r Captain
Anderson, returned home as soon as they found the fort was safe. The
garrison was soon increased by the arrival of forty-seven men under
Captain Sterritt, and on the 1st of September, Lieut. Col. William R.
Marshall of the Seventh Regiment arrived, with a portion of his
command. This force could not make a forward movement on account of a
lack of ammunition and provisions, which were long delayed.

BATTLE OF BIRCH COULIE.

On the 31st of August a detail of Captain Grant's company of infantry,
seventy men of the Cullen Guard, under Captain Anderson, and some
citizens and other soldiers, in all about 150 men, under command of
Major Joseph R. Brown, with seventeen teams and teamsters, were sent
from Fort Ridgely to the Lower Agency, to feel the enemy, bury the dead,
and perform any other service that might arise. They went as far as
Little Crow's village, but not finding any signs of Indians, they
returned; and on the 1st of September they reached Birch Coulie, and
encamped at the head of it. Birch Coulie is a ravine extending from the
upper plateau to the river bottom, nearly opposite the ferry where
Captain Marsh's company was ambushed.

The Indians, after their defeat at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm, had
concentrated at the Yellow Medicine river, and decided to make one more
desperate effort to carry their point of driving the whites out of the
country. Their plan of operation was, to come down the Minnesota valley
in force, stealthily, passing Sibley's command at Ridgely, and attacking
St. Peter and Mankato simultaneously. They congregated all their forces
for this attempt, and started down the river. When they reached the foot
of Birch Coulie they saw the last of Major Brown's command going up the
coulie. They decided to wait and see where they encamped, and attack
them early in the morning. The whites went to the upper end of the
Coulie, and camped on the open prairie, about 250 feet from the brush
in the coulie. On the other side of their camp there was a roll in the
prairie, about four or five feet high, which they probably did not
notice. This gave the enemy cover on both sides of the camp, and they
did not fail to see it and take advantage of it. The moment daylight
came sufficiently to disclose the camp, the Indians opened fire from
both sides. The whites had ninety horses hitched to a picket rope and
their wagons formed in a circular corral, with their camp in the center.
The Indians soon kille