He said it explicitly: he came to kill Indians, and he believed that killing was justified.

This was not a private view held secretly — it was publicly stated and was apparently not disqualifying in the political culture of territorial Colorado in 1864.

The specific decision-making at Sand Creek — the arrival at Fort Lyon, the dismissal of the objections from the fort’s officers, the overnight march, the dawn attack — reflects a man who had made up his mind before he arrived and who treated the professional objections of officers who knew the situation better than he did as irrelevant.

The officers who objected deserve recognition.