24. Chivington faced a life of failure following Soule’s death
Chivington found the rumors that he had been involved in Soule’s death were widespread, and when the reports of the various committees into the Sand Creek Massacre were published, the rumors intensified. He married his daughter-in-law, Sarah, and in 1868 he went to Washington to attempt to collect over $37,000 of what he said he was owed as reparations for losses to the Indians. Failing in that attempt, he moved to Troy, New York, with Sarah, to reside with her parents. Sarah later said of their life together that he “spent his time trying to get money without labor”. Eventually, he abandoned her.
Chivington eventually returned to Denver, where there remained enough support for his views that he gained work as a deputy sheriff. For the rest of his life, he defended his actions at Sand Creek, and refused to accept that the massacre had caused the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux Indians to increase their attacks on white settlements. He also continued to denounce the men who had testified against him as liars, and cited the favorable testimony of the men who had served in the 3rd Colorado as being a true accounting of the event.