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COMMANDER // 1827–1906

Big Eagle

United States3 battles1 war

Lifespan

1827 – 1906

18301840185018601870188018901900Dakota War of 1862 · 1862Battle of Birch Coulee — September 2, 1862 · Santee Sioux · Dakota War of 1862Battle of Wood Lake — September 23, 1862 · Santee Sioux · Dakota War of 1862Battles of New Ulm — August 19, 1862 · Santee Sioux · Dakota War of 1862

Active service 1862 — 3 battles across 1 war; first command at age 35.

Profile

Big Eagle was the chief of a band of Mdewakanton Dakota in Minnesota. He played an important role as a military leader in the Dakota War of 1862. Big Eagle surrendered soon after the Battle of Wood Lake and was sentenced to death and imprisoned, but was pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Big Eagle's narrative, "A Sioux Story of the War" was first published in 1894, and is one of the most widely cited first-person accounts of the 1862 war in Minnesota from a Dakota point of view.

Source · Wikipedia · Q4905610

Battles (3)

Last verified June 2026
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