The famous Jayhawk raiders known as the “Immortal Ten.” Silas Soule is second from the right. Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Special Collections
One of the most renowned men in the history of the Old West was a man from Maine who became legendary, not so much for what he did but for what he didn’t do.
Silas Stillman Soule was born on July 26, 1838, in Bath to Amasa and Sophia Low Soule. He and his four surviving siblings were educated locally.
The entire family took an active part in the abolition of slavery, and Amasa and Sophia wanted to do more to help free America’s slaves. The couple soon packed up their brood and moved to Coal Creek, near Lawrence, Kansas. For the next 10 years, the Soules fought to make “Bleeding” Kansas a Free-Soil State.
Silas Stillman Soule on his wedding day on April 1, 1865. Public domain photo
By 1859, a 21-year-old Silas had joined a group of free-soil abolitionists who came to be known as the “Immortal Ten.” This band of young men led raids to help slaves escape southern bondage and they committed jail breaks to free arrested abolitionists.
When gold fever hit Pike’s Peak at Colorado in 1860, the Soule brothers relocated to the Colorado Rockies. But when the American Civil War began just over a year later, Silas enlisted as a lieutenant in Company K of the 1st Colorado Infantry. One year later, the regiment would morph into the infamous 1st Colorado Cavalry.
For the next three years, Soule took part in numerous actions against Confederate forces in the New Mexico Campaign, and they defeated Rebels at Glorietta Pass, Pigeon Ranch, and many other notable fights and skirmishes. Yet, Soule’s most famous action was one where he and his company of soldiers deliberately refused direct orders.
On Nov. 29, 1864, one of the most nefarious and heinous atrocities in the history of the American West took place under the command of 1st Colorado Calvary’s commander, Colonel John M. Chivington.
Despite a peace accord that was in place, Colonel Chivington ordered his troops to carry out a massacre upon a small encampment of peaceful and unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho at a place called Sandy Creek. This “Indian village” was comprised mostly of “women, children, and the elderly.”
Cannons were strategically placed outside the village, each targeting the encampment. The cannon opened fire, and Chivington ordered nearly 700 troops under his command to attack the village. These cavalry troops — all on horseback — charged in, wielding their swords and firing their weapons.
Lt. Soule, in command of Company K, was stationed just outside the encampment and he received orders to attack the village. Believing the attack was immoral and unjust Soule refused the order then placed his men into a defending position to shield fleeing victims from the bloodthirsty troops.
Soule’s refusal to obey and his shielding the fleeing victims saved scores of innocent lives. As many as 165 peaceful victims were slaughtered in a bloodbath forever remembered as the Sandy Creek Massacre.
Soule was later promoted to captain and placed in command of Company D, and was then appointed the assistant provost marshal of the District of Colorado. Soule wrote letters of formal protest over the action at Sandy Creek, and he forced the Army to investigate. From Feb. 15-21, 1865, Soule testified against Chivington and the troops who took part in the savage attack.
By the time the investigation was concluded, in late April 1865, the American Civil War had ended and an amnesty for all soldiers was in place. Chivington had already resigned from the Union Army, and though formally condemned for his crimes, he could not be convicted.
On April 23, 1865, Captain Silas Soule, now promoted to provost marshal (a military police commander) for the District of Colorado, was walking in Denver when he heard gunshots at nearly 10:30 in the evening.
A plaque placed at the downtown site in Denver, where Soule was murdered. His killer was never captured. Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Special Collections
Soule drew his pistol and ran to investigate. A firefight broke out between Soule and a gunman named Charles Squier. Both fired their pistols as Squier fled the scene, but Soule was shot and fell, and he soon bled to death. Silas was just 26 when he was interred at the Riverside Cemetery at Denver City in Colorado.
In 1978, a 12-part mini-series, “Centennial,” based on the 1974 novel by James H. Michener, aired on NBC Television. In the film, actor Mark Harmon portrays Union Army Captain John MacIntosh in the fifth episode titled, “Massacre.”
The episode was a fictionalized account of the Sandy Creek Massacre, and Harmon’s Captain MacIntosh was a fictional portrayal based on the experiences and testimony of Maine’s own Silas Soule.
Today, “Silas Soule is remembered as one of the most important people in Colorado’s history,” he is a true American legend of the Old West and one of the most venerated of our Stories from Maine.
Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.