John M. Chivington

Colonel John Milton Chivington

John Milton Chivington (born January 27, 1821 in Lebanon , Ohio , † October 4, 1894 in Denver , Colorado ) was an American officer who was involved in the Indian Wars. He became known for his involvement in the battle of Glorieta Pass and as the officer in charge of the Sand Creek massacre , in which mainly women and children of the Cheyenne were murdered.

Life

After converting to Methodism at a little over twenty , Chivington became a Methodist preacher. His ordination took place in 1844. Chivington served as a " district rider " first in Illinois, later in Missouri. In 1853 Chivington took part in a mission expedition to the Wyandot Indians in Kansas .

Because of his outspoken aversion to slavery , he received threatening letters in 1856 from members of his parish who advocated slavery. So the Methodist Church transferred him to Omaha , Nebraska . When Chivington was named presiding ward elder of the Rocky Mountain District of the Methodist Church in 1860, he and his family moved to Denver, today's capital of the state of Colorado .

Civil War

New Mexico Campaign

In 1862 he led parts of the Union forces in the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico and destroyed the convoy of the Confederacy (see New Mexico Campaign ). Because of the loss of logistics, the Confederates had to break off the New Mexico campaign. As a result, Chivington was promoted to Colonel and appointed Commander of the Colorado Defense District. The breaking off of the New Mexico campaign was, according to some historians, the turning point of the civil war in the far west. In September 1864, Chivington set up the 3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment of 90-day volunteers. The soldiers were trained only to kill Indians whenever and wherever they were found.

Sand Creek Massacre

With this regiment and two mountain howitzers, Chivington rode from Denver to Fort Lyon in mid-November 1864. Here he learned that approximately 600 Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians had set up winter camp on Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. A month earlier they had promised the commandant of Fort Lyon that they would remain peaceful and in return he had promised them security from attacks. Chivington was indifferent to the promises of the Indians; When he arrived at Fort Lyon, he declared, “I am here to kill Indians, and any means are acceptable.” When asked whether this statement also applies to women and children, Chivington said: “It includes women and children too. Nits become lice. "

Chivington set out on the morning of November 28th. The regiment was reinforced by a company from the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment and two other mountain howitzers from the fort. After a night step, the soldiers, led by Chivington, reached the village on Sand Creek before dawn. Two thirds of the population of the village consisted of women and children - the men had set out to hunt buffalo - and lay asleep in the tipis. Chivington's soldiers attacked the village from three directions, ignoring white flags and the peace flag of the United States under which the terrified villagers had fled. Chivington said, "Needless to say, I did not take any prisoners." Nor did he prevent his subordinates from scalping dead and dying Indians or cutting off their private parts for display as trophies of successful assault. Then Chivington left the site of the massacre with the soldiers and returned to Fort Lyon. Chivington's service in the army ended on December 21, 1864.

Although the massacre took place during the American Civil War , the nation was shocked by the brutality of the attack, the mutilation of the bodies, and the display of the body parts of the dead Indians as trophies. Based on public opinion, the military decided to investigate Chivington's role. The company commander of the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment, Captain Silas Soule, who had reinforced Chivington at Fort Lyon, and some of his subordinates testified during the scheduled investigation by the Military Committee. Chivington, on the other hand, described Soule as a coward. While the investigation was still in progress, Soule was murdered by a soldier who took part in the Sand Creek massacre. No evidence was found for the rumors that Chivington was responsible for the murder.

After the war

The " Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War," which investigated the incidents up to May 1865, condemned Chivington's conduct as murder and barbarism. In its final summary there was little to describe Chivington's actions. The committee called him a coward. It recommended that vigorous measures be taken immediately against all those involved, that all those in public office be dismissed and handed over to justice.

Chivington left Colorado in 1865 and settled in Ohio. In the 1880s he wanted to start a political career, but it ended immediately when his responsibility for the massacre became public. Chivington returned to Colorado and worked as a deputy sheriff until his death. He is buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.

Commemoration

In 1887, the parish of Chivington in Colorado was named after him. The city was located near the scene of the massacre. During the great drought of the 1920s and 1930s, the city developed into a ghost town . Today there are few houses in Chivington.

In 2005, Longmont , Colorado City Council decided to rename a street called Chivington Drive , named after John M. Chivington, Sunrise Drive. This decision was preceded by a decade-long dispute.

literature

• Shelby Foote : The Civil War, a narrative: Red River to Appomattox . Random House, New York 1974, ISBN 0-394-74622-8 , pp. 725-727 .
• Richard E. Wood: Here Lies Colorado: Fascinating Figures in Colorado History . Farcountry Press, Helena, Mt 2005, ISBN 1-56037-334-2 , pp. 23–26 ( online here ).

Movies

• The lullaby of manslaughter
• TV series Into the West
• Little Big Man

Web links

• John M. Chivington. Biography on pbs.org (English)
• National Park Service: History & Culture (official site; English)
• Selected documents on the Sand Creek Massacre (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Chivington. on the website of the National Park Service.
2. ↑ John M. Chivington on pbs.org
3. ↑ Lori Cox-Paul: John M Chivington. The 'Reverend Colonel', 'Marry-Your-Daughter', 'Sand Creek Massacre' (PDF; 3.1 MB). Nebraska History, 88, 2007, p. 127
4. ^ Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. 1974, pp. 725f.
5. ^ Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. 1974, p. 726: "Nits make lice".
6. ^ Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. 1974, p. 726.
7. ↑ United States, Congress, House of Representatives: The Sand Creek Massacre Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. Government Printing Office, 1865, accessed July 26, 2019 . 
8. ^ Richard E. Wood: Here Lies Colorado: Fascinating Figures in Colorado History. Farcountry Press, 2005, accessed April 29, 2017 . 
9. ^ Tillie Fong: Renaming of the street. (No longer available online.) Rocky Mountain News, March 31, 2005, archived from the original on March 16, 2018 ; accessed on April 29, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.