Minnesota's Governor had made Sibley a Colonel United States Volunteers to command the US force tasked with fighting the war and that eventually defeated Little Crow's forces at the Battle of Wood Lake.[277]
The day the Mdewakanton force surrendered at Camp Release, a Chippewa war council met at Minnesota's capitol with another Chippewa offer to Lincoln, to fight the Sioux.[281][additional citation(s) needed] Sibley ordered a military commission to review that actions of the captured to try those that had committed war crimes. The legitimacy of military commissions trying opposing combatants had been established during the Mexican War.[282] Sibley thought he had 16 to 20 of men he wanted for trial while Gen. Pope ordered that all detained warriors be tried. When it was done, 303 had been given death sentences that were subject to Presidential review. Lincoln ordered Gen Pope send all of the trial transcripts to Washington where he and two of his staff pored over the trials. The lawyer in Lincoln saw issues. He slowly realized that the trials could be divided into two groups: combat between combatants and combat against civilians. 