On this day in 1864: The Sand Creek Massacre

Colorado Civil War Monument

While visiting Denver for FreedomWorks' BlogCon 2011, I did a little bit of sightseeing. While on my tour, I saw a monument to Colorado's Civil War soldiers on the steps of the State Capitol.

One of the battles listed in which Colorado soldiers fought is Sand Creek, although it's a big stretch to call it a Civil War engagement. Colorado troops in reality massacred a peaceful Native American settlement in 1864.

After Fort Sumter, most of the regular army was sent east to fight the Confederates, a home guard system to protect civilians was utilized in the territories and frontier states such as Kansas. But the war came to the territories. Texans invaded New Mexico in early 1862; they hoped to capture the Colorado gold mines and then march west to San Fransisco. Regular army, New Mexico, and Colorado soldiers stopped the advance at Glorieta Pass--the hero of the battle, dubbed the Gettysburg of the West, was Major John M. Chivington, a Methodist minister whose 1st Colorado Volunteers, "the Pikes Peakers," destroyed the rebels' supply train.

"On The War Trail." Denver's
Civic Center Park

Two years later Chivington, now a colonel, was sent by Colorado's territorial governor to bring peace to the plains--Indians had been attacking stagecoaches and farms. Southern Cheyenne chief Black Kettle offered to make peace in exchange for amnesty--the governor refused.

Black Kettle and his Cheyenne were at Sand Creek, in what is now Kiowa County, on November 29, 1864 when Chivington's 700 volunteers, including mounted soldiers and howitzers, attacked the village. Estimates vary widely on the number of Indians encamped, in Buffalo Bill, The Man Behind the Legend, Robert A. Carter says there were 600 inhabitants, mostly women and children. Chivington's men drank whiskey to keep warm--and the drunk troops managed to kill everyone who couldn't escape. About 100 were killed--and the soldiers, led by the colonel-minister--mutilated the bodies and removed genitalia from the dead. Even the children.

Black Kettle had been promised that the large Stars and Stripes flying in his village would communicate to soldiers that his people were peaceful. The flag was ignored. So was a white flag. Against his protests, Black Kettle was led out of the village by young warriors during the attack.

Colorado Plains

After the massacre, Black Kettle still desired peace. As for Chivington, he left the army before he could be punished. Of Sand Creek, he said, "We killed as many as we could." Ulysses S. Grant called it murder.

Black Kettle was killed in a battle against George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry in Oklahoma four years later. In 1876, the 7th Cavalry and Custer were annihilated in the Battle of Little Big Horn--Northern Cheyenne were among the victors that day.

The Kiowa County town named for Chivington never recovered from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, it's a ghost town now.

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