 787

manding, but on the New Ulm side it was very low ; and the nar-
row road from the ferry passed for about one-fourth of a mile
over this low ground through a kind of coarse wild grass so dense
and high as to almost conceal a passing horse and his rider . The
swimmer was covered by the guns of the party, but a small
number of Indians, ambushed in that grass, could, as all the party
well knew, prevent the crossing; the most probable method being
to allow the empty boat to be taken over, and then to fire upon
the party while crossing and nearing the New Ulm shore. Be-
yond the grass, the road continued upon open ground, but so
much lower than the plateau on which the town stood, as to hide
the approaching party from the view of those in or about the
town, until within a comparatively short distance of it.

The Boardman party crossed the ferry, and, aided by the
conditions just described, dashed into the town at its lower end,
without attack, but not without discovery, by the Indians; some
of whom, in a very short time, passed down back of the town and
held command of that lower ferry road . This was between 4 and
5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The occupants of the town were principally engaged in de-
fending it against the attack at the upper end, where they had
already built a barricade across Minnesota street, the principal one
of the town, and running about parallel with the general course
of the river. Some parties, however, under the superintendence
of Samuel Coffin, of Swan Lake, Nicollet county, were building
another barricade across the same street lower down, so as to in-
elude the most densely built portion between the two.

Upon consultation by Henry A. Swift and some of the lead-
ing citizens of the place, as D. G. Shillock, John C. Rudolph,
Charles Wagner, Peter Sherer, Captain Nix, John Hauenstein,
and others equally prominent, but whose names the writer cannot
now recall, with the Boardman party, it was deemed advisable to
send another messenger to Captain Flandrau. L. M. Board-
man had the best horse and then in best condition, and volunteered
for this dangerous service . The only route left was by the upper
ferry, abreast the town, but about half a mile distant over low
ground. He started at once, and some Indians could be seen
running from the lower end of the town, across this low ground,
toward the ferry which he was trying to reach, and firing occa-

788 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

sionally at him. Luckily, however, as they had to keep out of
gunshot of the town, they could not reach him, and he crossed
the ferry in safety.

A wounded refugee had been left in a house in the extreme
lower end of the town. At the request of D. G. Shillock, of
New Ulm, one of the Boardman party, mounted, raised a squad
of volunteer footmen, and accompanied Shillock to bring the
wounded man within the barricade. This man, though badly
wounded about the body, was able to walk slowly, with the help
of Shillock and another. The Indians fired on this party several
times, but at too long distance for execution, being kept down
behind a ridge of ground by the counter fire of the whites . The
wounded man was brought in safely. This was a short time
before sunset.

Just before this party 'reached the lower barricade, a horse-
man was seen coming at full speed over the prairie ridge just
back of the town, the Indians firing at him from behind it. His
horse was hit and killed, but he escaped. As the writer recol-
lects, he was Ralph Thomas, and was one of a party of seven
refugees trying to enter the town. The Indians shot and killed
all the others, save one whose hip was broken. He could not
be seen from the town, and with his broken hip lay upon the
prairie all night. He was brought in next morning, conscious,
and said that he had dragged himself, during the night, up to a
cow and with her milk had kept up his strength. He lived but
a little while longer. The writer cannot recall the name of any
other of the party. Ralph Thomas reported that there were
over a hundred Indians in the body which fired upon his party.

About sunset (Tuesday), the Indians, repulsed at every
point, so far as the town was concerned, discontinued the attack
and retired.

Of this advance guard, Judge Flandrau, in the work before
cited, Vol. I, page 732, wrote as follows: "Our advance guard
reached New Ulm about 4 or 5 o'clock p. m. — just in time to
aid the inhabitants in repelling an attack of about one hundred
Indians upon the town. They succeeded in driving the enemy
off, several citizens being killed, and about five or six houses in
the upper part of the town being fired and destroyed . "

I. V. D. Heard, on Gen. Sibley's staff, wrote in 1863, in

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 789

his work entitled, "History of the Sioux War and Massacres of
1862 and 1863," page 80, of this advance guard: "It is con-
ceded that these men saved the town."

Governor Swift's message reached Captain Flandrau prompt-
ly, and settled in his mind that New Ulm, not Fort Ridgely, should
be his destination. About ten o'clock that night, he, with the
rest of his command in wagons, reached New Ulm. He im-
mediately posted sufficient guards, and the town felt secure .

/

FLANDRAU AS COMMANDER AND HIS STAFF.

On Wednesday morning, August 2oth, Captain Flandrau
was, by general consent, chosen commander of the forces in New
Ulm and of the town, with the rank of Colonel, and was given
power to make such organization, and appoint such officers to
carry it into effect, as he might deem best. He appointed a sec-
ond in command, a provost marshal, chief of staff, quartermaster
and commissary, and an aid, and a most competent medical staff.
A provost guard was organized; and assistant quartermasters
and commissaries were designated and put to work at once.

Order was established; houses, with the least possible in-
convenience to their owners, were appropriated and numbered,
and bedding, etc., was provided and put into them; commissary
and ordnance stores were secured or arranged for; and, before
night, provision was made for the troops present and to come,
as well as for the constantly arriving refugees from the frontier.

In the work before cited, Vol. I, page 732, Judge Flandrau
wrote of this organization :

It soon became apparent that to maintain any discipline or order
some one man must be in command of all the forces. The officers of
the various organizations assembled and chose a commander; the selec-
tion fell to me. A prow>st guard was at once established and order inau-
gurated. The defenses were strengthened and we awaited results. Captain
William B. Dodd, my first lieutenant, was made second in command, and
S. A. Buell, provost marshal, chief of staff, and general manager. He
bad been a naval officer, and was a good organizer. Captain S. A.
George, a young man, who had been for a short time in some eastern
regiment, who joined us at St. Peter, was made an aid, and proved very
efficient in reducing matters to a manageable condition.

790 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

The officers referred to in this quotation, as the writer now
recollects, were Captain Charles Roos, then sheriff of Brown
county, Captain Lewis Buggert, and Captain John Belm, all con-
nected with the organized militia of Brown county; A. M'. Bean,
captain of a small company from Swan Lake, who were the first
men from Nicollet county to reach New Ulm on Tuesday, August
1 9th; and perhaps Captain William Bierbauer, of Mankato; and
also their lieutenants and those of Captain Flandrau's company.
Their choice of Flandrau as commander was confirmed by
other leading citizens of New Ulm, and in fact by all partici-
pating.

Afterwards, when he received his own commission from
Governor Ramsey, Colonel Flandrau issued commissions, dated
September 30, 1862, to Buell and George, the former with the
rank of captain, and the latter of lieutenant, such rank in each
case to date from August iQth, the day of their several appoint-
ments. These commissions were recognized by the State au-
thorities. As Captain Dodd was killed in battle on August 23rd,
no commission, the writer thinks, was ever issued in his case.

The position of "general manager" was deemed by Colonel
Flandrau to include the duties of commissary and quartermaster.
Accordingly, the chief of staff made certain appointments to
assist him in his duties as provost marshal, commissary, and
quartermaster . These assistants were Henry A . Swift and
William G. Hayden, of St. Peter; John C. Rudolph and D. G.
Shillock, of New Ulm; and several others of its influential citi-
zens, whose names the writer is unable to recall with certainty,
but thinks that among them were George Doehne, Jacob Pfen-
ninger, and H. J. Vajen. Suffice it to say that all who were
so called upon to assist most willingly complied with the request,
and by their ability and energy made possible and effectual the
organization and its results just mentioned. These preparations
met the demand of the whole stay at New Ulm, and no one suf-
fered for what they were to supply, so far as known at the time.

The preparation for defense, under the immediate supervision
of Captain Dodd, was constantly going on, and this was the more
energetically attended to because it was believed that the Win-
nebago Indians, about four hundred vigorous, well armed men,
would join the Sioux in the outbreak.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IX HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 791
NEW ULM AS A STRATEGIC POINT.

Colonel Flandrau saw and thoroughly appreciated the fact,
that New Ulm was the proper place to hold as an advance-post.
It was the nearest to the frontier, except Fort Ridgely, which
was unfortified, scantily garrisoned, on the wrong side of the
Minnesota river for the fleeing refugees, and unable to supply
them, even if they reached it, with food and shelter. Mankato,
thirty miles further off, was too distant, as was also St. Peter,
besides that the latter was on the other side of the river; and
these two towns were, next to New Ulm, the nearest to the fron-
tier, where it was possible to furnish food and quarters to . the
refugees . Furthermore, to hold New Ulm was to defend the
towns and country east of it, and to give the state and federal
authorities time to mobilize on the frontier sufficient force for
its protection.

On Monday morning the outbreak commenced; by that
afternoon the Indians had nearly reached New Ulm ; on Tuesday
morning, Flandrau, thirty miles away, first heard of it; by ten
o'clock that night he had organized a large force, sent forward
part O'f it in time to help save the town from an attack then be-
ing made upon it by the Indians, and had placed his whole force
in it ; and now, by Wednesday night, he had organized and estab-
lished an advance-post of defense to the towns and country in its
rear, and a most accessible haven of refuge to the frontier settlers,
including many sick and wounded, who were fleeing from Indian
atrocities.

Yet he had no commission of authority., and not one man in
his command had ever signed enlistment or sworn obedience; still,
discipline was complete, as the result of his personal character and
influence, acting upon a brave people, eager to aid the suffering,
and recognizing his ability to lead and direct them .

SCOUTING EXPEDITIONS .

On Thursday, August 2ist, Colonel Flandrau sent a small
detachment about eight or ten miles westward to scout for Indians,
and to bury any dead whites, bring in any wounded, and aid any

792 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

in need, who might be found. They buried some dead, and re-
turned that night, bringing no news of Indians.

During that evening a reliable report came to Colonel Flan-
drau, that some thirteen persons were concealed for safety in a
slough about fifteen miles west of New Ulm.

On Friday, August 22nd, early in the clay, he sent out another
expedition of about a hundred and fifty men, one-third mounted,
in charge of the writer, and the remainder in wagons, all under
command of Captain George M. Tousley, to bring in these con-
cealed refugees, and to bury any dead whites to be found. This
force buried many dead, and rescued the thirteen refugees, one
cf whom was badly wounded and died a d^y or two afterward.

This expedition at times during the afternoon heard heavy
firing in the direction of Fort Ridgely, yet saw no Indians.
However, late in the afternoon, while on the return march, Indian
signals, as claimed by experienced frontiersmen present, were
observed towards New Ulm on or about the route of march dur-
ing the forenoon from it; which, in their judgment, indicated the
possibility of an ambush by the Indians, if return should be at-
tempted by the same road. Captain Tousley very wisely held a
consultation with men of judgment in his command, particularly
some whose experience had given them a knowledge of the
Indians. Among these men was Dr. Asa W. Daniels, of St.
Peter, one of the medical staff, who had been some years earlier
the Government surgeon at the Agency of these very Indians.
No one consulted gave opinion more regarded and acted upon.

As a result of the consultation, Captain Tousley very prop-
erly determined to return to New Ulm with all possible haste,
but by another and more northerly road, to reach which he would
have to march several miles across the open prairie, thus extend-
ing the time originally allotted to such return by several hours.
A good guide was in the party, and the march from one road
to the other was made after dark. The mounted men were kept
well out in front and rear, and on each flank, in order to give oppor-
tunity in case of attack to make a corral with the wagons (the
team horses being drawn inside), within which the mounted men
(and even their horses, if found advisable) could be brought, thus
forming a barrier from behind which the footmen and dismounted '
horsemen could be most efficient in defense . All the time Indian
night-c-ignals, as claimed by men of experience in such matters,

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 793

were seen along or near the route of march in the morning from
New Ulm. This was a most trying responsibility and service for
Captain Tousley, made more so because he was far from well.
He knew that Colonel Flandrau expected his return without fail
that night, for the absence of such a large force greatly weakened
the defense of the town ; and he, Captain Tousley, was determined
to obey the order. Yet a march at night across a trackless
prairie, necessarily resulting in some confusion, and the possi-
bility that these night-signals were to a body of Indians upon the
very road he was seeking, presented problems difficult for even
trained troops to solve, let alone an improvised body such as his
command.

As stated, Captain Tousley was not at all well; yet he re-
mained on horseback and in command longer, possibly, than a
due regard to himself required; but in the latter part of the
evening he 'was compelled by physical disability to dismount, get
into a wagon, and relinquish the command to a junior.

The expedition arrived safely at New Ulm about midnight,
much to the joy of Colonel Flandrau, who felt all the time the
very great risk he was taking in so greatly depleting the defensive
force of the town to save those thirteen persons ; but it would not
have been prudent to send out a smaller expedition. That Fri-
day was, as Colonel Flandrau afterward said, the most trying day
he had ever, to that time, experienced; but he could not harbor
for a moment the thought of abandoning those thirteen unfor-
tunate refugees to their fate, although military necessity might
have justified such a course, in the mind of some commanders.

At this time, late Friday night, the defenders, including the
returned Tousley expedition, numbered about 325 ; the majority
were poorly armed, a few mounted, the remainder footmen. To
be protected by these, there were in the town, as estimated, over
1,500 women, children, and defenseless men.

BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE ON SATURDAY.

On Saturday, August 23rd, early in a clear, beautiful morn-
ing, there could be seen, evidently on the other side of the Minne-
sota river, upon the upland, a series of fires, burning stacks or
buildings, commencing towards Fort Ridgely and nearing New
Ulm. Soon an aggregation of them appeared about north, which

794 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

proved to be the burning of a small hamlet, called Lafayette, a few
miles from New Ulm.

Colonel Flandrau supposed Fort Ridgely had fallen, and that
the Indians were approaching on the other side of the river, and
probably also on this side, to join forces at New Ulm. He
deemed it prudent to send a detachment, large enough to recon-
noiter in force on the other side of the river, and, if possible, to
check the advancing Indians in case of contact with them . Lieu-
tenant William Huey volunteered to perform this duty, and was
sent with about seventy-five men as well armed as any in the
command, for the purpose, but with additional instructions to
reconnoiter well at and about the ferry before crossing, and to
guard securely the approach to it in his rear after so doing. It
was expected that he would return in a few hours, at most, if suc-
cessful; but at once, should he meet a superior force. This
detachment crossed the river at the upper ferry in front of the
town, but about half a mile distant from it; was met almost im-
mediately by a superior force of Indians, cut off from cross-
ing back upon the ferry, and compelled to retreat, away
from the river, into Nicollet county, with a loss of twenty-one
missing and two killed or wounded. Lieutenant Huey, by this
retreat, saved about fifty of the best men of his command; whilst
otherwise he would probably have been surrounded at the ferry,
and every man massacred.

This misfortune left only about 250 armed men to defend
the town; and soon the magnitude of it was severely felt, for a
large party of Indians began to appear in the rear of the town, all
in plain view. With a good field glass, which was placed on the
top of a high building in the center of town, Colonel Flandrau
could watch every movement of the enemy ; as could anyone, from
any commanding point, with the naked eye.

Immediately in the rear of the town was a prairie, slightly
rising for about one-third of a mile in a direction away from the
river, and then descending for about two-thirds of a mile farther
to a slough, which lay along the foot of a high wooded bluff, and
extended, about parallel with the river's course, from below the
lower nearly to the upper end of the town; but out beyond the
upper end of the slough the bluff was not wooded. Crossing
this slough, nearly in the center between the upper and lower ends

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 795

of the town, was a causeway road. The Indians came in crowds
over this causeway road, a part turning to their right and a part
to their left, the latter soon being joined by another crowd that
came down over the prairie bluff and above the end of the slough .
As yet, they made no movement toward the town, evidently wait-
ing for the rest of their party, which continued to come by the
same routes.

Colonel Flandrau directed some mounted skirmishers to be
thrown out on the prairie toward the slough, and Captain Dodd
placed them well down the incline and so close to the Indians that
the latter began firing upon them, and there was a lively ex-
change of shots between the skirmishers and the Indians. The
horse of one skirmisher was severely wounded by this Indian fire,
and, taking the bit between his teeth, ran at full speed down the
hill towards the Indians, carrying his rider with him. Luckily,
the horse's strength gave out and he made a staggering fall, les-
sening his speed thereby, when still about a hundred yards frdm
the Indians, who had ceased firing at them, evidently feeling sure
the horse would bring his rider into their lines. The rider was
unhurt by the fall, sprang to his feet, ran up the hill, and escaped
with his arms and ammunition, though while running a large
number of shots were fired at him by the Indians. He obtained
another saddled horse in a short time, and went to the front again,
seemingly more worried about the loss of his horse, with the
saddle and bridle, than by his own danger. The writer knew
at the time, but cannot now remember, the name of this skir-
misher .

For some reason not understood by Colonel Flandrau, or any-
one else, so far as expressed, the Indians delayed for more than
an hour making any general movement, after all seen coming
down the bluff had joined the main body on the town side of the
slough . They may have been feeling the strength of the defense
by this skirmishing fire, or waiting for some movement, or signal
of it, on the river side of the town, where Lieutenant Huey and
his force had been cut off. The latter seemed to be the opinion
of Colonel Flandrau at the time. But whatever it was, it enabled
him to have Captain Dodd form the main line of defenders be-
hind these mounted skirmishers in such a position that, on ac-
count of the nature of the ground, it could not be seen by the In-

796 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

dians until they had come away from the slough and a long dis-
tance up the incline, and of course much nearer the town.

NUMBER OF THE SIOUX ENGAGED IN THE ATTACK.

During the time of this approach and delay of the Indians,
they were counted by a number of persons, either through the
field glass on the high building mentioned, or by the unaided eye
from commanding points, being thereby estimated at from 650 to
800. Colonel Flandrau himself, however, made the smaller esti-
mate of about 350. In making these estimates, no account was
taken of the Indians across the river in the timber, who had at-
tacked Huey; they were two miles or more from the slough, and
on the other side of the town. They could not possibly have
joined the body at the slough, since their attack upon Huey, with-
out being seen, and they were not seen.

In Judge Flandrau's account of the battle of New Ulm (same
work, Vol. i, page 732), he wrote: "As I have learned since,
from educated half-breeds who were among the attacking party,
the enemy comprised about six hundred and fifty fighting men,
all well armed and many mounted."

Louis Robert, then of St. Paul, was at Fort Ridgely during
the attack upon it by the Indians on Wednesday, August 2Oth,
and took part in the defense. He was an old Indian trader,
familiar with the Sioux, understood their language, and had often
seen them in large bodies at treaties, payments of annuities, etc.
On Friday, he started from Fort Ridgely to go to New Ulm,
about sixteen miles distant, "but had not gone over two or three
miles before he found himself surrounded by a large number of
Indians, who were marching to the attack of the fort . He hastily
concealed himself in the grass, in a slough, where he remained till
night, when he again essayed to go on, but had scarcely left his
place of concealment before he was discovered, and again beat a
hasty retreat to the slough, where he remained, standing in the
water, holding his gun above his head, the remainder of the night .
While in this position, but a few rods from the road, he thinks not
less than one thousand warriors passed him in the early dawn of
Saturday, on the way to New Ulm." (Bryant and Murch, "In-
dian Massacre in Minnesota," page 203.) Charles S. Bryant,
A. M., one of the authors, was a scholarly man, living in St.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLAN.DRAU. 797

Peter at the time, and had every opportunity, which he well im-
proved, to get at the facts in regard to the Indian outbreak of
1862.

It is the writer's belief that the plan of Little Crow, who com-
manded the Indians, and of his advisers, was to make the attack
upon the rear of the town, with the hope that the defenders, sup-
posing that the front next the river with its ferry, was open for
their retreat, would make less resistance, and thus be the more
easily driven to the open bottom between the town and river.
When at the ferry, they would find themselves confronted by the
party concealed there, and be massacred between the two bodies
of Indians. But, if this were the plan, it was disclosed by the
Huey reconnaissance, and, however disastrous that seemed, it
may have been a blessing ; for white men, surrounded by attack-
ing Indians, fight hard, with no thought of surrender .

LATER PART OF THE BATTLE.

About ten o'clock on Saturday forenoon, the Indians at the
slough, having formed a strong line with its flanks curved as if
to envelop the town, advanced slowly up the prairie slope, firing
from different points of their line and thereby driving in the
mounted skirmishers. When this advancing line came into view
of the main line of the defenders, now increased by the dismounted
skirmishers, the Indians, still holding their formation, rushed,
with a yell never forgotten by one who heard it, upon the town,
firing generally when within ordinary gun-shot. This fire was
entirely too heavy for the defenders, and, after returning it until
a few of them were hit, their line gave way, and they retreated
upon the town and into the outskirts of it.

Here the Indians made an irreparable error; they occupied
some buildings passed by the retreating defenders, which broke
the effect of the Indian attack; it was no longer united. Other-
wise, while they had the defenders on the run, they might possibly
have driven them through the town, and down onto the open
bottom. But the writer believes, and then believed, that the
vigorous and probably effective fire of some of the better armed
defenders drove these Indians into the buildings, and thus broke
their line of attack ; thereby enabling Colonel Flandrau and others

798 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

to rally the defenders against the remaining Indian line, compel-
ling those forming it to take cover, and giving time for all the
defenders to get into buildings themselves .

At this time, Colonel Flandrau was applied to for authority
to burn all the buildings outside those occupied by the defenders,
so far as might be possible . He was loth to destroy the property
of this stricken people, but as a military necessity ordered it.
Volunteers, covered by the guns of the defenders in the buildings
behind them, went hastily and crouchingly over open ground and
fired some buildings and stacks between the two lines. This,
wherever possible and done, made an open space, leaving no cover
for the Indians from which to make a closer attack. The mis-
fortune was, that this was not possible everywhere along the de-
fenders' line. The fight soon became a driving by the Indians,
and a burning by the whites as driven back out of the buildings
by superior force, which appeared on every side. The Indians
burned buildings also, but generally, it seemed, in order to take
advantage of the wind and fire the town inside the defenders'
line.

A little after noon, Captain Dodd, second in command, was
misled by a ruse of mounted Indians, on the lower- ferry road just
where it rises to the plateau on which, at some distance, the town
stands. He believed it was a party of whites coming to relieve
the town, but in doubt about entering it, and, in order to en-
courage them to enter, he called upon some footmen who were
near to follow him, and rapidly rode outside the lines of defense
about seventy-five yards. There he was fired at by some Indians
in ambush . He wheeled his horse around, rode back about sixty
yards, and then fell heavily to the ground. The horse keeping-
on got inside the lines of defense, and fell dead soon after. The
footmen following him had at once retreated within the lines .

An officer and three other defenders rushed out to Captain
Dodd, as he was struggling ineffectually to get onto his feet, and
brought him inside the defenses . All that could be done for him
then was to place a long board with a stick of wood under each
end of it, thus making a spring board, lay him upon it, with a coat
folded under his head, and give him a drink of water. This was
done in the lower story of a house on the very line of defense,
while the defenders were shooting from the upper story;. He
was perfectly conscious, said he was mortally wounded, and gave

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 799

orders for all to leave him and go up stairs to the defense of the
building. His only request was that, should the building be aband-
oned, he be first carried out of it, so that the Indians would
not get him or his body. As the officer who had helped carry him
in was (by his order) leaving him, Captain Dodd took his hand
in his own, pressed it, and said, "I've felt hard against you, but
I see I was wrong; forgive me." He died some hours after-
ward, yet not until he had been carried to another house, laid
upon a comfortable lounge, and a surgeon brought to him. 'He
gave his life for his neighbor; what more can any brave man do?

His fall seemed to encourage the Indians, and, as the wind
blew upon that part of the town, the vigor of the attack at that
point greatly increased, and they began to appear in large numbers
there. This was reported to Colonel Flandrau, and gathering
all the men to be spared from the other parts of the town, making
a party of defenders at that point of about sixty, he made a sally
with this force, on foot, and drove a body of Indians more
than double his own number, who were then almost within the
defenses, completely outside, and scattered them, but with a loss
of two whites killed and several wounded. George Le Blanc, a
half-breed, and a leader among the Indians, was also killed and
left just within the line of defense.

In this sally Colonel Flandrau showed not only bravery of a
high order, but presence of mind and quickness of thought, in a
way that indicated military instinct.

The defenders' line here formed a. right angle. One side
was a large frame house in a lot fronting on the main street and
running back to a point where the ground fell off quite abruptly
over fifteen feet to a lower plateau . The other side was a smaller
house in a fenced lot, fronting on a cross street, and running back
along the top of this bluff to a point within about fifty feet of the
rear part of the other lot. It had been ascertained that the
Indians, in large numbers, were crawling up under this bluff to-
ward this angle, being entirely safe from the fire of the defenders
in the large house, and comparatively so from that of those in the
smaller one. In the vacant space between the two lots there lay
quite a number of saw-logs. Here the Indians began to gather,
and the only course left for the defenders was to come out of the
houses and by a sally in the open drive them away.

51

800 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

For this purpose Colonel Flandrau gathered his sallying
force, taking all the defenders out of the large house, who first
fired it well inside with straw taken from beds and saturated with
kerosene oil. Because of the prevailing wind, the smoke poured
out of the windows in the side of this house toward the inside of
the defenders' line, and his party was hidden by this smoke from
the view of the Indians in the vacant space between the two lots;
but he could see part of the front of the fenced lot on the cross
street. A defender, evidently from this smaller house, was seen
to rush through the gate into the street, and almost immediately
fall, shot by Indians hidden under the bluff, showing that some
of them had passed from the rear to the front of the lot by crawl-
ing along close under the bluff. Instantly Colonel Flandrau, as
he afterwards expressed himself, saw that to make a feint toward
the front of that lot would give him and his party an advantage
in the real attack at its rear. He ordered an officer present to
take three more defenders and rescue that fallen man, who seemed
still alive.

These four defenders rushed out of the smoke toward the
front of the fenced lot, and immediately came in view of the In-
dians at its rear, who evidently supposed the attack of the defend-
ers was being made at that point, and turned their attention to
the aid of their comrades who had gone under the bluff to the
front of the lot . Colonel Flandrau followed this feint by rushing
with his whole party out of the smoke to the rear of the lot, taking
rthe Indians there, as it were, in their rear and flank. This he
always believed gave him and his party the advantage and got
the Indians on the run at once, from which they never recovered.

The four defenders making the feint brought in the wounded
man, but one of their number was shot through the shoulder, the
Indians being only a few yards off under the bluff. The neces-
sity, however, for their rushing at once to the rear of the lot, to
aid in meeting the real attack by Colonel Flandrau, probably
saved the lives of all four making this feint .

This practically ended the fight for that day ; the fire of the
Indians being gradually slackened until sundown, when it ceased,
leaving the defenders with a loss of nine killed, and about fifty
wounded so severely as to be unable to fight. The remainder
were worn, and glad to rest and eat. Lunch carried to the points
of defense had been the method of refreshment since breakfast.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 801
INSTANCES OF BRAVERY.

When the first break in the defenders' line took place, Captain
Saunders got a portion of his men into an unfinished brick build-
ing near, and by holding it checked the advance of the Indians
at that point. He was, however, very soon wounded, compelled
to retire, and had to be supported into the hospital. His men
continued to hold the position, unaware that the defenders' line to
their right had been driven much farther in, thereby exposing
them to the imminent danger of being cut off from the town .

Henry A. Swift, who was fighting on foot in the line, a short
distance off, saw this situation at once, and by his coolness, cour-
age, and example, enabled a mounted officer to form and hold a
line of about forty footmen, which closed this gap, forced the
Indians, who were rushing into it, to take cover in some buildings,
and gave time for the officer to ride out and get Captain Saund-
ers' men from their exposed position into another building farther
in . That building they successfully held, and did good execution
from it, until ordered out in the evening, when it became neces-
sary to shorten the line of defense .

During the movement just desciibed, Mr. Swift, as he had
done a short time before on another part of the line for Colonel
Flandrau (hereafter related), saved the life of the writer, as he
has ever since believed, by warning him when he was unwittingly
riding into an ambush of about fifteen Indians. This warning
enabled him in good time to check and wheel his horse to the left,
at the same moment placing his own body as low as possible along
the left side of the horse; so that only one shot of the Indian fire
took effect, by slightly clipping the horse's right ear.

The men forming the line just mentioned were then ordered
into buildings. Swift took about twenty of them, seized a square
brick building in the back part of the town, and, port-holing it,
held the position until the end of the fight on Sunday. This
building was the advance-post of defense in tfiat part of the town,
and the fire of its garrison commanded open ground on each side
of it, as well as in front . Most excellent work was done by this
fire, and it covered a long portion of that part of the line of de-
fense .

802 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

D. G. Shillock noticed a party of about fifteen Indians seiz-
ing a house, which, if held by them, would be a great menace to
that part of the defenders' line. He gathered a party of defend-
ers, less in number, led them into the house and drove the Indians
from it. As the writer recollects, Shillock was then or soon
afterward, unluckily for himself and the defenders, badly wound-
ed. Though he recovered and lived for years afterward, he
carried the ball in his leg, at times a most painful reminder of the
battle of New Ulm.

During the whole of Saturday's fight the streets whose course
was toward the river were to a great extent covered by the fire of
Indians located on the high prairie ridge just back of the town.
Several of the wounded among the defenders, and possibly some
of the killed, were hit while attempting to cross these streets within
the lines of defense. After they had become a little used to the
Indian fire, some instances occurred, when it became necessary for
a party of defenders to cross such a street, in which one defender
volunteered to start fust and draw the fire of the Indians, so as to
lessen the danger of crossing to the rest of the party following
him. Of course, such crossing could only be successfully made
at the swiftest possible run.

At one time that day, some men with good guns were needed
in the lower part of the town. An officer went up into the cen-
tral part to find such, and was followed back by two volunteers.
John Hauenstein and George Spenner, each of whom possessed a
Turner rifle, a most excellent and far-reaching weapon. They
had been firing from behind chimneys on the tops of houses, but
could be spared for the other work, to reach which they risked
their lives in crossing the streets just mentioned, and afterward
in the lower town did good work indeed . There were too few of
such weapons among the defenders that day.

The foregoing instances have been given as those most clearly
retained in the writer b memory ; but where all did so well, it seems
almost wrong to specialize in any case.

Colonel Flandrau, during the latter part of the day and in
the evening, caused a barricade to be constructed around the cen-
tral part of the town, across exposed open spaces, by which, in
connection with buildings, the line of defense was greatly short-
ened, and so of course made much more easy to hold. All the
defenders were ordered within it, and all the buildings ouside that

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 803

could probably be used as cover for attack by the Indians were
burned. This preparation was made for the morrow, as it was
known that the Indians still surrounded the town, though with-
drawn out of gun-shot. It was believed by Colonel Flandrau,
as well as by many others of good judgment, that the Winneba-
goes would join the Sioux in the attack next day; for all the re-
ports with regard to those Indians reaching New Ulm during that
week, and they were many, fully warranted such belief .

Just before sundown, Colonel Flandrau made a personal in-
spection of the defenses, and, so far as safe, a reconnaissance out-
side of them. He had had three narrow escapes that day.

First, while rallying the broken line in the forenoon, he rode
into a position within short gunshot of quite a party of Indians in
cover. Henry A. Swift, who was near and in cover himself,
had just seen the Indians rush there, and hailing the colonel
warned him of his danger. He immediately turned back, and,
although shot at, seemingly by the whole party, neither himself nor
the horse were hit. It was supposed that the Indians were wait-
ing for him to come nearer and onto higher ground, and that his
sudden turn disturbed their aim, or they overshot him.

Second, in the afternoon, while leading the sally spoken of,
the breech of his gun, just then in front of his body, was struck
by a large ball, which glanced off, but the force with which the
gun-breech was driven against his body almost disabled him.
This shot was fired at close range, and probably at him, for he
was well known to many of the Indians .

Third, while upon the reconnaissance near sunset, he was
very tired, and in order to rest seated himself upon the end of a
saw-log, while looking out over the prairie. One of his officers
present, who knew the danger of the locality, warned him of it.
The colonel sprang to his feet and away, just before several balls
struck the log where he had been seated .

A NIGHT OF ANXIETY.

In the evening some citizens got their teams, put their fami-
lies and some supplies in the wagons, and were about leaving the
town by the lower ferry road. Colonel Flandrau heard of it in
time, and by his personal influence, joined with that of others
whom he called to his aid, he stopped their going, although he

804 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

was prepared and intended to use force, if necessary. They put
out their teams and returned to the houses. This movement
would have been simply suicide for them, and the colonel so con-
vinced the party; but it might also have brought on a fight that
would have menaced the town, in an effort to save them. One
man tried this, unknown to anyone else, that night, and was found
the next day only a little distance outside the lines of defense, on
that road, scalped, decapitated, and otherwise horribly mutilated.

The men lay on their arms at the barricade the whole of
that Saturday night. Colonel Flandrau, his officers, and some
others whom he called upon as aids, did not sleep at all ; but spent
the night in making rounds of the barricade, keeping about every
third man awake, alternating them to give all a chance to rest.
About midnight a sound was heard back of the town, where the
Indian camp was supposed to be located, like a large body of men
marching. The colonel and some of his officers and aids heard
it, and believed it to be the Winnebagoes coming to help the
Sioux. But by his order this belief was suppressed, and the
report was given out that the Indians, in part at least, were march-
ing off.

During the latter part of the night the writer had several
private interviews with Col. Flandrau, by his order. The colonel
was heavily burdened with the responsibility upon him. Too well
he knew, from the history of the preceding week even, what would
be the result of Indian success ; to the men, old women, and child-
ren, the scalping knife and a horrible death; but to the younger
women, a fate, in comparison with which death instead was a
boon to be prayed for; and upon him, as commandant, was the
responsibility for their safety . The means for its discharge were
those defenses and about 190 poorly armed men, the remnant of
that insufficient few with which he had gone into battle the day
before, brave still, but worn, and possibly much disheartened ; while
the enemy, at first nearly, if not quite, thrice his own numbelr, and
better armed, were now in all probability reinforced by half as
many more, all presumably eager for battle and its anticipated suc-
cesses, so prized by the Indian fiend .

In one of these interviews, Colonel Flandrau said : "If those
Indians get these women and children and defenseless men, anyone
in responsibility here who escapes, cannot live in this community."
In his youth he had served his Government at sea, and was thor-

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 805

oughly imbued with the ethics of that profession, requiring a com-
mander to go down with his ship in defeat, if duty and honor
demand .

What must have been his sensations ! Just thirty-four years
old; among the leaders of his profession (the law) in the State;
one of its three Supreme Judges; independent pecuniarily; in a
home, one of the best in the valley of the Minnesota, planned by
himself, and built upon a spot, among many offered, of his own
choosing; blessed with a lovely, accomplished Wife, and a charm-
ing little daughter ; respected and beloved by his neighbors, in fact
by the whole community; how bright the future had seemed to
him ! What hopes it had presented ! But now, — was he, in a
few hours probably, to lay these hopes with life itself upon the
altar of the present duty, and there sacrifice all, in what he
feared would be an unsuccessful effort to aid those of whom most
were within a week past to him utter strangers, his only consol-
ation being that his beloved wife and child were in safety?

He spent the hours till daylight, in planning (every prepara-
tion possible was already made) how best he might, with the
men and material at his command, meet the blow that he felt sure
would then come, and which he had little hope of resisting suc-
cessfully. Yet, in confident voice and manner he expressed an
assurance of victory on the morrow.

THE BATTLE CONTINUED ON SUNDAY.

When that morrow, August 24th, had come, and brought no
attack at daylight, the favorite time of the Indians for it; and
when, a little later, the attack was made by a lessened number
of Indians; all felt assured that no Winnebagoes had come
to assist the Sioux, but that a very considerable number
of the latter had marched off in the night; and none of the de-
fenders were more relieved than the commandant.

It was evident that this Sunday morning attack was made
by less than half the number of Indians engaged the day before,
and that it was intended simply to hold the defenders within the
town, while the Indians picked up everything desirable to them
and plundered and burned the outlying buildings, beyond the
battle ground of Saturday. The point of attack was shifted to
the immediate river front, and toward the upper end of the town.

806 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

Within a block or so of the main street, running parallel with
the river, the ground fell off suddenly quite a number of feet, intb
the low bottom that (extended to the river. Along the top of this
bluff, about and above the center of the town, stood some frame
buildings which it had not been necessary to burn the day before.
From behind these the attack came, and, though comparatively
light, it was threatening because so close. Colonel Flandrau or-
dered these buildings to' be fired, which was done with compara-
tive safety because the Indians, in order to avoid exposing them-
selves to the shots of the defenders, were compelled to fire from
behind the outside corners of these buildings.

One Indian, who was incautious in that respect, was shot, and
fell forward in full view at the end of the building, and his com-
rades dared not attempt to get him away, a thing usually done
by them, it is said. This Indian was only wounded, but could not
rise to his feet . As the building burned and the heat of it reached
him, he used all his strength to get away, but could only roll him-
self first away from it and then back toward it. Several of the
men, who witnessed this wounded Indian thus burning to death,
forgot all enmity, and would, in sympathy for his evident suffer-
ings, have rushed out to relieve him by carrying him away from
the burning building; but they were forbidden because of the
great danger to them, in so doing, from the fire of the Indians be*-
yond the buildings.

During this attack, an order was recived from Colonel Flan-
drau to burn an occupied building, a large hotel, in that part of
the town, as the Indians were pressing very hard upon it, and its
possession by them would be disastrous to the defense. All per-
sons were ordered out of it, and preparations were made, with
straw and oil, to fire it. But the officer in charge of the work
personally went into the rooms above the street floor to see that
no person asleep was being left in them, before starting the fire.
In one he found a child, probably about two years old, asleep,
which had been forgotten. This child had been cut about the
head by the Indians with a tomahawk, when they had attacked
and killed several of its relatives at their home in the country,
in the previous week. Wrapping the child in a blanket, and carry-
ing it, he started down the stairs, and was met by an aged female
relative of the child, shrieking that it had been forgotten. The
delay thus caused saved the hotel, for an order just then came

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 807

not to burn it, as the necessity therefor had passed. In this at-
tack, one defender was killed, and perhaps one or two wounded.
Very soon the Indians had secured their plunder and started off,
all disappearing to the west and northwest, back of the town.

ARRIVAL OF REINFORCEMENTS.

Some little time later, the head of a column of men came into
view where the road from the lower ferry rises out of the low land
to the plateau upon which the town is built . This same thing, the
day before, then a ruse of the Indians, had cost the life of Captain
Dodd; and another ruse was suspected in this case. Colonel
Flandrau ordered one of his officers to ride out and reconnoiter,
who did so, and discovered and reported that it was a body of
over a hundred armed white men , A part were volunteers from
Nicollet, Sibley, and Le Sueur counties, under Captain E. St.
Julien Cox, of St. Peter, sent the day before by Colonel Sibley
to report to Colonel Flandrau; and the rest, Lieutenant Huey's
remnant .

Then men who had borne up under the severe strain of the
past thirty-six hours broke down with joy, at the thought that
their trials were at last ended ; and Captain Cox and Lieutenant
Huey, with their men, were welcomed heartily.

James Cleary, then of Le Sueur county, now of St. Paul,
was a lieutenant of Captain Cox's company, and has since in-
formed the writer that about half the company, being without
private arms, had been furnished by Colonel Sibley with Austrian
or Belgian muskets, the best in his power to supply, but which
were practically worthless; that the company had started from
St. Peter the day before, Saturday, the 23rd, and had camped
for the night at Nicollet, about fourteen miles from New Ulm;
had marched early Sunday morning to the Redstone ferry; had
found the ferry boat luckily on the Nicollet county side, but un-
fortunately a long distance below the road by which alone wagons
could approach the ferry; had necessarily consumed much time
in getting the boat up the river to the ferry and ready for opera-
tion; and that the crossing was made successfully and without
opposition from any source.

When the night of Saturday had come, and the battle for
that day was over, the Indians had command of the upper and

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

lower ferries across tbe Minnesota river, the only means by which
a relieving force from St. Peter, where alone such force was
gathering, could reach New Ulm within less than two days.
Captain Cox camped at Nicollet, about fourteen miles off, on that
night. The Indians, by their scouts, knew, most probably, all
the movements of any considerable force of the whites, and the
exact position of that force at that time. They knew, also, that
by destroying the ferry boats at these ferries any time that Satur-
day night, they would make it impossible for Captain Cox to cross
at. either ; and that, for the whole of Sunday, and possibly part of
Monday, they could, in that case, continue their attack upon New
Ulm without interruption from him, or from any other possible
relief part)*.

Yet they did not destroy the ferry boats. They only cut
loose the Redstone or lower ferry boat, which floated down the
river a long distance below the ferry road; for they well knew,
as events proved, that, should Capt. Cox use that ferrv, this would
cause enough delay in his crossing to give them sufficient time to
make the attack on Sunday morning, thereby keeping the defend-
ers within the town until they (the Indians) could collect their
plunder and get away, which they did, before the arrival of Cap-
tain Cox. And this was probably done by less than half their
number . Had Captain Cox attempted to use the upper ferry, at
the time he did use the lower one, the Indians would have known
it when he was miles away, and could have easily done the same
thing there.

Ihe repulse of the Indians by Colonel Flandrau, on Saturday,
had beeii so complete and decisive that they evidently determined
to make no further efforts then to advance into the settlements,
and more than half their force marched awav about twelve o'clock
on Saturday night, leaving the remainder to execute the work just
stated. The Indians never afterwards appeared in force as far
east as New Ulm .

CARE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.

During the time spent at New Ulm, nothing gave Colonel
Flandrau more relief than his medical staff. His confidence in
their ability was unlimited ; and their excellent care and treatment

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 809

of the sick and wounded, whose sufferings worried him greatly,
evidenced their high personal and professional character, and
were his greatest comfort.

The writer thinks this medical staff was composed of Dr.
Carl Weschcke, then in practice at New Ulm, and now and for
many years last past its mayor; Dr. Asa W. Daniels, of St.
Peter; Dr. Mahon (or McMahon), of Mankato; and Drs. Mayo
and Otis Ayer, of Le Sueur. If there were other members of it,
the writer has forgotten them .

EVACUATION OF NEW ULM.

Upon consultation with his forces and with the people of the
town, during the afternoon and evening of Sunday, it was de-
termined by Colonel Flandrau that, because of threatened sickness
and growing scarcity of provisions, the town should be evacuated
the next day, Monday; the citizens and refugees to march in a
column, protected by the armed men, to Mankato, situated on
the same side of the Minnesota river. Notice was given and
preparation made, the best for the sick and wounded, many of
both these classes being found among the refugees. Because of
the scarcity of transportation, Colonel Flandrau, much to his re-
gret, was compelled to limit the amount a man possessing the
means of it should take of his own goods, the space being needed
for those who were without. Some complained of this at first,
but the order was necessary, imperative, and not varied from.
Upon second thought such owners of the means of transportation
admitted the justness, and certainly the mercy, of this order.

Early on Monday, August 25th, the barricades are broken,
and soon the saddest caravan ever seen in Minnesota — over 1,500
people, many sick, about eighty wounded, besides the armed men
who guard it on flank and rear — is moving towards the southeast .
Many have left or lost all, except the little carried with them;
even their nearest and dearest ones, butchered by the Indians, lie
buried, without coffin, book, or bell, where they died, with naught
to mark the spot; some are mourning and fearing a worse fate
for their friends, captured by the savages ; and all such are going
where? God knows, — anywhere away from Indians!

Colonel Flandrau guarded that column about sixteen miles,

810 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

then hurried it, with part of the guard, on to Mankato, about four-
teen miles farther; and he, with the remainder of the troops,
camped through M'onday night at Crisp's farm, to guard the rear.
In the work before cited, Vol. i, page 733, he wrote of this exo-
dus, as follows :

On Monday, the 25th, provisions and ammunition 'becoming scarce,
and pestilence being feared from stench and exposure, we decided to evac-
uate the town and try to reach Mankato. This destination was chosen
to avoid crossing the Minnesota river, which we deemed impracticable,
the only obstacle between us and Mankato being the Big Cottonwood
river, and that was fordable. We made up a train of one-hundred and
fifty-three wagons, loaded them with women, children and about eighty
wounded men, and started. A more heart-rending procession was never
witnessed in America. The disposition of the guard was confided to
Captain Cox. The march was successful ; no Indians were encountered.
We reached Crisp's farm toward evening, which was about half-way be-
tween New Ulm and Mankato. I pushed the main column on, fearing
danger from various sources, but camped at this point with about one
hundred and fifty men, intending to return to New Ulm, or hold this
point as a defensive measure for the exposed settlements.

While we were in camp at Crisp's farm Monday night, a
woman, with a child, about two years old, came from outside the
guard-line, and approaching one of the sentries discovered her-
self just in time to prevent her being shot by him. A bullet,
fired by an Indian on the preceding Monday, the first day of the
outbreak, had passed through the muscles of her back, but with-
out injury to the spine, and had struck her child's hand, at that
moment over its mother's shoulder. This had occurred west of
New Ulm, where the bodies were buried by the Tousley expedi-
tion on Friday, the 22nd, and many miles distant from Crisp's
farm. She had subsisted on berries, roots, and grain, during
the week, carrying her child most of the time. The Indians had
chased her several times, and even put dogs upon her track, to
elude which she had laid herself down on her back in the water
in streams and sloughs, holding her child above her; and she
expressed her belief that the wound in her back, which she could
not reach to dress, had been, during that hot weather, greatly
benefited thereby. Her principal effort on such occasions was
to hush the crying of her child (in which she always succeeded),
so as not to attract her pursuers . The poor little thing made up

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 811

for its lost privileges in that way, after it was safe in camp that
Monday night .

Both mother and child were taken on to St. Peter, and were
placed in an improvised hospital there, where they were found
by the husband and father, who had been working for some
weeks at a point on the Mississippi river. Both mother and
child recovered. How that husband and father must have loved
the Sioux Indians afterwards!

Neither Indians, nor signs of them,, were apparent that night,
though ample watch was kept for them.

On the morning of Tuesday, the 26th of August, Colonel
Flandrau, having placed all the refugees in safety from the In-
clians, decided to return to New Ulm, for the purpose of still
holding at as an advance-post of defense to the settlements east
and southeast of it, and made a strenuous effort to that end.
As to this and its result, the writer again quotes Judge Flandrau,
from the same work, Vol. I, page 733:

On the morning of the 26th we broke camp, and I endeavored to
make the command return to New Ulm or remain where they were;
my object, of course, being to keep a force between the Indians and the
settlements. The men had not heard a word from their families for njore
than a week, and declined to return or remain. I did not blame them.
They had demonstrated their willingness to fight when necessary, but held
the protection qf their families as paramount to mere military possibilities.
I would not do justice to history did I not record that when I called
for volunteers to return, Captain Cox and his whole squad of forty
or fifty men stepped to the front, ready to go where commanded. Al-
though I had not heard of Captain Marsh's disaster, I declined to allow
so small a command to attempt the reoccupation of New Ulm. My
staff stood by me in- this effort, and a gentleman from Le (Sueur county
(Mr. Freeman Talbott) made an eloquent and impressive speech to the
men to induce them to return.

The most of those offering to return had but recently left
their homes, and had not been in any of the battles at New Ulm.

Later on Tuesday, August 26th, in his march from Crisp's
farm, Colonel Flandrau reached M'ankato, and there disbanded
his original force, allowing the men to go to their homes, or with
their families . They had done the fighting which had saved
the refugees and placed them in safety, and deserved such re-
lease from further duty. Captain Cox, with his command, was
ordered to report to Colonel Sibley at St. Peter.

812 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

COMPARISON OF THE BATTLES OF THIS INDIAN WAR.

The writer believes it due to Judge Flandrau's memory, in
estimating his services in defense of New Ulm, that a fair com-
parison should be made between the battle of August 23rd and
24th at New Ulm and the other battles with the Indians during
that season, on that part of the frontier.

In this two-days' battle at New Ulm,, the defenders fought,
of course, for their own lives, for even surrender to the foe
surrounding them would bring certain death, preceded by
terrible torture. The resident defenders had the additional in-
centive of saving their families or relatives. But the writer be-
lieves, and then believed, that the large number of women, chil-
dren, and defenseless old men, to be saved from the merciless
savage, greatly incited all the defenders to think first, last, and
always, only of resistance; and it will be difficult, if possible, to
find in the Indian wars of this country a case where whites, so
situated, fought more determinedly and persistently.

From the facts herein shown, it is fairly inferable that the
attacking force of Indians in that New Ulm fight numbered at
least 650, and probably even 1,000 or more. It was known
that these Sioux had thirty or more good army rifles, with ample
supply of ammunition proper therefor, and some good private
arms ; and that each of them possessed a heavy double-barreled
shotgun, number ten or twelve bore, with very strongly rein-
forced barrel toward the breech, so as to shoot balls, with danger-
ous accuracy and great force, at least three hundred yards. The
Government had provided these shotguns for the Indians, some
years before, to enable them to shoot and kill large game, includ-
ing buffalo. These guns could be used also, at a somewhat
shorter range, for shooting smaller balls that would chamber in
them three at a time, with great force and effect. Some in-
stances were reliably reported that men were hit, at long range,
with these guns using a single ball, which passed entirely through
the body. Even the walls of the frame houses, used by the de-
fenders during the battle of Saturday and Sunday, were not a
sufficient protection against these Indian guns; and hence, on
each side of the openings from which the defenders fired, bed-
mattresses and the like were necessary and used to com-
plete the partial defense made by the walls. The Indians were

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 813

seen to load these guns running at full speed. While Indian
agent, Colonel Flandrau had purchased one of these very guns,
and he used it in the fight at New Ulm. In all their fights that
year, the Indians seemed to have an ample supply of ammunition,
taken probably from the agency stores and other sources .

The muster rolls of different companies at New Ulm, which
rolls were made or perfected, as now of record, long afterward,
show a large number of men there during the week of the trouble.
Captain E. C. Saunders, and Captain William Dellaughter, both
of Le Sueur, and Captain William Bierbauer, of M'ankato, each
brought a body of fairly-armed men there, and were personally
in the battle of Saturday and Sunday, August 23rd and 24th.
But many of the men in some of the armed organizations at New
Ulm were constrained to return to their own localities to defend
their homes. Reports came to them, during the week, of threat-
ened trouble in other places by the Sioux and Winnebagoes, with
urgent messages for such return. The writer, as adjutant, took
part with Colonel Flandrau, at his request, in urging the position
taken by him, that to defend New Ulm was to defend these homes
in its rear . But all had to admit that, if the Winnebagoes should
"break out" around their own reservation, and not come to aid the
Sioux at New Ulm, and if other bands of Sioux were to attack
in other places, in its, rear, such homes would be in great danger,
and would need for their defense all the men belonging there;
and Colonel Flandrau, admitting the necessity, gave permission
for yielding to it. Hence it was the highest prudence for every
man who, having come to New Ulm during that week, left it and
returned home for such purpose, to act as he did. But this very
necessity, acted upon, greatly depleted the force defending New
Ulm, by noon on Friday, August 22nd.

It has been before stated that the number of defenders actu-
ally going into the battle of Saturday, August 23rd, was about
250. The writer desires to make some quotation from official
reports of the time, as to the correctness of this statement. On
August 22nd, at 3 p. m., Colonel Flandrau sent by a special
messenger a written communication to "Ex-Governor Sibley," ex-
pected to reach him on his march from Belle Plaine to St. Peter,
in which he wrote : "I have about 200 men here, but very poorly
armed;" and again, "I have large expeditions out all day, which

814 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

weakens me" (Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, Vol. 2,
pages 197 and 198) . The Tousley expedition was, at that hour,
sev-eral miles west of New Ulm.

On August 27th, from St. Peter, Colonel Flandrau made
his report, to Governor Ramsey, of the battle of Saturday and
Sunday . In this report he wrote : "I detailed 75 men with him
[Lieutenant Huey], and they crossed at the ferry opposite the
town about 9 o'clock a.m." As before shown, this force could
not return to New Ulm until the next day (Sunday), after the
Indians had retreated, and they took no part in the battle on the
New Ulm side of the river. In the same report, Colonel Flan-
drau further wrote: "At nearly ro a. m. the body [of Indians

in rear of the town] began to move toward us

We had in all about 250 guns." (Same work, Vol. 2, page
204.)

The loss among the 250 defenders at New Ulm was 10
killed and 51 wounded, the most of which loss was suffered on
Saturday, the first day of the battle. As before stated, the non-
combatants, women, children, and old men, were about 1,500.

The defenders at Fort Ridgely on Friday, August 22nd, the
day of the greatest fight there, numbered 180 men, in part well
armed troops, infantry and skilled artillery; the remainder, foot-
men, recruits, and citizens, were fairly armed. The non-com-
batants to be defended were about 300. (See the narrative of
Gen. L. F. Hubbard [written in 1892], in the same work, Vol.
2, page 182.) The number of the attacking force of Indians is
not given or estimated in the reports of Lieut. T. J. Sheehan,
Fifth Minnesota Infantry, who commanded, and Ordnance Ser-
geant J. Jones, U. S. Army, who had charge of the artillery;
both reports were made August 26th, 1862. But the former,
in his report, wrote: "This post was assaulted by a large force
of Sioux Indians on the 2Oth instant ;" and again : "On the 22nd
they returned with a much larger force and attacked us on all
sides." And the latter, in his report, wrote: "On the 22nd of
August, 1862, a still more determined attack was made about
2:30 p.m. by a very large force of Indians." The defenders'
loss was three killed and thirteen wounded. (See the same
work, Vol. 2, pages 171-173.) But in the narrative of General
Hubbard (on page 186), the attacking force is estimated at 1,200

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 815

to 1,500. In a note to this narrative (on page 173), it is stated
that "the events . . . connected with . . .the de-
fense of Fort Ridgely are related by Lieutenant T. P. Gere of
Company B," Fifth Minnesota Infantry, who was present in that
fight.

It would seem that the attacking force at Fort Ridgely, less
their killed and wounded, were, in all probability, in the attack at
New Ulm the next morning, as indicated by Louis Robert's state-
ment before given. But the Indians seen by Robert marching
down the valley of the Minnesota river (Fort Ridgely was about
sixteen miles above and northwest of New Ulm) could not have
been the same Indians that were doing the burning on the up-
land road from Fort Ridgely to Lafayette, as seen from New
Ulm early Saturday morning. The Indians whom Robert saw
would cross the Minnesota river back of the position, from which
they appeared at the rear of the town; and the Indians doing
the burning were in all probability the body that attacked Huey.

In the fight by Captain Marsh at the Redwood Agency ferry
on Monday, August i8th, the whites numbered fifty-five, trained
and well-armed soldiers. The attacking force of Indians was
about 425. There were no non-combatants. Of the whites twenty-
four were killed, including the commanding officer, and five
wounded. (See the sam$ work, Vol. 2, pages 167-171; report
of sergeant, afterwards first lieutenant, John F. Bishop, who
succeeded to the command and brought it off the field . )

At Birch Coulie on Tuesday, September 2nd, the attacking
force of Indians was about 400; the defenders only about 150.
During Tuesday night the Indians were reinforced by about 500 ;
but the determined resistance of the day before, and the approach
of relieving parties, prevented any serious attack after such re-
inforcement. There were no non-combatants. The whites lost
twenty-three killed and forty-five wounded. (See the report of
Captain Hiram P . Grant, who commanded in that battle, and the
statement of James J. Egan, a participant; in Vol. 2, pages 215-
223.)

At Wood Lake, September 23rd, the attacking party of In-
dians was "nearly 500," as stated in Colonel Sibley's report of
September 27th (Vol. 2, page 254.) His command numbered
at least 1,000 men, infantry, cavalry, and artillery; and the attack

816 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

was made upon the camp early in the morning. There were no
non-combatants. The loss of the whites was five killed, and
thirty-one wounded. (See the reports of Surgeons Greeley and
Wharton, in the same work, Vol . 2, pages 243-4 . )

At Redwood Agency ferry, and at Birch Coulie, the whites
were surprised, and, though they were well armed and organized,
in each case it is a wonder that a single white man escaped.
That anyone did escape, and so many in the latter case, redounds
to the credit, and warrants the highest praise, of those who com-
manded and participated; and too much has never been written,
nor can ever be, in commendation of the skill and bravery dis-
played in the defense of Fort Ridgely.

The writer suggests that the foregoing facts clearly show
that Colonel Flandrau's successful defense of New Ulm, consid-
ering and comparing the numbers engaged, character of arms,
kind of organization, number of non-combatants to be defended,
duration of the fighting, and sacrifice at which the victory was
obtained, at least equaled in importance any of the battles named.

ADVANTAGES GAINED BY THE DEFENSE OF NEW ULM.

Did Judge Flandrau, by his defense of New Ulm, render any
other service than that of placing those 1,500 or more refugees in
safety? It has been already claimed in this article, that by night
on Wednesday, August 2Oth, he had made New Ulm an advance-
post of defense for the towns and country in its rear, Mankato,
St. Peter, and vicinity. While he held New Ulm, no body of In-
dians made a raid east and southeast of it; and very few out-
rages by individual parties, if any, occurred there.

On Tuesday, August iQth, Governor Ramsey heard at St.
Paul the news of the outbreak, and "hastened to Mendota, and
requested the Hon. H. H. Sibley to take command, with the
rank of colonel, of an expedition to move up the Minnesota Val-
ley. He at once accepted." (See Heard's "History of the
Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863," page 117. The
author was on Colonel Sibley's staff, and wrote in 1863.) This
shows that the scene of Judge Flandrau's labors was the place
to be defended first, and most vigorously; and that on the same
day that Judge Flandrau, at Traverse, very early in the morning,

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 817

heard of the outbreak, Governor Ramsey heard of it in St. Paul,
seventy-five miles farther from the scene of action.

On the evening of Thursday, August 2ist, Colonel Sibiey
was at Belle Plain e, fifty-seven miles from St. Paul, with 225
men, having used a steamer to Shakopee, over half the way.
(See "Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars," Vol. 2, pages
I93-5 • ) The next day he dated a report to Governor Ramsey,
"Headquarters Indian Expedition, St. Peter," and had three
companies with him (page 196). Heard, on page 118 of his
History, wrote:

On Sunday this force was increased which swelled Sibley's com-
mand to some 1,400 men The mounted men [about 300] had no

experience in war and were only partially armed, and that only with
pistols and sabers, about whose use they knew nothing. A portion of
the guns of the infantry were worthless, and for the good guns there
were no cartridges that would fit. The foe was experienced in war,
well armed, confident of victory, and wrought up to desperation by the
necessity of success.

On Tuesday, August 26th, Colonel Sibiey reported to Gov-
ernor Ramsey from St. Peter that he should move that morning
("Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars," Vol. 2, page 199).
He did so, and camped that night six miles from St. Peter on the
upper road to Fort Ridgely, where Colonel Flandrau and the
writer saw him. Some refugees from New Ulm, marching
from there with Colonel Flandrau, had reached St. Peter, by
way of Mankato, before Colonel Sibiey moved at all.

It must be presumed that Colonel Sibiey did move the mo-
ment he was ready ; that he had done all he could ; and that during
his stay at St. Peter he was awaiting reinforcements and sup-
plies of food and ammunition from St. Paul, until Monday even-
ing, August 2$th, or the next morning. On Saturday, August
23rd, he had sent forward the expedition commanded by Captain
Cox, but it was composed of volunteers from Sibiey, Le Sueur
and Nicollet counties. The State authorities had been doing all
in their power to help Colonel Sibiey, with the result stated, that
he was six miles west of St. Peter towards Fort Ridgely, still
thirty-nine miles distant, on Tuesday night, August 26th.

Even as late as Monday, August 25th, was Colonel Sibiey,
while thus insufficiently supplied with ammunition, in condition

818 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

to resist successfully an attack by a large body of Indians?
Would he not, if assailed, have been compelled to fall back, down
the Minnesota valley, towards his coming ammunition supply,
the possession of which was absolutely necessary to render his
force effective for any purpose whatever, even its own defense?

Then, did Judge Flandrau's maintenance of that advance-post
of New Ulm, from Tuesday, August iQth, until Monday, the
25th, together with his repulse of the Indians on Saturday and
Sunday, the 23rd and 24th, aid the State authorities in placing
Colonel Sibley's expedition where it camped on Tuesday night,
August 26th ?

Suppose that Judge Flandrau had not done so, but had
failed, and that New Ulm had fallen in the week preceding or on
Sunday morning, the 24th, placing those 1,500 refugees, mostly
women and children, cut off from flight eastward by the Minne-
sota river, at the mercy of those Indians. Imagine the scene of
blood and rapine, and then its effect. The whole community
eastward, from town, hamlet, and farm, would have been rushing
by every means obtainable, uncontrollably, down the Minnesota
valley for safety ; and the simple word, "Indians," could have been
used to conjure fright with even on the streets of St. Paul.

Sometime — it should be soon — Minnesota, in gratitude and
for the admiration and instruction of future generations, will cast
in bronze, or carve in stone, the form and features of Charles E.
Flandrau ; but no art, however high, can make the hard material
of commemoration fully show the firm will, the bright mind, the
loving heart, the genial smile, and the winning manner, which
have made him so respected and beloved through life, and now se
mourned in death .

JUDGE FLANDRAU AS A CITIZEN AND JURIST.

BY WILLIAM H. LIGHTNER.

Charles Eugene Flandrau, who died in the City of St. Paul
on September Qth, 1903, would have completed in November of
this year a residence of fifty years in Minnesota. At all times
during his long citizenship in our state he took an active and
leading part in public affairs and his complete biography will be
a history of our state. His lifelong friends, Judge Greenleaf Clark
and Major Salmon A. Buell, have reviewed before you his early
career, and his great services to his adopted state, in laying the
foundations of our civil government, and in his participation in
the Indian war which threatened the prosperity of the state and
caused so great a loss of life and property. A brief review of
the career of Judge Flandrau, particularly as lawyer and judge,
may supplement what has already been presented to you.

The son of a lawyer, who was a graduate of Hamilton Col-
lege, and a gentleman of culture and many acquirements, and who
practiced many years with Aaron Burr, Judge Flandrau had ad-
vantages in early life which were unusual in the early history of
our country. These advantages were of great benefit, and, al-
though he lacked a thorough school training when he came to
Minnesota in 1853, ne was not merely trained sufficiently as a
lawyer to successfully undertake the practice of his profession
in a western state, but he had acquired much of the literary taste,
culture, and refinement, which adorned his life.

In 1853 ne began the practice of his profession in St. Paul
in partnership with the late Horace R. Bigelow, with whom he
had left the State of New York to begin his life career. He
shortly afterwards, in the winter of 1853 and 1854, went to what

820 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

is now St. Peter, and resided in that locality till April, 1857, when
he was appointed by President Buchanan associate justice of the
Supreme Court of the Territory of Minnesota. In the follow-
ing year, upon the admission of the State, he was elected one of
the justices of the Supreme Court, which position he continued to
occupy until July 5, 1864,* when he resigned his office. This
completed his judicial experience. After a brief residence in
Carson and Virginia City, Nevada, where he and Judge Atwater,
his former associate on the bench of the Supreme Court, engaged
in the practice of law, and a brief residence in St. Louis, he re-
turned to this state, and, with Judge Atwater, began the practice
of law in Minneapolis. In 1870, he removed to St. Paul, and
there resided until his death . During his entire residence in St .
Paul he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession,
being successively a member of the firms of Bigelow, Flandrau,
and Clark; Bigelow, Flandrau, and Squires; and Flandrau,
Squires, and Cutcheon.

His practice was extensive and lucrative. He and his firms
were for many years leaders at the bar in this state. An exami-
nation of the reported cases in this state will show that a very
large proportion of the important litigation was entrusted to their
care and was successfully conducted.

Judge Flandrau was pre-eminently a good citizen. Thor-
oughly conversant with the duties of citizenship, he shirked none
of them. Never a seeker of public office, his services were in
frequent demand, and he was repeatedly called upon to fill official
positions. These, \vhether high or low, he filled well, serving
his constituents with ability and diligence.

In 1854 he was deputy clerk of the district court for Nicollet
county, and later attorney for the same county. In 1856 he was
appointed agent for the Sioux Indians. In the same year he
was chosen for a term of two years a member of the Territorial
Council, the upper house of the Territorial Legislature. In 1857
he served as a member of the "Democratic branch" of the Con-
stitutional Convention, which, in conjunction with the "Republi-
can branch," framed our present State Constitution. As already
stated, from 1857 to 1864, he was associate justice of our Su-
preme Court. In 1867 he was elected city attorney of Minne-
apolis, and in 1868 was chosen first president of the Board of
Trade of that city .

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 821

In politics, Judge Flandrau was a Democrat, and to his party
he was a conscientious and lifelong adherent. When the pre-
ponderance of the Republican party in this state was so great that
the election of its candidates by large majorities was assured,
Judge Flandrau did not hesitate, upon the demands of his party,
to stand as their candidate, in 1867, for governor, and in 1869
for chief justice of the Supreme Court. Nor did Judge Flandrau
hesitate, when he believed that his party had in any manner de-
parted from what ne believed to be an honest political principle,
to openly oppose its candidates, as he did in the presidential elec-
tion of 1896.

In 1899, towards the close of a long life, when abundantly
entitled to rest and freedom from the care of public business.
Judge Flandrau responded to the demands of his fellow citizens
and became a member of the Charter Commission which framed
the present charter of the city of St. Paul. Of this commission
he was chairman till his death . This position, the duties of which
were arduous, could add little to his reputation or standing in the
community, and the acceptance thereof must have been prompted
by that nice sense of the duties of citizenship which characterized
Judge Flandrau throughout his life .

In all matters that related to the well-being, prosperity, and
improvement of his fellow citizens, Judge Flandrau was ever ac-
tive. Identified with all those larger commercial, social, educa-
tional, and charitable institutions which make for the best interest
of mankind, yet he seemed to take a greater pleasure or interest
in individual improvement and particularly in those persons hav-
ing limited advantages. To such he was ever ready to lend his
aid and encouragement.

While his many personal friends and contemporaries will
long cherish recollections of the many fine traits in the character
of Judge Flandrau, still his most enduring fame will doubtless
rest upon his work while justice of our Supreme Court. Ap-
pointed to this court at the age of twenty-nine, he entered upon
the discharge of his' duties with ardor and much devotion to his
work. His seven years upon the bench doubtless covered "the
most important period in the development of our jurisprudence,
being the formative period of a new state.

Under our system of government, in which each state is,
with certain limitations, a sovereign state having exclusive con-

822 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

trol of its domestic institutions and policies, the first few years of
statehood are of controlling importance. Each new state takes
its place among its sister states with equal rights, but without ex-
perience. Its laws are to be framed; its policies and principles
of government are to be adopted; and, perhaps more important
than all else, its courts are called upon to establish and lay down
the principles of common law which are to be supreme within the
new state. It is true that each new state adopts in its general
principles the common law as it prevails generally in the United
States and England, but the common law as applied in different
jurisdictions varies greatly. Errors in adopting and applying the
common law in any new state lead to much injustice, much un-
certainty in the decisions of the courts, and occasion much un-
necessary litigation and legislation. No greater benefit can
be conferred upon a new state than to give it a Supreme Court
which during its early history adopts and lays down correctly the
rules of the common law, selecting, where these rules conflict,
those which experience has shown to be sound and those which
are best suited to the people of the state. The power and duty
thus resting upon the Supreme Court in a new state is well
understood by judges and lawyers, though perhaps imperfectly
appreciated by the average citizen.

Judge Flandrau and his two associates, Judges Emmett and
Atwater, upon the bench of our Supreme Court performed their
duty well, and our state is greatly indebted to them for the valu-
able services rendered. It is no disparagement to his two asso-
ciates to say that the greater part of this work was performed
by Judge Flandrau. The decisions of our state Supreme Court
during the six years when he was a member thereof are reported
in volumes two to nine of the Minnesota reports . These reported
decisions numbered 495, and of these Judge Flandrau wrote the
opinions in 227 cases, or nearly half of all the cases reported while
he was on the bench . These opinions evince much care and re-
search. The history of the law is carefully examined and stated.
The precedents and authorities in other jurisdictions are ably
analyzed. Technicalities were abhorrent to Judge Flandrau,
who brushed them aside where inconsistent with justice. The
opinions are models of good English and, we think, show a great-
er degree of care in their preparation than is found in his later

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IX HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 823

writings. The sentences are terse, the facts and the principles
of law are plainly and simply stated without repetition and not at
unnecessary length . It is superfluous to say that Judge Flandrau
was a fearless and upright judge. He was by nature a gentle-
man, and his fearlessness and uprightness were innate and needed
no training or education for their full development . His opinions
reflect his character.

Perhaps the most important, certainly the most notable, of
Judge Flandrau's opinions, was his dissenting opinion in the
case of Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company vs. H . H . Sib-
ley, Governor (2 Minn., i). If his opinion had prevailed in-
stead of that of the two other judges, the state might have been
spared the discredit of the repudiation of the Railroad Aid bonds .
The . case in brief was as follows :

By an amendment to the State Constitution adopted April
1 5th, 1858, provision was made for the issue of bonds of the
state, in an amount not exceeding $5,000,000, to several railroad
companies to aid in the construction of their roads. It was pro-
vided that, before the bonds were issued, the railroad companies
should give to the state certain securities, including "an amount
of first mortgage bonds on the roads, lands and franchises of the
respective companies corresponding to the State bonds issued."
The Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company, claiming to have
complied with the amendment of the Constitution, demanded of
Governor Sibley that he issue to it certain State bonds. He re-
fused to do so for the reason that the bonds of the railroad com-
pany tendered as security were not such "first mortgage bonds"
as the Constitution contemplated. Thereupon the company ap-
plied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus requiring the
governor to issue the State bonds, and the writ was issued, two
of the judges holding with the railroad company, and Judge
Flandrau dissenting and sustaining the position taken by Gover-
nor Sibley. When the amendment to the Constitution was
adopted, the railroad company had not issued any "first mortgage
bonds." Subsequently it made a first mortgage upon its prop-
erty to secure an issue of $23,000,000 of bonds, and the bonds
which it tendered to the State were a small part of this issue.
The State contended that it was entitled to first mortgage bonds
which should be a prior lien upon the railroad superior to that of

824 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

all other bonds, and Judge Flandrau forcibly demonstrated the
soundness of this position .

At this date it seems clear that Judge Flandrau was correct,
and that, at this time, the decision of the court would be contrary
to the majority opinion. It is certainly a very inadequate pro-
tection to the State to provide that its debtor shall give it first
mortgage bonds, and then leave it to the debtor to determine how
large the total issue shall be of which such first mortgage bonds
are to be part. It is possible that if Judge Flandrau's views had
been followed, the State bonds might not have been issued, or,
if issued, they might have been adequately secured, in either of
which events the credit of the State would doubtless have re-
mained unimpaired.

It is interesting to note further, in reference to this case, that
the Supreme Court ought not to have taken cognizance of the
case at all, for the reason, as has since been repeatedly held in
the same court, that the judiciary has no power to control the
acts of the chief executive of the State in a case of this kind.

That Judge Flandrau appreciated the opportunities and duties
of the court as to settling the common law, is shown by the fol-
lowing statement contained in his opinion in the case of Selby vs.
Stanley (4 Minn., 34) .

In a new state like our own, we enjoy the advantage of all the light
which has been thrown upon questions, without being tied down by
precedents which are admitted to be founded in error; and, therefore,
we are free to select, as the basis of our decisions, whatever may appear
to be founded on principle and reason, rejecting what is 'spurious and
unsound, even if dignified by age and the forced recognition of more
learned and able judges.

In State vs. Bilansky (3 Minn., 169), the defendant was
convicted of the murder of her husband and sought to escape
punishment by pleading the ancient common-law privilege of
clergy. The opinion by Judge Flandrau is particularly interest-
ing by reason of his learned account of the origin and purpose of
this ancient privilege. The opinion held that the defendant was
not entitled to the privilege, and she paid the penalty of the law.

In another murder case, Bonfanti vs. State (2 Minn., 99),
Judge Flandrau, speaking of a statute which authorized the com-

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 825

mitment to an insane asylum of one acquitted of crime on the
ground of insanity if manifestly dangerous, says that "the statute
very sensibly declares that when a jury is called upon to acquit a
prisoner of a crime on the ground that he was insane, they shall
not acquit him of the one without convicting him of the other."
Unfortunately many juries and courts fail to follow Judge Flan-
drau's opinion and to see to it that one so acquitted should be
put in an insane asylum.

In True vs. True, (6 M'inn., 315), which was an action for
divorce, we find the importance and sanctity of the marriage re-
lation upheld by Judge Flandrau in the following eloquent and
forceful language :

The contract of marriage differs from all other contracts, in being
indissoluble by the action of the parties to it, and of perpetually binding
obligation until discharged by a competent court. It is the most im-
portant of the social relations. It is sanctioned by Divine authority,
and recognized by all Christian nations as the palladium of virtue, mor-
ality, social order, a>nd the permanent happiness of the human race.
To its auspicious influence may be traced the great advances made in
civilization, through the elevation of woman to social equality, the edu-
cation of children, the refinement of manners, the improved sense of
justice, the enlightened cultivation of the arts, and the physical devel-
opment of man ; and, above all, is it valuable as awakening in the human
heart those chaste and exalted conceptions of virtue, which, in spiritual-
izing the mind, and subduing the grosser passions of men, give moral
character and grandeur to the state. It is the only lawful relation for
the continuance of the species, and the perpetuity of the choicest benefits
permitted by Providence to the enjoyment of man, and as such should
engage the most profound solicitude of the legislator and the courts, to
preserve it unsullied in its purity, and transmit it to posterity with its
integrity unimpaired.

It were well if our divorce courts paid more attention to this
noble and just statement of the law as to marriage.

It is impossible to quote at length from the many able
opinions delivered by Judge Flandrau, but it may be proper to
notice a few of interest to the legal profession. In Gates vs.
Smith (2 Minn., 21) is an able exposition of the method of
pleading as provided by the Code, then quite new, as a substitute
for the common-law methods. In Grimes vs. Bryne, (2 Minn.,
72) we find an exhaustive investigation into the power of the

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

legislature under the Constitution of the United States, to exempt
a fair and limited amount of property from seizure under execu-
tion for debts created prior to the exemption. In McComb vs.
Thompson (2 Minn., 114) is laid down the salutary rule which
has ever since prevailed in this state, that a party signing a note
upon the back at its inception, is to be treated as a maker. In
Steele vs. Fish (2 Minn, 129), is found probably the first decis-
ion under our statute relating to actions to determine adverse
claims, and which did much to simplify and make effective the
purpose of this valuable statute in quieting the title to real estate .

In Selby vs. Stanley (4 Minn., 34), limiting vendor's liens,
and Gardner vs. McClure (6 Minn., 167), repudiating common-
law mortgages by deposit of the title deeds, we find exhaustive
and able opinions relieving this state of unsound and dangerous
principles which had prevailed in many common-law jurisdic-
tions .

That Judge Flandrau never favored harsh or unequal taxa-
tion is shown by his opinions in McComb vs. Bell (2 Minn.,
256), City of St. Paul vs. Seitz (3 Minn., 205), Foster vs.
Commissioners (7 Minn., 84), and Board vs. Parker (7 Minn.,
207) . His hostility to excessive interest is found in Mason vs.
Callender (2 Minn., 302), where the holder of a note was held
not entitled to interest after the maturity of the note as stipulated
therein at the rate of five per cent per month.

An important opinion is that of Regents vs. Hart (7 Minn.,
45), determining the status and rights of the State University
and its regents.

Among many other valuable opinions, we may mention
State vs. Batchelder (5 Minn., 178), relating to the passing of
the title of land from the general government ; Heyward vs. Judd
(4 Minn., 375), relating to an attempt by the legislature to vio-
late contract rights by enlarging the period of redemption from
foreclosure; Filley vs. Register (4 Minn., 296), as to fraudulent
conveyances; Butler vs. Paine (8 Minn., 284), as to a note pay-
able in "currency;" and Arnold vs. Wainwright (6 Minn., 241),
on the subject of partnership.

In closing this brief review of Judge Flandrau's opinions,
we shall quote from Roos vs. State (6 Minn., 291), and Super-
visors vs. Heenan (2 Minn., 281), his statement as to methods

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF JUDGE FLANDRAU. 827

which prevailed in our territorial legislature and which cast a
side-light on our territorial history. In the latter case was in-
volved the constitutional provision requiring the subject of an
act to be stated in the title, and the opinion says :

A knowledge of the character of the legislation which preceded the
forming of a state constitution, will show that a very vicious system
prevailed of inserting matter in acts, which was entirely foreign to that
expressed in the title, and by this means securing the passage of laws
which would never have received the sanction of the legislature, had the
members known the contents of the act .... [The constitutional pro-
vision] means to secure to the people fair and intelligible legislation, free
from all the tricks and finesse which have heretofore disgraced it.

In the former case, relating to change of county lines, Judge
Flandrau says :

During the territorial existence of Minnesota, a very great evil had
grown up in the legislation of the country, consequent upon the feverish
excitement that prevailed for the creation of towns and cities, and the
speculation in lots and lands. It was the constant practice of the legisla-
ture to change county lines, and the county seats of counties from one
town to another, at the solicitation of interested parties^ without a full
understanding of the wishes and interests of the people of the counties
affected. Instances even occurred where such removals were carried
through the legislature without the knowledge of that body, by inserting
clauses in bills, surreptitiously, the title of which indicated entirely another
purpose.

This society has had frequent occasion of late years to bear
testimony to the fine character and notable services of many of
its deceased members, who have made so creditable the history
of this state. It has not been called upon to record its apprecia-
tion of a nobler character than that of Judge Flandrau. His in-
tegrity and honesty in purpose and act could never be questioned.
Indirection or evasion were foreign to his character and his in-
stincts .

He was intensely human, in the sense that he felt the broth-
erhood of mankind. Kindly in disposition, he ever sympathized
with and aided his less fortunate fellow men . Well do I remem-
ber his kindly interest and companionship with the poor and
rather turbulent population in the vicinity of his home in St.
Paul. With these people he was a friend, and where most men

828 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

would have found only disturbing and disagreeable neighbors, he
found only devoted friends.

He had, as might have been expected in such a gentleman, a
natural and inborn courteous manner. His manners were not
the mere result of training and polish, and hence he could never
be intentionally unkind or discourteous. This trait in Judge
Flandrau's character, added to his legal ability, made him a strong
advocate . No lawyer at the bar was a more dangerous opponent
before a jury.

His hospitality was unlimited, and his friends were without
number. With a charming and brilliant wife, surrounded by his
children, his home in St. Paul has for many years been a center
in social life. He will long be held in remembrance in the com-
munity, and he has left to his sorrowing wife and children the
inestimable heritage of a good name and an unsullied character.

ADDRESS.

BY HON. JOSEPH A. ECKSTEIN,, CITY ATTORNEY OF NEW ULM .

Mr. President: The City of New Ulm desires to join with
you in these fitting eulogies on the life and character of Judge
Charles E. Flandrau, so ably pronounced by the speakers of the
evening. The Mayor of our city received an invitation for him-
self, city officers, and citizens, from the secretary of your society,
to be present at this memorial meeting. The city council ap-
pointed a committee of four of its members to represent that body
at these exercises, and they are present with me here tonight.
The Mayor, the Hon. Dr. C. Weschcke, made all preparations to
come, but found that the state of his health would not permit him
to do so. He has, however, commissioned me to represent him,
and to say a few words for him on behalf of the city, should
occasion present itself.

I will ask your indulgence for a few moments, and, as the
hour is late, I purpose to be brief in my remarks .

In August, 1862, New Ulm was a mere hamlet on the west-
ern frontier of this state; the prairies of southwestern Minnesota
were swarming with the bloodthirsty Sioux; and New Ulm was
the objective point on which they intended to wreak their ven-
geance for real or imaginary wrongs suffered at the hands of the
whites. At that time most of the young and able-bodied men of
New Ulm were at the front in the south fighting for the flag of
liberty. Those remaining at home were poorly armed and not
fitted to withstand the fierce onslaught of a treacherous and in-
human foe . It was in the nick of time that Judge Flandrau ar-
rived on the scene with his force to relieve the endangered place.
I believe that I am correct in making the assertion that, if the
Sioux had succeeded in annihilating the little town of New Ulm,
our neighbors to the east might have shared the same fate .

880 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

New Ulm, now a city of over 6,000 inhabitants, remembers
with gratitude the gallant services of Judge Flandrau and his
men, rendered in the hour of their greatest need. The lines of
the defenders of that place are getting thin, and a large number
of the associates of Judge Flandrau, in the defense of New Ulm,
have preceded their gallant commander to their last resting place.
It will not be many years before the few remaining eye witnesses
of that memorable struggle will have passed away. Then, Mr.
President, the records of your society will stand as the faithful
witness to give true testimony to the future historian of what hap-
pened on the frontier of Minnesota in the early days .

Some years ago, the State of Minnesota erected a shaft with
a memorial tablet in the City of New Ulm to commemorate the
battle there with the Sioux Indians . It is located in a prominent
place in the city, near the corner of what we call Schoolhouse
Square. On it the name of Charles E. Flandrau stands out in
bold relief, as a silent tutor to the youth passing on his way to
school, to inspire in him a spirit of gallantry and patriotism should
the hour of need and occasion for its exercise ever arrive.

The record of the life and actions of Judge Flandrau is
closed, but it stands forth as a shining example of the highest
type, safely to be followed by any enterprising youth of this state
for generations to come.

BUM C.RCULAT.ON

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