USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 12
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Chivington had given definite orders to his men while at Fort Lyon and these orders in a word were-no quarter! They were to kill without mercy, sparing neither man, woman nor child. His intentions had been a secret before reaching Fort Lyon, as he desired more than anything to take the Indians com- pletely by surprise.
The hour was early and many of the Indians had not come from their lodges. A raking artillery and musketry fire met them as they ran wildly about, endeav- oring to organize for defense. Their horses were stampeded by a detachment of soldiers. Many of the Indians, thinking the soldiers had mistaken them for a war party, ran toward the troops, with their hands raised in token of peace. This was of no avail and they were shot down without consideration. Fully a hundred of the other warriors began to fight and continued desperately, but against such heavy odds that they were quickly slaughtered. White Antelope and Left Hand fell early in the fight, the former with his hands raised in sur- render and the latter standing motionless, refusing to fight men whom he had always considered friends. The women and children crowded together for safety, but the troopers killed them as they stood. Nor were the wounded spared; the white men scalped and mutilated the bodies in a manner unsurpassed by any
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bloodthirsty savage in the past. By the testimony given during the Federal in- vestigation of this massacre it would seem that the soldiers became fiends incar- nate. The condition of the bodies and the evidence of frenzied butchery is hard to believe as the work of Americans, but such it was. Not content with merely killing the savages and their families, some of the soldiers insanely cut the bodies to pieces, mashed the heads of others, and in numerous ways satiated their abnormal desires. Black Kettle and 200 of the warriors succeeded in escaping about midday and were not apprehended. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon the soldiers ceased their bloody work, as there were no more Indians left to kill. A few women were found hidden in the lodges, but these were quickly murdered. Then began the work of pillage.
The results of this massacre were far-reaching and many. Chivington, after a few days' search for another band of Arapahoes supposed to be under the leadership of Little Raven, returned to Denver where he was received with ac- claim. His losses had been small, ten men killed and thirty-eight wounded, of whom four died. He reported boastfully that he had captured no prisoners and that he had left between five and six hundred Indians dead upon the field. "In the matter of estimating the number of Indians engaged, the number killed, etc., there is a wide variance of opinion. Deeds committed in white heat are not easily reduced to figures afterwards. A trader by the name of Smith, who was in the Indian encampment at the time of the massacre, said there were only about two hundred fighting men engaged. One person actually "counted" four hundred and fifty corpses on the ground, while Major Anthony, of Chivington's force, esti- mated that there were one hundred and twenty-five Indians killed. As to the whole number of Cheyennes and Arapahoes in the encampment, there is a still greater variance. From a study of all reports, it is believed that there were not over six hundred men, women and children in all. Colonel Chivington reported that he had with him "about five hundred men of the Third Regiment, and about two hundred and fifty of the First Colorado; Anthony's battalion of the First Colorado, and Lieutenant Wilson's battalion of the Third Colorado; in all about one thousand men."
THE AFTERMATH
The people of Denver welcomed Chivington and his troops when they re- turned, proclaiming him as their deliverer. But it was different in other parts of the country. Chivington was denounced with the same terms as had been hitherto applied to the Indians. In January, 1865, Congress took heed of the wave of indignation which had spread over the land and ordered an investiga- tion to be made of the massacre. Many things of interest were brought out at this formal probe into the details of Sand Creek.
The testimony showed that Black Kettle hoisted a white flag over his lodge when the troops were first seen and that it was disregarded by Chivington. On the other hand, it was proved that numerous scalps taken from the heads of white people were found in the lodges, some of them still fresh. Other articles of plunder which were recognized as having come from Americans were discovered. Various bits of testimony were given and the circumstances of the tragedy were built up detail by detail.
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Notwithstanding the fact that the people of Colorado, that is, the majority of them, stood up for Chivington and the Territorial Legislature passed resolu- tions of approbation, Congress took a different view of the matter. The com- mittee which had conducted the investigation reported the following May and in no uncertain terms condemned the act committed by Chivington. The report stated that "it is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty and barbarity as are detailed in the testi- mony." In regard to the leader the committee stated: "As to Colonel Chiving- ton, your committee can hardly find fitting terms to describe his conduct. Wear- ing the uniform of the United States, which should be the emblem of justice and humanity ; holding the important position of commander of a military district, and therefore having the honor of the Government to that extent in his keeping, he deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the veriest savage among those who were the victims of his
cruelty. * * The truth is that he surprised and murdered, in cold blood, the unsuspecting men, women and children on Sand Creek, who had every reason to believe they were under the protection of the United States authorities, and then returned to Denver and boasted of the brave deeds he and the men under his command had performed. * * x- In conclusion, your committee are of the opinion that for the purpose of vindicating the cause of justice and uphold- ing the honor of the nation, prompt and energetic measures should at once be taken to remove from office those who have thus disgraced the Government by whom they are employed, and to punish, as their crimes deserve, those who have been guilty of these brutal and cowardly acts."
After the governmental investigation, the reaction came to the people of Colorado. There arose a constantly growing group of citizens who condemned Chivington. The matter became a political issue, a social question and, in fact, pervaded the very life of the territory. The question of statehood was before the people then and those favoring statehood were Chivington men; conse- quently, those opposed to statehood became anti-Sand Creek men.
Colonel Chivington stoutly defended his actions, claiming that he had un- doubtedly saved Denver and other Colorado communities from imminent attack and suffering and that such treatment was the only kind the Indians appreciated. In this radical view, Chivington had many supporters, particularly among those familiar with the Indian and his character. On the other hand, he held many enemies throughout the remainder of his life, enemies in such number that his future activities were failures. Chivington left Denver in 1867 and went to San Diego, Cal. In 1873 he moved to Cincinnati, O., remained there until 1883 and then returned to Denver. He held a few minor public offices here before he died October 4, 1894. It may be interesting to note that he was a Methodist minister before entering the Government service.
EFFECT UPON THE INDIANS
Instead of cowing the plains Indians into submission, the Sand Creek mas- sacre only added fuel to the flame of their hatred and hostility. The killing of their tribesmen brought all the tribes together in a unity otherwise impossible
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and in hundreds of ways they exacted their toll from the Americans. They cre- ated a reign of terror unknown before and the whole plains region from the Colorado settlements to those of Kansas and Nebraska became an untenable space. Stage stations were burned and the keepers killed, all livestock had been captured, the overland telegraph line was destroyed, and even the troops occupy- ing posts were compelled to remain behind their stockades. The absence of any freighting upon the trails brought about a panic in Colorado Territory. Sup- plies were low, prices arose exorbitantly and the winter months were of extra- ordinary severity. The Third Colorado Cavalry had been mustered out previ- ously and there arose the necessity for more troops. Acting Governor Elbert issued a call for several companies of volunteers, mounted, but the sentiment against Sand Creek was too strong and the volunteering was negligible. Colonel Chivington was succeeded as commander of the Colorado District by Col. Thomas Moonlight, of the Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, in January, 1865. Colonel Moonlight suggested amendments to the territorial militia law, so as to provide pay and bounties, also horses, for the proposed volunteers, and while the Legis- ture filibustered for a fortnight over. the bill, he declared martial law in the ter- ritory and closed all business houses and industries except those dealing in necessities. Governor Elbert now asked for seven companies; two from Ara- paho County, two from Gilpin County, one from Jefferson, one from Clear Creek and one from Boulder, Weld and Larimer counties together. The outcome was satisfactory and the companies were quickly recruited to full strength and placed under the command of Samuel E. Browne.
The Indian depredations continued without abatement. Colonel Moonlight, in his report to Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, then in command of the Department of Missouri, said: "The Indians are bold in the extreme. They have burned every ranch between Julesburg and Valley Station, and nearly all the property at the latter place; driven off all stock, both public and private. These Indians are led by white men, and have complete control of all the country outside my district, so that I am hemmed in." It is said that the glare of flaming homes could be seen at night from Denver; in fact, almost all of the surrounding coun- try was in the hands of the redskins. The stage route from Denver to Julesburg had been devastated every mile of the way, every ranch and every station de- stroyed. Warehouses and the station at Julesburg were burned. It is needless to describe the fate of the Americans who were captured by the Indians.
The Wisconsin Ranch, about one hundred miles northeast of Denver, was attacked by a large force of Cheyennes and defended by the owner, Holon God- frey, and three other men. Four women were there and assisted in every way during the fighting which continued all day, the attack having been made in the morning. After nightfall, one of the defenders, Perkins, escaped from the ranch and rode for help to an encampment of soldiers near Fort Morgan. Four soldiers and a corporal accompanied Perkins back to the ranch and succeeded in stealing into the house unmolested. With this reinforcement Godfrey repelled the Indians and won for himself a reputation among them as "Old Wicked."
Another ranch owned by Elbridge Gerry, located about seventy miles north- east of Denver, was attacked at the same time as that of Godfrey. There were five men, one woman and a child, there at the time and they made a heroic de- fense of the house before the Cheyennes and Arapahoes forced an entrance. The
VIEW OF A TOWER OF THE CLIFF DWELLERS, STANDING UNDER THE BROW OF A PRECIPICE ON McELMO CREEK, IN THE MESA VERDE DISTRICT IN THE FAR SOUTHWESTERN SECTION OF COLORADO
It is probable that in its original height the top of the tower afforded a wide view of the mesa that lies back of it.
Vol. 1-7
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Indians killed all but the woman, whom they carred away to a worse fate. These are but instances, two of the countless stories which could be told of the incidents which happened in Colorado during this period.
The efficiency of General Dodge began to have effect shortly after he took office. Many of the more important trails were opened, including that along the Platte River, and before summer the Santa Fé Trail was again a comparatively safe highway. The Colorado volunteers engaged in guarding the Denver-Jules- burg stage route until the last of April, when they were mustered out of service. They were the last of the Colorado volunteers to see active service against the Indians.
The close of the Rebellion released many troops for service in the West and several military posts were established, more for the purpose of protecting the trails than to carry on an organized warfare against the Indians. This gave the Indians the opportunity to continue killing white men, holding up stages and capturing women, which they did to the full extent of their ability. Hardly a day passed but some new atrocity occurred; and it is equally safe to say that not a stage, nor an emigrant train, succeeded in crossing the plains without one or more fights with the Indians, sometimes winning and other times suffering an- nihilation.
Although a treaty was made in October, 1865, between the hostile tribes and the United States, the Indians considered their agreement as a "mere scrap of paper" and in the next year resumed their old tactics. 1866 was not a year of such intense activity as 1865 and during the greater part of the time emigrant and freight caravans crossed the plains to Colorado without serious interrup- tion.
However, the year 1867 brought a renewal of the Indian outbreaks. The depredations, burnings, killings and other deeds once more grew common and the trails through Colorado again became impassable. Several stage stations in northern Colorado were destroyed. This resumption of hostilities led the United States Government to inaugurate a more extensive and enlarged campaign against the savages, the details of which are not associated with the history of Colorado. The courses of the Platte and Arkansas rivers continued to be dangerous coun- try for Americans, as the Indians maintained their warfare against small bands of settlers and travelers despite the expeditions launched against them by the Government. But they were doomed to complete and utter defeat; the white troops hunted them down in all parts of the great plains; tribe after tribe was compelled to sue for peace, until finally, late in the spring of 1869, the last of the tribes had been subdued.
The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were moved from their reservation in Colo- rado to Oklahoma in 1867, which ended the occupancy of Colorado by the plains Indians. In 1868, however, having been reinforced, the Cheyennes and their allies again went upon the warpath, confining their ravages to the western part of Kansas. In August a number of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes came into eastern Colorado, bearing letters which certified that they were peaceable In- dians, these letters having been issued the year before when their treaty was made and which were now void, or rather, forfeited by their behavior. They attacked and killed a number of settlers on Bijou and Kiowa creeks. Some of them penetrated into the South Park by way of the Ute Pass and there attacked
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their old enemies-the Utes, killing several of them. In the meantime, they had secured entrance to Colorado City by their letters, the citizens believing them to be peaceable. After their skirmish with the Utes, the supposed friendly In- dians stole all the livestock they could in Colorado City and escaped. A short time afterward several attacks were made along Monument Creek, in which a num- ber of the white settlers lost their lives. Three men were murdered in the southeast part of Larimer County by a small band of Cheyennes.
No troops were available in the territory and appeals to General Sheridan, at Fort Hays, in western Kansas, were fruitless. On August 28th a small force was hastily thrown together in Denver and before daylight on the following morning had started for Bijou Creek, led by Maj. Jacob Downing. But the Indians had gone, taking their plunder with them.
FORSYTH'S BATTLE
One of the most remarkable battles between United States troops and hostile Indians during the whole plains war occurred on Colorado soil. The details of this singular engagement follow.
Brev. Col. George A. Forsyth, serving on the staff of General Sheridan during the summer of 1868, requested to be appointed to active service in the field.' Forsyth had won his spurs and was considered a good Indian fighter, con- sequently his request was granted. Sheridan ordered him to organize a company of fifty trained scouts, for duty along the Colorado-Kansas frontier. Forsyth speedily recruited his men, fifty in number, in addition to himself, First Lieut. Frederick H. Beecher, of the Third United States Infantry, and Acting Assistant Surgeon J. H. Mooers, unattached.
Forsyth left Fort Hays on August 29th and campaigned for a few days with- out noteworthy result. On the evening of September 16th he and his men pitched their tents on the Arickaree, or Middle Fork of the Republican River, at a point about fifteen miles south of the Town of Wray, Yuma County, Colorado. They had reached this place by following an Indian trail which appeared to be fresh and to denote rather a strong aggregation.
The soldiers opened their eyes the next morning to see hundreds of Indians on the bluffs overlooking the river on the opposite side. Men, women and chil- dren there were, literally swarming along the bank. At the head of the band was Roman Nose, a notorious character, who had participated in the Indian war since the beginning. The Indians immediately opened fire upon the troops, whereupon Forsyth selected a small, sandy island in the center of the river and there moved his men. In this way he had the protection of water on all sides. The men quickly dug rifle pits in the sand, also using the bodies of some of the horses which had been shot for barricades. Then ensued a battle which consti- tutes one of the most heroic and brilliant features of American military history.
ROMAN NOSE
Forsyth received three wounds early in the fight, but protected himself as much as possible and directed his men. Charge after charge of the Indians was broken up by the accurate fire of the Americans. Several of the troopers were
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hit, one of them killed. Roman Nose, a magnificent type of Cheyenne, led the warriors, but in one of the earlier charges received his death wound. Forsyth, in Harper's Magazine, June, 1895, described Roman Nose thusly: "As Roman Nose dashed gallantly forward, and swept into the open at the head of his superb command he was a very beau ideal of an Indian chief. Mounted on a large clean- limbed chestnut horse he sat well forward on his bare-backed charger, his knees passing under a horse-hair lariat that twice loosely encircled the animal's body, his horse's bridle grasped in his left hand, which was also closely wound in its flowing mane, and at the same time clutched his rifle at the guard, the butc of which lay partially upon and across the animal's neck, while its barrel, crossing diagonally in front of his body, rested slightly against the hollow of his left arm, leaving his right free to direct the course of his men. He was a man over six feet three inches in height, beautifully formed, and save for a crimson silk sash knotted around his waist, and his moccasins on his feet, perfectly naked. His face was hideously painted in alternate lines of red and black, and his head crowned with a magnificent war bonnet, from which, just above his temples and curving slightly forward, stood up two short black buffalo horns, while its ample length of eagles' feathers and herons' plumes trailed wildly on the wind behind him; and as he came swiftly on at the head of his charging warriors, in all his barbaric strength and grandeur, he proudly rode that day the most perfect type of a savage warrior it had been my lot to see. * * * he drew his body to its full height and shook his clenched fist defiantly at us; then, throwing back his head and glancing skyward, he suddenly struck the palm of his hand across his mouth and gave tongue to a war-cry that I have never heard equaled in power and intensity. Scarcely had its echoes reached the river's bank when it was caught up by each and every one of the charging warriors with an energy that baffles description, and answered back with blood-curdling yells of exulta- tion and prospective vengeance by the women and children on the river's bluffs, and by the Indians who lay in ambush around us. On they came at a swinging gallop, rending the air with their wild warwhoops, each individual warrior in all his bravery of warpaint and long braided scalp lock tipped with eagle's feathers, and all stark-naked but for their cartridge belts and moccasins, keeping in line almost perfectly, with a front of about sixty men, all riding bare-back, with only a loose lariat about their horses' bodies, about a yard apart, and with a depth of six or seven ranks, forming together a compact body of massive fighting strength and of almost resistless weight."
BEECHER'S DEATH
The charge was received with a galling fire from the troops and after a half- dozen volleys the Indians broke ranks and retreated. The ambushed Indians maintained a fusilade upon the troops while the charge was in progress and suc- ceeded in killing at least two of the Americans and wounding several others. After the failure of the attack and the death of Roman Nose, also the medicine man of the tribe, the Indians were disconcerted and rode wildly about, while the squaws kept up an unearthly wailing in grief over the loss of their men. Other charges were attempted during the day, but like the first, were not successful.
Spotted Tail (Sintegaleshka) a Brule Teton Sioux. A distinguished leader of the Siouan people.
Red Cloud, Chief of the Oglalla Sioux, who in his prime was the great military leader of the Sioux Nation. He was born in 1822 and died on December 10, 1909.
Mon-chu-non-zhin (Standing Bear), of the Ponca Branch of the Dhegiha Sioux. He was an exceptional chieftain, and devoted to the welfare of his people.
Geronimo, a Chiricahua-Apache. His Indian name is Goyathlay-"One Who Yawns." He was a leader, and always hos- tile to the white people.
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Toward the end of the day the brave Lieutenant Beecher received his death wound. Forsyth thus describes Beecher's untimely end :
"Lieutenant Beecher rose from his rifle pit, and, leaning on his rifle, half staggered, half dragged himself to where I lay, and calmly lying down by my side, with his face turned downward on his arm, said quietly, and simply : 'I have my death wound, General, I am shot in the side and dying.'
"'Oh, no, Beecher-no! It can't be as bad as that !'
"'Yes. Good night.' And then he immediately sank into half unconscious- ness. In a few moments I heard him murmur 'My poor mother,' and then he soon grew slightly delirious and at times I could hear him talking in a semi-uncon- scious manner about the fight ; but he was never again fully conscious, and at sunset his life went out. And thus perished one of the best and bravest officers in the United States Army."
While Surgeon Mooers bent over examining the wounds sustained by For- syth he, too, received a fatal wound, from which he died on the second day after.
THE OUTCOME
With the coming of night upon that first day, two of the scouts-Jack Stil- well and Pierre Trudeau-volunteered to attempt to reach Fort Wallace, there to procure help for the besieged men. During the night they succeeded in es- caping from the island and eluding the watchful Indians.
On the second day of the battle another charge was attempted and failed. Whereupon the Indians changed their tactics and prepared for a slow siege, to compel the men to surrender from starvation. This was continued until the ninth day thereafter, except for one small charge on the last day. The troopers, especially those who were wounded, suffered much from the heat during the days, while food became exhausted. The flesh of the dead horses was eaten and the rest buried in the ground to retard putrefaction. Water was obtained by dig- ging into the sand. On the evening of the third day, two more scouts crept from the island, to try to make Fort Wallace for aid. A greater part of the Indian band had left, but there remained a sufficient number to hold the troops on the island. Sniping was the main pastime during the long hours and many of the soldiers received wounds.
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