Camp Atchison--North Dakota, 1863.

ANON

Publication: Whitney's Gallery, 1863-1867, St Paul

Original Photograph of a drawing of Camp Atchison. CDV. Image: 3.625"x 2.25". Mount: 4"x2.375". In response to the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota in August, 1862, two punitive expeditions, one under General Alfred Sully and one under General Sibley, went in pursuit of the hostiles, known to have fled to the Dakotas. General Sibley pursued in the direction of Devil's Lake, but learned that the Sioux were no longer there and were in flight to reach and cross the Missouri River. On July 18, 1863, upon learning this Sibley immediately established Camp Atchison in what is now east-central North Dakota. He garrisoned the new camp with 6 companies of infantry, 1 company of cavalry, 2 cannons, and the sick and disabled, naming it after Captain Charles Atchison, the command's Ordinance and Assistant Commissary Officer. General Sibley left 2 days later with 2500 men and 1000 horses. Twenty-one days later, Sibley and his troops returned to Camp Atchison, having marched 300 miles and fought 3 battles and several skirmishes in 21 days. Sibley's man's first battle was at Big Mound, and the Sioux attacked Sibley's troops at Dead Buffalo Lake and Stony Lake, but the big battle was Whitestone Hill. The Sioux had 100 men killed and another 100 wounded, with 156 captured. It's believed to be the largest number of Indian casualties of any one western Indian battle. On August 12, two days after his return to Camp Atchison, General Sibley and his men abandoned Camp Atchison and returned to Forts Snelling and Ridgely. Image shows some slight fading, else clean and undamaged. The imprint on the back of the mount dates this image to the period of 1863-1867. A very scarce image of a short-lived military camp of the Sibley Expedition of 1863.

Inventory Number: 53110