1. Silas Stillman Soule was an American abolitionist, a teenage 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad, military officer, and an early example of what would later be called a whistleblower.
22 Facts About Silas Soule
1. 2.
Silas Soule was in command of 1st Colorado Cavalry, Company D that was present at Sand Creek and the massacre of Native Americans that occurred there on November 29,1864.
3.
Silas Soule testified at a US military hearing that convened in February 1865 to investigate the event.
4.
Silas Soule was murdered two months later in what some believed was retaliation.
5.
At the age of 17, Silas Soule escorted escaped slaves from Missouri north to freedom.
6.
Silas Soule went into the jail and convinced the jailkeeper that he had a letter from Doy's wife.
7.
Later that year, after John Brown was captured following the raid on Harper's Ferry, Silas Soule found himself planning a jailbreak.
8.
Brown had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging, when, in November 1859, Silas Soule visited him and offered to help him escape.
9.
Nonetheless, pastor and Secret Six member, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an associate of Silas Soule's, put together a rescue attempt of two men who had been incarcerated along with Brown, Albert Hazlett and Aaron Dwight Stevens.
10.
Silas Soule managed to convince the jailer into letting him out of his cell for a short while during which he contacted Brown and the two men.
11.
In 1861, after the start of the Civil War, Silas Soule enlisted in Company K; 1st Colorado Infantry, and took part in the New Mexico campaign of 1862, including the key Battle of Glorieta Pass.
12.
Joseph Cramer and Silas Soule went directly to Major Scott Anthony, Chivington's superior.
13.
Silas Soule's company did not follow the orders given to them to enter the creek bed leading to the settlement but moved up and down the banks and observed the slaughter.
14.
Silas Soule fired the first shot and wounded Squier's left arm, but Squier fired a bullet that entered Silas Soule's right cheek, mortally wounding him.
15.
Silas Soule's assassination occurred two weeks after the end of the Civil War.
16.
One of Silas Soule's assassins fled the scene, but Squier was eventually caught and brought back to Denver for a court-martial.
17.
Silas Soule's legs were crushed in a railroad accident, and he died from gangrene in 1869.
18.
Silas Soule was first buried at Denver City Cemetery.
19.
Silas Soule's widow is buried in a different section at Riverside Cemetery.
20.
Silas Soule's name has been proposed as a replacement name for several locations in Colorado.
21.
Silas Soule was among several proposals submitted to the US Board on Geographic Names to rename Mount Evans.
22.
In 2022, Silas Soule's name was submitted to the USBGN to replace Pingree Park, Pingree Road and Pingree Hill after Colorado State University renamed its nearby campus Colorado State University Mountain Campus.