Take, for example, the Methodist minister and abolitionist Col John Chivington:
a 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 that had the effect of ending the Confederacy's campaigns in the Western states, and was then appointed a colonel of cavalry during the Colorado War.
Yay, Col. John!
But then:
The victory at Glorieta Pass gave Chivington a reputation as a bold and daring commander. Along with his ardent advocacy of statehood, he hoped it could help him become the first member of the U.S. House of Representatives elected from Colorado. To that end he cultivated his connections with political leaders like territorial governor John Evans. But he also knew that his chances would be best if he could secure another key military victory. The wars with various local Indian tribes, a matter that affected Coloradans more directly than the Civil War, offered an opportunity.
Said Col. John:
"Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians. ... Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice."
Col. John's "heroic" work at Sand Creek:
Between 150 and 200 Indians were estimated dead, nearly all women and children. Chivington testified before a Congressional committee that his forces had killed 500 to 600 Indians and that few of them were women or children. Others testified against him.
So, how about it, Internet arbiters of right and wrong. Racist or no?
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chivington (primary sources linked in article)
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