Conflict Within and Without

Conflict Within and Without. . Some Soldiers Refuse to Fight , Shortly after opening fire on the village, 1st Regiment soldiers moved along both sides of the village. Cpt. Soule and Lt. Cramer led their men west, around the fighting, and purposefully did not engage. Many of their men were reluctant to attack people they knew were peaceful. , "I refused to fire and swore that none but a coward would.” , Capt. Silas S. Soule, Company D, 1st Regiment Cavalry, Colorado Volunteers, (from a Letter written to Maj. Edward Wynkoop, December 14, 1864.) , Howling Wolf's Counter Attack , On the opposite side of the valley, a small group of mounted Cheyenne warriors including Howling Wolf moved northeast of the village. Hoping to flank the soldiers and gain time for fleeing women and children, the warriors encountered Company C, 1st Regiment, under Lt. Kennedy. Howling Wolf and the warriors engaged Kennedy's men, inflicting the heaviest casualties the regiment suffered during the attack. , Cheyenne and Arapaho Fight Back , Artillery continued to shell the Cheyenne and Arapaho who were escaping north along the creek bed. Many Cheyenne and Arapaho men, like Standing Elk, chose to fight back. "He was trying to shoot...with bows and arrows but couldn't hit them against their guns.” Jesse Howling Water (Relating the story of his Cheyenne Great Grandfather Standing Elk) , “...my grandfather went back into his tipi, grabbed his weapons, bows and arrows and maybe a rifle that he had...he came out, starting to fight his way out of the battle.” , Ray Brady relating the account of his Cheyenne Grandfather Braided Hair on the morning of the attack. (Sand Creek Massacre Project, Site Location Study, Vol. I) , “Chief O-Kin-nee (Lone Bear) escaped the first onslaught, but when he saw his people being killed he went back to join the fight, eventually losing his own life.” , Leonard Hudnell talking about his Cheyenne Grandfather (Pueblo Chieftain, November 28, 1940 “Battle of Sand Creek in Eastern Colorado Really Indian Massacre," by Le Roy Boyd) , Captions: , Captain Silas S. Soule, c. 1864. , An elderly Howling Wolf, sketched by Roy Seward, Fonda, OK.