olated settlers, burning houses, and stealing horses and cattle; but
the larger portion remained together, and, under the leadership of
Little Crow, planned further attacks.

Fifteen miles below the Lower Agency, on the north bank of the
Minnesota, is Fort Ridgely; and twenty miles below the fort, on the
southern bank of the river, is the town of New Ulm, which, as its name
indicates, is mainly populated by German settlers. Early in the
afternoon of Tuesday, August 19th, a party of citizens from New Ulm,
returning from a neighboring village, where they had gone to aid in
recruiting volunteers for the Union army, were fired upon from an ambush
by a number of mounted Indians, and several of them killed. Those who
escaped had barely time to get back to New Ulm and give the alarm before
the Indians advanced upon the town, and began firing at long range upon
the distressed and panic-stricken inhabitants, who were huddled
together, in helpless confusion, in a few of the more protected houses.
Fortunately, a squad of eighteen armed men from one of the lower
counties had arrived there an hour or two previous. Only six of the
number had good guns; but they immediately organized themselves, and
went forward to meet the savages. By dint of determined coolness and
bravery, they held the Indians at bay, killing several of them, until,
seeing the town reenforced by another small party of mounted whites, the
savages retreated. The fight lasted two or three hours, and a number of
the Germans were killed.

Beaten back from New Ulm, the Indians retraced their course up the
river, and being joined by other bands, a concerted and deliberate
attack was next made on Fort Ridgely. Like too many of our frontier
forts, it is a fort only in name. Situated on a projecting spur of the
river bluff, it is almost completely encircled by deep and wooded
ravines, the edges of which are within a stone's throw of the buildings.
A long, two story stone building with an ell, standing in the centre,
and a number of log and frame houses ranged around it in an irregular
circle, with several barns and outhouses beyond them, constitute what is
called the fort, but what is really only barracks for a small number of
troops.

When on Monday Captain Marsh left the fort to quell the disturbances at
the Agency, only about twenty-five soldiers remained to protect it.
After his party was cut up in ambush, only twenty-one, wounded and all,
returned. Luckily, however,