Jackson, Edwin (fl. 1862-1865) to William Jackson
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00203.01 Author/Creator: Jackson, Edwin (fl. 1862-1865) Place Written: Camp Yellow Medicine, Minnesota Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 October 1862 Pagination: 4 p. ; 25 x 21.5 cm. Order a Copy
re: Jackson writes to tell Bill that he and his brother Henry enlisted in the Army in August and have been fighting the Dakota Indians. He graphically describes the dead left by Dakota attacks on settlers, including a German family and a pregnant woman. He writes about being in two different battles, the Battle of Fort Ridgely and Battle of Wood Lake; he describes combat and how many dead and wounded there were on each side. He declares that the Indian War is over and asks Bill to write him, which he continues to do in virtually every other letter in the collection.
Edwin Jackson, a farmer from Minnetonka, Minnesota, served as a private in Company D of the 6th Minnesota Volunteers for three years, from August 1862 to August 1865. His regiment first fought the Dakota Indians in the Dakota-U.S. Conflict of 1862; they then continued fighting Indians in Minnesota, the Dakota Territory, and along the Missouri River. The last fourteen months of his enlistment are spent in various camps in Arkansas, Missouri, and Alabama.
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