only saw two dead Indians, and I never heard that any more were killed." Arrival of reinforcements Instead of capturing the camp, the Dakota forces found themselves engaged in a lengthy siege. Big Eagle recalled: "About the middle of the afternoon our men became much dissatisfied at the slowness of the fight, and the stubbornness of the whites, and the word was passed around the lines to get ready to charge the camp. The brave Mankato wanted to charge after the first hour." However, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley had sent a relief party – 240 men under Colonel Samuel McPhail with two six-pounder guns – causing the Dakota forces to change their plans to charge the camp. According to Big Eagle: "Just as we were about to charge word came that a large number of mounted soldiers were coming up from the east toward Fort Ridgely. This stopped the charge and created some excitement. Mankato at once took some men from the Coulie and went out to meet them. He told me he did not take more than fifty, but he scattered them out and they all yelled and made such a noise that the whites must have thought there were a great many more, and they stopped on the prairie and began fighting. They had a cannon and used it, but it did no harm... Mankato flourished his men around so and all the Indians in the Coulie kept up a noise, and at last the whites began to fall back, and they retreated about two miles and began to dig breastworks. Mankato followed them and left about thirty men to watch them, and returned to the fight at the Coulie with the rest. The Indians were laughing when they came back at the way they had deceived the white men, and we were all glad that the whites had not pushed forward and driven us away... When the men of this force began to fall back the whites in the camp hallooed and made a great commotion, as if they were begging them to return and relieve them and seemed much distressed that they did not."The Battle of Birch Coulee continued until 11am on September 3, 1862, when Colonel Sibley himself arrived with "the entire expeditionary force" and artillery. According to Big Eagle:"The next morning Gen. Sibley came with a very large force and drove us away from