Colonel John Chivington (1821-1894), born in Lebanon, Ohio, was the hero of Glorietta Pass and the man responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre. After being drawn toward Methodism, Chivington decided to become a minister and was ordained in 1844.

During 1853, he worked in a Methodist missionary expedition to the Wyandot Indians in Kansas. Because of his outspoken hatred of slavery, in 1856, Chivington received a threatening letter from pro-slavery members in his congregation. As a result, the Methodist Church transferred Chivington to a parish in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1860, when he was made the presiding elder of the Rocky Mountain District of the Methodist Church, Chivington and his family moved to Denver, Colorado.

While he received fierce loyalty from his men, one man, Silas Soule, refused his orders to attack the Cheyenne settlement at Sand Creek . Soule commanded his men to hold their fire, and watched with horror as Chivington's forces attacked.

The nation was shocked, even though the massacre occurred during the Civil War, at the brutality of the attack. Soule testified, along with some of the men Soule commanded, against Chivington during an Army investigation of the incident. Soule was murdered a short while afterwords, and Chivington has been believed to have a hand in the matter.

The investigation found no wrong-doing on Chivington's part, but the US Congress refused the Army's request to exterminate the Native population based on the testimony against Chivington.

External link

• PBS Biography