It had been a strenuous period for the settlers from the first appearance of the Indians about the 20th of August until this time. At least a dozen persons had been killed in El Paso County and the country adjacent thereto on the Divide. Many houses had been destroyed; crops had been lost through inability to harvest the grain; probably five hundred horses and at least one thousand head of cattle had been driven off, making an aggregate loss of property that was extremely heavy for a sparsely populated county such as El Paso was at that time. The contest was an unequal one from the start. The settlers were armed with a miscellaneous lot of guns, most of which were muzzle-loading hunting rifles, while the Indians were armed with breech-loading guns using metal cartridges. Fortunately for the settlers, the ammunition of the Indians was of a poor quality, as was proved in the fight east of Bijou Basin and elsewhere, and, judging by the careful manner in which they used their ammunition, it is probable that the supply was not very large. This undoubtedly saved the lives of many of our people. It was noticed from the first that the Indians never wasted their ammunition and seldom attacked an armed person.

During all the time the savages were going up and down the county murdering people, stealing stock, and destroying the property of the settlers, the general Government did not make the slightest attempt to give our people protection, although attention was repeatedly called to their desperate condition. It is true that a week or two after the Indian troubles began, the Territorial authorities at Denver supplied our people with a limited number of old Belgian muskets, together with the necessary ammunition, but these guns were so much inferior to those in the hands of the Indians, that they were of very little use. With this one exception, the early settlers of this county were left entirely to their own resources from the beginning of the Indian troubles, in 1864, until the end, which did not come until the building of the railroads into the Territory. Every appeal to the general Government for protection was received either with indifference or insult.

In September, 1866, General William T. Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, on his way north from an inspection of the forts in New Mexico, accompanied by a large number of staff officers and a strong escort, stopped overnight in Colorado City. Having been in constant danger from the Indians since the beginning of the trouble in 1864, our people thought this an opportune time to lay the matter before him and ask that proper means of protection be provided. My father, the Rev. Wm. Howbert, was appointed spokesman of the committee that waited upon the General. In his speech, father explained our exposed and defenseless condition, and suggested that a force of government troops be permanently stationed at some point on our eastern frontier, in order to intercept any Indians that might be attempting a raid upon the people of this region. General Sherman received the appeal with utter indifference, and replied that he thought we were unnecessarily alarmed; that there were no hostile Indians in the neighborhood; and then sarcastically remarked that it probably would be a very profitable thing for the people of this region if we could have a force of government troops located near here, to whom our farmers might sell their grain and agricultural products at a high price. With this remark he dismissed the committee, the members of which left the room very indignant at the manner in which their appeal had been received. Later in the year, General Sherman evidently was of the opinion that there were hostile Indians in the western country and that they needed severe punishment, for after the massacre of Lieut.-Col. Fetterman and his entire command near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, he telegraphed General Grant, saying: "We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children; nothing else will reach the root of the case."

Two years later, in 1868, the General came to Denver along the line of the Kansas-Pacific Railway, at that time under construction, and was glad to have a strong escort to guard him through the region of the hostile Indians. Following this trip, he made a strenuous effort to punish the savages elsewhere, but apparently made no attempt to protect the settlers on the eastern borders of Colorado.

I venture to say that no civilized nation ever gave less attention to protecting its frontier people from the incursion of savages than did our general Government. It was always a question of the influence that could be brought to bear upon the government officials at Washington. After the outbreak of the Indians in Minnesota, in 1862, the Government took prompt measures and punished the savages unmercifully. However, this was due to the fact that Minnesota at that time had two Senators and several members of Congress who were able to bring the necessary influence to bear. During all of our Indian troubles, Colorado had only one delegate in Congress, who had no vote and very little influence. Consequently, we were left to protect ourselves as best we could.

The whole eastern frontier of El Paso County faced upon the territory occupied by the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, the most crafty and bloodthirsty savages upon the American continent. There were at all times bands of these Indians roaming around on the headwaters of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, and it was easy for them to reach the settlements of this county without being observed. Considering these facts, it now seems a wonder that we were not wiped off the face of the earth. Doubtless, as I have said before, the reason that we were not exterminated was the fact of our contiguity to the country of their hereditary enemies, the Utes, for whom, on account of their fighting ability, they had a wholesome respect.

During the Indian troubles, a few settlers left the county and sought places of safety elsewhere, but the great majority of our people pluckily stood their ground. The ranchmen who had brought their families to Colorado City for protection left them there until the trouble was over, but went to their homes as often as they could get two or three armed men to accompany them, to harvest their grain and take care of their stock. Every time they did this, it was at the risk of their lives, for no one could tell when or where the savages might next appear. The people who now live in the cities and on the ranches of El Paso County can have no true conception of the dangers and the anxieties of the early settlers of the Pike's Peak region. As soon as it was definitely known that the Indians had left the county, most of the ranchmen moved their families back to their homes. From previous experience it was known that, as winter was coming on, there was little danger to be apprehended until the following spring.

By the spring of 1869, the Government, in a winter campaign with troops under the command of General Custer, had administered such severe punishment to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in the battle of Washita and in other engagements that thereafter the people of El Paso County were unmolested by them, although spasmodic outbreaks occurred at various places out on the plains for several years afterward.

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved.