| 1st Dakota Cavalry Battalion | |
|---|---|
| Active | April 19, 1862 – November 15, 1865 |
| Disbanded | May 9, 1865 [1] |
| Country |  United States |
| Allegiance | Union |
| Branch | Cavalry |
| Size | Company "A" [1] Company "B" [1] |
| Nickname(s) | The Coyotes [2] |
| Engagements | American Indian Wars |
The 1st Dakota Cavalry was a Union battalion of two companies raised in the Dakota Territory during the American Civil War. They were deployed along the frontier, primarily to protect the settlers during the Dakota War of 1862.
By order of the Department of War, organization of the 1st Dakota Cavalry began in the winter of 1861, with recruiting stations established at Yankton, Vermillion, and Bon Homme. [3] At Yankton, the 98 men of Company A were mustered into service on April 19, 1862 under the command of Captain Nelson Miner. [4] [5] They first were stationed at Fort Randall under Lieutenant Colonel Pattee of the 7th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, but detachments of the company were afterward sent to protect the settlements at Yankton, Vermillion, Sioux Falls and Brule Creek, Dakota Territory.
During the August 1862 Sioux uprising, Company A escorted settlers as they moved to protective stockades. Governor William Jayne also called for "every able-bodied man to arms in defense of the homes of Dakota", with 399 men responding. [6]
At this time Captain Alpheus G. Fuller, an early settler in the territory, began raising a cavalry militia in Bon Homme and Charles Mix counties, the "Militia Brigade of Dakota". [7] After failing to form a company for U.S. service, the men were merged with volunteers organizing at Elk Point. On March 31, 1863, these men were mustered in to form Company B at Sioux City, Iowa, with Captain William Tripp commanding. This company was known by settlers as the "Dakota Rangers". [8]
Both companies were engaged in the protection of the Dakota frontier towns while Generals Henry H. Sibley and Alfred Sully, with regiments of infantry and cavalry from Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, sought out the hostile Indians throughout the territory. The two companies were split into detachments for use in the several settlements.
As the Civil War and Indian conflicts were drawing to a close, Companies A and B were mustered out on May 9, 1865, and November 15, 1865 respectively. The battalion had a total of 194 soldiers. [9]
In June 1864, the 1st Dakota Cavalry Battalion served as guard for Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully as he traveled to Fort Sully, Dakota Territory to rendezvous with various companies there. Upon the completion of the brigade, the expedition left Fort Sully on June 24, 1864. On July 28, 1864, Sully's force of 2,200 soldiers encountered a camp of over 5,000 Sioux warriors. During the subsequent Battle of Killdeer Mountain, United States forces lost 5 men killed and 10 men wounded.
On August 13–15, 1865, 24 soldiers in Company B participated in the Battle of Bone Pile Creek against Native American warriors near present-day Wright, Wyoming. The detachment suffered two casualties, Privates Anthony Nelson and John Rouse (both killed in action). [10]
The Battle of Killdeer Mountain took place during Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully's expedition against the Sioux in Dakota Territory July 28–29, 1864. The location of the battleground is in modern Dunn County, North Dakota. With a total of more than 4,000 soldiers involved in the total operation, and more than 2,000 in the battle, Sully's expedition was the largest ever carried out by the U.S. army against Native Americans.
The Battle of Fort Ridgely was an early battle in the Dakota War of 1862. As the closest U.S. military post to the Lower Sioux Agency, the lightly fortified Fort Ridgely quickly became both a destination for refugees and a target of Dakota warbands after the attack at the Lower Sioux Agency. It came under attack by the Dakota on August 20, 1862, two days after a company of soldiers responding from the fort to the attack on the Lower Sioux Agency had been ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Redwood Ferry. The Dakota besieged and partially destroyed the fort, but were unable to storm it before the August 27 arrival of Colonel Henry Sibley with 1,400 men from Fort Snelling prompted them to retreat.
The Battle of Big Mound was a United States Army victory in July 1863 over the Santee Sioux Indians allied with some Yankton, Yanktonai and Teton Sioux in Dakota Territory.
The Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake was a skirmish in July 1863 in Dakota Territory between United States army forces and Santee, Yankton, Yanktonai and Teton Sioux. The Sioux attempted to capture the pack train of the army and retired from the field when they were unsuccessful.
The Battle of Stony Lake was the third and last engagement of Henry Hastings Sibley's 1863 campaign against the Santee, Yankton, Yanktonai and Teton Sioux in Dakota Territory. Following the battle, the Indians fought delaying actions against Sibley until their women and children had successfully crossed the Missouri River. Sibley then gave up his chase of them.
The Battle of Whitestone Hill was the culmination of the 1863 operations against the Sioux or Dakota people in Dakota Territory. Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village September 3–5, 1863. The Native Americans in the village included Yanktonai, Santee, and Teton (Lakota) Sioux. Sully killed, wounded, or captured 300 to 400 Sioux, including women and children, at a cost of about 60 casualties. Sully continued the conflict with another campaign in 1864.
Alfred Sully, was an American military officer who served in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and the American Indian Wars. He served as Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army during the American Civil War but was removed from command by John Gibbon and charged with dereliction of duty for failure to suppress a mutiny by the 34th New York Infantry Regiment. He was found innocent of the charges and sent to the Dakota Territory to serve in the Sioux Wars. After the Civil War, he served as major in the regular Army and continued to fight in the Indian Wars including the Nez Perce War and out of Fort Dodge, Fort Harker and Fort Vancouver. He served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Montana in 1869 and as colonel of the 21st Infantry Regiment in 1873.
The state of Iowa played a significant role during the American Civil War in providing food, supplies, troops and officers for the Union army.
Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Battalion was a Minnesota USV cavalry battalion that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Hatch's Minnesota Cavalry Battalion was a Minnesota USV cavalry battalion that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and American Indian Wars.
The 30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several eastern bands of Dakota collectively known as the Santee Sioux. It began on August 18, 1862, when the Dakota, who were facing starvation and displacement, attacked white settlements at the Lower Sioux Agency along the Minnesota River valley in southwest Minnesota. The war lasted for five weeks and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of settlers and the displacement of thousands more. In the aftermath, the Dakota people were exiled from their homelands, forcibly sent to reservations in the Dakotas and Nebraska, and the State of Minnesota confiscated and sold all their remaining land in the state. The war also ended with the largest mass execution in United States history with the hanging of 38 Dakota men.
The 2nd Nebraska Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The area that eventually became the U.S. state of Montana played little direct role in the American Civil War. The closest the Confederate States Army ever came to the area was New Mexico and eastern Kansas, each over a thousand miles away. There was not even an organized territory using "Montana" until the Montana Territory was created on May 26, 1864, three years after the Battle of Fort Sumter. In 1861, the area was divided between the Dakota Territory and the Washington Territory, and in 1863, it was part of the Idaho Territory.
The 11th Ohio Cavalry Regiment, known in vernacular as the 11th Ohio Cavalry, was a cavalry regiment raised in the name of the governor of Ohio from several counties in southwest Ohio, serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was stationed in the Dakota and Idaho territories on the American frontier to protect travelers and settlers from raids by American Indians.
Fort Sully was one of the main military posts located on the east bank of the Missouri River in central Dakota built for use in the Indian Wars. There were two forts named Sully—old Fort Sully, which was in existence and occupied from 1863 to 1866, and the later, or new Fort Sully, which was established in 1866 and was continuously occupied as a military fort until its abandonment in the fall of 1894.
William Tripp was an American politician, lawyer, soldier, and surveyor.
The Battle of the Badlands was fought in Dakota Territory, in what is now western North Dakota, between the United States army led by General Alfred Sully and the Lakota, Yanktonai, and the Dakota Indian tribes. The battle was fought August 7–9, 1864 between what are now Medora and Sentinel Butte, North Dakota. It was an extension of the conflict begun in the Dakota War of 1862. Sully successfully marched through the badlands encountering only moderate resistance from the Sioux.
The Department of the Northwest was an U.S. Army Department created on September 6, 1862, to put down the Sioux uprising in Minnesota. Major General John Pope was made commander of the Department. At the end of the Civil War the Department was redesignated the Department of Dakota.
Fort James was a cavalry fort built in 1866 in Dakota Territory. It was soon decommissioned and its site now is in the state of South Dakota. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
