May 26, 1864
22 Texas rebels, led by escaped murderer Jim Reynolds, attack and rob wagon train at Cimarron Crossing, east of Fort Lyon on the Arkansas River. Originally hired by the Confederate Army to infiltrate Kansas and recruit whites and Indians to fight for the south, the Reynolds Gang’s allegiance to the rebels quickly waned in favor of plundering both settlers and Indians alike. Wynkoop sends scouts to search for the gang, but Reynolds and the boys have retreated back to Texas.
May 28, 1864
The growing fights in western Kansas prompt Governor Evans to ask General Curtis to call all Colorado troops back to Denver. Evans tells Curtis that the warning he issued last fall of a confederation of Indian tribes against the whites is beginning.
Read Evans Letter.
May 29, 1864
Evans receives letter from a settler at Booneville, west of Fort Lyon, requesting protection from Indian raiding parties passing west to fight Ute war parties.
“It is at this point the Indians cross to and from the Ute fights,” the settler wrote, “and it is here that women have been grossly abused, cattle killed, farmers driven from their lands, and fear and danger have run riot.”
(The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XXXIV, Part IV, p. 206-207.)
Evans immediately wires Chivington, requesting more protection of the Booneville area, but Chivington responds that he can't comply, for he is bound by orders to keep the majority of his Colorado troops in Kansas.
May 31, 1864
As Major Wynkoop continues to fortify Fort Lyon, he has requested clear instructions from Chivington regarding the army’s policy regarding the numerous Indian tribes in the vicinity. Chivington replies:
“The Cheyennes will have to be soundly whipped before they will be quiet. If any of them are caught in your vicinity, kill them, as that is the only way.”
(The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XXXIV, Part III, p. 531-32 and Series I, Vol. XXXIV, Part IV, p. 151.)
Read Dispatches
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