November 29, 1864---The Sand Creek Massacre

NOVEMBER 29, 1864:      

The Sand Creek Massacre:     

In one of the defining atrocities of the frontier war against Native Americans, Colonel John Chivington of the U.S. Army, an ordained Methodist minister, ardent abolitionist, and Freemason, took a 700-man force against a village of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians encamped along Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. 

Chivington’s ostensible motive was to punish the Dog Soldiers of the Cheyenne for depredations against miners and settlers in the Colorado Territory. However, just two months before, the Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle had signed a peace treaty with the United States government in which the Dog Soldiers had agreed to lay down their arms. Chivington was well aware of the treaty and well aware that there had been no violence in the region since the September 28^th signing ceremony. Thus, the attack was completely unprovoked.

Chivington was also very well aware (having been advised by scouts) that there were no combatant braves in the village on Big Sandy Creek, the Indian men having gone on a late season buffalo hunt to stock up on meat and materiel for the coming winter. There were definitely, despite his subsequent report, no Dog Soldiers in camp. Only a few younger and older men, and a number of chiefs, were standing watch over the camp, which was filled with women, children and senior citizens. 

When the Indians saw Chivington’s charging column, they raised both a white flag and an American flag. Both flags were ignored as the troops thundered down into the encampment, hacking, slashing and firing point-blank at running, screaming women and children and hobbling old women.

The brutality of the attack made strong men sick. When a trooper asked Chivington what should be done with the toddlers and infants, Chivington responded, “Nits breed lice,” and ordered the babies killed. Of 200 Indians in camp, at least 170 were killed outright, the remainder wounded. Many of the women and female children were brutally raped, some, reportedly, post-mortem. 

 

When it became clear that there were no resisting warriors in camp, Captain Silas Soule refused to order his men to fire. This enraged Chivington, and led to a hot dispute between the two men. (Soule subsequently swore out a complaint against his Commanding Officer, but was murdered in cold blood by “persons unknown” on a Denver street not long after he testified against Chivington). 

Major Edward Wynkoop, who had negotiated the treaty with Chief Black Kettle also testified against Chivington. 

The general testimony against the Colonel was damning:

I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces . . . With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from suckling infants up to warriors . . . By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops . . . --- John S. Smith

Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers cut off his nose, ears, and testicles-the last for a tobacco pouch . . .  --- Stan Hoig

Just to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty hounds, up there at Sand Creek. His men shot down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent children. You call such soldiers Christians, do you? And Indians savages? What do you suppose our Heavenly Father, who made both them and us, thinks of these things? I tell you what, I don't like a hostile redskin any more than you do. And when they are hostile, I've fought them, hard as any man. But I never yet drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise the man who would --- Kit Carson

The Joint Committee on The Conduct of The War held:

As to Colonel Chivington, your committee can hardly find fitting terms to describe his conduct. Wearing the uniform of the United States, which should be the emblem of justice and humanity; holding the important position of commander of a military district, and therefore having the honor of the government to that extent in his keeping, he deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the verist savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty. Having full knowledge of their friendly character, having himself been instrumental to some extent in placing them in their position of fancied security, he took advantage of their in-apprehension and defenceless condition to gratify the worst passions that ever cursed the heart of man.

Chivington’s force later decorated their horse bridles with the mutilated fingers, toes, penises, and unborn fetuses  of the Indians as trophies. Despite these reported grotesqueries, Chivington was not even censured, though he was passed over for future promotions.  

The Massacre was devastating to the Cheyenne, who lost many tribal elders, and thus much of their social organization. The Sand Creek Massacre led to the rejuvenation of the Dog Soldiers and continuing violence in the Colorado Territory.

November 28, 1864---The Battle of Buckhead Creek

NOVEMBER 28, 1864:     

 The Battle of Buckhead Creek:        

After receiving orders from Jefferson Davis to block the roads and stop the advance of Sherman’s advancing columns, General Joseph Wheeler C.S.A. attacks a Union force encamped near Buckhead Creek, Georgia. The Confederates have been struggling to engage Sherman. Unlike traditional Civil War columns Sherman’s men do not advance four abreast in serried ranks along the roads. Instead, Sherman’s front is 70 miles wide, with groups of men scattered throughout the area. Thus, there is no place to “block the roads” and no one place to “stop the advance.” There is, especially no place for a set-piece battle, but on this day, Wheeler manages to surprise a small body of troops. These “surprises” have been going on all along the line of march, but the Confederates have been able to do little more than nibble at Sherman’s force ineffectually; today, there is a real battle. The Union force is at first outnumbered but the sound of firing draws more Union units. Soon Wheeler’s men are taking canister fire. The Union men cross the creek, followed by the Confederates who, in fleeing the canister, run headlong into a hidden Union battery. After receiving heavy cannonfire, Wheeler retreats. The Union suffers 46 casualties in total, the Confederacy 300.  

November 27, 1864---Overthrowing The Union: The destruction of the U.S.S. GREYHOUND

NOVEMBER 27, 1864:      

General Benjamin “Beast” Butler, Commander of the Army of The James (bivouacked on the Virginia capes) holds a Council of War with a number of his subordinates aboard his floating headquarters, U.S.S. GREYHOUND. Admiral David Dixon Porter is also on board. He (along with many others, North and South) despises Butler whom he afterward calls a "thief, a black-bearded traitor, and an imbecile" for not posting guards around this meeting of interservice brass hats.  

Shortly after Porter comes aboard he finds two unsupervised “hang-dog ruffians” between decks, and when they cannot explain themselves, they are arrested and locked in the brig. 

During the War Council the ship’s boiler explodes violently. Since the ship is at the quay it is safely evacuated, but the two “hang-dog ruffians” are immediately suspected of being saboteurs (especially in the aftermath of the incidents in New York). The docked ship had only minimal pressure in the boilers, and so the rescued generals all assume a “coal torpedo” (an irregular lump of iron, hollowed out, filled with explosives, and painted black to resemble coal) had been dropped into the ship’s coal bunkers.  Unfortunately, they cannot question the “ruffians” about their theory as the two men go down with the burning ship.  

November 26, 1864---"I told him that I was a soldier of the United States. He told me that it did not make any difference."

NOVEMBER 26, 1864

The Winter of 1864-65 ultimately becomes one of the most bitterly cold winters on record. It is made unbearably worse by the devastation of the South and the destitution of the people. Even in the Union camps there is suffering.  

The cold season has begun too early this year. Since the middle of November an icy granular wind has been blowing, rattling the tents and forcing the men to huddle around fires and stoves for what warmth they can get. The Quartermasters are trying to fill requisitions for winter-weight clothing, stuff that is still on the loom in many cases. For the contrabands, sutlers, and other camp followers, finding shelter --- any shelter at all --- is a matter of life and death. 

Joseph Miller, an infantryman of the U.S.C.T. swears out the following affidavit regarding his treatment and the treatment of his family by certain white soldiers which resulted in the death of his son. Thus far, no record has been found of the resolution of this tragic matter. 

It is, however, prima facie evidence of the often vile treatment meted out to black soldiers in the Union Army even this late in the war:

Camp Nelson Ky  November 26, 1864

Personally appered before me E. B W Restieaux Capt. and Asst. Quartermaster Joseph Miller a man of color who being duly sworn upon oath says

I was a slave of George Miller of Lincoln County Ky.  I have always resided in Kentucky and am now a Soldier in the service of the United States.  I belong to Company I 124 U.S. C. Inft now Stationed at Camp Nelson Ky. 

When I came to Camp for the purpose of enlisting about the middle of October 1864 my wife and children came with me because my master said that if I enlisted he would not maintain them and I knew they would be abused by him when I left.  

I had then four children ages respectively ten nine seven and four years.  On my presenting myself as a recruit I was told by the Lieut. in command to take my family into a tent within the limits of the Camp.  

My wife and family occupied this tent by the express permission of the aforementioned Officer and never received any notice to leave until Tuesday November 22" when a mounted guard gave my wife notice that she and her children must leave Camp before early morning.  

This was about six O'clock at night.  My little boy about seven years of age had been very sick and was slowly recovering   My wife had no place to go and so remained until morning.  

About eight Oclock Wednesday morning November 23" a mounted guard came to my tent and ordered my wife and children out of Camp, The morning was bitter cold.  It was freezing hard.  

I was certain that it would kill my sick child to take him out in the cold.  I told the man in charge of the guard that it would be the death of my boy   I told him that my wife and children had no place to go and I told him that I was a soldier of the United States.  

He told me that it did not make any difference.  He had orders to take all out of Camp.  He told my wife and family that if they did not get up into the wagon which he had he would shoot the last one of them.  

On being thus threatened my wife and children went into the wagon   My wife carried her sick child in her arms.  When they left the tent the wind was blowing hard and cold and having had to leave much of our clothing when we left our master, my wife with her little one was poorly clad.  I followed them as far as the lines.  

I had no Knowledge where they were taking them. 

At night I went in search of my family.  I found them at Nicholasville about six miles from Camp.  They were in an old meeting house belonging to the colored people.  The building was very cold having only one fire.  My wife and children could not get near the fire, because of the number of colored people huddled together by the soldiers.  I found my wife and children shivering with cold and famished with hunger   They had not recieved a morsel of food during the whole day.  

My boy was dead.  He died directly after getting down from the wagon.  I Know he was Killed by exposure to the inclement weather   

I had to return to camp that night so I left my family in the meeting house and walked back.  I had walked there.  I travelled in all twelve miles   Next morning I walked to Nicholasville.  I dug a grave myself and buried my own child.  

I left my family in the Meeting house–where they still remain.   

And further this deponent saith not

his  

       

(Signed)  Joseph     Miller

mark    

   

November 25, 1864---Overthrowing The Union: The Confederate Army of New York

NOVEMBER 25, 1864:      

The Confederate Army of New York: 

Just as he had authorized the members of “The Camp Douglas Conspiracy” to disrupt Election Day in Chicago (a plan which ultimately failed),  Jacob Thompson, the Confederacy’s Toronto-based Director of Terror Operations likewise authorized  the “Confederate Army of New York”  (all eight of them) to do the same in Manhattan. Their Election Day plot had been foiled by the Union’s Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, who had dispatched thousands of Federal troops to the city to keep order in the face of inchoate threats of trouble. The troops had by now been withdrawn, and the city which never sleeps was nevertheless drowsing comfortably in the aftermath of the Union’s recent military victories.  

The terrorists had not left the city. Instead, having been frustrated on Election Day, they cast about for options, finally deciding to strike on the Union’s Thanksgiving Day. And this is where one of the weirdest and least-known stories of the Civil War begins. 

Just as the Camp Davis Conspiracy was meant to break the Union apart by stimulating the creation of a “Northwestern Confederacy,” the task of the Confederate Army of New York was to inspire the Copperheads of the North’s largest city to take the metropolis out of the Union. C.S. President Jefferson Davis was convinced that 490,000 pro-Confederate New Yorkers would flock to the South’s banner if given the chance. The plot was to raise the Confederate flag over City Hall after the attack and lead 25,000 (mysteriously appearing and readily armed) Copperheads on a raid of the city’s arsenal.

Needless to say, there was no Confederate Silent Majority, either in the Midwest or in New York City. Davis’ delusion, if real, would have meant that virtually every New Yorker was hiding a Bonnie Blue Flag in the garret. 

Davis was beginning to lose his grip on reality, a process that had begun with the discovery a year earlier of the Dahlgren Letter authorizing his assassination. The process of Davis’ decompensation would not end with the end of the war.

“New York is worth twenty Richmonds” opined one Southern editor who was foolish enough to let slip in the pages of his paper plans for the Confederacy’s reign of terror in the North.

Just as with the Camp Douglas conspirators, Thompson had to settle for what he could get. In Chicago, the task of seizing the city ultimately fell to a gang of 25 pickpockets and road agents. In New York, Thompson had sense at least to dispatch dedicated Confederates (whose accents immediately marked them out as Southerners) to do the job, but he could only find eight willing men, all of whom had ridden with John Hunt Morgan (a plus) but all of whom had a penchant for the bottle (a big minus). 

On Thanksgiving Day, one of the Confederates was evicted from his hotel for drunkenly haranguing the hotel’s Thanksgiving Day dinner guests about the morality of secession --- in his Alabama accent. As he was tossed outside, he drew more attention to himself by making threats about seeing the place in ashes. Since all of the Good Ole Boys had been giving thanks too vociferously (to whom and for what?) on Thursday, the deadly attack was postponed until Friday.  

The eight men were like babes in the woods. Choosing effective targets did not seem to matter. None of the Confederates had ever visited New York before and were hopelessly confused by the hustle and bustle and varied neighborhoods. 

The weapon of choice for the eight men consisted of 144 incendiary vials of so-called “Greek fire,” a chemical compound obtained from a Confederate sympathizer living on Washington Square.

The men spent no time trying to find the most inflammable areas of the city (Five Points and Hell’s Kitchen probably would have gone up like tinder, and an explosion at the Manhattan Gas Works would have rocked the whole of lower Manhattan).  Instead, they visited the city’s barrooms and bawdy houses, excellent places all to suffer inflammations of a type.

Not one of the group knew a thing about working with incendiaries. They never even bothered to train themselves to handle the explosives (except for a dry run at midday in the midst of Central Park which resulted in a small grass fire, hurriedly stamped out as it attracted a curious crowd). At that point they were more dangerous to themselves than to others.

The fact that Friday, November 25th was a windless night impressed them not in the least. Instead of waiting for more propitious wind conditions that would have turned any fair-sized fire into a conflagration, the men just set 20 small fires more or less at random.

Their targets were businesses and hotels along Broadway clustered around City Hall. The Confederates started their terror attack by setting fires in their hotel rooms using their own clothes as fuel.

All of the hotel room fires either fizzled out on their own or were discovered by hotel staff and quickly put out.  What the conspirators did not grasp was basic physics --- that the vials needed a sustained air flow to catch and burn. Instead, by trying to be secretive, they ended up placing the vials in odd corners and under tables and desks where the lack of fresh air succeeded in smothering any flames. P.T. Barnum’s Museum and some of the hotels did become smoky. Shouts of “Fire!” disrupted the performance of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was the first time the famed acting family of the Booth brothers, Junius, Edwin and John Wilkes had ever been on stage in the same play.

Had the night been windier or the targets better chosen, or the handling of the explosives more professional, the Confederate Army of Manhattan just might have destroyed New York City. 

As it was, with typical New York disdain, the denizens of Gotham laughed it all off as a job badly done. The New York Times correctly called it A Rebel Plot. The New York Herald with a touch of hyperbole called it A Vast and Fiendish Conspiracy. When asked how they could be so certain that Southerners were behind the setting of the fires, the editors of the New York World retorted in print:  “Come now! Would New Yorkers ever be so stupid?”

Although all eight men escaped back to Canada, one, Robert Cobb Kennedy (a relation of General Howell Cobb C.S.A.) was caught sneaking back into the United States at Niagara Falls. Tried for the plot, he claimed that it had been “a reckless joke.” Kennedy himself was the butt of a good old- fashioned New York City-type reckless joke when he was hanged at Fort LaFayette in New York Harbor on March 25, 1865.