Silas Stillman Soule (July 26, 1838 – April 23, 1865) was an American abolitionist, Kansas Territory Jayhawker, anti-slavery militant, and a friend of John Brown and Walt Whitman.

Silas Soule was in command of Company D, 1st Colorado Cavalry, which was present at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864, when he refused an order to join the Sand Creek massacre . During the subsequent inquiry, Soule testified against the massacre's commanding officer, John Chivington, and soon after, he was murdered in Denver.

Content warning about the Sand Creek Massacre if you click that link.

I've known about the Sand Creek Massacre since college, I didn't know it had its own Hugh Thompson

Content warning about the My Lai massacre.

Pouring one out for Silas today. :john-brown:

What happened to his murderer you ask?

On April 23, 1865, nearly three months after testifying before a military commission investigating the Sand Creek Massacre and three weeks after getting married, Soule was on duty as Provost Marshal in Denver when he went to investigate guns being fired around 10:30 p.m. With his pistol out, Soule went around a corner and faced Charles Squier. Soule fired the first shot and wounded Squier's left arm, but Squier fired a bullet into Soule's right cheek bone. Soule was dead before help could arrive. Squier dropped his pistol and ran before he could be arrested by the authorities. Soule's assassination occurred two weeks after the end of the Civil War.

Squier was turned in and was jailed awaiting trial. He escaped and fled to New York where his father was. Once there he held various jobs, and tried to rejoin the Army but was rejected. Squier then fled to Central America trying to avoid the law. His legs were crushed in a railroad accident and he later died from gangrene in 1869 Despite his crime, he was buried in New York with honors

:michael-laugh: