On the morning of the 23rd we disembarked at Shakopee, 24 miles from the fort. From this day commenced the official organization of the regiment, it being the date of Colonel William Crooks' commission. The route followed was through Jordan, Belle Plaine, and Henderson, to St. Peter, where we arrived on the 24th. All the companies of the Sixth were now concentrated at this point, where an expeditionary force was collecting for the relief of Fort Ridgley, then sorely pressed by the Indians. On the 26th the expedition commenced the march, and arrived at the fort on the 28th; the regiment encamping on the prairie near by.
H. Henricks was appointed wagoner of the company on the 30th. Also on that day Louis Thiele, a Prussian settler of the neighborhood, whose family had been murdered by the Indians, enlisted in the company as a private.
On the 31st an expedition under the command of Major Joseph E. Brown, consisting of the Union Guards (Company A), under Captain Grant, and a detail of men from the other companies of the Sixth Regiment, and the Cullen Guards under Captain Anderson, was dispatched to the Lower Agency to bury the dead, and ascertain if possible the position of the enemy.
Early on the morning of September 2nd, rapid firing was heard in the direction of the Agency. The scouts reported that the detachment under Major Brown was attacked and surrounded at Birch Coolie, 20 miles from the fort and 3 miles from the Lower Agency. A second detachment under Colonel McPhail, consisting of the Hickory Guards (Company B), Sigel Guards (Company E), Young Men's Guard (Company G), of the Sixth Regiment, under Major McLaren, also some cavalry and one howitzer under Captain Mark Hendricks, was at once sent forward to their relief. When within three miles of the beleaguered force, the demonstrations of the Indians became so threatening--coming near enough to shoot one of the horses--that the commander of the relieving party, not daring to fight his way through, made a halt, had the horses unhitched, and disposed the men to meet the expected attack, but, as the enemy did not return any nearer to us, we shortly fell back some distance to a better position. Night soon came on and it was spent watchfully by the men behind their corralled wagons, the silence being broken only by the occasional firing of the howitzer. The firing had been heard at the fort and towards morning the little force was strengthened by the arrival of the remainder of the Sixth Regiment, the Seventh Regiment, which had just arrived at the fort, and two pieces of artillery. About daylight on the 3rd, the combined forces were drawn up in line of battle, ready to move; the Indians soon appeared and commenced the attack, but the return fire was so heavy, and evidently so unexpected, that they almost immediately retreated to the woods in the coolie, from which they were driven by the heavy fire delivered by the artillery. The Indians having been repulsed, the whole force continued their march to Birch Coolie camp, and the Indians then abandoned the attack of the party there, though the soldiers of the first relieving party were not allowed the honor of driving them, which was given to the Seventh Regiment. After burying the dead and attending to the wounded, the troops returned to their camp at Fort Ridgley.