Brackett's Battalion

by Kurt D. Bergemann

"Brackett's Battalion, as the men became known, took part in the Northwestern Indian Expedition of 1864 and rode northwest into Dakota Territory to seek out and engage Indians in response to attacks on settlers in Minnesota. On July 28, 1864, during the decisive battle against a large Dakota contingent at Killdeer Mountain, Brackett's men conducted a remarkable three-mile-long saber charge that resulted in vicious hand-to-hand combat and eventually turned the tide of the battle." "Told through the journals, diaries, and letters of the troopers themselves, Brackett's Battalion brings to light a long-neglected aspect of Minnesota's role in the Civil War and reveals a side of the conflict rarely portrayed in the war's literature."--Jacket.