Remembering the US soldiers who refused orders to murder Native Americans at Sand Creek
Excerpts from the superb article by Billy J. Stratton (Professor of Native American studies/contemporary American literature, University of Denver)
"While the Sand Creek massacre has been the subject of numerous books, much less attention has been given to two heroes of this horrific event: U.S. soldiers Captain Silas Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer.
These were men who rejected the violence and genocide inherent in the "conquest of the West." They did so by personally refusing to take part in the murder of peaceful people, while ordering the men under their command to stand down.
Their example breaks the conventional frontier narrative that has come to define the clash between Colonial settlers and Native peoples as one of civilization versus savagery.
This is a theme I've previously addressed as a scholar in the fields of American Indian studies and Colonial history, both in my book on the Indian captivity narrative genre, "Buried in Shades of Night," and more recently in writings on Sand Creek.
The letters of Soule and Cramer
Soule's noble act of compassion at Sand Creek is humbly conveyed in a letter to his mother included in the Denver Public Library Western History Collections: "I was present at a Massacre of three hundred Indians mostly women and children" It was a horrible scene and I would not let my Company fire."
Refusing to participate, Soule and the men of Company D of the First Colorado, along with Cramer of Company K, bore witness to the incomprehensible. Chivington's attack soon descended into a frenzy of killing and mutilation, with soldiers taking scalps and other grisly trophies from the bodies of the dead.
Soule was a devoted abolitionist and one dedicated to the rights of all people. He stayed true to his convictions in the face of insults and even a threat of hanging from Chivington the night before at Fort Lyon.
In the following weeks, Soule and Cramer wrote letters to Major Edwin "Ned" Wyncoop, the previous commander at Fort Lyon who had dealt fairly with the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Both harshly condemned the massacre and the soldiers who carried it out.
Soule's letter details a meeting among officers on the eve of the attack in which he fervently condemned Chivington's plans asserting "that any man who would take part in the murders, knowing the circumstances as we did, was a low lived cowardly son of a b*tch."
Describing the attack to Wynkoop, Soule wrote, "I refused to fire and swore that none but a coward would." His letter goes on to describe the soldiers as "a perfect mob."
This account is verified by Cramer's letter. Detailing his own objections to Chivington, whom he describes as coming "like a thief in the dark," Cramer had stated that he "thought it murder to jump them friendly Indians."
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