in the Little Sioux Valley. The settlers became alarmed and companies of “Home Guards” were organized in several of the northwestern counties. Under the authority of Judge A. W. Hubbard a military company of the Sioux City Cavalry, under command of Captain A. J. Millard, was ordered into State service for protection of the frontier.
There were at this time about 8,000 Sioux Indians on the reservations along the Minnesota River, at a distance of from sixty to one hundred miles from the north line of the State. These Indians, aware that thousands of the natural defenders of the frontier were absent in the armies, entered into a conspiracy to march upon the settlers and exterminate them before aid could reach them. So well had the plans of the savages been concealed, that no intimation of the impending doom had reached frontier settlements. On the 17th of August, 1862, the massacre began near the upper agency. On the 21st, while the men were gathered at a public meeting, on the upper Des Moines River, near Jackson, to devise means for common defense, the Indians suddenly fell upon the settlement, murdering the defenseless families, plundering their homes and killing the live stock. When the news of the massacre reached the settlements at Spirit Lake and Estherville, parties of armed men were hastily organized who marched to the aid of their neighbors. At Jackson they received reinforcements and all marched up the river to the scene of the massacre; finding that the Indians had disappeared, they buried the bodies of fifteen of the victims and returned to their homes. The settlers in northwestern Iowa escaped the fate of their Minnesota neighbors. When the news of the massacres reached them, all the frontier settlements were abandoned except those at Spirit Lake and Estherville. At these places the sturdy pioneers erected strong stockades into which their families were gathered, preparations being made for a vigorous defense. Scouts were sent out and every precaution taken to guard against
