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Soon bands of Sioux were rampaging across southwestern Minnesota, attacking farms and trading posts and murdering everywhere they went—splitting the skulls of men; clubbing children to death; raping daughters and wives before disemboweling them; cutting off hands, breasts, and genitals; and looting whatever could be taken before setting fire to what remained. Perhaps as many as two thousand settlers were brutally massacred, although the number has never been firmly established.

Once the uprising was suppressed, 303 Sioux warriors were sentenced to death. The people of Minnesota called for their immediate execution, a sentiment that matched the national mood. Abraham Lincoln suspected that most of those convicted were marginal players in the rebellion and that the worst culprits had escaped, and he carefully reviewed each case before selecting the 39—later reduced to 38—men to hang whom he believed to be guilty of the worst crimes. The remainder were committed to life in prison. "I could not hang men for votes," he later explained. On December 26 the 38 were simultaneously hanged on a gallows construction especially for them.

The Sioux Uprising of 1862, also known as the Dakota War, sounded the first shots of a war that continued for another 28 years, culminating in the massacre of Indian women and children at Wounded Knee in 1890. Lincoln's death at the hands of John Wilkes Booth ended his intention to reform the government's Indian policy, and both political parties continued to use the system to reward their supporters, a practice that largely continues to this day.

Average Customer Rating:

Interesting reading, but sheds little light on the subject.

Customer Rating:

IN 1862, over 800 settlers lost their lives at the hands of Sioux warriors in what would become known as the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. Many of the Sioux warriors were eventually brought to justice and in the end, 39, about 9% of the total number convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death, would swing from the gallows of Mankato, MN in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Only the intervention of then President Abraham Lincoln would save the remaining 264 Sioux warriors from the same fate. LINCOLN AND THE SIOUX UPRISING OF 1862 by Hank Cox, tells the details of the account that has been largely forgotten in history due to events that were occurring at the same time in the eastern U.S. Names like Bull Run, Harper's Ferry and Vicksburg dominated the headlines. By 1862, many of the Sioux had migrated west to capture new lands and annihilate their Indian brethren of the Dakotas. Yet others chose to stay behind on land delineated by the 1851 Treaty of Mendota in which the Sioux had agreed to live on a reservation on the upper Minnesota River in exchange for money and trade goods. Due to a combination of government corruption, inefficiency, (no, not much has changed in the last century and a half) and preoccupation with the Civil War, much of the promised provisions never made it to the Sioux and they began taking out their frustration on the local settlers, led largely by Chief Taoyateduta, known to us as Chief Little Crow. Violence first erupted in 1857 at the Spirit Lake Massacre in Iowa but remained largely in check until August 18, 1862 when Chief Little Crow led a raid at the Lower Sioux Agency in Minnesota. This was quickly followed by literally dozens of raids on settlers and settlements over the following few months. When the dust finally settled, 303 Sioux stood convicted and sentenced to hang and the majority of Minnesotans were ready for justice. This is when Lincoln took a huge political risk and time out from the Civil War to intervene and called only for the hanging of those 39 Sioux known to have taken part in the massacres and rapes and commuted the sentences of all others. History tells us very little for Lincoln's motives and the book sheds little light in this vain as well, but is still quite an interesting read on a largely forgotten piece of American history. Monty Rainey www.juntosociety.com

Worth Reading

Customer Rating:

Treaties, no matter how hard one or both parties may try, cannot settle some wars. Wars involving a clash of culture where neither side can retreat or convert fall into this category. The American Civil War, World War II and the Indian Wars are classic examples of this type of war. The Indian Wars involved two cultures that were totally incompatible and neither side had the option of retreating. Fighting was not between armies but between small family bands, with the woman and children occupying the front lines and falling in combat. Each side's idea of correct behavior in battle and treatment of prisoners could not be comprehended by the other. Hank Cox's book details the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862. Four warriors returning from a failed hunting trip, attack farms on the way home. As usual, payments are late and/or diverted the Indians are starving and despondent seeing a way of life disappear. Seeing the majority of men fighting the Civil War, some Sioux leaders seize the opportunity and turn murder into an uprising. The uprising is a tale of murder, rape, plunder and revenge. The Sioux divide in war and peace factions. The war faction is unable to keep men in the field and mount a real military campaign to retake the area. What follows are attacks on isolated farms, travelers and failures to take cities and the local fort. In the end soldiers and militia turn the tide, capture many of the Sioux and restore "order". What follows is a series of military trials of Sioux for rape and murder. Hundreds were sentenced to death by hanging and many others were imprisoned. Lincoln's intervention reduced to executions to 39, the largest mass execution in American history. The author writes well and the chapters dealing with the Sioux Uprising are well done. His writing about the overall war and the impact of uprising and questionable, over estimating the impact of the uprising and making some questionable statements about the war in the East. His coverage of Lincoln, the problems this caused him, his preoccupation with the larger war and why he took such an unpopular stand are very good. Overall, this book is a good introduction to the Sioux Uprising of 1862, an enjoyable read but some conclusions need to be researched.

An Intriguing Book

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I was fascinated by Lincoln And The Sioux Uprising Of 1862. Hank Cox's book was a real page-turner and afforded me a look into a part of history that was never part of my schooling. Through history classes in high school and college, we studied the Civil War but there was never a mention of the Indian uprising in Minnesota. I found the layout of the book, with chapters alternating between the Civil War and the Sioux uprising, to be totally captivating. Thank you, Mr. Cox, for teaching me about a chapter in our history that I had never known about in your intriguing and apparently well-researched book.

A Disservice to Lincoln and to History

Customer Rating:

This shoddy history delivers much less than its title or cover blurb promises. Much of it consists of "filler" material about the Civil War. The coverage of the 1862 Dakota Conflict is sensationally superficial, in the "bloodthirsty savages" genre of some of the worst pulp histories. The author breathlessly proclaims that the Dakota attackers committed the "largest and most prolonged gang rape" in American history, an over-the-top assertion accepted by no responsible scholar today. Fixated on this rampant rapes theme, he virtually ignores one of the main points stressed by Lincoln himself: Debunking false claims of mass rapes, the president wryly noted that only two of more than 300 Dakotas convicted by a military court had been found guilty of rape. The book is laced with similar factual inaccuracies, but you can't determine Cox's supposed sources due to a total absence of footnotes or endnotes. If you think you might be interested in this topic, read David Nichols' "Lincoln and the Indians" instead and give this book a pass.

A good book on a fascinating subject

Customer Rating:

The Uprising of the Santee Sioux of 1862 is an important episode in U.S history often ignored by history because it coincides with the civil war. While more than a million Americans died in brutal fighting involving armies of 100,000 men, bands of Sioux fought a war in Minnesota against settlers. This book looks into claims that `thousands' of white settlers were killed. In the end the uprising was put down and 303 and Sioux were sentenced to death, a large number for a tribe that numbered only in the area of 10,000 people or less. In the end 28 were hung. Lincoln took a personal interest in the matter and at a time when 1000s of American soldiers were dying daily on the battlefield he became concerned with the lives of 28 native-Americans. In this we see the lie put to sleep that Americans of the time saw Indians as only blood thirsty savages, instead we see that Lincoln was a just man, not only interested in freeing slaves, but also interested in saving the lives of native Americans. He hoped to review and reform U.S Indian policy but his untimely death did not allow it. Instead further wars were fought with the Sioux tribes, primarily the Dakota and Hunkpapa tribes over control of the Black Hills. Celebrated chiefs came out of those conflicts such as Red Cloud and Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and the famous Custer last stand. We see in the war of 1862 a prelude to this, but also a fascinating story that reminds us how close the frontier was at that time, only as far as Minnesota. A good popular history on an often unnoticed topic. Seth J. Frantzman