CHAPTER XXI
THE WAR OF THE OUTBREAK
South Dakota had little part in the Civil War. Early in 1862 Company A of the Dakota cavalry was recruited with the intention of tendering its services to the President for service in the South, but it was deemed wise by the war department to hold it in Dakota for the protection of the settlements. Captain Todd, while serving in Congress, was appointed brigadier general by President Lincoln, and served with credit in the Missouri campaigns.
The midsummer of the year 1862 came on with a bountiful harvest, and every prospect was most pleasing in the young settlements along the Missouri and on the Sioux. New settlers had come to them, new homes were springing up on every hand, the flocks were thriving, and every one indulged in rosy dreams of a bright and prosperous future; when suddenly out of the clear sky came the news of the awful outbreak and massacre by the Santee Sioux on the Minnesota. Instantly the bright prospect was changed to one of gloom. Almost with the first news of the outbreak came a straggling band of savages, who found Judge Joseph B. Amidon and his son in a hayfield at Sioux Falls and ruthlessly murdered them. Terror-stricken, the settlers left their homes, their ungathered
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