8/23/2008:
It was this date in 1868 that six soldiers escorting mail from Fort Totten were ambushed by Yankton and Blackfeet Indians in present-day Benson County.
The group had just begun their midday meal when the Indians, seeing that the soldiers had left their weapons in the mail-wagon, launched their attack from behind a limestone boulder; killing three soldiers in the initial two volleys. As the survivors scrambled for their weapons the attackers stole the group’s mules; riding off before the soldiers could mount any real resistance. One survivor, Frank Palmer, an Army courier, returned to Fort Totten to relate the fatal news.
The site of the attack, dubbed Palmer’s Spring, is located ten miles southeast of Esmond, ND, and was acquired by the State Historical Society in 1936. Today the historical site stands unmarked, remaining unchanged from that hot summer day in 1868.
Sources
Kane, Lucile M., ed. Military Life in Dakota: The Journal of Philippe Régis De Trobriand. St. Paul: Alvord Memorial Commission, 1951.
Snortland, J. Signe, ed. A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites. Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1996.