The Fight at Webster

The bronze's Minnesota Indian uprising is now called the US-Dakota War of 1862, and its nearly 600 runs high: the standard count is 358 settlers killed, with other figures above 500, and 77 soldiers; Dakota losses were never counted. The war began with annuity payments two months late and families going hungry. Afterward 38 Dakota men were hanged at Mankato on December 26, 1862, and Congress voided the treaties and sent the survivors to Crow Creek. The five scouts named here were Dakota men in Army service. John Campbell was hanged in Blue Earth County on May 3, 1865.

What the plaque says

The Fight at Webster Following the 1862 Minnesota Indian uprising where nearly 600 men, women, and children were killed, the United States Army at Fort Wadsworth recruited friendly Indians as scouts to restrict the hostile Indians from white settlements. A half-breed, Jack Campbell, led a group to the Mankato area and massacred the Jewett family. Campbell was caught and hung but his companions escaped and fled West. Near the present site of Webster this murderous group were met and recognized by Solomon Two Stars, an Army scout, on May 16, 1865. Solomon and four enlisted scouts: Wahacankaiteton, Kampeska, Tatankawanjidan, and Cankuwanjidan promptly attacked. Three of the hostiles were killed, one escaped, and a renegade nephew of Two Stars was captured. The latter confessed that he and the others were guilty of the murder. Under strict orders to take no prisoners, Two Stars was faced with a terrible choice. Duty demanded his kins- man be killed. Should he order one of the scouts to shoot him or accept the responsibility? Fifty years later, he said, "I shot him before my tears should blind me." Can white men produce a better chronicle of integrity? Erected 1964 by the Webster Chamber of Commerce and the State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Sisseton Historic State Park — 22 mi
  A stone fort on the Coteau des Prairies built to watch the Dakota after 1862, renamed for the Sisseton who scouted for it, restored by the WPA and saved again by a boy who grew up loving it.
• Joseph N. Nicollet Tower and Interpretive Center — 30 mi
  A tower on the edge of the Coteau des Prairies honoring the French mapmaker who drew this country in 1838 and 1839 and kept the Dakota names on the map.

More markers nearby

• WWII Plane Crash Holds Memories — steps away
• Edgar S. McFadden — steps away
• Sigurd Anderson — steps away
• Webster — steps away