In November of 1862, after the fighting of the U.S.-Dakota War had ended, Dakota people who had not engaged in battle, mostly women and children, were taken by U.S. soldiers from the Redwood (Lower Sioux) Agency to Fort Snelling to await their fate. Dakota who could prove they had not joined the war had already been moved in September from Camp Release to the Redwood Agency, but on November 7 they were forced to begin another long and difficult journey. Escorted by three companies of armed U.S. soldiers, 1,658 Dakota, including women, children, and a few mostly elderly men, traveled east for six days on foot, by horseback, and in wagons while facing threats and attacks from angry and frightened residents. Some captives were injured or killed before the survivors reached the fort on November 13 and were confined in a fenced concentration camp along the river. There they endured the harsh winter of 1862-63 with inadequate shelter, cold, hunger, and disease, and more Dakota died. In the months and years that followed, most were exiled from their homeland along the Minnesota River to Crow Creek in what is now South Dakota, countless numbers died, families were broken apart, and the traditional Dakota way of life was largely destroyed; the results of this forced mass exile are still felt today.