John Chivington, the commander who was responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre, was born in Ohio in 1821 to a farm family.  His father died when he was five years old.

In 1844 he was married and also became a Methodist minister.  In 1862 he moved to Denver, CO to build and found a church.  After the Civil War broke out, Colorado's territorial governor, William Gilpin, offered Chvington a commission in the Union Army as a chaplain.  Chivington declined it and asked for a combat position instead.  Already a major in the Third Colorado Cavalry at this point, he became the hero of the Battle of Glorietta Pass in 1862 in eastern New Mexico after decisively beating Confederate forces there.

He became a likely Republican candidate for the states First Congressional District seat in 1864.  Before running for Congress Chivington made good on a genocidal promise to wipe the Indians out.  Colorado newspapers fomented the hate against Cheyenne Indians during this awful period in American history.  Chivington was not willing to sit on the sidelines.  He wanted to be actively involved in wiping out the Cheyenne.

He took command of a group of Colorado volunteers and entered the Cheyenne reservation at Sand Creek in eastern Colorado.  Nearly 400 Cheyenne, including Chief Black Kettle, were massacred, scalped and mutilated that day. After the massacre Chivington and his men were honored with a parade in downtown Denver.

Soon after the massacre Chivington brought up six of this men on court martial charges for cowardice.  In fact they had refused to participate in murdering innocent Cheyenne.  Among these men were Captain Thomas Soule who had also fought with Chivington at Glorietta Pass.  He was to head up charges against Chivington when the government called for an informal investigation of the Battle of Sand Creek.  Unfortunately he was murdered in Denver before the trial was to begin.  Even after the investigation and being charged with murder and other crimes Chivington could not be found guilty as he had left the U.S. Army.

He resigned from the Colorado militia, did not run for Congress and was publicly disgraced.  He moved off and on to Ohio, Nebraska and California.  He returned to Colorado in 1883 and worked as a deputy sheriff until his death in 1892 form cancer.

John Chivington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Image Courtesy of Greenmountainboy
Colonel John Chivington (1821-1894), born in Lebanon, Ohio, was the hero of Glorietta Pass and the man responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre.  After being drawn toward Methodism, Chivington decided to become a minister and was ordained in 1844.

During 1853, he worked in a Methodist missionary expedition to the Wyandot Indians in Kansas.  Because of his outspoken hatred of slavery, in 1856, Chivington received a threatening letter from pro-slavery members in his congregation.  As a result, the Methodist Church transferred Chivington to a parish in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1860, when he was made the presiding elder of the Rocky Mountain District of the Methodist Church, Chivington and his family moved to Denver, Colorado.

While he received fierce loyalty from his men, one man, Silas Soule, refused his orders to attack the Cheyenne settlement at Sand Creek.  Soule commanded his men to hold their fire, and watched with horror as Chivington's forces attacked.

The nation was shocked, even though the massacre occurred during the Civil War, at the brutality of the attack.  Soule testified, along with some of the men Soule commanded, against Chivington during an Army investigation of the incident.  Soule was murdered a short while afterwords, and Chivington has been believed to have a hand in the matter.

The investigation found no wrong-doing on Chivington's part, but the US Congress refused the Army's request to exterminate the Native population based on the testimony against Chivington.

Battle of Glorieta Pass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Battle of Glorieta Pass was a battle fought during the American Civil War from March 26 - March 28, 1862 in New Mexico.  During the battle Union forces succeeded in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory.  Glorieta Pass was a strategic location, situated at the southern tip of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, southeast of Santa Fe, and on the Santa Fe Trail.

Roy Anderson, artist; Courtesy of Pecos National Historical Park

In March 1862, a Confederate force of 200-300 Texans under the command of Maj. Charles L. Pyron encamped at Johnson's Ranch, at one end of the pass.  Union Maj. John M. Chivington led more than 400 soldiers to the Pass and on the morning of March 26 moved out to attack.  After noon, Chivington's men captured some Rebel advance troops and then found the main force behind them.  Chivington advanced on them, but their artillery fire threw him back.  He regrouped, split his force to the two sides of the pass, caught the Rebels in a crossfire, and soon forced them to retire.  Pyron and his men retired about a mile and a half to a narrow section of the pass and formed a defensive line before Chivington's men appeared.

The Yankees flanked Pyron's men again and punished them with enfilade fire.  The Confederates fled again and the Union cavalry charged, capturing the rearguard.  Chivington then retired and went into camp at Kozlowski's Ranch.  No fighting occurred the next day as reinforcements arrived for both sides.  Lt. Col. William R. Scurry's troops swelled the Rebel ranks to about 1,100 while Union Col. John P. Slough arrived with about 900 men.  Both Slough and Scurry decided to attack and set out early on the 28th to do so.  As Scurry advanced down the canyon, he saw the Union forces approaching, so he established a battle line, including his dismounted cavalry.  Slough hit them before 11:00 am.  The Confederates held their ground and then attacked and counterattacked throughout the afternoon.

The fighting then ended as Slough retired first to Pigeon's Ranch and then to Kozlowski's Ranch.  Scurry soon left the field also, thinking he had won the battle.  Chivington's men, how-ever, had destroyed all Scurry's supplies and animals at Johnson's Ranch, forcing him to retreat to Santa Fe, the first step on the long road back to San Antonio, Texas.  The Federals had won and, thereby, stopped Confederate incursions into the Southwest.  Glorieta Pass was the turning point of the war in the New Mexico Territory.

Sand Creek Massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Sand Creek Massacre refers to an infamous incident in the Indian wars of the United States that occurred on November 29, 1864 when Colorado Militia troops in the Colorado Territory massacred an undefended village of Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped on the territory's eastern plains.

The attack was initially reported in the press as a victory against a bravely-fought defense by the Cheyenne.  Within weeks, however, eyewitnesses came forward offering conflicting testimony, leading to a military investigation and two Congressional investigations into the events.

History

Starting the 1850s, the gold rush in the Rocky Mountains (then part of the western Kansas Territory) had brought a flood of white settlers into the mountains and the surrounding foothills.  The sudden immigration came into conflict with the Cheyenne and the Arapaho who inhabited the area, eventually leading to the Colorado War of 1864.  The violence between the Native Americans and the miners spread, prompting territorial governor John Evans to send Colonel John Chivington to quiet the Indians.  After a few skirmishes and a decisive warpath on the part of the Indians, the Cheyennes and Arapahos were ready for peace and camped near Fort Lyon on the eastern plains.

Both of the tribes had signed a treaty with the United States just three years before in which they ceded their lands to the United States and agreed to move to the Indian reservation to the south of Sand Creek, demarcated by a line to be run due north from a point on the northern boundary of New Mexico, fifteen miles west of Purgatory River, and extending to the Sandy Fork of the Arkansas River.

Black Kettle, a chief of a group of mostly Southern Cheyennes and some Arapahoes, some 550 in number, reported to Fort Lyon in an effort to declare peace.  After having done so, he and his band camped out at nearby Sand Creek, less than 40 miles north.  Having heard the Indians had surrendered, Chivington and his 700 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of First New Mexico Volunteers marched to their campsite in order to obtain an easy victory.  On the morning of November 29, 1864, the army shot down people as if they were buffalo, killing as many as 150, or about one-quarter of the entire group.  The dead were mainly old men, women and children and the cavalry lost only 9 or 10 killed and three dozen wounded.

Image Courtesy of Punkche
One man, Silas Soule, a Massachusetts abolitionist, refused to follow Colonel Chivington's orders.  He did not allow his cavalry company to fire into the crowd.

Silas Soule later found himself in the west once again.  In 1861, he enlisted in Company K, 1st Regiment, Colorado Infantry.  He made his way up the ranks, and in November, 1864, was commander of a Cavalry Company, Company D, 1st Colorado Cavalry.  On November 29, 1864, Silas Soule and his company found themselves at Sand Creek, Colorado.  Colonel John Chivington ordered the cavalry to attack the Cheyenne encampment.  Silas Soule saw that the Cheyenne were flying the US flag as a sign of peace, and when told to attack, ordered his men to hold their fire and stay put.  The resulting battle is now known as the Sand Creek Massacre, one of the biggest massacres in US history.

Chivington was very angry over Soule's refusal to attack the camp and branded him a coward.  Soule's men came to his defense, saying that Soule was indeed very courageous in refusing Chivington's order.

The massacre sparked outrage and shock around the country.  The army began an investigation into the massacre, and Soule testified against Chivington.  On April 23, 1865, Charles Squires, a soldier, shot Soule in the head near his Denver home, killing him.  It is thought that Squires was hired by men loyal to Chivington to kill Soule.  One of Soule's men, First Lieutenant James Cannon, tracked Squires down in New Mexico and brought him back to Denver to stand trial.  Squires escaped and Cannon was poisoned.  Squires was never captured again.

Soule's short life has made him into a forgotten hero.  His testimony against Chivington and about the massacre at Sand Creek led, in part, the US Congress to refuse the army's request for thousands of men to exterminate the Native population.

After the massacre, some tribal members decided to join the Dog Soldiers, a group of Cheyenne who decided there could be no successful negotiations with the white men and were waging war against them.

The nation was shocked by the brutality of the massacre and the army decided to investigate Chivington's role.  Silas Soule was extremely willing to testify against him.  After he testified, Soule was murdered by Charles W. Squires.  It is believed that Chivington had a hand in this murder.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site is authorized, but will not be established until the NPS acquires enough land to provide for the preservation,commemoration, and interpretation of the Sand Creek Massacre.  While the NPS has acquired 920 acres within the authorized boundary, the remainder of the land is under private and state ownership.  Until enough land has been acquired to establish the National Historic Site, it will not be open to the public.