Staff photo by Fritz Busch Diana Schaefer of New Ulm listens as Brown County Historical Society (BCHS) Museum Curator Ryan Harren led a walking tour of downtown New Ulm U.S.-Dakota War sites Friday at Jacob Nix Plaza, at Broadway and 2nd Street North. Another downtown site tour begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at the museum.

NEW ULM — Brown County Historical Society (BCHS) Museum Curator Ryan Harren revealed details of the two Dakota attacks on New Ulm in August 1862 in a hour-long downtown walking tour Friday.

Harren said the Dakota were troubled by broken treaty promises by the U.S. government after the selling their Southern Minnesota land for about $3 million over 50 years, more than 160 years ago.

Hardships including a poor harvest, starvation, malnutrition, that led to a flashpoint that erupted in the death of some settlers who tried to stop a number of Dakota from stealing eggs from them at Acton, south of Grove City.

“Joseph R. Brown was the Indian agent who did business with the tribes. For him it was very profitable doing business with the Dakota. But he also wanted to help them. He brought Dakota representatives to Washington, D.C. to sign two more treaties with the government that included the Dakota selling land north of the Minnesota River and making formerly temporary indian reservations permanent,” Harren said.

He said the annual treaty financial payments supply shipments stipulated in the treaties were not distributed well to the Dakota, due to the Civil War in part, forcing them to buy supplies on credit.

“The Dakota agents wouldn’t give them supplies until the money arrived. It was on the way to them when the U.S-Dakota War began,” Harren said.

He said an estimated 500 settlers were killed by the Dakota in southern Minnesota on Aug. 18, 1862.

The Milford Massacre was considered to have the highest percentage of its population lost in the war that included 52 deaths on Aug. 18.

“Milford survivors fled to New Ulm or across the (Minnesota) River to Fort Ridgely, a federal military fort established in 1853. New Ulm and Fort Ridgely were each attacked twice in August 1862.

Harren said New Ulm settlers prepared for the attack by barricading streets with furniture, mattresses and whatever else could be found. Women and children were packed into several downtown buildings.

Jacob Nix was appointed Commandant of New Ulm to led the defense against the attacks. He organized for battle by barricading three downtown flocks. Despite losing a finger and suffering an arm injury to Dakota gunfire, he continued to lead barricaded settlers in stopping a fierce Dakota attack.

During the second battle of New Ulm, future Minnesota Governor Henry Swift and about 20 men defended the brick Frederick Forster building that housed a pottery business and post office on what is now the 100 block of North Broadway. Despite being outside the barricaded area, defenders stopped all Dakota advances. The building is one of the few New Ulm buildings dating back to the Dakota War that still stand.

Harren said by the end of the second attack on New Ulm, about three-fourths of the buildings in New Ulm burned down or were still burning.

During the Dakota Conflict, the Union Hotel was used as a hospital. The bodies of settlers who died of war wounds and disease were temporarily buried in the nearby dirt street. The bodies were later moved to a cemetery.

Another brick building, the Erd Building on the 100 block of Minnesota Street North, included a store and Brown County supervisor offices, where citizens came to file land titles, pay taxes and hold court. The building was a refuge during the Dakota Conflict.

A gunpowder keg was placed in the center of the basement with the understanding that if the barricades were breached, someone would light the fuse. The Dakota withdrew after two attacks. Two days later, New Ulm was evacuated as survivors marched to safety in Mankato.

Friederich Kiesling immigrated to New Ulm, worked as a blacksmith for 30 years and built the wood-framed Kiesling House in 1861 that still stands on Minnesota Street North as an historical site.

A downtown walking tour of Dakota Conflict sites continues at the BCHS Museum at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24.