John Chase (general)

Chase is most remembered for his military service. His first military service was with the Michigan National Guard from 1878 to 1882, reaching the rank of captain. After moving to Colorado, Chase joined the Colorado National Guard in 1888. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1895 and captain and major in 1897. In January 1901, Chase became a brigadier general of the Colorado National Guard.

During the Colorado Labor Wars, Chase was the commander of the National Guard forces in the Lake City, Cripple Creek and Trinidad strike districts. He came under extensive criticism for ordering mass arrests and detentions of strikers and others who spoke publicly in favor of the strikers or who criticized the National Guard. When a Colorado judge issued writs of habeas corpus for some of the detained prisoners, Chase sent the prisoners to the courthouse accompanied by 300 troops and posted a Gatling gun in front of the court house and sharpshooters on rooftops of the National Hotel and other buildings with a view of the courthouse.[8][9] When the judge ordered the prisoners released, Chase refused to follow the order from the civil court until the Governor of Colorado directed him to do so.[9][10] Chase was court-martialed for his actions,[11] but Colorado Governor James H. Peabody restored him to the command of the National Guard.[12]

From April 1909 to March 1916, Chase was the adjutant general of the State of Colorado. When labor unrest returned to the Colorado mines in 1913 and 1914, Chase led Colorado National Guard forces in occupation of the strike areas. He imposed martial law, deported strikers from the state, and enlisted mine guards into the National Guard.[13] When the labor leader known as "Mother Jones" came to Colorado to support the striking workers, Chase initially arrested her and put her on a train heading out of the area with a warning not to return. When she returned to the area, Chase detained her for two months under armed guard at a local hospital and refused to allow her to be seen by visitors or a doctor. The detention of Mother Jones led to demonstrations, including one in which a hundred women surrounded Chase, demanding her release. Chase reportedly ordered his men to "ride down the women," and six of the women were injured in the incident.[14] Jones later said of Chase, "His veins run with ice water."[15]

In April 1914, violence between the striking miners and National Guard forces under Chase's command escalated. One writer who reviewed Chase's role in the violence noted:

Adjutant-General John Chase is in private life an oculist with an office in Denver. He is usually spoken of, even by his enemies, as a man of integrity. He impressed me as a narrow-minded man and something of an egotist. He believes intensely that he is right ... Chase doesn't believe in strikes and has no sympathy with the workingmen.[10]

Deteriorating relations between the strikers and the National Guard were attributed in some accounts to the increased presence of former mine guards in the National Guard forces.[10] The detention without charges of union members and sympathizers also added to the tension. A subordinate of Chase appeared in a court proceeding and stated, "It is a matter of supreme indifference to General Chase whether men arrested and held by him are guilty or innocent of a crime."[10]

On the morning of April 20, 1914, the National Guard opened fire on the strikers at a tent colony occupied by 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado. The confrontation, which became known as the Ludlow Massacre, resulted in the death of 21 persons, including two women and eleven children who were asphyxiated when the tent colony was burned. The confrontation at Ludlow was the deadliest incident in the 14-month 1913-1914 Colorado Coal Strike, itself the deadliest strike in the history of the United States.[16]