U.S. Calvary Lt. Caspar Wever Collins (1844 – 1865) Artist, Cartographer, Slain by Red Cloud at the Battle of Platte River Bridge

Equestrian statue of Caspar Collins – Casper, Wyoming

Monument marking the site of the slaying of Caspar Collins

William Henry Jackson’s 1933 painting of the fight at Platte Bridge. Cavalrymen, surrounded by mounted warriors, are riding toward the foot soldiers at the north end of the bridge who are firing to cover their comrades’ retreat. Wyoming State Museum.

Lt. Col. William Oliver Collins (1809 – 1880) Caspar’s father

Oil painting depicting a scene from the Battle of Platte Bridge

Fort Caspar – Casper, Wyoming

Camp Collins – Drawing by Caspar Collins

Ft. Laramie – Drawing by Caspar Collins

Caspar Collins’ plan of the post at Platte Bridge. Colorado State University Library.

Ft. Laramie – Drawing by Caspar Collins

Red Cloud in 1880

Red Cloud, in the Great Hall of the Cooper Institute, surrounded by the Indian delegation of braves and squaws, addressing a New York audience on the wrongs done to his people

Ft. Collins, Colorado was named in honor of U.S. Calvary Col. William Oliver Collins (1809 – 1880). Casper, Wyoming is named in honor of his son, U.S. Calvary Lt Caspar Wever Collins (1844 – 1865) who was killed in the Battle of Platte River Bridge by Red Cloud‘s warriors before he reached his 22nd birthday, less than three months after the end of the Civil War.

Well, if one had to choose by Providence one native American at that time in American history to slay you in a military battle, Red Cloud would have been an excellent choice. He was forty-three when his warriors put a horrific end to a budding cartographer’s career aspirations at the Battle of the Platte Bridge.

Red Cloud would go on to lead the Lakota nation and its allies in several victories over the U.S. Army and later personally negotiate with U.S. President Grant as to the terms of the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 (which was no mean feat given Grant’s Civil War experience. General William Tecumseh Sherman served as his envoy in the initial negotiations with the then native American tribal allegiance). He spent the rest of his life as a nationally recognized spokesman and leader of the Native American human rights cause.

He was a direct paternal descendant of Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford (1590 – 1667). He was one of the Co-Signers of the Mayflower Compact.

The Caspar Collins Map Collection is archived in the Colorado State University Library. The young cartographer produced the first-ever maps of the Larimer County region of Colorado and parts of northern Wyoming.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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