Lieutenant Thomas van Etten wrote to his schoolmate, William H. Seward of Chester, New Jersey, in this 1862 letter from Fort Ridgely, near the western end of Nicollet County. He wrote about his military duties and experiences and about people he knew in New Jersey. Lt. van Etten participated in the Battle of Birch Coulee and described the battle in the letter. William H. Seward was a son of President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, Sr.
This book is an account of Minnie Buce Carrigan's captivity among the Sioux after the 1862 uprising and her subsequent experience as an orphan. Several other survivors, including Samuel Reyff, J.G. Lane, Mrs. Inefeldt, and Minnie Krieger, relate their own experiences in a final section of the book.
Contributing Institution:
College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University