Virtual Truth Commission
Telling the Truth for a Better America
Home Page | Countries | Multinationals | Names | Dates | Topics | Allies
Names A-D | Names E-K | Names L-O | Names P-Z
Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook | Translation Service
Reports by Name:
Col. John M. Chivington




Terror and the American Military Tradition

Peter Dale Scott in his article "Two Indonesias, Two Americas" (June 9, 1998, The Consortium for Independent Journalism, a paid subscription service.) writes that "there is a dark -- seldom acknowledged -- thread that runs through U.S. military doctrine. Dating back to the founding of the Republic, this military tradition explicitly defended the selective use of terror, whether in suppressing Indian resistance on the frontiers in the 19th Century or in quelling rebellion against U.S. interests abroad in the 20th Century.

One early illustration of these crises, from which emerged the modern military concept of "total war" was Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's 1864 march through Georgia. Another was the terror tactics employed by Col. John M. Chivington and the Third Colorado Cavalry to pacify Cheyennes. "In the 1860s, many whites saw the slaughter as the only realistic way to bring peace, just as Sherman viewed his "march to the sea" as necessary to force the South's surrender." Peter Dale Scott, "Two Indonesias, Two Americas"

The Sand Creek Massacre

On November 29, 1864, Col. John M. Chivington of the Colorado Volunteers, brought his militia to a village of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. Their leader, Black Kettle, believed himself under the protection of the regular U. S. Army, and his tepee flew an American and white flags. Chivington, wanting a battle before his men's three month enlistments expired, massacred and mutilated over 100 women and children and the few men who remained in the village after the main band had gone on a hunting party. Chivington was never brought to trail, and while many criticized what he had done, many others praised him to the end.

  • There were Sympathetic accounts of Sand Creek

  • Other eyewitness accounts referred to the event as the Sand Creek massacre

  • Those who heard the account of what had happened to the Indian "savages" on November 29, 1864, asked, "Who is the Savage"?
    • Chivington ordered him men: "kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice."
    • Black Kettle, Peace Chief escaped being murdered..


    Chivington's Background: The "Fighting Parson"

  • John M. Chivington was born in Ohio and had spent years as a Methodist Minister before beginning his military career.
    • In 1844 he was ordained a Methodist minister
    • In 1853 he assisted in Methodist missionary expediation to Wyandot Indians
    • In 1860, he was made "presiding elder" of Rocky Mountain District


    Reaction to Sand Creek; Congressional Investigation

  • After Sand Creek, Chivington was a hero in Denver until other accounts began to surface:
    • stories of drunken soldiers and mutiliated women surfaced.
    • Chivington arrested 6 of his men, and charged them with cowardice--until it was determined they were 6 who refused to participate in massacre.
  • Eventually, a trial was held.
  • Col. Chivington's tombstone may still be seen.
  • At his death, the "Fighting Parson" was honored by Coloradans and Methodists alike. Almost 150 years later, in April 1996, the United Methodist General Conference in Denver passes a "Sand Creek Apology",. Donald J. Mitchell, "Methodists Apologize", Associated Press, 4/27/96.

    Impact on Military Doctrine

    "Four years after the Civil War, Sherman became commanding general of the Army and incorporated the Indian pacification strategies -- as well as his own tactics -- into U. S. military doctrine. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who had led Indian wars in the Missouri territory, succeeded Sherman in 1883 and further entrenched those strategies as policy. (See Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide.) Peter Dale Scott, "Two Indonesias, Two Americas"


    Virtual Truth Commission: Telling the Truth for a Better America
    Home Page | Countries | Multinationals | Names | Dates | Topics | Allies
    Names A-D | Names E-K | Names L-O | Names P-Z
    Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook | Translation Service

    This site is the endeavor of one person. As he finds them, links to published material on the web are provided by country, date, and name. This will start small but hopefully increase in usefulness over time. Others are encouraged to start similar web sites. Plagiarize anything from these pages that you wish; the more sites that contain this material, the more it will enter into public consciousness and make a positive difference for change.
    Contact Jack Day, Webmaster


    Updated June 22, 1998