Battle of Birch Coulee

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Date	September 2, 1862
Location	Morton, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota
Result	Santee Sioux victory

Combatants

United States of America

Santee Sioux

Commanders

Major Joseph R. Brown

Chiefs Gray Bird, Red Legs, Big Eagle, and Mankato

Strength

170

about 200

Casualties

Sioux Uprising
Lower Sioux Agency – New Ulm – Redwood Ferry – Fort Ridgely – Birch Coulee – Fort Abercrombie – Wood Lake – Camp Release

The Battle of Birch Coulee was a battle in the Sioux Uprising in September of 1862. After the Battle of Fort Ridgely and the Battle of New Ulm, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley was planning to defeat and punish the Sioux and to obtain the release of the settlers they were holding captive. While Sibley was training soldiers and attempting to organize supplies, he was reminded that the bodies of many settlers killed by the Indians still were left unburied in the battlefields. Sibley sent out a burial party from Fort Ridgely on August 31, 1862, with a detail of about 170 men. The party was commanded by Major Joseph R. Brown, according to Sibley's notes. The monument at Birch Coulee Battlefield states that Captain Hiram P. Grant was in command, but historians generally acknowledge that Brown was in command.

The party left Fort Ridgely and continued to Redwood Ferry, stopping to bury about sixteen settlers' bodies along the way. The next morning, Brown and a group of cavalry crossed to the south side of the river, while Grant and his infantry stayed on the north side. At the end of the day, Brown's and Grant's soldiers met up again at a campsite near Birch Coulee. The two detachments had buried 54 bodies, and since neither group had seen any Indians, they figured they were safe. Meanwhile, Chief Little Crow was leading a force of 110 northeastward from New Ulm, while his chief warrior, Gray Bird, was heading down the south side of the Minnesota River with a force of 350 Indians. Gray Bird's party and Brown's troops missed encountering each other during the day, but some Indian scouts discoverd that Brown's troops were moving toward the campsite at Birch Coulee. The Sioux planned to ambush Brown's troops in the morning, thinking that only the cavalry was present and that they could be easily destroyed.

The Birch Coulee campsite was not easily defensible, since the Indians could approach from all sides and still remain under cover. During the night, Gray Bird, along with chiefs Red Legs, Big Eagle, and Mankato crossed the Minnesota River and surrounded the camp. In the morning, the Indians commenced their ambush, wounding at least thirty United States soldiers and killing most of the cavalry's horses within the first few minutes. The heaviest part of the fight lasted about an hour, but the siege continued for many hours past then. Colonel Sibley could hear the sounds of the battle from Fort Ridgely, about sixteen miles away, so he sent out a relief party of 240 men. Colonel McPhail, heading up the relief party, thought he was almost completely surrounded by the Sioux and sent back for more reinforcements. Sibley returned with more reinforcements and an artillery brigade. The shelling forced the Sioux to disperse, and Sibley entered Brown's camp around 11 AM on September 3. He encountered a "sickening sight", with thirteen men and ninety horses dead, forty-seven men severely wounded, and others less severely hurt. The survivors were exhausted from a thirty-one hour siege without water or food.

The battle of Birch Coulee was the most deadly for the United States forces in the Sioux Uprising. The battle may have distracted the Sioux from continuing down the Minnesota River toward more settlements, but the United States forces learned that it was foolish to travel in hostile Indian territory with too few untrained troops.