Samuel F. Tappan
Encyclopedia
Samuel Forster Tappan was an American journalist
, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American
rights activist. He advocated self-determination
for native tribes and proposed the federal government replace military jurisdiction over tribal matters with a form of civil law
on reservations, applied by the tribes themselves.
Tappan family, which included clergymen, politicians, merchants, sea captains, cabinet-makers, inventors, poets, philanthropists, educators, and abolitionists. He was a first cousin once removed of the famous New York
silk
merchants, philanthropist
s and abolitionists Arthur Tappan
(1786–1865) and Lewis Tappan
(1788–1873)as well as their eldest brother Senator Benjamin Tappan
(1773–1857) of Ohio
, who mentored Edwin M. Stanton
, later Secretary of War
under Abraham Lincoln
.
Sam Tappan received a common school education and then went to work in the cabinet-making trade in his native town learning to make chairs together with his father. He then worked in Boston at his uncle's clothing store.
, William Lloyd Garrison
, Theodore Parker
and others. In May 1854 the capture of the slave Anthony Burns stirred a fierce reaction among Boston's abolitionists and may have inspired Tappan to take personal action following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
.
At the age of 23, Tappan was one of twenty-nine New England settlers who came to found what later became Lawrence, Kansas
, in August 1854 as part of the New England Emigants Aid Society's "pioneer party." He staked a claim to land that abutted the claim of the homeopathic physician Dr. John Doy, formerly of Rochester, New York
. He was also a correspondent for Horace Greeley
's New York Tribune
and did some writing for the Boston Atlas and several other newspapers, reporting on the territory’s first difficulties with border raiders. As an active abolitionist, he covered the antislavery movement in the Kansas Territory
, including reports dealing with the armed and sometimes deadly conflicts between the territory’s Pro-Slavery advocates and those aligned with the Free-State movement. Tappan was also actively involved in the Underground Railroad
, moving slaves through Kansas to northern states. He also participated in 1855 in Jacob Branson's rescue during the short-lived Wakarusa War
.
Tappan became active in the volatile political activity in the territory. In 1855, accompanied by political activist Martin F. Conway
, he traveled through southern and western Kansas, speaking in favor of the free-state movement. He also maintained close ties to both the Kansas-based and East Coast leadership of the New England Emigrant Aid Society and participated in helping to smuggle arms (nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles
") and other assistance to Free-Soil settlers. Tappan was clerk of the Topeka constitutional convention; assistant clerk of the House of Representatives in 1856; and the following year performed the duties of Speaker of the Topeka House of Representatives. He was secretary of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, and acted as clerk of the Wyandotte convention in 1859. His first cousin Lewis N. Tappan
also emigrated to Kansas in 1857 and was Secretary of the Senate under the Topeka Constitution. Lewis Tappan was also one of the Fort Scott Treaty Commissioners and one of fifteen armed men who captured the box containing the altered election returns at Lecompton the discovery of which resulted in the overthrow of the pro-slavery party in Kansas.
In 1860, Tappan relocated as a "Pike's Peaker" to the settlement that became Denver, Colorado
. This move was part of a business arrangement involving his cousin Lewis N. Tappan and the then relatively unknown Henry Villard
who had both preceded him to the goldfields by a year. Sam Tappan worked as a journalist for the Daily Herald and became involved in gold and other mineral exploration and township settlement. His cousins Lewis N. Tappan (1831–1880), George H. Tappan (1833–1865), joined later in 1865 by William H. Tappan (1821–1907), operated Tappan & Co. one of the first general stores serving miners with branches in Denver, Golden and Central City.
in 1861, Tappan received a commission from Colorado's Territorial Governor William C. Gilpin to help raise a regiment
of Union
volunteer troops. Commissioned initially as a captain, his success in recruitment drives in the small Colorado mining communities of Black Hawk, Georgetown, Golden
, and Central City resulted in his being promoted by Gilpin to the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the newly-formed First Colorado Volunteer regiment, serving under Colonel John P. Slough
, a lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio
. After helping train the regiment at Camp Weld near Denver, Tappan was placed in command of Fort Wise with a detachment of the regiment until news arrived of the invasion of New Mexico Territory
by Confederates from Texas
.
in New Mexico. Tappan participated in the second day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass
on March 28, 1862, at Pigeon's Ranch. Tappan was the effective field commander of the Federal forces during the main engagement that day and exposed to enemy fire while Colonel Slough directed the Federal activity from the rear. Tappan's actions that day were eventually overshadowed by the later success of the one-third of Slough's command which had bypassed the Confederate lines and attacked and destroyed the enemy wagon train and supplies in their rear near Johnson's Ranch. Commanded by major
John M. Chivington, a former Methodist Minister, who had also commanded the advance Union force which tangled with and defeated an advance Confederate unit on March 27 at Apache Canyon, this Union detachment effectively ended the threat posed by the Confederate invaders by destroying their supplies and ammunition stores.
When Slough resigned the Colonelcy a few days after the victory at Glorieta Pass, Tappan was the ranking officer and acting Colonel. Although later recognized by both Col. Edward R. S. Canby, Commander of the Department of New Mexico, and Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson
of the First New Mexico Vounteers for his sound military abilities, Tappan voluntarily relinquished his seniority rights and joined in signing a petition from among the men of the First Colorado to elevate Chivington, the recent hero of the Glorieta battle to the Colonelcy. This eventually became a source of friction with Chivington. Tappan again participated in action at Peralta
on April 15, 1862, as the Union troops pursued the retreating Confederate forces under Brig. Gen.
Henry Hopkins Sibley
southward back towards Texas. Tappan, with the rest of the First Colorado, remained in New Mexico billeted at Fort Craig
, serving under Canby well into the summer of 1862.
, a command in a remote part of southern Colorado near the traditional lands of the Utes and also containing a large Hispanic population. During his command of Fort Garland, he was assigned by Governor John Evans
and Colonel Chivington to hunt down the Espinoza brothers, brigands and murderers who killed 32 Colorado citizens in cold blood and engaged in rape, robbery and other destructive acts. A $2500 reward had been offered by Governor Evans for the capture either dead or alive of the Espinozas. Employing the services of noted mountain man, Indian scout and tracker Tom Tobin
, Tappan assigned a group of troopers to accompany Tobin and track down the Espinozas. On the fourth day, Tobin tracked down the Espinosas and killed the two brothers, bringing their severed heads back to Tappan as proof of his success. When Tappan forwarded the trophies to Denver, Chivington used the opportunity to lambast Tappan for such "unchristian" behavior despite the common use of the time of such methods. Tappan also paid Tobin from his own pocket when Governor Evans failed to pay the full reward he was owed. Years later as a matter of personal honor, Tappan sponsored an effort to make restitution to an aged and penniless Tobin.
In 1864 Tappan's father died in Massachusetts and, after numerous queries to Chivington, Tappan was finally granted his first leave of the war. After returning home to help comfort his mother and sisters, he traveled to Washington, D.C.
where his cousin Elizabeth Tappan Tannatt's (sister of his Colorado cousins' Lewis, William and George Tappan) husband, Col. Thomas R. Tannatt commanded the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery in the city's defenses and John P. Slough, his former Colonel in the First Colorado, had been appointed a Brigadier General and was the Military Governor of Alexandria and commander of the fortifications at Fort Ward near Alexandria, Virginia
. Edward R.S. Canby had also been promoted to Brigadier General following the successful defense of New Mexico against the Confederate invasion and transferred to Washington, D.C.
, where he served as Assistant Adjutant General and military aide to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
. Possibly through their efforts and possibly those of others, Tappan met personally with General Ulysses S. Grant
and received an invitation from Grant to visit his field command at City Point, Virginia
, where he spent several weeks before returning to Colorado.
Tappan returned to Colorado in November 1864 and was laid up at Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory with a broken foot incurred on the eve of his arrival. This was two days before elements of the First Colorado, together with the 100 day soldiers of the Third Colorado, under the command of Colonel Chivington, initiated an attack on a peaceful encampment of Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek. This attack originated on November 29, 1864, from Fort Lyon following an argument between Tappan and Chivington where Tappan tried to dissuade Chivington from making the attack on the Indian villages which were under the protection of the Federal troops at Fort Lyon pursuant to an agreement reached that Fall with the then Commander of Fort Lyon, Major Edward S. Wynkoop. The 700 Federal troopers under Chivington attacked the Indian villages at first light and killed 150 Indians, many of whom were women and children, losing 9 or 10 soldiers. Some of the victorious troopers mutilated the bodies and returned to Denver where these grisly battle souvenirs were proudly and publicly displayed to the citizens of Denver. The action at Sand Creek was greeted by citizens of Denver as a justifiable military victory which helped to avenge the murders of Plains settlers such as the Hungate family. However it eventually began to be seen in the nation at large as an unjustifiable massacre of peaceful Indians under Peace Chiefs such as Chief Black Kettle
of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe.
Tappan was appointed to head the military commission that investigated Colonel Chivington for his role in the action at Sand Creek. After testifying to Tappan and his fellow Commissioners at the inquiry against Chivington held in Denver, Capt. Silas S. Soule Soule, a fellow Kansas pioneer and abolitionist, was killed by Charles W. Squires, another of the Colorado volunteers, presumably for his testimony against Chivington. Major Wynkoop also testified against Chivington at the inquiry at which Tappan presided. Tappan was later promoted to the brevet rank of Colonel before being mustered out of the Army at the end of the Civil War. During his service in the First Colorado Cavalry, elements of the regiment also joined the New Mexico Volunteers in campaigns against various Plains tribes, including the Kiowa
, Comanche
, and Apache
.
in July 1867, pursuant to an act of the US Congress, to serve as a member of the Indian Peace Commission along with Generals William Tecumseh Sherman
, William S. Harney
, Alfred H. Terry, and C. C. Augur and several prominent civilians. The Commission negotiated with several tribes in the Plains during 1867-1868 as well as other native tribes in the Southwest. In Kansas, on October 21, 1867, the group negotiated the Medicine Lodge Treaty
with the tribes of the Southern plain. He and Gen. Sherman were the two commission members who finalized the Navajo Treaty of Bosque Redondo in 1868 at Fort Sumner, New Mexico
that ended the Bosque Redondo reservation fiasco. Tappan met several times with President Johnson and General Grant during his service with the Commission as well as many members of Congress.
During his service with the Commission Tappan also recruited the young and inexperienced Henry Morton Stanley
, later the famed African explorer and author, first as a clerk to cover the Commission's work and later recommended that he be hired as a correspondent to file dispatches with major newspapers. It was through this work that Stanley came to the attention of James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
of the New York Herald
who later sent him to Africa in search of Dr. David Livingstone
. Tappan also developed a lifelong friendship with the pioneer, buffalo hunter, Indian agent, illustrator and prominent Colorado artist/designer John Dare Howland who was a clerk for the Commission and who later designed the Civil War monument at the Colorado Capitol building.
Tappan was a leading member of Peter Cooper
's United States Indian Commission, founded in 1869. He promoted legislation in favor of the funding of annuities and economic assistance promised to the Indians by the federal Indian Peace Commission two years before. Tappan remained active in the cause of native rights throughout the 1870s, strongly supporting President Ulysses S. Grant
's Peace Policy. He openly charged that the efforts of the Peace Policy to reach a final settlement with Plains and Southwest Indians were being undermined by congressional railroad and land speculation interests, and that these interests were ultimately responsible for such atrocities against the Indians as the 1871 massacre of Eskiminzin
's Apache band at Camp Grant, Arizona.
(later known as Cora L.V. Richmond 1840-1923)and moved to Washington, DC Minnie joined their household and continued her studies in Washington. When Tappan and his wife moved a few years later to Titusville, Pennsylvania
, as part of a business venture, he made arrangements with his friend General Oliver Otis Howard for Minnie to continue her education at the Preparatory Department of what is now Howard University. While she was studying there she fell ill and died and was buried in a Boston, Massachusetts, cemetery. Tappan also lived for a time during the post-War period in New York City
.
Following his service with the Indian Peace Commission, Tappan worked for his former associate Henry Villard at the Oregon Steamship and Railway Company during the 1870s to help systematize and encourage emigration to Oregon. He traveled during this time to Alaska and also represented Oregon at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 in Philadelphia. He later lived in California for a time. Tappan was later appointed during the Presidency of Chester A. Arthur
to become the first Superintendent of the United States Indian Industrial school
in Genoa, Nebraska
in 1884-1885. The school was started to teach trades and educate Native Americans. Tappan served until removed by President Grover Cleveland.
Tappan's marriage to Cora, who was a Spiritualist medium, author, poet, abolitionist, and fellow Native American rights activist, eventually ended in divorce and they had no children together. He lived in Washington, D.C.
for the last years of his life and was buried after his death at Arlington National Cemetery
.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
rights activist. He advocated self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
for native tribes and proposed the federal government replace military jurisdiction over tribal matters with a form of civil law
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
on reservations, applied by the tribes themselves.
Early life and family
Tappan, a native of Manchester, Massachusetts, near Boston was a member of the prominent New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
Tappan family, which included clergymen, politicians, merchants, sea captains, cabinet-makers, inventors, poets, philanthropists, educators, and abolitionists. He was a first cousin once removed of the famous New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
merchants, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
s and abolitionists Arthur Tappan
Arthur Tappan
Arthur Tappan was an American abolitionist. He was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan, and abolitionist Lewis Tappan.-Biography:...
(1786–1865) and Lewis Tappan
Lewis Tappan
Lewis Tappan was a New York abolitionist who worked to achieve the freedom of the illegally enslaved Africans of the Amistad. Contacted by Connecticut abolitionists soon after the Amistad arrived in port, Tappan focused extensively on the captive Africans...
(1788–1873)as well as their eldest brother Senator Benjamin Tappan
Benjamin Tappan
Benjamin Tappan was an Ohio judge and Democratic politician who served in the Ohio State Senate and the United States Senate...
(1773–1857) of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, who mentored Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...
, later Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
under Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
Sam Tappan received a common school education and then went to work in the cabinet-making trade in his native town learning to make chairs together with his father. He then worked in Boston at his uncle's clothing store.
Abolitionist activity
While in Boston, Tappan was disturbed by the fate of fugitive slaves who were caught pursuant to the Fugitive Slave Act and returned to servile labor. Tappan was encouraged in his abolitionism by family members and prominent men who included Wendell PhillipsWendell Phillips
Wendell Phillips was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater.-Education:...
, William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
, Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
and others. In May 1854 the capture of the slave Anthony Burns stirred a fierce reaction among Boston's abolitionists and may have inspired Tappan to take personal action following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
.
At the age of 23, Tappan was one of twenty-nine New England settlers who came to found what later became Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
, in August 1854 as part of the New England Emigants Aid Society's "pioneer party." He staked a claim to land that abutted the claim of the homeopathic physician Dr. John Doy, formerly of Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
. He was also a correspondent for Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
's New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
and did some writing for the Boston Atlas and several other newspapers, reporting on the territory’s first difficulties with border raiders. As an active abolitionist, he covered the antislavery movement in the Kansas Territory
Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Kansas....
, including reports dealing with the armed and sometimes deadly conflicts between the territory’s Pro-Slavery advocates and those aligned with the Free-State movement. Tappan was also actively involved in the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
, moving slaves through Kansas to northern states. He also participated in 1855 in Jacob Branson's rescue during the short-lived Wakarusa War
Wakarusa War
The Wakarusa War was a skirmish that took place in Kansas Territory during November and December 1855 as part of the Bleeding Kansas violence. It centered around Lawrence, Kansas, and the Wakarusa River Valley.- Background :...
.
Tappan became active in the volatile political activity in the territory. In 1855, accompanied by political activist Martin F. Conway
Martin F. Conway
Martin Franklin Conway was a U.S. congressman, consul to France, abolitionist, and advocate of the Free-State movement in Kansas....
, he traveled through southern and western Kansas, speaking in favor of the free-state movement. He also maintained close ties to both the Kansas-based and East Coast leadership of the New England Emigrant Aid Society and participated in helping to smuggle arms (nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles
Beecher's Bibles
"Beecher's Bibles" was the name given to the breech loading Sharps rifles that were supplied to the anti-slavery immigrants in Kansas.The name came from the eminent New England minister Henry Ward Beecher, of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, of whom it was written in a February 8, 1856,...
") and other assistance to Free-Soil settlers. Tappan was clerk of the Topeka constitutional convention; assistant clerk of the House of Representatives in 1856; and the following year performed the duties of Speaker of the Topeka House of Representatives. He was secretary of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, and acted as clerk of the Wyandotte convention in 1859. His first cousin Lewis N. Tappan
Lewis Northey Tappan
Lewis Northey Tappan was an abolitionist, politician, and Colorado pioneer and entrepreneur. He was son of Colonel Ebenezer Tappan, a manufacturer and State Legislator of the prominent Tappan family of Massachusetts...
also emigrated to Kansas in 1857 and was Secretary of the Senate under the Topeka Constitution. Lewis Tappan was also one of the Fort Scott Treaty Commissioners and one of fifteen armed men who captured the box containing the altered election returns at Lecompton the discovery of which resulted in the overthrow of the pro-slavery party in Kansas.
In 1860, Tappan relocated as a "Pike's Peaker" to the settlement that became Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. This move was part of a business arrangement involving his cousin Lewis N. Tappan and the then relatively unknown Henry Villard
Henry Villard
Henry Villard was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway....
who had both preceded him to the goldfields by a year. Sam Tappan worked as a journalist for the Daily Herald and became involved in gold and other mineral exploration and township settlement. His cousins Lewis N. Tappan (1831–1880), George H. Tappan (1833–1865), joined later in 1865 by William H. Tappan (1821–1907), operated Tappan & Co. one of the first general stores serving miners with branches in Denver, Golden and Central City.
Enlistment
With the outbreak of the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in 1861, Tappan received a commission from Colorado's Territorial Governor William C. Gilpin to help raise a regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
of Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
volunteer troops. Commissioned initially as a captain, his success in recruitment drives in the small Colorado mining communities of Black Hawk, Georgetown, Golden
Golden, Colorado
The City of Golden is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the edge of the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was...
, and Central City resulted in his being promoted by Gilpin to the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the newly-formed First Colorado Volunteer regiment, serving under Colonel John P. Slough
John P. Slough
John Potts Slough was an American politician, lawyer, Union general during the American Civil War, and Chief Justice of New Mexico. He commanded the Union forces at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.-Early life and career:Slough was born in Cincinnati, Ohio...
, a lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. After helping train the regiment at Camp Weld near Denver, Tappan was placed in command of Fort Wise with a detachment of the regiment until news arrived of the invasion of New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
by Confederates from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Service in New Mexico Territory
Tappan and his charges joined the hurried movement of the First Colorado Volunteers to reinforce Fort Union in New Mexico in early March 1862 and later saw action against the Confederate troops along the Santa Fe TrailSanta Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
in New Mexico. Tappan participated in the second day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass
Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Confederate forces to break...
on March 28, 1862, at Pigeon's Ranch. Tappan was the effective field commander of the Federal forces during the main engagement that day and exposed to enemy fire while Colonel Slough directed the Federal activity from the rear. Tappan's actions that day were eventually overshadowed by the later success of the one-third of Slough's command which had bypassed the Confederate lines and attacked and destroyed the enemy wagon train and supplies in their rear near Johnson's Ranch. Commanded by major
Major (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, major is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel...
John M. Chivington, a former Methodist Minister, who had also commanded the advance Union force which tangled with and defeated an advance Confederate unit on March 27 at Apache Canyon, this Union detachment effectively ended the threat posed by the Confederate invaders by destroying their supplies and ammunition stores.
When Slough resigned the Colonelcy a few days after the victory at Glorieta Pass, Tappan was the ranking officer and acting Colonel. Although later recognized by both Col. Edward R. S. Canby, Commander of the Department of New Mexico, and Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
of the First New Mexico Vounteers for his sound military abilities, Tappan voluntarily relinquished his seniority rights and joined in signing a petition from among the men of the First Colorado to elevate Chivington, the recent hero of the Glorieta battle to the Colonelcy. This eventually became a source of friction with Chivington. Tappan again participated in action at Peralta
Battle of Peralta
The Battle of Peralta was a minor engagement near the end of Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley's 1862 New Mexico Campaign.-Battle:...
on April 15, 1862, as the Union troops pursued the retreating Confederate forces under Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Henry Hopkins Sibley
Henry Hopkins Sibley
Henry Hopkins Sibley was a brigadier general during the American Civil War, leading the Confederate States Army in the New Mexico Territory. His attempt to gain control of trails to California was defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass...
southward back towards Texas. Tappan, with the rest of the First Colorado, remained in New Mexico billeted at Fort Craig
Fort Craig
Fort Craig was a U.S. Army fort located along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the Rio Grande in Socorro County, New Mexico....
, serving under Canby well into the summer of 1862.
Return to Colorado
After an act of perceived insubordination in 1863 Tappan was relegated by Chivington to the command of Fort GarlandFort Garland
Fort Garland , Colorado, USA, was designed to house two companies of soldiers to protect settlers in the San Luis Valley, which was the Territory of New Mexico...
, a command in a remote part of southern Colorado near the traditional lands of the Utes and also containing a large Hispanic population. During his command of Fort Garland, he was assigned by Governor John Evans
John Evans (governor)
John Evans was a U.S. politician, physician, railroad promoter, Governor of the Territory of Colorado, and namesake of Evanston, Illinois; Evans, Colorado; and Mount Evans, Colorado...
and Colonel Chivington to hunt down the Espinoza brothers, brigands and murderers who killed 32 Colorado citizens in cold blood and engaged in rape, robbery and other destructive acts. A $2500 reward had been offered by Governor Evans for the capture either dead or alive of the Espinozas. Employing the services of noted mountain man, Indian scout and tracker Tom Tobin
Thomas Tate Tobin
Tom Tobin was an American adventurer, tracker, trapper, mountain man, guide, US Army scout, and occasional bounty hunter. Tobin explored much of southern Colorado, including the Pueblo area. He associated with men such as Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wootton, Ceran St. Vrain, Charley Bent, John C....
, Tappan assigned a group of troopers to accompany Tobin and track down the Espinozas. On the fourth day, Tobin tracked down the Espinosas and killed the two brothers, bringing their severed heads back to Tappan as proof of his success. When Tappan forwarded the trophies to Denver, Chivington used the opportunity to lambast Tappan for such "unchristian" behavior despite the common use of the time of such methods. Tappan also paid Tobin from his own pocket when Governor Evans failed to pay the full reward he was owed. Years later as a matter of personal honor, Tappan sponsored an effort to make restitution to an aged and penniless Tobin.
In 1864 Tappan's father died in Massachusetts and, after numerous queries to Chivington, Tappan was finally granted his first leave of the war. After returning home to help comfort his mother and sisters, he traveled to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
where his cousin Elizabeth Tappan Tannatt's (sister of his Colorado cousins' Lewis, William and George Tappan) husband, Col. Thomas R. Tannatt commanded the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery in the city's defenses and John P. Slough, his former Colonel in the First Colorado, had been appointed a Brigadier General and was the Military Governor of Alexandria and commander of the fortifications at Fort Ward near Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
. Edward R.S. Canby had also been promoted to Brigadier General following the successful defense of New Mexico against the Confederate invasion and transferred to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he served as Assistant Adjutant General and military aide to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...
. Possibly through their efforts and possibly those of others, Tappan met personally with General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
and received an invitation from Grant to visit his field command at City Point, Virginia
City Point, Virginia
City Point was a town in Prince George County, Virginia that was annexed by the independent city of Hopewell in 1923. It served as headquarters of the Union Army during the Siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War.- History :...
, where he spent several weeks before returning to Colorado.
Tappan returned to Colorado in November 1864 and was laid up at Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory with a broken foot incurred on the eve of his arrival. This was two days before elements of the First Colorado, together with the 100 day soldiers of the Third Colorado, under the command of Colonel Chivington, initiated an attack on a peaceful encampment of Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek. This attack originated on November 29, 1864, from Fort Lyon following an argument between Tappan and Chivington where Tappan tried to dissuade Chivington from making the attack on the Indian villages which were under the protection of the Federal troops at Fort Lyon pursuant to an agreement reached that Fall with the then Commander of Fort Lyon, Major Edward S. Wynkoop. The 700 Federal troopers under Chivington attacked the Indian villages at first light and killed 150 Indians, many of whom were women and children, losing 9 or 10 soldiers. Some of the victorious troopers mutilated the bodies and returned to Denver where these grisly battle souvenirs were proudly and publicly displayed to the citizens of Denver. The action at Sand Creek was greeted by citizens of Denver as a justifiable military victory which helped to avenge the murders of Plains settlers such as the Hungate family. However it eventually began to be seen in the nation at large as an unjustifiable massacre of peaceful Indians under Peace Chiefs such as Chief Black Kettle
Black Kettle
Chief Black Kettle was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne after 1854, who led efforts to resist American settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He was a peacemaker who accepted treaties to protect his people. He survived the Third Colorado Cavalry's Sand Creek Massacre on the Cheyenne...
of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe.
Tappan was appointed to head the military commission that investigated Colonel Chivington for his role in the action at Sand Creek. After testifying to Tappan and his fellow Commissioners at the inquiry against Chivington held in Denver, Capt. Silas S. Soule Soule, a fellow Kansas pioneer and abolitionist, was killed by Charles W. Squires, another of the Colorado volunteers, presumably for his testimony against Chivington. Major Wynkoop also testified against Chivington at the inquiry at which Tappan presided. Tappan was later promoted to the brevet rank of Colonel before being mustered out of the Army at the end of the Civil War. During his service in the First Colorado Cavalry, elements of the regiment also joined the New Mexico Volunteers in campaigns against various Plains tribes, including the Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
, and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
.
Native American Rights activities
Both as a military officer and a civilian, Tappan was involved in negotiations and treaties between Native Americans and the United States government. While serving at Fort Garland, Tappan commented on the enslavement of the Utes by Mexicans and sought official support to try to end the practice. Tappan was later appointed by President Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
in July 1867, pursuant to an act of the US Congress, to serve as a member of the Indian Peace Commission along with Generals William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
, William S. Harney
William S. Harney
William Selby Harney was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was born in what is today part of Nashville, Tennessee but at the time was known as Haysborough....
, Alfred H. Terry, and C. C. Augur and several prominent civilians. The Commission negotiated with several tribes in the Plains during 1867-1868 as well as other native tribes in the Southwest. In Kansas, on October 21, 1867, the group negotiated the Medicine Lodge Treaty
Medicine Lodge Treaty
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American...
with the tribes of the Southern plain. He and Gen. Sherman were the two commission members who finalized the Navajo Treaty of Bosque Redondo in 1868 at Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner is a village in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,249 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of De Baca County...
that ended the Bosque Redondo reservation fiasco. Tappan met several times with President Johnson and General Grant during his service with the Commission as well as many members of Congress.
During his service with the Commission Tappan also recruited the young and inexperienced Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands , was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Upon finding Livingstone, Stanley allegedly uttered the now-famous greeting, "Dr...
, later the famed African explorer and author, first as a clerk to cover the Commission's work and later recommended that he be hired as a correspondent to file dispatches with major newspapers. It was through this work that Stanley came to the attention of James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was publisher of the New York Herald, founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett, Sr., who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father....
of the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
who later sent him to Africa in search of Dr. David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
. Tappan also developed a lifelong friendship with the pioneer, buffalo hunter, Indian agent, illustrator and prominent Colorado artist/designer John Dare Howland who was a clerk for the Commission and who later designed the Civil War monument at the Colorado Capitol building.
Tappan was a leading member of Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States...
's United States Indian Commission, founded in 1869. He promoted legislation in favor of the funding of annuities and economic assistance promised to the Indians by the federal Indian Peace Commission two years before. Tappan remained active in the cause of native rights throughout the 1870s, strongly supporting President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
's Peace Policy. He openly charged that the efforts of the Peace Policy to reach a final settlement with Plains and Southwest Indians were being undermined by congressional railroad and land speculation interests, and that these interests were ultimately responsible for such atrocities against the Indians as the 1871 massacre of Eskiminzin
Eskiminzin
Eskiminzin was an Aravaipa Apache chief during the Apache Wars....
's Apache band at Camp Grant, Arizona.
Marriage and later life
Following the Washita Massacre in November 1868 of Chief Black Kettle's Southern Cheyennes while camped near Ft. Sill Oklahoma Territory by Lt. Col. George A. Custer's Seventh Cavalry troopers, Tappan adopted an orphaned Cheyenne girl whom he renamed Minnie Tappan. He made arrangements for Minnie to move back East to Boston where she was enrolled in public school to further her education. After Tappan married the leading Spirtualist Cora L.V. (Scott) Hatch DanielsCora L. V. Scott
Cora Lodencia Veronica Scott was one of the best-known mediums of the Spiritualism movement of the last half of the 19th century. Most of her work was done as a trance lecturer, though she also wrote some books whose composition was attributed to spirit guides rather than her own...
(later known as Cora L.V. Richmond 1840-1923)and moved to Washington, DC Minnie joined their household and continued her studies in Washington. When Tappan and his wife moved a few years later to Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville is a city in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,146 at the 2000 census. In 1859, oil was successfully drilled in Titusville, resulting in the birth of the modern oil industry.-History:...
, as part of a business venture, he made arrangements with his friend General Oliver Otis Howard for Minnie to continue her education at the Preparatory Department of what is now Howard University. While she was studying there she fell ill and died and was buried in a Boston, Massachusetts, cemetery. Tappan also lived for a time during the post-War period in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Following his service with the Indian Peace Commission, Tappan worked for his former associate Henry Villard at the Oregon Steamship and Railway Company during the 1870s to help systematize and encourage emigration to Oregon. He traveled during this time to Alaska and also represented Oregon at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 in Philadelphia. He later lived in California for a time. Tappan was later appointed during the Presidency of Chester A. Arthur
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
to become the first Superintendent of the United States Indian Industrial school
Genoa Indian Industrial School
The Indian Industrial School at Genoa, Nebraska was the fourth non-reservation boarding institution established by the Office of Indian Affairs.-About:...
in Genoa, Nebraska
Genoa, Nebraska
Genoa is a city in Nance County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 981 at the 2000 census. Genoa is a community rich in culture and farming is a major source of income for much of the surrounding area. The city was founded by the Mormons in 1857...
in 1884-1885. The school was started to teach trades and educate Native Americans. Tappan served until removed by President Grover Cleveland.
Tappan's marriage to Cora, who was a Spiritualist medium, author, poet, abolitionist, and fellow Native American rights activist, eventually ended in divorce and they had no children together. He lived in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
for the last years of his life and was buried after his death at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.