Timeline: Sibley's letter to Sarah Jane this date, Septemeber 8, 1862

Colonel Sibley was a prolific and gifted correspondent and continued to send letters and reports to the military leaders from his command post at Fort Ridgley. He also caught up on his private correspondence to Sarah Jane, his wife, which showed a side of Colonel Sibley that the public seldom saw. He wrote the following letter to Sarah Jane on September 8, 1862, exactly 150 years ago today.

"I received a letter from Little Crow yesterday, byt he bearers of a flag of truce. He writes (his amanuensis is an educated half-breed), that the reason the war commenced was because he could not get the provisions and other supplies due the Indians, that the women and children were starving and he could get no satisfaction from major Galbraith, the United States Agent, that he had many white women and children prisoners, etc. etc. I have sent my scout back today with a written reply telling Little crow to deliver the captives to me, and I would then talk to him like a man. What he will do remains to be seen. The half breeds, whom I know, say that the mixed-bloods are not permitted to leave the camp and are virtually prisoners, as most of them are believed to sympathize with the whites. They assure me that the Indians are determined to give us battle, at or near the Yellow Medicine, and are sanguine of success. I do sincerely hope they do not change their programme."

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