Irving Howbert, an 18-year-old cavalryman who later became one of the founders of Colorado Springs, long defended Chivington's role in the events. In his autobiographical "Memories of a Lifetime in the Pike's Peak Region", Howbert argues that the Indian women and children were not attacked, but a few who did not leave the camp were killed once the fighting began. He said that the number of warriors in the village was about equal to the force of the Colorado cavalry. According to Howbert, Chivington was retaliating for Indian attacks on wagon trains and settlements in Colorado and for the torture and the killings of citizens during the preceding three years; evidence of attacks on the white settlers – including "more than a dozen scalps of white people, some of them from the heads of women and children" – was found in the Indian camp after the battle.