News of the Sioux Uprising reached New Ulm at noon on August 18, 1862, when survivors of a Civil War recruiting party ambushed in Milford Township arrived. Barricades were quickly built in a three-block area on Minnesota Street under Captain Jacob Nix’s command, and Henry Behnke went to St. Peter to seek help. The first attack, on Tuesday, August 19, by about one hundred Indians, was repulsed. By the major attack on August 23, about three hundred defenders had assembled, including volunteers from St. Peter, Mankato, and Le Sueur, and Judge Charles E. Flandrau of Traverse des Sioux was chosen to lead the town’s desperate defense. Fighting continued all day and the result was often uncertain. On Sunday, August 24, as reinforcements under E. St. Julien Cox arrived, the Sioux withdrew up the Minnesota Valley. Because of shortages of food and ammunition and the threat of disease, two thousand refugees from New Ulm were evacuated safely to Mankato on August 25, and most soon returned to rebuild the community.