A brutal account, featuring the words of Captain Silas Soule
They declared their intention
to massacre the friendly Indians
camped on Sand Creek
I was indignant
as you would have been
were you here
Any man who would
take part in the murders,
knowing the circumstances 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
Lieut. Wilson cut off their herd,
made a circle to the rear,
two hundred yards from the village,
opened fire
Poor Old John Smith
and Louderbeck ran out
with white flags
I heard an officer say
that Old Smith
and anyone who
sympathized with Indians
ought to be killed
and now was
a good time to do it
I refused to fire
and swore none
but a coward would,
for by this time
hundreds of women and children
were coming towards us,
getting on their knees
for mercy
Anthony shouted,
“kill the sons of bitches”
The battery came up in our rear,
and opened on them
No organization among our troops,
they were a perfect mob
My company 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
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,
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,
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,
she took a knife,
cut the throats of both children,
then killed herself
One Old Squaw
hung herself
in the lodge,
not enough room
for her to hang,
she held up her knees,
choked herself to death
I saw two Indians
hold one anothers hands,
chased until they were exhausted,
when they kneeled down,
clasped each other
around the neck,
and both were shot together
Our best Indians killed,
Black Kettle, One Eye,
Minnemic, Left Hand
White Antelope, War Bonnet,
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
Chivington has gone to Washington
to be made a General, I suppose
I spent New Year’s day
on the battle ground
counting dead Indians,
One hundred thirty killed,
most women and children,
all of them scalped
2 Dec 2019
*All words are from Soule’s letters to his mother and Major Ned Wynkoop. Some words were trimmed for poetic purposes, none added. Captain Soule was murdered two months after testifying before an Army commission in Colorado as a witness to the atrocities.
