John Chivington
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John Milton Chivington (January 27, 1821 – October 4, 1892) was a 19th century United States Army officer noted for his role in the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War and in the Colorado War. He was celebrated as the hero of the 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass, and later became infamous for his role in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.
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[edit] Early life
Chivington was born in Lebanon, Ohio. Drawn to Methodism, Chivington decided to become a minister and was ordained in 1844. During 1853, he worked in a Methodist missionary expedition to the Wyandot people in Kansas. Because of his outspoken hatred of slavery, Chivington received a threatening letter from pro-slavery members in his congregation in 1856. As a result the Methodist Church transferred Chivington to a parish in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1860 Chivington moved with his family to Denver, Colorado, having been made the presiding elder of the Rocky Mountain District of the Methodist Church.
[edit] Civil War
When war broke out the following year, Colorado territorial governor William Gilpin offered him a commission as a chaplain, but Chivington refused it, saying he wanted to fight. Thus, he was made a Major in the 1st Colorado Volunteers under Colonel John P. Slough. His heroics at the Battle of Glorietta Pass in the New Mexico Territory, where he destroyed the Confederate supply wagons and forced the Texans to retreat, earned him great praise and he was appointed colonel of regiment in April 1862. However, a darker side of Chivington is revealed in the complaints of a captured Confederate chaplain, who wrote that Chivington had threatened to kill his prisoners during that battle. In November 1862 he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, but the appointment was withdrawn in February 1863.
[edit] Sand Creek
In November 1864, he led the 1st Colorado Cavalry into southeastern Colorado from Bent's Fort to supervise the movement of Arapaho and Cheyenne bands under Black Kettle that were in the process of relocating from their previous reservation along the Arkansas River to a new reservation in Indian territory in present-day Oklahoma. The events during the expedition remain a controversial topic to this day because of the brutality of the attack by Chivington's troops against largely unarmed Native Americans camped along Sand Creek.
While many of Chivington's men were fiercely loyal, one of his captains, Silas Soule refused Chivington's orders to attack a Cheyenne settlement at Sand Creek. Soule, believing the Indians to be peaceful, commanded his men to hold their fire. Chivington's forces, however, committed atrocities against women and children.
Chivington declared that his forces had fought a battle with hostile Indians and the action was initially celebrated as a victory, with some soldiers callously displaying Indian body parts as trophies. However, the testimony of Soule and his men forced an investigation into the incident, which concluded that Chivington had acted wrongly.
Soule and some of the men that he commanded testified against Chivington at his Army court martial. Chivington denounced Soule as a coward, and Soule was later murdered by a soldier who had been under Chivington's command at Sand Creek. Some believed Chivington may have been involved.
Chivington was condemned for his part in the massacre, but he had already left the Army and the general post-Civil War amnesty meant that criminal charges could not be filed against him. However, an Army judge publicly stated that Sand Creek was "a cowardly and cold-blooded slaughter, sufficient to cover its perpetrators with indelible infamy, and the face of every American with shame and indignation." Public outrage at the brutality of the massacre, which included the mutilation of corpses, was intense and it may have convinced the U.S. Congress to later reject the idea of a general war against the Indians of the midwest.
[edit] Late life
Although not punishable, Chivington was forced to resign from the Colorado militia. Public outrage forced him to withdraw from politics and kept him out of Colorado's campaign for statehood. In 1865 he moved back to Nebraska and became an unsuccessful freight hauler.
After living briefly in California, Chivington returned to Ohio to farm, later becoming editor of a local newspaper. In 1883 he campaigned for a seat in the Ohio legislature, but when his opponents drew attention to the Sand Creek massacre he was forced to withdraw. He then returned to Denver where he worked as a deputy sheriff until shortly before his death from cancer in 1892.
In 1887, the town of Chivington, Colorado was established and named after John Chivington, as a railroad town on the Missouri Pacific Railroad line, fairly close to the massacre site. It was deserted during the dust bowl days of the 1920s & 1930s, though some buildings still remain.
