Lieutenant Colonel Samuel F. Tappan (1st Colorado "Pike's Peakers" Infantry - USV)

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Corporal
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Location
Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
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Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Forster Tappan (1st Colorado “Pike’s Peakers” Infantry - USV)


Samuel Forster Tappan was born on 29 June 1831 in Manchester, Massachusetts, of a prominent New England family. Disturbed by the capture of fugitive slaves, Tappan became a fierce abolitionist. He moved to Kansas with the New England Emigrant Aid Company’s “pioneer party” to found Lawrence in 1854. He served as a correspondent for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune and various other newspapers reporting on the territories difficulties with border raiders.

Becoming active in Kansas politics, he was clerk of the Topeka constitutional convention, assistant clerk of the House of Representatives in 1856, performed the duties of Speaker of the Topeka House of Representatives in 1857, was secretary of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, and acted as clerk of the Wyandotte convention in 1859.

In 1860, Tappan relocated to the settlement that became Denver, Colorado. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned to help raise a regiment of Union volunteer troops. Originally commissioned a captain, his success at recruitment earned promotion to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Colorado “Pike’s Peakers” Infantry under Colonel John P. Slough.

Tappan provided effective field command at the Battle of Glorieta Pass on 28 March 1862, but his actions were overshadowed by Major John M. Chivington’s flanking move which destroyed the Confederates’ supply train. Slough resigned following the battle, and Tappan became acting colonel. He voluntarily relinquished his seniority rights and joined in a petition to elevate Chivington to colonel. This led to Chivington viewing Tappan as a rival whom he sought to discredit. Tappan and the 1st Colorado participated in action at Peralta on 15 April, pursuing Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry H. Sibley’s troops back towards Texas.

After an act of perceived insubordination in 1863, Chivington relegated Tappan to command of Fort Garland in a remote part of southern Colorado. Governor John Evans and Chivington assigned Tappan the task of hunting down the Espinosa brothers who had a reward of $2500 on their heads for murder, rape, robbery, and other destructive acts. Employing the services of noted mountain man, Indian scout, and tracker Tom Tobin, Tabban assigned a detail to accompany Tobin and track down the Espinosas. Tobin found the brothers, killed them, and brought their severed heads back to Tappan. Chivington criticized Tappan for such “unchristian” behavior.

In 1864, Tappan’s father died, and Tappan was finally granted his first leave of the war. He travelled to Washington, D.C., where he had many connections in the military hierarchy. His former commander John P. Slough was the military governor of Alexandria, Edward R.S. Canby served as Assistant Adjutant General, and his brother-in-law commanded a battery in the defenses. He also met with Ulysses S. Grant and spent several weeks at City Point, Virginia before returning to Colorado.

Laid up at Fort Lyon with a broken foot, Tappan was appointed to head a military commission to investigate Col. Chivington for his role in an attack on Indian villages at Sand Creek where Federal cavalry killed many women and children. Chivington was never punished as he had been mustered out of the military in January 1865 prior to the investigation.

During the war and after, Tappan was involved in negotiations and treaties between Native Americans and the United States government. He sought support to end the practices of enslavement of the Navajos by both the Utes and Mexicans. He served on the Indian Peach Commission along with Generals William T. Sherman, William S. Harney, Alfred H. Terry, and C. C. Augur in July 1867. Tappan became active in the cause of native rights, strongly supporting President Ulysses S. Grant’s peace policy. In 1884, President Chester A. Arthur appointed Tappan to become the first superintendent of the United States Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Nebraska.

Samuel Tappan died in Washington, D.C., on 6 January 1913.

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