The Three Battles of Sand Creek: In Blood, in Court, and as the End of History

by Gregory Michno

Overview

TRANS-MISSISSIPPI THEATER BOOK OF THE YEAR (BATTLES AND CAMPAIGNS) – CIVIL WAR BOOKS AND AUTHORS

The Sand Creek battle (or massacre) occurred on November 29-30, 1864, a confrontation between Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians and Colorado volunteer soldiers. The affair was a tragic event in American history, and what occurred there continues to be hotly contested. Indeed, labeling it a “battle” or a “massacre” will likely start an argument before any discussion on the merits begin. Even questions about who owns the story, or how it should be told, are up for debate.

Three hearings were conducted about the Sand Creek affair, and there seems to be an overabundance of evidence from which to answer just about anything relating to the subject. Unfortunately, the available documentation only muddies the issues. Were the Indians peaceful? Did they hold white prisoners? Were they under army protection when the fighting took place? Were excessive numbers of women and children killed, and were bodies mutilated? Did the Indians fly an American flag? Did the chiefs die stoically in front of their tipis? Were white scalps found in the village? Gregory Michno candidly addresses these and other issues in The Three Battles of Sand Creek.

The award-winning Indian Wars author divides his unique study into three sections. The first, “In Blood,” details the events of November 29-30, 1864, in what is surely the most comprehensive account published to date. The second section, “In Court,” focuses on the three investigations into the affair, illustrates some of the biases involved, and presents some of the contradictory testimony. The third and final section, “The End of History,” demonstrates the utter impossibility of sorting fact from fiction. Using Sand Creek as well as contemporary examples, Michno examines the evidence of eyewitnesses—all of whom were subject to false memories, implanted memories, leading questions, prejudice, self-interest, motivated reasoning, social, cultural, and political mores, an overactive amygdala, and a brain that had a “mind” of its own—obstacles that make factual accuracy an illusion. Living in a postmodern world of relativism suggests that all history is subject to the fancies and foibles of individual bias. The example of Sand Creek illustrates why we may be witnessing what Michno calls “the end of history.”

Michno’s extensive research includes primary and select secondary studies, including recollections, archival accounts, newspapers, diaries, and other original records. The Three Battles of Sand Creek will take its place as the definitive account of this previously misunderstood, and tragic, event.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611213119
Publisher:	Savas Beatie
Publication date:	05/22/2017
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Award-winning author Gregory F. Michno is a Michigan native and the author of three dozen articles and ten books dealing with World War II and the American West, including Lakota Noon; Battle at Sand Creek; The Encyclopedia of Indian Wars; The Deadliest Indian War in the West; and Circle the Wagons. Greg helped edit and appeared in the DVD history The Great Indian Wars: 1540-1890. He lives in Colorado, with his wife Susan.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

I In Blood

Chapter 1 Colonel Chivington Takes Command 1

Chapter 2 The Road to Sand Creek 8

Chapter 3 Camp Weld Conference 26

Chapter 4 The March to Fort Lyon 36

Chapter 5 The Last Night of Peace 54

Chapter 6 The Approach 60

Chapter 7 Flags and Friendlies 68

Chapter 8 A Battle 79

Chapter 9 A Massacre 88

Chapter 10 Scalp Dance 106

Chapter 11 Night of Phantoms 111

Chapter 12 The Death of Jack Smith 115

Chapter 13 Aftermath 122

II In Court

Chapter 14 Opening Rounds 129

Chapter 15 Denver Military Commission 136

Chapter 16 The Joint Committee in Washington 142

Chapter 17 Doolittle's Committee 145

Chapter 18 Conflicting Testimony 149

Chapter 19 Battle or Massacre? The Fallacy of the False Dichotomy 163

III The End of History

Chapter 20 Eyewitness Testimony 171

Chapter 21 False Memories 176

Chapter 22 Leading Questions and Lies 179

Chapter 23 Stress and Memories 184

Chapter 24 Memory Alteration and Cognitive Dissonance at Sand Creek 189

Chapter 25 Don't Confuse Me with the Facts 195

Chapter 26 Oral History 198

Chapter 27 Supernatural Insights 205

Chapter 28 The End of History? 210

Appendix A Ghosts Busted at Sand Creek 214

Appendix B List of Killed and Wounded in the First and Third Colorado Cavalry at Sand Creek 217

Bibliography 220

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

Greg Michno’s provocative inquiries into the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre offer new fodder for those perpetually enamored of the event’s complexities and conclusions. His well-crafted treatise is thought-provoking and even occasionally humorous, yet is always meaningful.

Jerome A. Greene

In The Three Battles of Sand Creek: The Cheyenne Massacre in Blood, in Court, and as the End of History, Gregory Michno challenges us to look inwardly and examine our biases regarding this pivotal event of nineteenth century westward expansion. At the same time he argues for the ultimate impossibility of sorting fact from fiction about controversial topics in American history.

John H. Monnett

The approach of the book is innovative on a subject which, while not well known, clearly still generates heat and light in Colorado.

Miniature Wargames

Gregory F. Michno’s new book The Three Battles of Sand Creek is a fascinating new study. I greatly admire the inclusion of the psychological motives that move people into areas of thinking that virtually amount to superstition rather than realism. He candidly moves into the difficult problems involving unbiased history, particularly when he delves into the viewpoint of the Indians, which are radically different from those held by Chivington’s Colorado volunteers who had wantonly killed a number of Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne women and children. His chapter on the Sand Creek battle itself is one of the most insightful ever written about it, and all of its various interpretations and analyses.

Dr. Robert W. Larson