1862 Mankato mass execution
hanging of 38 Dakota men
Following the Dakota War of 1862, the U.S. government executed 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862, in the largest mass execution in American history. In the course of the conflict, 358 American settlers, 77 soldiers, and 36 militia had been killed. A military commission assembled in the aftermath carried out rushed trials of the Dakota men, some lasting only minutes, and ultimately sentencing 307 to death. All but four death sentences were confirmed by Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley. President Abraham Lincoln then reviewed the cases, commuting 264 sentences but approving 39 executions, one later reprieved, amid pressure from Minnesota officials for harsher punishment. The executions, conducted on a specially built gallows before 4,000 spectators, were guarded by 2,000 troops due to local hostility.
A 1912 monument to the hangings was removed in 1971 amid protests, and today, the Mankato Pow-wow and memorial rides honor the executed, reflecting ongoing efforts to address this traumatic history.
Background
During the 1862 Dakota War, Dakota men attacked over 500 white settlers and took hundreds of "mixed-blood" and white hostages, almost all women and children, causing thousands more to flee southern Minnesota. By the end of the war, 358 settlers had been killed, in addition to 77 soldiers and 36 volunteer militia and armed civilians killed in battle. The total number of Dakota casualties is unknown, but 150 Dakota men died in battle.
“1862 Mankato mass execution” enters the record as hanging of 38 Dakota men. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mankato, mass and execution can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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