Samuel Forster Tappan (June 29, 1831 – January 6, 1913) was an American journalist, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American rights activist. Appointed as a member of the Indian Peace Commission in 1867 to reach peace with the Plains Indians, he advocated self-determination for native tribes. He proposed the federal government replace military jurisdiction over tribal matters with a form of civil law on reservations, applied by the tribes themselves.
Early life and family Samuel Tappan, a native of Manchester, Massachusetts, near Boston was a member of the prominent New England Tappan family. It included clergymen, politicians, merchants, sea captains, cabinet-makers, inventors, poets, philanthropists, educators, and abolitionists. He was a first cousin once removed of the noted brothers Arthur Tappan (1786–1865) and Lewis Tappan (1788–1873) who were silk merchants in New York; they were known as philanthropists and abolitionists, as well as their eldest brother, Senator Benjamin Tappan (1773–1857) of Ohio, who mentored Edwin M. Stanton, later Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln."Tappan-Toppan genealogy: ancestors and descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672", D. Tappan, 1915, page 52
Sam Tappan received a common school education and then went to work in the cabinet-making trade in his native town, learning to make chairs from his father. He next worked in Boston at an uncle's clothing store."Tappan-Toppan genealogy: ancestors and descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672", D. Tappan, 1915, page 52
Abolitionist activity While in Boston, Tappan was disturbed by the fate of fugitive slaves who were caught pursuant to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and returned to servile labor. Tappan was encouraged in his abolitionism by family members and prominent men, who included Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker, and others."Tappan-Toppan genealogy: ancestors and descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672", D. Tappan, 1915, page 52; Marshall I.M., "Sketch of the Life of Col. Samuel Forster Tappan of Washington, D.C. who died Monday January 6, 1913", Boston Sunday Globe, January 12, 1913. In May 1854, the capture of the slave Anthony Burns in Boston and forced return by US Marshals stirred a fierce reaction among Boston's abolitionists. Crowds lined the street to protest his being shipped back to slavery in the South. This event may have inspired Tappan to take personal action following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
At the age of 23, Tappan was one of a group of 29 New England settlers who came to found what later became Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1854 as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company's "pioneer party". They were trying to arrange for anti-slavery advocates to settle in Kansas before the vote on whether it should be free or a slave state. He staked a claim to land that abutted the claim of the homeopathic physician Dr. John Doy, formerly of Rochester, New York.http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kansaspast/doykan.htm He was also a correspondent for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune and did some writing for the Boston Atlas and several other newspapers, reporting on the territory's first difficulties with border raiders.Hinton, Richard, "Pens That Made Kansas Free", Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1897-1900, Vol. VI, Topeka, 1900, pg. 375 As an active abolitionist, he covered the antislavery movement in the Kansas Territory, including reports dealing with the armed and sometimes deadly conflicts between the territory's Pro-Slavery advocates and those aligned with the Free-State movement. Tappan was also actively involved in the Underground Railroad, moving slaves through Kansas to northern states. He also participated in 1855 in Jacob Branson's rescue during the short-lived Wakarusa War.Robinson, Sara T.D., "The Wakarusa War", Proceedings of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1907-1908, Volume X, Topeka, 1908, pp. 466-467; Dickson, Charles, H., "The True History of the Branson Rescue", In: Proceedings of the Kansas State Historical Society, Vol. XIII, 1914-1915, Topeka, 1915, pp. 284-285.
Tappan became active in the volatile political activity in the territory. In 1855, accompanied by political activist Martin F. Conway, he traveled through southern and western Kansas, speaking in favor of the free-state movement. He also maintained close ties to both the Kansas-based and East Coast leadership of the New England Emigrant Aid Company and participated in helping to smuggle arms (nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles") and other assistance to Free-Soil settlers.Morgan, W.Y., "The Events of 1856", Samuel F. Tappan biography in footnote, In;: Proceedings of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1901-1902, Vol. VII, Topeka, 1902, pp. 527-528; Eldridge, Shalor W., "Recollections of Early Days in Kansas" Publications of the Kansas State Historical Society, Volume II, Topeka, 1920, pg. 110; Connelley, William E., "The Lane Trail", In: Proceedings of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1913-1914, Vol. XIII, Topeka, 1915, pp. 273-276; Connelley, William E., "The Life of Preston B. Plumb", Browne & Howell, Chicago, 1913, pg. 49. Tappan was clerk of the Topeka constitutional convention, assistant clerk of the House of Representatives in 1856, and the following year performed the duties of Speaker of the Topeka House of Representatives. He was secretary of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, and acted as clerk of the Wyandotte convention in 1859. His first cousin, Lewis N. Tappan, also emigrated to Kansas in 1857, and was Secretary of the Senate under the Topeka Constitution. Lewis Tappan was one of the Fort Scott Treaty Commissioners. Both Lewis and Sam were among the 15 armed men who captured the box containing the altered election returns at Lecompton, the discovery of which resulted in the overthrow of the pro-slavery party in Kansas.Crawford, George A., "The Candle-box Under the Woodpile", In: Proceedings of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1907-1908, Vol. X, Topeka, 1908, pg. 203.
In 1860, Tappan relocated as a "Pike's Peaker" to the settlement that became Denver, Colorado. This move was part of a business arrangement involving his cousin Lewis N. Tappan and the then relatively unknown Henry Villard, who had both preceded him to the gold fields by a year. Sam Tappan worked as a journalist for the Daily Herald and became involved in gold and other mineral exploration and township settlement. His cousins Lewis N. Tappan (1831–1880), George H. Tappan (1833–1865), joined later in 1865 by William H. Tappan (1821–1907), operated Tappan & Co, one of the first general stores serving Colorado miners, with branches in Denver, Colorado City, Golden, and Central City."Extinct Geographical Locations", In: Proceedings of the Kansas Historical Society, 1911-1912, Vol. XII, Topeka, 1912, pg. 471. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Northey_Tappan
Civil War
Enlistment With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Tappan received a commission from Colorado's Territorial Governor William Gilpin to help raise a regiment of Union volunteer troops. Commissioned initially as a captain, his success in recruitment drives in the small Colorado mining towns of Black Hawk, Georgetown, Golden, and Central City resulted in his being promoted by Gilpin to Lieutenant Colonel of the newly formed First Colorado Volunteer Regiment, serving under Colonel John P. Slough, a lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio. After helping train the regiment at Camp Weld near Denver, Tappan was placed in command of Fort Wise with a detachment of the regiment until news arrived of the invasion of New Mexico Territory by Confederates from Texas.Smiley, Jerome, "History of Denver: With Outlines of the Earlier History of the Rocky Mountain Country", The Denver Times, The Times-Sun Publishing Company, Denver, 1901, pp. 278-279; "Tappan-Toppan genealogy: ancestors and descendants of Abraham Toppan of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1606-1672", D. Tappan, 1915, page 52; Hollister, Ovando, "Boldly They Rode: A History of the First Colorado Regiment of Volunteers", The Golden Press, 1949, pg. 5; Karnes, Thomas, "William Gilpin: Western Nationalist", University of Texas Press, pg. 275;
Service in New Mexico Territory Tappan and his charges joined the hurried movement of the First Colorado Volunteers to reinforce Fort Union in New Mexico in early March 1862, and later saw action against the Confederate troops along the Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico. Tappan participated in the second day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass on March 28, 1862, at Pigeon's Ranch. Tappan was the effective field commander of the Federal forces during the main engagement that day, and was exposed to enemy fire while Colonel Slough directed the Federal activity from the rear.Report of Lieut. Col. Samuel F. Tappan, First Colorado Infantry, The War of the Rebellion, Vol. 1-53, (serial No. 1-111), Chapter XXI, page 536. Tappan's actions that day were eventually overshadowed by the later success of the one-third of Slough's command that bypassed the Confederate lines and attacked and destroyed the enemy wagon train and supplies in their rear near Johnson's Ranch. Commanded by Major John M. Chivington, a former Methodist minister, who had also commanded the advance Union force which tangled with and defeated an advance Confederate unit on March 27 at Apache Canyon, this Union detachment effectively ended the threat posed by the Confederate invaders by destroying their supplies and ammunition stores.Pittman, Walter, E., "New Mexico and the Civil War", The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2011, pp. 61-89.
When Slough resigned as colonel a few days after the victory at Glorieta Pass, Tappan was the ranking officer and acting colonel. Although later recognized by both Col. Edward R. S. Canby, Commander of the Department of New Mexico, and Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson of the First New Mexico Volunteers for his sound military abilities, Tappan voluntarily relinquished his seniority rights and joined in signing a petition from among the men of the First Colorado to elevate Chivington, the recent hero of the Glorieta battle, to colonel. Chivington's promotion to Colonel where he outranked Tappan would eventually produce friction between the two as Chivington viewed Tappan as a rival whom he sought to discredit.Carol Turner, Forgotten Heroes and Villains of Sand Creek, The History Press, 2010 Tappan participated in action at Peralta on April 15, 1862, as the Union troops pursued the retreating Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley southward back towards Texas. Tappan, with the rest of the First Colorado, remained in New Mexico billeted at Fort Craig, serving under Canby well into the summer of 1862.
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