Though within sixty miles of depots of supplies, and though the majority of the fighting men of the insurgent Indians had either been captured, or had surrendered, or retreated further up the Minnesota river, the rank and file of this small army had here to suffer for the want of commissary stores,--truly following the advice of the ancient philosopher to leave off eating with yet a little appetite. Had it not been for the potatoes of the Indian gardens and cattle of the slaughtered and fugitive settlers--which provisions, though costing nothing to the government at the time, were made to offset the amounts due for non-issued rations, the source of "company funds"--we would have been nearly starved.
The return march was begun on the 23rd of October, on which day the weather turned suddenly cold and a high wind rose, which blew down many of the tents at Yellow Medicine that night. Arrived at the Lower Agency on the 25th, and then went into camp at Camp Sibley; and remained there till the 8th of November, and then resumed the march. The next day the company was detailed as guard for the prisoners, two men being assigned to each wagon. Though the troops left the village of New Ulm a mile or more to the left, yet the citizens, exasperated at the sight of the Indians in the wagons guarded by the soldiers, lined the road opposite the town in great excitement, hurling stones and endeavoring to get at the Indians, in which they partly succeeded. On the 10th we arrived at Blue Earth River bridge, and camped a little beyond it, on the townsite of Le Hillier (L'Huillier) and immediately south of the isolated bluff at the mouth of the river,--the camp being called Camp Lincoln.
Here Eberdt was relieved. Fischer left on the 15th on furlough, from which he never returned; Juergens and Knobelsdorff, sick, were sent to the hospital at Mankato the same day. Gaheen, Gantner, Meyer and Parks had been detailed or detached as regimental teamsters during parts of October and November, but by this time were all with the company again for duty.
The regiment marched, by the way of Mankato, to St. Peter, on the 17th, having traveled to the latter place, since leaving Fort Snelling in August, as a regiment of the expeditionary brigade, about 350 miles. The campaign being terminated, the companies departed to their various assigned winter stations,--Companies A, B, G, H, and K for Fort Snelling; D for Forest City; E for Hutchinson, McLeod county; and C, F, and I for Glencoe. Lieutenant Holl was detailed as quartermaster and commissary for the company during its separation from the regiment.