Editing Abraham Lincoln (section)

====Native Americans====
{{Main|Dakota War of 1862}}
The Lincoln administration faced difficulties guarding Western settlers, railroads, and telegraph from Native American attacks.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nichols|first=David Allen|year=1974|title=The other civil war: Lincoln and the Indians|journal=Minnesota History|url=http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/44/v44i01p002-015.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/44/v44i01p002-015.pdf|archive-date=October 9, 2022|url-status=live|pages=3&ndash;15}}</ref> On August 17, 1862, the [[Dakota War of 1862|Dakota War]] broke out in Minnesota. Hundreds of settlers were killed and 30,000 were displaced from their homes.{{sfn|Bulla|Borchard|2010|p=480}} Some feared incorrectly that it might represent a Confederate conspiracy to start a war on the Northwestern frontier.{{sfn|Finkelman|2018|p=127}} Lincoln ordered thousands of Confederate prisoners of war be sent to put down the uprising. When the Confederacy protested, Lincoln revoked the policy and none arrived in Minnesota.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 p. 481}} Lincoln sent General [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]] as commander of the new [[Department of the Northwest]].{{sfnm|1a1=Finkelman|1y=2018|1p=121|2a1=Bulla|2a2=Borchard|2y=2010|2p=481}} Serving under Pope was Minnesota Congressman [[Henry Hastings Sibley]]. Minnesota's governor had made Sibley a Colonel [[United States Volunteers]] to command the U.S. force tasked with fighting the war and that eventually defeated [[Little Crow]]'s forces at the [[Battle of Wood Lake]].{{sfn|Bulla|Borchard|2010|p=481}}

A [[war crimes trial]] led by Sibley sentenced 303 Dakota warriors to death.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 p. 481}} Lincoln pardoned all but 39, and, with one getting a reprieve, the remaining 38 were executed in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.{{sfnm|Donald|1996|1p=394|Clodfelter|1998|2pp=58&ndash;59}} Less than four months later, Lincoln issued the [[Lieber Code]], which governed wartime conduct of the Union Army, by defining command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e2126|last=Labuda|first=Patryk|title=Lieber Code|encyclopedia=Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Law|date=September 2014}}</ref> Congressman [[Alexander Ramsey]] told Lincoln in 1864 that he would have gotten more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for votes."{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 2 p. 483}}