{"id":315,"date":"2013-09-11T20:55:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T20:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/?p=315"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:12:04","slug":"isaac-clarkes-memoir-of-the-sand-creek-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/2013\/09\/11\/isaac-clarkes-memoir-of-the-sand-creek-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Sand Creek Massacre memoir: “all one sided”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Isaac<\/a>

Isaac Clarke memoir<\/p><\/div>\n

\"page<\/a>

page 191<\/p><\/div>\n

In September of 2013, we received an amazing gift from Tom Courtney: a 200-page leather-bound handwritten memoir, dated 1892, by Isaac Clarke, a Union soldier who witnessed the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864.<\/p>\n

Along with the manuscript, we received a 60-page typed “reconstruction” of the memoir, available in full here<\/a>. See pages 40-43<\/a> of the reconstruction (179-195 of the original) for Clarke’s memories of Sand Creek.<\/p>\n

Please note: the reconstruction corrects spelling and syntax and frequently paraphrases Clarke’s words, sometimes changing the meaning or emphasis. For example, on page 191 of the original (pictured above), Clarke writes:<\/p>\n

“…I do think it was the most cowardly act I ever saw and this was what is recorded in history as the grate sand creek Battle and it was a grate battle but all one sided for the indens were all kild an to tell the truth they wear a band of friendley indens and they were all masacread by the hundred day men.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The reconstruction for this passage reads:<\/p>\n

“…It was the most dastardly<\/strong>, cowardly act I ever saw, and this was what is recorded in history as the Great Sand Creek Battle. The truth of the matter was that it was a band of friendly Indians massacred by a regiment of white savages<\/strong>, the hundred day men.”<\/p>\n

If possible, therefore, researchers should visit\u00a0CC Special Collections<\/a> and consult the original rather than depend solely upon the reconstruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September of 2013, we received an amazing gift from Tom Courtney: a 200-page leather-bound handwritten memoir, dated 1892, by Isaac Clarke, a Union soldier who witnessed the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. Along with the manuscript, we received a 60-page typed “reconstruction” of the memoir, available in full here. See pages 40-43 of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cc-special-collections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3q4oW-55","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}