On August 18, 1862, after decades of maltreatment at the hands of government overseers and white settlers, hundreds of Sioux (Dakota) warriors under the reluctant leadership of Taoyateduta, the Little Crow, broke out from their reservation and slaughtered over 500 whites and half-breeds in a two-month reign of terror that depopulated much of the southern half of Minnesota, and left dozens of native raiders hanging from a common gallows. One of the braves' first targets was Ft. Ridgely, a lightly-defended garrison that stood ...
Read More
On August 18, 1862, after decades of maltreatment at the hands of government overseers and white settlers, hundreds of Sioux (Dakota) warriors under the reluctant leadership of Taoyateduta, the Little Crow, broke out from their reservation and slaughtered over 500 whites and half-breeds in a two-month reign of terror that depopulated much of the southern half of Minnesota, and left dozens of native raiders hanging from a common gallows. One of the braves' first targets was Ft. Ridgely, a lightly-defended garrison that stood between the marauders and the state capitol of St. Paul. With its commandant slain in an ambush the first day of the uprising, command of the fort during a nine-day siege fell to 1st. Lt. Timothy J. Sheehan, a 26-year-old Irish immigrant whose initial sympathies covered red man as well as white. This is his story. Relying on historical documents and family records, Dogs in the Hot Moon brings to life the plight of the Dakota nation at that time, the brutality of the massacre that was finally ignited over a pair of brown chicken eggs, and the struggle of the young state's white leadership to contain the uprising in the face of Union demands for soldiers to quell the Rebellion in the south. Times, dates and places and events are real, as are most of the persons named. Copy that is italicized throughout the book is taken verbatim from the historical record. Timothy J. Sheehan went on to become a brevetted Colonel in the Union Army, a Civil War veteran, county sheriff, deputy marshal and Indian agent, wounded seven times, the last at age 61. He died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913, at the age of 78.
Read Less
