Note 158 — XII THE FIRST DAY OF THE MASSACRE

Hughes’s Causes and Results of the Inkpaduta Massacre in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. XII, pp. 271, 272.

But there is a third view as to the outcome of the conflict at the Mattock cabin. This version is sponsored by Major William Williams who was a member of the relief expedition sent from Fort Dodge. Major Williams believed that the Indians purposely concealed their losses. In his report to Governor Grimes, made upon his return to Fort Dodge under date of April 12th, he stated that “the number of Indians killed or wounded must be from fifteen to twenty.”—(Gue’s History of Iowa, Vol. I, p. 299.) This estimate would seem to be entirely too high. Only under exceptionally favorable conditions would it have been possible for five men, suffering every possible handicap, to have killed or wounded so many concealed enemies. Again, there were in all probability not more than fifteen or twenty warriors in the party of the red men. The loss or crippling of such a number would have meant practical annihilation. Later when the party was encountered in its flight from the scene of the massacre, various individuals who had the opportunity of recognizing the individual members of the band reported them to be the same in membership as at the beginning of the raid at Smithland. Thus the statement of Major Williams could not have been accurate. Mrs. Sharp speaks of only one Indian as being injured and of no deaths—which is more probable.