Fort Morgan, Colorado: Fort Wardwell

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Execution of Foster & Stone - 13th Missouri Cavalry

During the 1860s when Fort Wardwell [Fort Morgan] was the most active at fighting the allied tribes, the fort earned some unwelcome notoriety. On January 8, 1866, two soldiers from the 13^th Missouri Cavalry stationed at Camp Wardwell were arrested for the murders of Isaac H. Augustus and F. H. Sluman, freighters working for Carney & Stevens out of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Privates Frank Foster and Henry Stone of Company E, 13^th Missouri Cavalry were arrested for the murders and brought to Denver for trial. The soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The details of the murders were reported as part of Franklin Foster’s confession reported in the newspaper on May 17^th:

Historic Overview

From my youth I brought with me only a vague impression of the history of the small town in which I was raised. Fort Morgan, Colorado, built on the site of a short-lived military fort in the heart of the great American desert; a fort that had never been attacked, never seen a battle. On little more than a whim I went in search of the fort’s operational dates (1864-1868), expecting this information would come readily to hand and that would end my curiosity - the fort once again fading into the midst of vague memory. To my surprise, I instead found a door opening to the history of the west.

The history of Fort Morgan will never rival that of Denver or glisten with the same gold dust of the mountain mining towns, but this little town on the plains of Colorado was central to the story of the Romantic west; it's story connecting with the major events of the age. Everyone has a history and every place is central to a story. What follows is the story from the land - of the land - on which Fort Morgan would rise.