at their destination
on the 5th of May.

Camp Pope was not an original settlement, but a spot selected
especially as a base of operations against the Indians; for which
purpose storehouses had been erected there. It was situated on the
river about a mile and a quarter above the crossing of the Red Wood
River. On the reassembling of the regiment the company held the same
rank (5th) and position (7th) as before, but had as neighbors Company G
on the right and Company I on the left.

In the latter part of the month (May) a regimental band was formed, and
Seidel, Eberdt, and Jakobi were detailed as members of it. J. J.
Mueller and Reimers rejoined on the 5th. Detert was detailed as
regimental pioneer on the 15th. The expedition being ready, those sick
and unable to travel were left behind at Camp Pope; of Company E,
Hellmann and Paul Paulson remained there. The strength of the company
present at this time was 68, and aggregate number 85.

The second expedition for the chastisement of the Dakotas left Camp
Pope on the 16th of June, 1863. The 19th and 21st of the month were
spent in camp. On the 23rd, transportation permitting, the knapsacks of
the men were carried in wagons. The valley between Big Stone Lake and
Lake Traverse was reached on the 26th, and a camp established about a
mile from the latter on the south side of the Minnesota River (there
but a rivulet), which camp was situated near but outside of the state
boundary. The camp was called McLaren, and three days were spent there.
From here a detachment consisting of three companies of infantry,
including Company H of the Sixth Regiment, some cavalry, and one piece
of artillery, all under command of Lieutenant Colonel Averill, was
dispatched to Fort Abercrombie for supplies. Klinghammer, unable to
march, was sent along to the fort. It may be here noted, as a matter of
interest to hydrographers, that Lake Traverse was not at this time an
unbroken sheet of water, as a corporal of Company G crossed it on foot
near the middle, seeing the lake in two parts, to the right and left of
him.

Resumed the march on June 30th, and forded the Sheyenne River on the
4th of July, camping a little beyond it at a spot three-quarters of a
mile northeast of the two mounds called "The Bowshot" and in the
neighborhood of where the fight occurred about forty years before
between the Pawnees, Shawnees, and Sheyennes, which, as I am informed,
resulted in the annihilation of the last-named