Probably there is not in history another circumstance similar to this, where young, untutored savages, who never had been under missionary influence, at such sacrifice of effort and of property, and with real hardship, so exerted themselves through sentiments of humanity. Martin Charger and his heroic comrades should always be held in veneration by the people of South Dakota. They were true heroes, and their brave and generous deed should be properly commemorated.
The government at once undertook a strong military movement against the hostile Santees, who fled from their Minnesota homes into the Dakota country. Two companies of South Dakota men, under the command respectively of Captains Nelson Miner and William Tripp, and known as the Dakota Cavalry, joined in the movement, and rendered excellent service until the end of the War of the Outbreak, in 1865. Most of their service was rendered in North Dakota, as there were no engagements of any moment within the South Dakota boundaries.
