3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment

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3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment
The unit at the Sand Creek massacre
Active	August 20, 1864 – December 31, 1864
Disbanded	December 31, 1864
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Cavalry
Garrison/HQ	Denver, Colorado
Nickname(s)	Bloodless Third
Engagements	American Civil War Sand Creek massacre
Commanders
Notable commanders	Colonel George L. Shoup Colonel John M. Chivington (as District commander)

Military unit

The 3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment was a Union Army unit formed in the mid-1860s when increased traffic on the United States emigrant trails and settler encroachment resulted in numerous attacks against them by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Hungate massacre and the display in Denver of mutilated victims raised political pressure for the government to protect its people. Governor John Evans sought and gained authorization from the War Department in Washington to found the Third. More a militia than a military unit, the "Bloodless Third" was composed of "100-daysers," that is, volunteers who signed on for 100 days to fight against the Indians. (Its nickname came from its lack of battle experience.) The unit's only commander was Col. George L. Shoup, a politician from Colorado. The regiment was assigned to the District of Colorado commanded by Col. John M. Chivington.

Early Operations

In August 1864, some 100 Boulder County residents joined Company D and trained at Fort Chambers (erected on George W. Chambers' farm), east of present-day Boulder (east of 63rd and Andrus, south of Poor Farm property).

At the Camp Weld Council of September 28, 1864, Evans and Chivington met with five chiefs, including Black Kettle of the Cheyenne and White Antelope of the Arapaho. They had been brought to Denver to parlay for peace under military escort by Major Edward W. Wynkoop, commander of Fort Lyon. The chiefs agreed to peacefully settle their people on the reservation on Big Sandy Creek about 40 miles northwest of Fort Lyon. The reservation was created under the Fort Wise Treaty of 1860. With Wynkoop's assuring their safety, the chiefs settled their bands in a large village at the curve of Sand Creek. Some Indians set up lodges closer to Fort Lyon.

On November 5, Major Wynkoop was removed from command and replaced by an ally of Chivington, Major Scott Anthony. He ordered all Indians camped around the fort to the reservation. On November 26, Wynkoop departed for reassignment to Fort Riley, Kansas.

On November 28, Chivington arrived at Fort Lyon, having traveled in great secrecy with 700 Third Colorado Cavalry and a battalion of the First Colorado Cavalry. Encouraged by Governor Evans and spurred by his own ambitions, Chivington felt pressure to use the "Bloodless Third" before the volunteers' terms expired. He sealed off the fort. Officers loyal to Wynkoop were held at gunpoint. That night, reinforced by artillery from the fort and 125 troops of the First Cavalry, Chivington set off for the Cheyenne-Arapaho village at Sand Creek.

Sand Creek massacre

Main article: Sand Creek massacre

Arriving at dawn on November 29, 1864, the volunteer cavalry attacked. Although Black Kettle had flown an American flag on his tipi to signal peace (as directed by Wynkoop), the volunteers killed indiscriminately. Historians have not agreed on the number killed, but they often cite 150, mostly women and children, as the warriors had gone out on a hunt. The cavalry mutilated some of the corpses, taking body parts as souvenirs.

Now called the "Bloody Third," the regiment returned to Denver in December. It mustered out on December 31, 1864. For months the men displayed the body parts as trophies in Denver saloons. Although Chivington and his forces were lauded by many at the time for a heroic "battle," critics complained about the military conduct of the men.

Aftermath

The US Congress investigated the attack. The hearings were widely covered, leading to national shock and outrage about the brutality of the attack and the betrayal of promises made to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Because the Native Americans believed the Cheyenne had been targeted by the US, major Sioux and Arapaho bands allied with them from 1865 on to attack the Vehos (whites) and try to drive emigrant settlers out of their lands.

References

All biographies
Sand Creek
"Fort Chambers and the Sand Creek Massacre | City of Boulder". bouldercolorado.gov. Retrieved 2025-01-04. In mid-August 1864, more than 100 Boulder County residents mobilized into Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry at Fort Chambers, along Boulder Creek east of what is now known as Boulder… On Oct. 10, 1864, 22 men of Company D attacked a Cheyenne camp near present-day Sterling ("Buffalo Springs") and murdered four Cheyenne women, three men, two babies and one boy… The Boulder-area men of Company D participated in the unprovoked, surprise and barbaric massacre that killed 230 peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne Peoples at Sand Creek on Nov. 29, 1864… {{cite web}}: no-break space character in |quote= at position 190 (help)
"Boulder removes inaccurate marker related to Sand Creek Massacre". Yahoo News. 2023-05-17. Retrieved 2025-01-04. The city acknowledged that the marker at Fort Chambers — where Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry had trained before participating in the Sand Creek Massacre on Nov. 29, 1864 — was removed because it falsely stated that the fort had been used in an "Indian uprising" in 1864… In fact, Arapaho and Cheyenne leaders had sought peace in the fall of 1864, and their people camped at Sand Creek had been promised that the U.S. Army would protect them. During the summer and fall of 1864…"Exaggerated and false claims of coordinated Indigenous violence helped fan anti-Indigenous hatred in Colorado." After the marker was erected in 1959 along the boundary of the Fort Chambers-Poor Farm property northeast of Boulder, community members continued referring to the Sand Creek Massacre as a "battle" even though there was evidence documenting the atrocities that Third Cavalry soldiers and volunteers had committed. {{cite web}}: no-break space character in |quote= at position 281 (help)
Castle, Shay (2024-03-27). "BoCo, briefly: March 27, 2024". Boulder Weekly. Retrieved 2025-01-04. A draft stewardship plan has been released for a Boulder open space property connected to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. Troops who participated in the killing of Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples were trained at Fort Chambers, believed to have been located off 63rd Street in Gunbarrel… A historic marker noting the location of Fort Chambers. Erected in 1959, it inaccurately referred to the Sand Creek Massacre — in which 230 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, were murdered by American troops in 1864 — as an "Indian uprising." The marker was removed in 2023. {{cite web}}: no-break space character in |quote= at position 285 (help)
"Boulder plans to 'heal the land, heal the people' through transformation of historic fort, farm". Denver 7 Colorado News (KMGH). 2024-04-13. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
"The Indian War, 2 Jun 1867, Page 8 - The New York Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. p. 8. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
Laura King Van Dusen, Historic Tales from Park County: Parked in the Past (Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2013), ISBN 978-1-62619-161-7, p. 33.

Bibliography

Hoig, Stan, The Sand Creek Massacre (Univ of Oklahoma Press, 1961).
Hyde, George E. The Life of George Bent, Written from his Letters. Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968.
38th Congress, Second Section, Massacre of Cheyenne Indians Washington, DC, 1865. (transcript of the investigation).
Wynkoop, Edward. The Tall Chief: Autobiography of Edward W. Wynkoop. Ed. by Christopher Gerboth. Colorado Historical Society, 1993.

External links

"Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site", National Park Service
"Historic Documents", The West, PBS; see John S. Smith testimony to Congress

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