7/22/2009:
Today we return once again to the Sibley Expedition as the General and his army marched through Dakota Territory during the hot and dry summer of 1863. Sibley's forces were but one part of a grand scheme laid out by the United States military to retaliate against the American Indians responsible for the raids and massacres committed in Minnesota a year earlier. The Army hoped that by trapping the Dakota between Sibley's army pushing from the North and another army arriving from the south, they could force the American Indians to either fight or surrender.
Sibley's army first entered Dakota Territory in late June and spent the next three weeks snaking its way north in the blistering summer heat, often without fresh water or a ready supply of fuel. Despite his men's discomfort along the road, Sibley hoped to catch up with the Dakota at Devils Lake and perhaps force a confrontation. But a number of reports came in that his prey had already departed the Devils Lake region and were quickly heading southwest towards the Missouri River. Sibley, realizing that his huge army was being slowed by the wagonloads of extra supplies and the wounded, established a fortified base at Camp Atchison to store the excess equipment and protect his injured men. Thus lightened, the General wheeled his leaner army of 2,000 towards the fleeing Dakota and gave chase.
After two days of marching, Sibley's attack force was nearly fifty miles from Camp Atchison, and according to Métis buffalo hunters, quickly catching up to the main Dakota forces. But before Sibley could force a confrontation, his men needed to rest, and on this day in 1863 he established Camp Kimball. Named for George C. Kimball, an assistant quartermaster in the expedition, the site was ideally situated near a clear, cool creek, giving the weary soldiers a welcomed break from the brackish lake water they had been forced to endure at other campsites along the way.
Camp Kimball proved to be just a peaceful way station for Sibley's army. The only action seen at the camp was the capture of a solitary Dakota rider; who turned out to be one of the Army's own scouts. While Sibley's soldiers may not have seen much action at Camp Kimball, they'd get all they could handle only two short days later at the Battle of Big Mound.
Dakota Datebook written by Lane Sunwall
Sources
Clodfelter, Micheal. The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862-1865: McFarland, 1998.
Pritchett, John Perry. "Notes and Documents on the March with Sibley in 1863: The Diary of Private Henry J. Hagadorn." North Dakota Historical Quarterly 5, no. 1 (1930): 103-129.
Snortland, J. Signe, ed. A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites. Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 2002.