During all the time the savages were going up and down the county murdering people, stealing stock, and destroying the property of the settlers, the general Government did not make the slightest attempt to give our people protection, although attention was repeatedly called to their desperate condition. It is true that a week or two after the Indian troubles began, the Territorial authorities at Denver supplied our people with a limited number of old Belgian muskets, together with the necessary ammunition, but these guns were so much inferior to those in the hands of the Indians, that they were of very little use. With this one exception, the early settlers of this county were left entirely to their own resources from the beginning of the Indian troubles, in 1864, until the end, which did not come until the building of the railroads into the Territory. Every appeal to the general Government for protection was received either with indifference or insult. In September, 1866, General William T. Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, on his way north from an inspection of the forts in New Mexico, accompanied by a large number of staff officers and a strong escort, stopped overnight in Colorado City. Having been in constant danger from the Indians since the beginning of the trouble in 1864, our people thought this an opportune time to lay the matter before him and ask that proper means of protection be provided. My father, the Rev. Wm. Howbert, was appointed spokesman of the committee that waited upon the General. In his speech, father explained our exposed and defenseless condition, and suggested that a force of government troops be permanently stationed at some point on our eastern frontier, in order to intercept any Indians that might be attempting a raid upon the people of this region. General Sherman received the appeal with utter indifference, and replied that he thought we were unnecessarily alarmed; that there were no hostile Indians in the neighborhood; and then sarcastically remarked that it probably would be a very profitable thing for the people of this region if we could have a force of government troops located near here, to whom our farmers might sell their grain and agricultural products at a high price. With this remark he dismissed the committee, the members of which left the room very indignant at the manner in which their appeal had been received. Later in the year, General Sherman evidently was of the opinion that there _were_ hostile Indians in the western country and that they needed severe punishment, for after the massacre of Lieut.-Col. Fetterman and his entire command near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, he telegraphed General Grant, saying: "We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children; nothing else will reach the root of the case."