On a windswept day exactly 161 years after his murder, Silas Soule’s white marble headstone attracts few visitors. A small bouquet of artificial flowers adds a splash of color that sets this marker apart from the rows of other military graves, while a couple of patriotic pins lie in the dust at its base.
The date the 26-year-old Soule died — April 23 — doesn’t draw nearly as many people to this section of Denver’s Riverside Cemetery as some other days. In October or November, the annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run brings a crowd to honor the Army officer shot to death in 1865, only a few months after he told Congress the truth about the Nov. 29, 1864 slaughter of about 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly older adults, women and children.
On or around July 26, a minister often marks Soule’s birthday by setting up a lawn chair beneath an umbrella and reading his historic letters aloud, including the one that chronicles his refusal to follow orders from Col. John Chivington, a Methodist minister turned Army officer, to attack the peaceful encampment…