"They were all scalped, and as high as half a dozen taken from one head.
They were all horribly mutilated. One woman was cut open and a child taken out of her, and scalped."
-Silas Soule
historic participants
“Yes, and there is the spirit of the soldier, and the good soldier, too; he did his duty in the midst of danger,
did his duty in the face of death, and fell by the assassin’s hand.”
At the commencement of the Civil War Captain Soule enlisted as a private in the first contingent of enlistments in the Federal Army at Lawrence. He was very shortly after his enlistment, at the personal request of Kit Carson (who was a friend of his father and who had repeatedly stayed at his home on Coal Creek) transferred and became a member of Carson’s scouts with headquarters at Raton, New Mexico, and he was successively Sergeant, then Second Lieutenant, then Lieutenant of Carson’s Company of Scouts.
When the scout service was extended and Kit Carson became Major and Soule was transferred to the First Colorado Cavalry he became Captain of Company D of the famous “Chivington” regiment, the First Colorado Cavalry. His top sergeant was Sam Dorsey, who died in Denver some five or six years ago. Dorsey was for a great many years a police officer in Denver and in his later years a trusted employee of the claim department of the Denver Tramway Company. He told me many incidents in the personal life of Captain Soule with whom he was a very congenial and a close friend. Silas got himself thrown in jail so the could rescue John Brown. READ MORE
did his duty in the face of death, and fell by the assassin’s hand.”
At the commencement of the Civil War Captain Soule enlisted as a private in the first contingent of enlistments in the Federal Army at Lawrence. He was very shortly after his enlistment, at the personal request of Kit Carson (who was a friend of his father and who had repeatedly stayed at his home on Coal Creek) transferred and became a member of Carson’s scouts with headquarters at Raton, New Mexico, and he was successively Sergeant, then Second Lieutenant, then Lieutenant of Carson’s Company of Scouts.
When the scout service was extended and Kit Carson became Major and Soule was transferred to the First Colorado Cavalry he became Captain of Company D of the famous “Chivington” regiment, the First Colorado Cavalry. His top sergeant was Sam Dorsey, who died in Denver some five or six years ago. Dorsey was for a great many years a police officer in Denver and in his later years a trusted employee of the claim department of the Denver Tramway Company. He told me many incidents in the personal life of Captain Soule with whom he was a very congenial and a close friend. Silas got himself thrown in jail so the could rescue John Brown. READ MORE
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was a white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.[1]
Silas got thrown in jail so that he could rescue John Brown by helping him break out of jail. Brown refused Silas's offer because he wanted to be executed so that he could be a martyr for the slavery cause.
During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie.[1] Brown's followers also killed five pro-slavery supporters at Pottawatomie.[1] In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture.[1] Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging.[1]
Silas got thrown in jail so that he could rescue John Brown by helping him break out of jail. Brown refused Silas's offer because he wanted to be executed so that he could be a martyr for the slavery cause.
During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie.[1] Brown's followers also killed five pro-slavery supporters at Pottawatomie.[1] In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture.[1] Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging.[1]
John Milton Chivington was a Methodist pastor who served as colonel in the United States Volunteers during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War. In 1862, he was celebrated as a hero following the Battle of Glorieta Pass against a Confederate supply train.
Chivington gained infamy[1] for leading a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia during the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864. An estimated 70–163 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho – about two-thirds of whom were women, children, and infants – were killed and mutilated by his troops. Chivington and his men took scalps and other body parts as battle trophies, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia.[2]
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War conducted an investigation of the massacre, but no charges were brought against Chivington or other participants. The closest thing to a punishment Chivington suffered was the effective end of his political aspirations.
Later he became the first Grand Master of Masons of Colorado.[3] READ MORE
Chivington gained infamy[1] for leading a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia during the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864. An estimated 70–163 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho – about two-thirds of whom were women, children, and infants – were killed and mutilated by his troops. Chivington and his men took scalps and other body parts as battle trophies, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia.[2]
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War conducted an investigation of the massacre, but no charges were brought against Chivington or other participants. The closest thing to a punishment Chivington suffered was the effective end of his political aspirations.
Later he became the first Grand Master of Masons of Colorado.[3] READ MORE
A cousin of the famous women’s suffrage leader, Susan B. Anthony, Major Scott J. Anthony was born in Cayuga County, New York, January 22, 1830. He migrated west to Leavenworth, Kansas in 1855. Perhaps because his father was a Quaker, Anthony became an abolitionist at a young age. He helped organize the Leavenworth Rangers, an armed group that patrolled the border to prevent pro-slavery Missourians from entering Kansas and voting.
… One possible conclusion is that Anthony did not particularly want to attack the people at Sand Creek but simply lacked the strength of character to stand up to the overbearing personality of John Chivington. His reasons went with him to the grave.
… One possible conclusion is that Anthony did not particularly want to attack the people at Sand Creek but simply lacked the strength of character to stand up to the overbearing personality of John Chivington. His reasons went with him to the grave.
Chief Black Kettle (Cheyenne, Moke-tav-a-to)[1] (born ca. 1803, killed November 27, 1868) was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne after 1854, who led efforts to resist American settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He was a peacemaker who accepted treaties to protect his people. He survived the Third Colorado Cavalry's Sand Creek Massacre on the Cheyenne reservation in 1864. He and his wife were among those killed in 1868 at the Battle of Washita River, in a US Army attack on their camp by George Armstrong Custer.
At dawn on November 29, Chivington attacked the Sand Creek reservation. Most of the warriors were out hunting. Following Indian agent instructions, Black Kettle flew an American flag and a white flag from his tipi, but the signal was ignored. The Colorado forces killed 163 Cheyenne by shooting or stabbing. They burned down the village encampment. Most of the victims were women and children. For months afterward, members of the militia displayed trophies in Denver of their battle, including body parts they had taken for souvenirs.[3]
READ MORE
At dawn on November 29, Chivington attacked the Sand Creek reservation. Most of the warriors were out hunting. Following Indian agent instructions, Black Kettle flew an American flag and a white flag from his tipi, but the signal was ignored. The Colorado forces killed 163 Cheyenne by shooting or stabbing. They burned down the village encampment. Most of the victims were women and children. For months afterward, members of the militia displayed trophies in Denver of their battle, including body parts they had taken for souvenirs.[3]
READ MORE
Mochi ("Buffalo Calf"; c. 1841 – 1881) was a Southern Cheyenne woman of the Tse Tse Stus band and the wife of Chief Medicine Water.
Mochi, then a 24-year-old, was a member of Black Kettle's camp and was present on the morning of November 29, 1864, when John Chivington and over 650 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's winter camp at Sand Creek on the plains of eastern Colorado Territory (referred to as the Sand Creek Massacre).
Mochi, then a 24-year-old, was a member of Black Kettle's camp and was present on the morning of November 29, 1864, when John Chivington and over 650 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's winter camp at Sand Creek on the plains of eastern Colorado Territory (referred to as the Sand Creek Massacre).
Walter "Walt" Whitman (/ˈwɪtmən/; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.[1] His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, though his attitude in life reflected many of the racial prejudices common to nineteenth-century America and his opposition to slavery was not necessarily based on belief in the equality of races per se.[5] At one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy.[6] |
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809[1] – May 23, 1868) — known as Kit Carson — was an American trailblazer and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a mountain man andtrapper in the West.[2] Carson explored the west to Spanish California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. He was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He achieved national fame through Fremont's accounts of his expeditions and was featured as the hero of many dime novels.
Breveted a general, Carson is probably the only illiterate American to reach such a high military rank; he could sign his name. |
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln atFord's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical familyfrom Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor.[1] He was also a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln, and strongly opposed the abolition of slavery in the United States.[2]
Booth and a group of co-conspirators originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln, but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause.[3] Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, Booth believed the American Civil War was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his respective part of the plot. Booth shot Lincoln once in the back of the head. The President died the next morning. Seward was severely wounded but recovered. Vice-President Johnson was never attacked at all. |