John Chivington, American colonel and pastor (d. 1892)
John Milton Chivington (January 27, 1821 – October 4, 1894) was the architect of The Sand Creek Massacre, in which over 230 Cheyenne and Arapahoe were murdered in a state-sponsored act of genocide, including over 150 women, children, and elderly. He was also an American Methodist pastor and Mason who served as a colonel in the United States Volunteers during the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War. He led a rear action against a Confederate supply train in the Battle of Glorieta Pass, and was then appointed a colonel of cavalry during the Colorado War.
Chivington gained infamy for leading a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia during the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864. An estimated 230 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho – about two-thirds of whom were women, children, and infants – were killed and mutilated by his troops. Chivington and his men took scalps and other body parts as battle trophies, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia. The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War conducted an investigation of the massacre, but while they condemned Chivington's and his soldiers' conduct in the strongest possible terms, no criminal charges were brought against him or them. The closest thing to a punishment Chivington suffered was the effective end of his political aspirations.
Three years prior to Sand Creek, on August 2, 1861, he became the first Grand Master of Masons of Colorado. Several Freemasons, some of whom were present at the Sand Creek Massacre, objected to Chivington's actions and publicly denounced them, while others supported him. Officially, the Masons in Colorado suspended Chivington until the report from Congress, after which his membership was reinstated.