By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
A man who claimed to be Elbridge Gerry, the grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, did something quite remarkable in the summer of 1864.
Irving Howbert, a soldier at Sand Creek, wrote about Gerry in his book, Memories of a Lifetime in the Pike’s Peak Region. Howbert was aware of the countless attacks on wagon trains, the killing and scalping of white settlers, driving off stock, and taking white captives by Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, all reasons Howbert enlisted to fight with the 3rd Colorado Cavalry.
If you missed our blog on the Minnesota Massacre, check it out here: [MinnesotaMassacre]. That massacre was a catalyst to Sand Creek. Colorado Territory Governor, John Evans, said Sand Creek was not a starting point, it was fighting back, per his sworn testimony in the hearings.
An attack on citizens in Colorado Territory was planned for August of 1864. Governor Evans learned about it and informed a man named Elbridge Gerry, a trusted source, so he could send warning to the citizens.
A messenger arrived at Colorado City, who had been sent by Governor Evans to warn the people of an impending attack by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes upon all settlements along the eastern frontier of Colorado. It appeared that the Governor had received information from Elbridge Gerry, one of his secret agents, that eight hundred hostile Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors in camp at the Point of Rocks, near the head of Beaver Creek in eastern Colorado, had planned a simultaneous attack upon all the frontier settlements of Colorado from a point in the valley of the Platte River, one hundred miles north of Denver, to the Arkansas River at the mouth of the Fontaine-qui-Bouille. According to the program agreed upon by the Indians, one hundred warriors were to go to the valley of the Platte, two hundred and forty to the head of Cherry Creek, and the remainder of the eight hundred to the valleys of the Fountain and Arkansas Rivers. Upon reaching the appointed localities, these parties were to be divided into small bands, each one of which was to attack a farmhouse, kill its occupants, loot the property and run off stock.
Elbridge Gerry, from whom the information of this proposed raid was received, was the grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and although an educated man, had lived with the Indians for a good many years and married a Cheyenne woman. At this time he was living with his Indian wife on a stock ranch in the valley of the Platte River, sixty to seventy miles below Denver. It was here that the information reached him through two Cheyenne chiefs, who came to warn him of the impending danger. Gerry received the word about midnight and early the next morning started on horseback for Denver to notify Governor Evans, arriving there about eleven o’clock that night, having ridden the sixty or seventy miles without resting.
The following day, small bands of Indians appeared along the whole eastern frontier of El Paso County, but their raid was a failure, as the warning given through the occurrence on Monument Creek, and that sent by the Governor, had put every one on guard. Consequently, the savages found that the settlers at every point either had fled, or were ready to defend themselves. That the information given by Gerry was absolutely correct was shown by the fact that the Indians appeared at the appointed time along the entire frontier of Colorado, from the Platte to the Arkansas River (Howbert, Irving, Memories of a Lifetime In the Pike’s Peak Region, page 110-112).
Governor Evans spoke before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, in March of 1865, and he expressed that if the plan of the Indians had been carried out without previous notice, “it would have resulted in the most wholesale and extensive massacre that ever has occurred in this country” (Howbert, Irving, Memories of a Lifetime In the Pike’s Peak Region, page 114).
That planned attack would have taken place just three months before Sand Creek.
The failed raid didn’t deter the Indians—they continued to steal stock, destroy property, kill settlers, and take white captives, during the summer of 1864, months before Sand Creek. Our confirmation on this comes from an eyewitness, George Bent, who was half-Cheyenne and a Cheyenne Dog Soldier. Bent was in Black Kettle’s village at Sand Creek, and nearly forty years later, while working as an Indian agent in Colony, Oklahoma, he corresponded with historians, answering their questions about Sand Creek and his Cheyenne life. Read about Bent in chapter four of our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
It’s unclear if the Elbridge Gerry that Howbert wrote about was the grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ancestry research brought doubts about the legitimacy of those claims.
What we learned was quite interesting.
“According to ancestry records, Gerry’s grandson was born July 6, 1818, in Maine” (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site). Read the full account on pages 64-65 of our book.
One thing is certain, he saved many lives and also likely significantly changed the future of the state. He has been called the Paul Revere of Colorado. If he had not warned the citizens, the events at Sand Creek would have likely happened sooner and somewhere else in the territory.
After many appeals for help, Governor Evans was allowed to organize a new regiment with a term of service to be 100 days known as the 3rd Colorado Cavalry (Howbert, Irving, The Indians of the Pikes Peak Region page 94). At 18 years of age, Irving Howbert from El Paso County joined and fought at Sand Creek.
Soldier accounts like Howbert’s are often dismissed because many don’t like what they say. Chuck Bowen, with the assistance of his wife Sheri, discovered over 4,000 village and battle artifacts on the Bowen family ranch, all starting nearly two miles up the creek to the north from the NPS Sand Creek bluff, where the NPS claims the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were camped and attacked. Howbert’s land descriptions provided Bowen with the necessary information on where to search on the family ranch with a metal detector. Howbert’s descriptions show him to be a credible witness. Everything he said about Sand Creek needs to be considered. Read more about him in our book.
We don’t have a dog in this fight. We’re just about telling the truth based on the artifacts—they tell a clear story of a running battle. According to the massacre claim, the soldiers rode around the village and attacked the Indians early in the morning as they awoke and came out of their tipis. If that was true, there would be a small clustered area at the NPS site, littered with bullets, cannonball shell fragments, village artifacts, plus much more, all in that small area.
No period artifacts have ever been found at the NPS’s alleged Sand Creek site.
No bullets, no battlefield. No village artifacts, no village site.
Simply put, the location of Black Kettle’s village and running battle areas is not at the NPS site. The real location also reveals a different story.
Bowen’s Lost Sand Creek Site discovery reveals many running battle areas all starting on the opposite side of the creek from the village and that little fighting took place in the village. Bowen’s discovery and credible eyewitness accounts from Howbert, George Bent, and others provide evidence that the village was not filled with defenseless women, children and elderly.
There were over 70 soldier casualties at Sand Creek. Was that from elderly or little kids? Doubtful. In reality, there was a significant battle between soldiers and warriors.
We need to get back to using critical thinking instead of emotion.
We’re often told there’s two sides to a story. When it comes to Sand Creek, there’s also the artifacts. The artifacts do not lie—they are truly objective.
The artifacts bring the clarity needed to give us a better understanding of what happened on November 29, 1864 at Sand Creek.
This isn’t simply about a love for history, but about honesty and truth.
Truth matters. Truth wins.
Read the truth in We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
Click the Buy the Book tab in the top right of the page.
Follow on Facebook: BowenHistory
