Infantry, which now had been organized, though incompletely, could attend
HISTOEY OF COLORADO 413
to the case of any Indians who might attempt to start trouble in the Ter-
ritory.
In the next mc^nth, several Kansas stations on the stage route along the
Arkansas Eiver were beset by roving bands of Indians, who took possession
of all the horses and mules they could find and plundered the establish-
ments of such other property that would be of use to them in their contem-
plated outbreak, but refrained from killing any of the men in charge of
the stations. These open acts of hostility, the like of which were repeated
at various times upon that route before the next spring, proliably were
prompted by news of the Sioux inroads upon the settlers in northwestern
Iowa, southwestern Minnesota, and southeastern Dakota, that were begun
in the summer of that year (1862), and in which nearly a thousand white
men, women, and children lost their lives, under circumstances of the most
horrible barbarity. The first open depredations within the boundaries of
Colorado occurred late in March, 1863, when the settlers in the vicinity of
the mouth of the Cache a la Poudre Eiver were raided by Cheyennes and
Kiowas, who appropriated every horse and gun upon which they could lay
their hands, but did nothing worse, as they and their allies were not yet
ready to begin killing. Such raids were continued along the South Platte
and Platte rivers throughout the later months of that year, the stage com-
pany, freighters, and others suffering alike from this systematic plunder-
ing. The Indians also obtained, though by peaceable methods, many fire-
arms and horses from Mexican citizens of New Mexico and from depraved
Americans; and it was charged, probably with truth, that they received
encouragement and material aid from representatives of the Confederate
Government.
During that year (1863), Governor Evans repeatedly communicated to
the authorities at Washington abundant evidence of an approaching upris-
ing by the Indians of the central plains, and which doubtless would become
general, even though the tribes should not formally confederate for the
purposes of the war. He urged immediate action for protecting the white
people who were in exposed situations and for guarding the routes of travel
across the plains. But at that juncture the Federal Government was unable
to render aid sufficient to the emergency. With one of his reports, the
Governor transmitted to Washington a statement made to him early in
November by a trader of wide acquaintance among the plains Indians. This
man had informed Colorado's Executive that the outbreak certainly would
be inaugurated in the following spring, by which time all the Indian war-
riors of the plains would be well armed and fully equipped for war. Of
their plans and preparations for the uprising, the trader said :
"I heard them discuss the matter often, and the few who opposed it were
forced to be quiet, and were really in danger "f the loss of their lives. I saw the
principal chiefs [Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, Comanche and Apache] pledge
to each other that they would shake hands with, and be friendly to, the whites until
they procured ammunition and guns, so as to be ready when they strike. Plundering
to get means has already commenced, and the plan is to commence the war at several
points in the sparse settlements early in the spring. They wanted me to join them
in the war, saying they would take a great many white women and children, and get
a heap of property, blankets, etc,"
Earlier in that year, the Utes, excited by the rumors of an approach-
ing war to be made by the tribes of the plains upon the white people,
became restless, and some bands of their younger men set out to foray the
411 HISTOKY OF COLOKADO
outskirts of the more exposed mining-districts, in which they succeeded in
doing some mischief. Major Wynkoop, with a detachment from the First
Regiment of Colorado Cavahy, was sent to suppress these pillagers and to
make a show of force to their people. Although the prowlers led Wynkoop
a long chase through western and northwestern Colorado, his expedition
seems to have been effective, as the Utes took no serious part in the red
uprising in the next year.
During the winter of 1863-64 and well into the following spring, the
Indians of the central plains continued their plundering depredations in
preparation for open warfare, which was soon to begin. They had estab-
lished a general rendezvous on the Smoky Hill fork of the Eepublican
Eiver, in central-western Kansas, and from which they despatched raiding
parties. A fair example of the exploits of these was the act of a band of
Cheyennes, who cut out and drove off 175 head of cattle from a herd that
was grazing in charge of cowboys in a locality in the Bijou Basin not more
than forty miles southeast of Denver. A detachment from the First Colo-
rado Cavalry was sent in pursuit of the red "rustlers", but the Indians kept
all but a few head of the captured stock.
About the middle of March, Governor Evans had urged the United
States Indian Agent who dealt with the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes
to "use all diligence at any moderate expense to ascertain the true char-
acter of the threatened Indian hostilities", and suggested that he employ
spies who could gain the confidence of the Indians and learn their intentions
and plans. But the Indians soon made such espionage unnecessary, for
the storm broke forth in the beginning of the following summer over the
plains between the settled parts of Colorado and the frontier of Kansas and
Xebraska.
Detachments from the First Colorado Cavalry, which was the only mili-
tary organization then stationed in the Territory, had come into collision
with the Cheyennes and some of their allies on the eve of the general out-
lireak. Late in April, one hundred men of that regiment, with two howit-
zers, under orders to reconnoitre the country around the head of the Smoky
Hill and then proceed to Fort Larned, encountered within ten miles of that
post nearly four hundred mounted Cheyennes, who attacked the command
at sight; and, contrary to Indian practice, some of them charged upon the
two pieces of artillery, which were blazing away at them. But after twenty-
five or thirty of them had been killed and many others wounded by the
deadly fire of the Colorado veterans, the remainder of the body scattered and
made off over the hills. About the same time a detachment of twenty men
of the First Colorado overtook, at Fremont's Orchard, at the mouth of
Kiowa Creek, in what is now our Morgan County, a band of about fifty
Cheyennes, who were running-off a drove of horses. The Indians' response
to a demand for the surrender of the animals was a volley that killed one
and wounded three of the cavalrymen. As the detachment had not ex-
I^ected a fight, and was armed only with sabres and revolvers, the Indians
succeeded in escaping, taking the horses with them. This affair was fol-
lowed immediately by the despatch from Denver down the South Platte
Eiver of a full company of the First Colorado, well led, armed and equipped,
with instructions to attack either thieving or openly-hostile Indians wherever
they might be found. At Cedar Canon, the canon of Cedar Creek, a north-
erly branch of Horsetail Creek, an afifluent of the South Platte, in our Logan
HISTORY OF COLORADO 415
County, the troops surprised an encaiiipment of some three huudred In-
dians and instantl3' opened fire upon theiu. After a severe figlit, tlie In- â–
dians among wlioni doubtless were the fifty who had been engaged in the
affair at Frenionfs Oreliard, were routed, with a loss of thirty-eight kuled
and probably twice tliat number wounded, while but one of the cavalrymen
was killed. The encampment was destroyed and upward of one hundred
horses captured by the Colorado volunteers, who then returned to Denver.
Governor Evans, who grasped the full significance of the situation, now
asked General S. E. Curtis, in command, at Fort Leavenworth, of the De-
partment of Kansas and the Indian Territory, to send to Colorado some of
the troops under his control, but in reply to this request that officer said he
had none that could be spared. The Governor then turned to the Federal
commander in Xew Mexico, from whom he received a like response.
In the first week in June, a frantic panic was caused in Denver, and
which spread quickly to Golden, Boulder City and other communities in the
neighborhood, by a false report to the effect that large bodies of Indians
were approaching from the East and the North with the intention openly
to begin their part in the war by a general massacre in northern Colorado
and by sacking and burning the towns. Governor Evans directed that all
business houses be closed at six and one-half o'clock in the evenings, and
ordered the able-bodied citizens then to assemble for daily drill in the
manual of arms, thus placing the people practically under martial law.
Some defenses were thrown up in the outskirts of Denver, most of the
women and children were gathered in the central section of the city, and a
cordon of pickets was stationed around it. But the falsity of the report
presently became certainly known, whereupon the excitement subsided al-
most as speedily as it had arisen.
The people of Colorado were at that time nearly destitute of organized
troops within reach in a sudden emergency. The First Colorado Cavalry,
excepting one company, which was left in camp near Denver, had complied
a few days before with an order directing it to proceed to Fort Lyon, for
service along the Arkansas Eiver, below that post.
Governor Evans now resorted to an attempt to form, under the Ter-
ritorial law enacted in 1862, a force of militia. Having appointed Henry
M. Teller to be Major-General of the militia, the Governor, on June ITth,
instructed him at once to hasten the organization and preparation of such
a body of citizen-soldiery for immediate active duty. To stimulate and en-
courage the enrollment of militia "to repeal the savage marauders"', the Gov-
ernor, by proclamation, gave assurance that all property taken from hostile
Indians should become the personal property of the captors : and went on to
say that "any man who kills a hostile Indian is a patriot: but there are
Indians who are friendly, and to kill one of these will involve us in greater
difficulties, and therefore it is important to fight only the hostile, and no
one has been or will be restrained from this". He added to this an ex-
pression of his belief that, inasmuch as the Territorial Treasury had
neither a war-fund nor means of providing one, the Federal Government
would pay the militiamen for the period in which they should be on duty.
At the same time, the Governor besought authority from Washington
for enlisting a regiment of volunteers, to be mustered into the service of
the United States for one hundred days. But authority for such an or-
ganization was not given until later in that year.
416 HISTORY OF COLOEADO
Almost before the ink on the Governor's proclamation was dry, the
people of Denver heard of the massacre of a man named Hungate, to-
gether with his wife and two children, nearly within sight of the city.
Hungate's ranch, on Running Creek, some twenty-five miles to the east
of Denver, had been attacked by a band of Indians led by the chieftain,
Roman Xose, of the northern Cheyennes. The four victims were scalped
and their bodies shockingly mutilated otherwise, while the ranch-buildings
were burned and the livestock and other property of use to the Indians
taken away. Roman Nose always had expressed the greatest and most
enduring friendship for the white people, and but a few months before
had assured Governor Evans that he still was and should continue to be
their friend. The mangled bodies of the members of the Hungate family
were taken to Denver, where their condition horrified all who saw them :
and the ferocious cruelty of Indian warfare was brought home to the
dwellers in that city.
Governor Evans, renewing his efforts to provide for the pulilic de-
fense, proclaimed martial law. An order for that part of the First Colo-
rado Cavalry that was marching to Fort Lyon to turn back was obtained,
and under changed plans for the militia organizations these were to
become home guards.
The situation now passed from bad to worse. The routes of travel
from and to the Missouri River were beset by bands of hostile Indians
through which the stage-coaches ran a bloody gauntlet. Many of these
were chased for miles and peppered with bullets: and in several instances
during that summer coaches were captured and their drivers and pas-
sengers who were still living were put to death by the most agonizing
methods "that savage ingenuity could devise. Travel upon the route by
way of the Arkansas River was possible only under a guard, but even with
such protection it was hazardous. Freighters ventured forth only in
large caravans; yet in this order many of them were killed, and the pro-
visions and other supplies contained in their wagons became the booty of
the Indians. The latter frequently moved with extraordinary celerity.
A band that had been working havoc somewhere along the Arkansas in
the morning of yesterday might appear at the Platte River in the even-
ing of tomorrow. ^Aliile the conditions in the summer of that year had,
as I have remarked above, gone from bad to worse, those that prevailed
through the following autumn were still more harrowing.
Early in August, Governor Evans sent messages to several compara-
tively small bodies of Indians whom he understood to be inclined to be
peaceable, directing them to proceed to the military post nearest them,
where they should be protected; but at the same time warned them that
unrelenting warfare was to be waged against all Indians who should con-
tinue to be hostile. However, this was not of much avail, as no great num-
ber of those thus addressed heeded either the advice or the warning.
The Governor now issued another proclamation to the people of his
Territory, and in which he authorized "all citizens of Colorado, whether
organized or individually, to go in pursuit of the hostiles and to kill and
destroy them wherever found, and to capture and hold to their private
use all the [Indian] property they can take". But those who should act
under this letter of marque and reprisal were to avoid molesting such
Indians as were disposed to be friendly. Several parties of "privateers"
HISTORY OF COLORADO 41?
went forth thus to slay and confiscate, but as their acliievenients upon the
one hand and their rewards upon the other were not encouraging, the
Governor's expedient worked no clieek against Indian depredations.
Wliile Colorado constituted a Military Division, commanded by Colo-
nel J. M. Chivington, who was subordinate to General S. R. Curtis, at Fort
Leavenworth, the people of the Territory were left to provide means for
their protection and defense by and among themselves. The burden of
directing these fell upon the Governor, although General Curtis retained
and exercised authority to give orders as to military operations. The con-
ditions in Missouri, which was overrun by guerrillas, and soon was to be
invaded by General Sterling Price, with an army of veteran Confederates
and also with an intention to establish his headquarters in the city of St.
Louis, left no Federal troops available at that time for reenforcing those
scattered in detachments along the routes of travel across the plains, or
for duty in defense of the Colorado conmiunities.
In the night of August 20th, information was received at Denver that
a large body of Indians had gathered at a rendezvous in a locality on Beaver
Creek, near -its confluence with the South Platte River, in what is now the
northeastern part of our Logan County, for the purpose of raiding the set-
tled country along the base of the foot-hills as far as Pueblo. They were
to operate in several divisions, move rapidly, but avoid a pitched battle.
This report proved to be true. The Indians had prepared for the move-
ment with gi-eat secrecy, and expected to strike before the whites could gain
any knowledge of their strength and plans. Couriers were despatched from
Denver to the other threatened communities, and Colonel Chivington mob-
ilized at that city all the soldiery material at his command, a part of which
was sent down the river as a demonstration of fearlessness and readiness.
Among this force was a company of home-guard militia that had been
formed in Denver during that summer by Samuel E. Browne, Attorney-
General of the Territory, under General Henry M. Teller's supervision, and
which appears to have been the first organization of the kind that went forth
into the field. The Indians, whose scouts had observed the movement, now
seeing that it was evident that the white people liad been forewarned of
their intended raids, abandoned their projected campaign and again turned
their attention to the stage-coaches and wagon-trains upon the Platte River
Trail. The old trader, Elbridge Gerry, who then was living upon a ranch,
at which there was a way-station for travel on the Platte River Trail about
twenty miles below the mouth of the Cache a la Poudre, had received the
warning in the evening of August 19th from two Cheyenne friends. On
the next day he rode to Deliver and reported the information that had been
given him.
Early in September, the Indian Agent at Fort Lyon received from
an Indian encampment in the upper Smoky Hill country, and in which
there were some six hundred warriors, a proposition written by a half-breed
and signed "Black Kettle and Other Chiefs'", to make peace, provided that
the agi-eement should include the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Apaches,
and Sioux. It is not to be supposed that the Kettle (a southern Cheyenne
chieftain) and the "Other Chiefs" had been authorized thus to speak and
act for the tribes they professed to represent, as a general peace would at
that time have lieen commonly regarded as too important a matter to be
proposed in this off-hand fashion. The chiefs also offered to surrender some
Vol. 1—27
418 HISTOEY OF COLORADO
white women and children whom tlieir raiders had taken in tlieir forays,
in exchange for Indian prisoners tliey pretended to believe were held at
Denver. One white woman, a Mrs. Snyder, who had been captured a few
weeks before, had killed herself rather than further to endure the horrible
conditions of her captivity. However, an arrangement was effected for the
Kettle and his associates, who turned out to be the White Antelope (the
Kettle's brother) and Bull Bear (another Cheyenne), and Neva and Bosse,
of Left Hand's band of Arapahoes. to go to Denver for a peace-talk. The
Indians delivered to the commandant of Fort Lyon four of their prisoners,
and promised soon to give up three more, who were held in another Indian
encampment on the Smoky Hill. It appears that the two Indian leaders.
Black Kettle and Left Hand, were opposed to the war, had not personally
taken part in the depredations, and had endeavored to restrain their war-
riors from engaging in them.
Proceeding to Denver, under an escort, the five chieftains held a coun-
cil with Governor Evans, Colonel Chivington and some others of the white
leaders, on the 28th of September, but out of which came nothing more than
talk. Black Kettle harangued the gathering, reciting the gi-ievances of his
people. He made no denial of the participation by some of them in recent
slaughters and burnings, and was unable to giuirantee better conduct by
these in the future ; but endeavored to excuse his tribe as a whole by insist-
ing that such acts were the work of the impetuous and uncontrollable young
men, who would not heed the counsels of their elders. He was followed by
Bull Bear, who was more boastful than penitent, but asserted that the con-
certed purpose to drive all the white people out of the western country had
originated with the Sioux. Governor Evans, in his response, expressed to
the Indians his great desire and hope for peace, yet warned them of the
certain consequences of continued warfare on their part. x\fter the Gov-
ernor had spoken. Colonel Chivington addressed the chieftains, and in the
course of his remarks said that while he was "not a big war-chief" all the
soldiers in the country were at his command, and that his "rule of fighting
white men or Indians is to fight them until they lay down their arms and
submit to military authority". The council then broke up, without having
agreed upon any new policy for the future, and the chiefs were escorted
back to Fort Lyon. A few days later. Governor Evans set out for Wash-
ington, leaving the direction of the Territory's public affairs to Acting Gov-
ernor Elbert and Colonel Chivington, and did not return to Colorado until
the following April.
Having been informed of the arrangements for this conference. Gen-
eral Curtis, on the day on which it was held, telegi-aphed to Colonel Chiving-
ton his protest, which was equivalent to an order, against any concessions
to the Indians. "I shall require bad Indians delivered up", said he; "res-
toration of equal numbers of stock, also hostages to secure. I want no
peace till Indians suffer more. ... I fear agents of Interior Depart-
ment [the Indian Agents] will be ready to make presents too soon. It
is better to chastise before giving anything but a little tobacco to talk
over. Ko peace must be made without my direction". Governor Evans,
in a report of the meeting that he sent to the Indian Agent at Fort Lyon,
said that his principal purpose in consenting to it was to learn, if possible,
something of the intentions and temper of the Indians, and not with a
view of entering into a treaty with them or of offering them any terms.
HISTORY OF COLORADO 419.
In the forepart of the preceding montli, the Governor had received
authority from Wasliington to enlist and organize, to be mustered into the
United States service, the regiment of volunteers for one hundred days
that he had proposed in the previous June. The Territorial militia-law
had not worked well, chiefly because it provided neither pay for the men
nor compensation for their horses ; and also had proved defective in other
respects. At the time of the conference with Black Kettle and his fellow-
chieftains, the new organization, which was designated as the Third Regi-
ment of Colorado Volunteer Cavalry, with George L. Shoup, formerly a
Lieutenant in the First Colorado (and who, in long-after years became a
United States Senator from the State of Idaho), as Colonel, had been re-
cruited nearly to two-thirds of the full strength of a cavalry regiment, and
the men were in camp in Denver impatiently waiting for horses, arms and
other equipment. These were not received until the beginning of October,
and by the time the regiment was made ready for the field about one-half
of the term of enlistment had expired. The earlier of the recruits, with
such arms as could be provided for them, had formed a part of the force
that was sent out from Denver when tlie settled parts of the Territory were
threatened by the Indians who had gathered on Beaver Creek, in the last
half of August. Some companies of the Third were employed in October
in protecting the Platte River Trail against the Indians, but about the end
of that month the regiment moved from Denver and went into camp in a
locality on Bijou Creek, near the head of that stream, where it remained
until after the middle of November.
The conditions along the routes to the Missouri River having become,
early in that autumn, much worse than they had been during the summer,
white people who now travelled either course took their lives in their hands,
even though they were under the protection of a strong military escort.
Civilian travel by way of the Arkansas River trails practically had ceased
by the end of September. While the Indians had not, as yet, done much
mischief to the overland telegraph line, they had greatly interrupted com-
munications with the East by mail. Whenever they captured a stage-coach
they rifled the mail-bags of whatever was of value in Indian eyes and scat-
tered the remainder of the contents over the prairie, there to be blown far
and wide by the winds. Such provisions and other supplies as were not
produced in Colorado now were running low everywhere in the Territory,
and their prices had advanced in corresponding ratio.
There was in that year a considerable movement of emigi-ants to the
Pacific Coast, and those who had made an early start from the Missouri