Lieutenant Silas Soule, a New Englander who had come to Colorado in the gold rush and enlisted at the start of the Civil War, was with the First Colorado Cavalry at Fort Lyon when Colonel Chivington arrived. Told that the command would seek out hostile Indians to the north, he accompanied it to Black Kettle’s camp but refused to take part in an attack on a village he considered peaceful. On his return to Fort Lyon, Soule wrote to describe the episode to Major Edward (“Ned”) Wynkoop, the officer who had met with Black Kettle and taken him and other chiefs to the Camp Weld council. After the council, Wynkoop had been replaced as commander at Fort Lyon by Major Scott Anthony. The following April, Soule was murdered in a Denver alley, probably in response to his testimony against Chivington condemning the attack at Sand Creek. His letter provides a view of the episode, one also from a white perspective but very different from that of the Rocky Mountain News editorial.
Fort Lyon, C.T.
December 14, 1864
Dear Ned:
Two days after you left here the 3rd Reg’t with a Battalion of the 1st arrived here, having moved so secretly that we were not aware of their approach until they had Pickets around the Post, allowing no one to pass out! . . . They then declared their intention to massacre the friendly Indians camped on Sand Creek. Major Anthony gave all information, and eagerly Joined in with Chivington and Co. and ordered Lieut. [Joseph] Cramer with his whole Co. to Join the command. As soon as I knew of their movement I was indignant as you would have been were you here and went to [Lt. James] Cannon’s room, where a number of officers of the 1st and 3rd were congregated and told them that any man who would take part in the murders, knowing the circumstances as we did, was a low lived cowardly son of a bitch. . . .
Chiv and all hands swore they would hang me before they moved camp, but I stuck it out, and all the officers at the Post, except Anthony backed me. I was then ordered with my whole company to Major A—— with 20 days rations. I told him I would not take part in their intended murder, but if they were going after the Sioux, Kiowa’s or any fighting Indians, I would go as far as any of them. They said that was what they were going for, and I joined them. We arrived at Black Kettles and Left Hand’s Camp at daylight. Lieut. [Luther] Wilson with Co.s “C”, “E” & “G” were ordered to advance to cut off their herd. He made a circle to the rear and formed a line 200 yds from the village, and opened fire.
Poor Old John Smith [the interpreter who had been at the Camp Weld council] and [Pvt. John] Louderbeck [from Fort Lyon, camped with Smith] ran out with white flags but they paid no attention to them, and they ran back into the tents. Anthony then rushed up with Co’s “D” “K” & “G” to within one hundred yards and commenced firing. I refused to fire and swore that none but a coward would for by this time hundreds of women and children were coming toward us and getting on their knees for mercy. Anthony shouted, “kill the sons of bitches” Smith and Louderbeck came to our command, although I am confident there were 200 shots fired at them, for I heard an officer say that Old Smith and any one who sympathized with the Indians, ought to be killed and now was a good time to do it. The Battery then came up in our rear, and opened on them. I took my Comp’y across the Creek, and by this time the whole of the 3rd and the Batteries were firing into them and you can form some idea of the slaughter.
When the Indians found there was no hope for them they went for the Creek and got under the banks and some of the bucks got their Bows and a few rifles and defended themselves as well as they could. By this time there was no organization among our troops, they were a perfect mob — every man on his own hook. My Co. was the only one that kept their formation, and we did not fire a shot.
The massacre lasted six or eight hours, and a good many Indians escaped. I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized. One squaw was wounded and a fellow took a hatchet to finish her, and he cut one arm off, and held the other with one hand and dashed the hatchet through her brain. One squaw with her two children, were on their knees, begging for their lives of a dozen soldiers, within ten feet of them all firing — when one succeeded in hitting the squaw in the thigh, when she took a knife and cut the throats of both children and then killed herself. One Old Squaw hung herself in the lodge — there was not enough room for her to hang and she held up her knees and choked herself to death. Some tried to escape on the Prairie, but most of them were run down by horsemen. I saw two Indians hold one of anothers hands, chased until they were exhausted, when they kneeled down, and clasped each other around the neck and both were shot together. 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.
White Antelope, War Bonnet [both Cheyenne chiefs] and a number of others had Ears and Privates cut off. Squaws snatches were cut out for trophies. You would think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did there, but every word I have told you is the truth, which they do not deny. It was almost impossible to save any of them. . . .
Jack Smith [grown son of John Smith and his Cheyenne wife] was taken prisoner, and murdered the next day in his tent by one of Dunn’s Co. “E.” I understand the man received a horse for doing the job. . . . Chivington reports five or six hundred killed, but there were not more than two hundred, about 140 women and children and 60 Bucks. . . .
Yours, SS [Silas Soule]
Source: Silas Soule to Edward Wynkoop, December 18, 1864, in Gary L. Roberts and David Fridtjof Halaas, “Written in Blood: The Soule-Cramer Sand Creek Massacre Letters,” Colorado Heritage (Winter 2001): 22–32.
Evaluating the Evidence