Battle of Wood Lake

The Battle of Wood Lake was a battle in the Dakota War of 1862 in September. By that time in the Dakota War of 1862, the Sioux offensive had slowed considerably, and the Minnesota forces were beginning to implement a plan formulated by Governor Alexander Ramsey. Ramsey's plan, implemented by Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley and frontier commander Charles Eugene Flandrau, had the goals to free European-American settlers held captive by the Indians and to "exterminate" or drive the Dakota "forever beyond the borders of the state". In 2010 the battlefield site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wood Lake Battlefield Historic District for having state-level significance under the themes Archaeology/Historic-Aboriginal, Archaeology/Historic-Non-Aboriginal, Ethnic Heritage/Native American, and Military. It was nominated as the final engagement of the Dakota War of 1862, a watershed period for the state of Minnesota and the Dakota people, and for embodying early commemoration efforts of 1907–1910, culminating in the stone monument. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved 240 acres of the Wood Lake battlefield. (Source: Wikipedia)