The grave of Capt. Silas Soule in Denver's Riverside Cemetery
There has been some discussion of late as to who should be commemorated in the renaming of army bases currently named for oath-breaking traitors. My suggestion is to name a base for Captain Silas Soule (it’s pronounced “Soul”) of the 1st Colorado Cavalry.
Capt. Soule’s biography can be found in several places but here is my justification. In 1861, having moved to Colorado from Kansas (where he had fought alongside John Brown) Silas Soule joined the 1st Colorado Infantry, fighting in the New Mexico campaign at Glorieta Pass and Val Verde helping to repulse the Confederate invasion of New Mexico. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1864 and was given command of Company D of the 1st Colorado Cavalry. In September of 1864 he, along with Maj. Edward Wynkoop, met with Chief Black Kettle and other chiefs of the Cheyenne at the encampment at Sand Creek.
On the morning of 29 November 1864 the camp at Sand Creek was attacked by troops under the command of Col. John Chivington and the order was given to spare no one. Capt, Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer refused to obey Chivington’s orders and did not attack.
In a letter to Maj. Wynkoop Capt. Soule said,
I refused to fire, and swore that none but a coward would, for by this time hundreds of women and children were coming towards us, and getting on their knees for mercy. I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized. ... I saw two Indians hold one of another's hands, chased until they were exhausted, when they kneeled down, and clasped each other around the neck and were both shot together. They were all scalped, and as high as half a dozen taken from one head. They were all horribly mutilated. One woman was cut open and a child taken out of her, and scalped. ... Squaw's snatches were cut out for trophies. You would think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did there.
I realize the language he used, while common in 1864 is really offensive today but his outrage comes through clearly.
Soule testified against Chivington at a court of inquiry in January of 1865, crushing Chivington’s political aspirations as he was known for the rest of his life as “The butcher of Sand Creek”. For his act of courage and righteousness Silas Soule was murdered at the corner of 15th and Arapahoe in Denver on 23 April 1865. The murder was (and is) widely held to have been done at the behest of John Chivington. The murder was never prosecuted. In 2010 History Colorado placed a plaque at the site where Capt. Soule was murdered
Silas Soule stands as an example to everyone who has ever sworn the enlistment oath and shows that illegal orders must be disobeyed. Replacing the name of some slave-holding traitor with his name on an army base would be an act of repentance for the evils done in our name in the past.
As an aside the statue commemorating the Colorado Volunteers at the state capitol was torn down on the night of 24 June. It was widely believed that the statue, portraying a Union soldier, was of Chivington. It was not. The base of the stature, which was erected in 1909, did list Sand Creek as one of the “battles” the unit fought in along with many others that were against Confederate forces (most of those were in New Mexico and Arkansas. In 1999 the general assembly had a plaque added to the monument rightfully describing Sand Creek as a massacre. I think that a statue of Capt. Soule should be placed on this base after the mention of Sand Creek is removed as a testament to the righteousness and courage of this man.
I have known the story of Capt. Soule for some time but the events of the past weeks brought it together for me. I was inspired to write this, and to begin writing my legislators, by a story on the Atlas Obscura site.
More information about Capt. Soule can be found on these, as well as many other, sites:
http://sandcreekmassacre.net/silas-soule/
https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/historyculture/the-life-of-silas-soule.htm
