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Military
The military stories, conversely, are the least credible group. West’s, Stocking’s, and McCleave’s stories all differ significantly from one another, and they are lacking in some degree of internal credibility and value. Additionally, they all leave out the removal of Mangas Coloradas’s head, which does appear to have actually been in the possession of Orson Fowler.
West
Brigadier General Joseph R. West was sent to the area specifically to “chastise” Mangas Coloradas and his band of Apaches under the order of Carleton’s General Order 1 (Hunt 64). West was there under orders that were specifically aggressive towards Coloradas, plausibly intending Coloradas’s murder. Like Carleton, he had a vested interest by virtue of his position in the U.S. military, which would have influenced his values and his actions in this situation. West’s actions were part of his job, and he could have been demoted or relieved of his command for acting poorly, or promoted or retained for acting well. This introduces two corrupting values to his character that would influence his credibility; he has reason to lie to avoid punishment or to gain professional benefit.
West’s account of Coloradas’s death is found in a letter reporting to Captain Ben C. Cutler (Assistant Adjutant General, Santa Fe) written January 28, 1863, 10 days after Coloradas’s death (West to Cutler, The War of the Rebellion 296). This report is oddly situated: throughout the text, West speaks as if he is justifying his own actions to a supervisor, but a Brigadier General outranks a Captain, so West has no reason to justify his actions to Cutler specifically. It is plausible that this tone is due to the fact that this is an official military report, and while Cutler may not be able to hold him directly accountable, this letter would be a part of the record accessible to West’s supervisors if there were questions about what happened or even a formal inquiry, as is suggested in at least one account.8 It is plausible that Carleton even asked West to report his progress back to Cutler, as Carleton’s letter to Thomas states that he was leaving on other military business soon after issuing General Order 1 (Carleton to Thomas, The War of the Rebellion 275).
West’s report states that, in compliance with General Order No 1 (West to Cutler, The War of the Rebellion 296), he sent Captain Edmond D. Shirland to find Coloradas and use his best judgment on whether to kill or capture him. West makes two interesting and contradictory claims in his report that severely impact its fidelity, as seen below:
…[Coloradas’s] expressed desire for peace was only instigated by fear of the chastisement which he saw was about to be inflicted upon him and his people. I determined at once that, although the circumstances under which he had voluntarily placed himself in my power would not permit the taking of his life as some retribution for his murders of our people, security for the future required that he never should have it again in his power to perpetrate such atrocities. (West to Cutler, The War of the Rebellion 296)
First, West claims that Coloradas only “expressed desire for peace…” out of fear of punishment, and then immediately afterwards, that Coloradas “voluntarily placed himself in [West’s] power.” It is difficult to imagine why the Apache chief would have surrendered to Shirland if peace talks were not already on his mind. If he did, as West claims, only begin to discuss peace after threat of punishment, why would he have surrendered to that possibility of punishment in the first place? This self-contradiction not only reflects a lack of fidelity within West’s account, as it does not follow the logic of good reason, but the first claim also does not accord with what is known about Coloradas’s actions leading up to this event, actions confirmed by multiple narratives.
From the messages given to Carleton where Coloradas expresses his desire for peace, it is obvious that Coloradas had this intention before talking with West. This is also in accordance with the statements from all three Apaches. Furthermore, it is readily apparent that West knew of this desire for peace from letters he had received from Carleton that mention the latter’s distrust of Coloradas. West’s statement that Coloradas had no previous desire for peace talks, therefore, is not only erroneous but intentionally deceptive. This discrepancy with what is known about Coloradas’s actions reduces West’s coherence, further challenging his credibility. While West could have argued that he was distrustful of Coloradas’s desire for peace, he did not; he went out of his way to lie by saying that Coloradas had no desire for peace. His falsehood is contradicted by documented letters, and the falsehood is also obvious through the lack of fidelity and coherence in his story; this can be implied to be caused by corrupted values if West believed the true story would negatively impact his career. This statement is also called into question by the reference in the Order to taking Coloradas’s life. The Order could easily be read to mean that while “retribution for his murders of our people…” was not reason enough to take Coloradas’s life, providing “security for the future” was. West’s report, combined with what we know about West’s orders in the area, provides support to the idea that Coloradas’s death was understood as an objective of General Order 1.
West describes Mangas Coloradas’s death as taking place at 1:00 a.m. as he was shot by the guard on his third attempt to escape. Other narratives give us reason to doubt that he was killed “escaping,” as neither the other two military stories nor the miner account makes this claim. West also mentions nothing about the treatment of Coloradas’s body after his death. While West does not deny the removal and theft of Coloradas’s head, he does not make note of it either. This missing detail, that we know to be true, serves West by buttressing his claim that the U.S. military had done nothing wrong. It is possible that West left that particular detail out simply to keep his report short and to the point, rather than as a malicious attempt to cover it up. Additionally, West may not have known about this because, like the Apaches, he was not actually there for the event. However, unlike the Apaches who only had scouts to rely on for information about Coloradas’s death, West is much more likely to have been privy to this knowledge as it happened under a captain who was reporting to him. In the same vein, West has a larger motivation to hide this fact, as it is something that could jeopardize his job.
None of the military accounts agree with each other, but West’s particularly stands out as lacking in fidelity, as he is the narrator with the most to lose. Clark Stocking was not responsible professionally for the actions that took place, and McCleave likely recorded his story towards the end of his life when there were no real dangers of repercussions.
Stocking
Clark Stocking, a member of the California Volunteers, is the person who gives the clearest evidence that West wanted Coloradas dead. He attributes to West what became a relatively well-known quote, with West telling Coloradas’s guards, “I want him dead or alive tomorrow morning, do you understand? I want him dead” (Myers 9-10). Stocking describes the circumstances of Coloradas’s “attempted escape” as provoked by the guards, where a rock is thrown into Coloradas’s wall, and he is shot as he jumps up in alarm (Myers 9-10). This is similar to Conner’s story, which will be discussed later. Stocking also, interestingly, mentions the Walker mining party, which none of the other military stories nor any military records cite. While this does set this story apart from the other military stories, it aligns it with Conner’s stories mentioned later, so it does not completely represent a lack of coherence.
In fact, Stocking’s story appears to be the most credible of the military and miner stories. Unlike the other narrators, Stocking’s job was never on the line for his actions; he was simply a spectator. He did not change his story, and he had no identifiable corrupting values in telling his story.
McCleave
McCleave’s account, on the other hand, is definitely the outlier of the bunch. The story does not mention any military orders to capture or subdue Coloradas; his story actually involves peace talks, which, as previously mentioned, these military officers would not have had the authority to hold. While peace talks with Indians often happened in this unofficial way—even entire treaties were made, discussed, and agreed upon, only to be ratified by Congress later, if ratified at all, based on the nature of General Order 1 and the intentions of Carleton discussed earlier, it is unlikely that even an unofficial peace treaty was on the table. McCleave’s is the only military account that claims Coloradas was in Fort McLane before the day he was killed and the only account saying there were other Apaches in the encampment at the same time (5-8). The depiction of Coloradas’s death is atypical as well, as McCleave claims Coloradas is drunk, taken under guard for his own protection, and then is killed trying to rush his guard, which does not accord with any of the other accounts (5-8).
This lack of coherence with the other stories, not only among the military narratives but overall, makes McCleave’s account stand out as non-credible, and the tone in which it is written fully supports that assessment. In his work The Enigma of Mangas Coloradas, Lee Myers questions whether this account really is even written by McCleave due to the self-effacing writing which is unusual when compared to his other writings (3). This account was, however, found unfinished among McCleave’s personal papers and donated to the Bancroft Library by his wife (Hammond 5-8), so although Myers offers up another potential author who was paid money for rights to the story in 1870, it is hard to see how an unfinished version of the account would end up in a box of McCleave’s personal papers. Therefore, it seems likely that this account was, in fact, written by McCleave.
Though it was likely written by him, that does not make it credible. With the lack of coherence evidenced in two major contradictions with the other stories mentioned above, as well as the fact that McCleave is writing this narrative in such a figurative tone towards the end of his life, one is led to believe that he may be trying his hand at creative writing, and the fact that this account lay unfinished in a box for years makes it seem that he may not have meant for it to ever be published. Either way, the values with which this story was written do not lend credibility to McCleave’s narrative, nor do the frequent contradictions with every other narrative studied here.
[8] It appears that West did face charges of brutality for the death of Mangas Coloradas. Conner mentions a Governor Arny who brought up these charges, and a defense given by West in the Washington Republic (McClintock, 176-77). While finding the documents related to the charges and defense proved to be extremely difficult and beyond the scope of this paper, it is apparent that Carleton and West did know William Arny at the time (Murphy, 126-127; Arny, Santa Fe Gazette), and Conner’s account does suggest that charges were made.