Small, Wendell G. > Asa Hayford

2^nd Great Grandfather Asa Hayford, his brother Gilbert

and his sons – Alvin, Edward, and Ira - Defended the Union Cause:

The Sioux Indian Uprisings of 1862

 When growing up as a boy, I remember my mother always saying: “We probably have Indian blood in our veins.” I guess she jumped to this conclusion when she heard others talking about 2^nd Great Grandfather Asa Hayford living among the Indians in Minnesota. Asa moved to Pennfield, New Brunswick, from Tamworth NH to be with his brother Gilbert in the early 1840s and they married sisters Ann and Susan, daughters of Michael and Ann (Justason) Tatton, in 1839 and 1842. They left Pennfield in 1949-1951 and by the middle 1840s found themselves and their families on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border. They lived the final thirty years of their lives in Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota – 90 miles from the center of the Indian Wars of 1862 at New Ulm and Fort Ridgely – until their deaths in 1895 and 1896, respectively.

Hayford, Asa (2^nd Great Grandfather) – 1^st MN Inf Reg’t; enl. 25 Mar 1864 (PVT) (45); discharged on 27 Jun 1864 for inguinal hernias on both sides of his abdomen.

Hayford, Gilbert (2^nd Great Grandfather’s brother, Co C, 7^th MN Inf Reg’t; enl. 14 Aug 1862 (PVT) (51);

transferred to 3^rd Independent Battery, MN Light Artillery on 1 Apr 1863; transferred to Co C, 7^th MN Inf Reg’t (VRC) on 1 Apr 1865; m.o. w/reg’t on 16 Aug 1865; engagements: Dead Buffalo & Stony Lakes, and Killdeer Mountain.

Hayford, Alvin (2^nd Great Grandfather’s 1^st son) –Co A, 6^th MN Inf Reg’t; enl. 11 Aug 1862 (PVT) )20); m.o.

w/reg’t on 19 Aug 1865; engagements: Wood & Stony Lakes.

Hayford, Edward (2^nd Great Grandfather’s 2^nd son) – Co K, 2^nd MN Cav Reg’t; enl. 14 Dec 1863 (PVT) (18);

m.o. w/reg’t on 4 May 1866; engagement: Killdeer Mountain.

Hayford, Ira (Great Grandfather) – Co G, 4^th WI Cav Reg’t; enl. 19 Dec 1863 (PVT) (17); m.o. w/reg’t on 28 May 1866.

   

                                  

Kinney, Kirk J. (married Gilbert’s daughter Lucitta) – Co K, 2^nd MN Cav Reg’t; enl. 19 Nov 1863 (PVT) (28); Kirk Kinney was born on April 4, 1835 in Susquehanna County, Glenwood PA. Mr. Kinney (son of Orin S. & Julia Kinney) married his second wife Lucitta in 1884 and died on 29 Dec 1906. It  is said of him: “He was a man of spotless character, correct habits and withal a person who commanded the respect and confidence of every acquaintance and associate.” He had moved to Dodge County MN in 1862. In 1866, he moved to Pope County and soon afterward bought land and laid out the present site of the village of Glenwood. Mr. Kenney was the founder of the village and was the one who formulated the petition and secured the necessary signatures for the establishment of the Pope County seat. He was the first town auditor. The block of ground upon which the county buildings were located was a donation from him. Because of his training as a surveyor, he was re-elected again and again to that position. He followed his uncle, Galusha A. Grow, as surveyor. Rep. Grow (R-PA) later took up law and went into politics. He was the 37^th Speaker of the House of Representatives (1861-62). After a ten-year struggle, Speaker Grow was successful in getting the Homestead Act passed in 1862. This was the crowning achievement of his illustrious career according to the Minneapolis Tribune, dated January 1, 1907.

Galusha A. Grow is the only Speaker of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress ever to be elected to that position on the Fourth of July. The call came from President Lincoln for the special session. The newly-elected Speaker gave a memorable Fourth of July Address that afternoon. On March 4, 1861, President Lincoln in his inaugural address warned the South that he would take whatever steps necessary to preserve the union, and for many, his address appeared as a declaration of war. It was later in his address to Congress on July 4^th when specific requests and needs were laid out for support of this mission. Lincoln needed full backing of Congress at this critical time, and Rep. Grow’s words to Congress help set the tone for a hearty response to Lincoln’s address. Here are excerpts of Rep. Grow’s 4 July 1861\Address:

                “A rebellion the most causeless in the history of the race has developed a conspiracy of long standing to destroy the Constitution formed by the wisdom of our fathers and the Union consecrated by their blood….”

                “The 19^th of April, canonized in the first struggle for American nationality, has been  re-consecrated in martyr blood. Warren has his counterpart in Ellsworth, and the heroic deeds and patriotic sacrifices of the struggle for the establishment of the Republic are being reproduced upon the battlefield for its maintenance. Every race and tongue is represented in the grand legion of the Union, their standards proclaiming in a language more impressive than words, that here, indeed, is the home of the emigrant and the asylum of the exile. No matter where was his birthplace, or in what clime his infancy was cradle, he devotes his life to the defense of his adopted land, the vindication of its honor, and the protection of its flag, with the same zeal with which he would guard his heart stone and fireside.

All parties, sects, and conditions of men, not corrupted by the institutions of human bondage, forgetting by-gone rancor or prejudices, blend in none united phalanx for the integrity of the Union and the perpetuity of the Republic.

                The merchant, the banker, and the tradesman, with an alacrity, unparalleled, proffer their all at the altar of their country, while from the counter, the workshop, and the plough, brave hearts and stout arms, leaving their tasks unfinished, rush to the tented field. The air vibrates with martial strains, and the earth shakes with the tread of armed men.

                In view of this grandest demonstration for self-preservation in the history of nationalities, desponding patriotism may be assured that the foundations of our national greatness still stand strong, and that the sentiment which today beats responsive in every loyal heart will for the future be realized.

No flag alien to the sources of the Mississippi River will  ever float permanently over its  mouths till its waters are crimsoned in human gore, and not one foot of American soil can ever be wrenched from the jurisdiction of the Constitution of the United States until it is baptized in fire and blood.” (National Reporter, 6 July 1861, page 2)

                The Santee Sioux Indians had lived in Minnesota for hundreds of years before 1851, when the U.S. government forced them to give up their 24-million-acre hunting ground and live on a reservation on the Minnesota River. Seven years later the United States swindled them out of half of the reservation land. The provisions and annuities the Santee were promised never seemed to get through the graft-ridden government agency. The Santee finally had enough of the white man and decided that with the United States engaged in the Civil War, the time had come to reclaim their land. Little Crow knew the Santee had little chance of defeating the U.S. Army: however, he told his braves, “Little Crow is not a coward and will die with you.”

                By the end of September, the Sioux uprising in Minnesota was mostly over, though other Sioux tribes in neighboring territories had taken to the warpath. The U. S. troops who were rushed to Minnesota contained the uprising, but not before 800 white settlers had been murdered and several millions of dollars in property had been destroyed. Of 2,000 Indians captured and tried, a military board sentenced 303 to be hanged. President Abraham Lincoln reviewed the list and trimmed it to38. The United States’ largest public mass execution was held on 26 December 1862, when the 38 Indians were hanged.

Compiled and Submitted By: Wendell Small

Member - Sons of Veterans of the Civil War

Major General Thomas H. Ruger Camp #1