Qualla: Battle of Acton https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Acton https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton Battle of Acton: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton/ Photo credit Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0. The soldiers had the wrong bullets. Issued .62 caliber balls for their .58 caliber muskets, the men of Company B spent their first hours of deployment whittling each round down by hand, shaving lead so the ammunition would actually fit their weapons. It was an inauspicious start for Captain Richard Strout's raw recruits, rushed west from the Twin Cities not to fight Confederates but to confront a crisis closer to home. On September 3, 1862, near the tiny settlement of Acton in Meeker County, Minnesota, these untested soldiers stumbled into a gauntlet that would stretch across eight miles of open prairie and last six brutal hours.

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/cbh8-battle-of-acton-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Acton: A War Chief Turns North https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton/ Photo credit Ironmarshal1805, CC0. The Dakota War of 1862 had erupted two weeks earlier along the Minnesota River Valley. After failing to take Fort Ridgely and being repulsed at New Ulm, Dakota leaders debated strategy. Chief Little Crow wanted to strike north into the Big Woods, where he believed settlements wer...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/cbh8-battle-of-acton-a-war-chief-turns-north.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Acton: Glinting Barrels in the Wheat https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton/ Photo credit Ironmarshal1805, CC0. On September 2, Strout's company of 55 to 65 men camped near Acton. Scouts arrived between midnight and three in the morning with alarming news: roughly 100 Dakota warriors were encamped in two groups nearby. At dawn, Strout marched his column southeast along the west side of Lon...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/cbh8-battle-of-acton-glinting-barrels-in-the-wheat.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Acton: The Running Fight to Hutchinson https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton/ Photo credit Ironmarshal1805, CC0. From Kelly's Bluff, Strout faced a stark choice: hold the high ground outnumbered or retreat to the stockaded town of Hutchinson, eight miles away. Frontiersman Albert H. DeLong had already ridden for Hutchinson to bring reinforcements. Strout arranged his men on both flanks of t...

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/cbh8-battle-of-acton-the-running-fight-to-hutchinson.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Acton: What the Prairie Remembers https://qualla.com/battle-of-acton/ Photo credit Ironmarshal1805, CC0. Strout counted three dead and fifteen wounded on arrival in Hutchinson, though some estimates placed casualties as high as eighteen or twenty-three wounded. At least three more men died of their injuries afterward in the Hutchinson Hotel, pressed into service as a field hospital....

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]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/h/8/battle-of-acton-wp/cbh8-battle-of-acton-what-the-prairie-remembers.mp3 0:06 5 full