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Cherokee in the American Civil War

February 16, 2024

The Cherokee in the American Civil War were active in the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theaters. In the east, Confederate Cherokees led by William Holland Thomas hindered Union forces trying to use the Appalachian mountain passes of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Out west, Confederate Cherokee Stand Watie led primarily Native Confederate forces in the Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma.[1] The Cherokee partnered with the Confederacy in order to get funds, as well as ultimately full recognition as a sovereign, independent state.[2]

Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie, the only American Indian to reach the rank of general in the Civil War on either side.

Background edit

Before Indian removal, the Cherokee Nation was centered in and around the Blue Ridge Mountains—southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, western South Carolina and northeastern Georgia. The Cherokee attempted to address their grievances by taking their problems to the American Federal judicial system. In 1830, a delegation led by Chief John Ross defended Cherokee rights before the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. The Indian cases set a precedent in Indian Country but the United States still enforced removal of most of the Cherokee Nation to west of the Mississippi River, along what became known as the Trail of Tears. After the removals, the Cherokee Nation was based west of the Mississippi River. Some Cherokee remained in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Cherokee blamed the federal government and former United States President Andrew Jackson for the Trail of Tears. They had adopted "Southern ways" before their removal from the Southeast. Cherokee society held slavery as a primary institution throughout the pre-war period, instituting laws that explicitly prohibited primarily "black (or negro) slaves" from obtaining citizenship in their nation, and later "persons of color" altogether. Cherokee judiciary and legislative bodies promulgated similar laws regarding race and enslaved status as the Cherokee attempted to legally define themselves as equal to whites or European Americans, at the expense and exclusion of non-white and non-Indian groups, and in particular Blacks.[3] The Cherokee aligned with the Confederacy in part due to their existing cultural, trading, and legal affinities with those states that had seceded. In addition, the Cherokee in Indian Territory opposed William Seward's campaigning in 1860 on behalf of Abraham Lincoln, when he said that Lincoln would open the Indian Territory for white settlement.[4]

Trans-Mississippi Theater edit

 
  The Cherokee Braves Flag, as flown by Cherokee General Stand Watie.

Chief of the Cherokee John Ross was adamant that the Union was not dissolved. However, another leader of the Cherokee, Stand Watie, joined the Confederate cause, and on June 1, 1861, began recruiting for all-Indian units that became part of the Confederate army. Full-blooded Cherokee tended to support Ross (who was primarily Scottish) while the mixed-blooded Cherokee supported the 3/4 Cherokee Stand Watie.[5] Stand Watie in 1862 was elected Chief of the newly declared Southern Cherokee Nation.

For the duration of the war, a series of small battles and constant guerrilla warfare were waged by Cherokee in the Indian Territory. Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to end fighting on June 25, 1865, at Fort Towson, in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory.

Organization edit

During the Civil War, the Cherokee Nation had approximately 21,000 members with 3,000 of them serving in the Confederacy as soldiers.[6]

  • First Cherokee Mounted Rifles
  • 1st Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers
  • 2nd Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers
  • 3rd Cherokee Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry
  • Cherokee Regiment (Special Services), CSA
  • 1st Cherokee Battalion of Partisan Rangers
  • 2nd Cherokee Artillery
  • Cherokee Special Services Battalion
  • Scales' Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry
  • Meyer's Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry
  • Cherokee Battalion of Infantry
  • 1st Squadron of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers

Battles and Skirmishes edit

Western Theater edit

 
William Holland Thomas was the commander of the well-known legion.

Thomas' Legion, led by William H. Thomas, a European-American who was adopted Cherokee, were originally stationed outside Knoxville, Tennessee at Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. Their primary duty was to protect the Alum Cave, and harass Union troops that invaded Tennessee. While briefly working around Chattanooga, Tennessee in June 1862, Thomas personally captured a Union Soldier, after which each of his men vowed to capture at least one "Yankee" before the war was over.[7]

The Legion would become infamous due to their actions on September 15, 1862.[8] While trying to stop a Union advance through Baptist Gap, a popular leader among the Cherokee, Astoogahtogeh, was killed leading a charge. Enraged, the remaining Cherokee were driven to avenge him. In retaliation for Astoogahtogeh's death, the Cherokee scalped the dead Union soldiers after the battle. After the event was reported in newspapers, Union soldiers would fear the Cherokee, but Thomas feared for the reputation of the Cherokee, as he did not want his people to be seen as barbaric. The scalps were sent to be buried with the soldiers they originally came from.[7]

After a number of Thomas' men were captured in February 1864, some were convinced by the Union that they were fighting for slavery, and thereafter fought for the Union. Others convinced their captors they also would defect to the Union side, but instead returned to Thomas and told him Union officials offered $5,000 for Thomas' scalp. After this, many of his men were sent to fight in Virginia, some of whom were present at Appomattox Court House for General Robert E. Lee's surrender.[9] The rest of the Legion continued to fight until surrendering along with the commanding officer of the District of Western North Carolina to the Union commander they had captured on 10 May 1865.

Organization edit

In May 1861, William H. Thomas began recruiting Cherokees from the Quallatown, North Carolina area.[10] The first two companies were composed mostly of Indian soldiers. They were called the Junaluska Zouaves.[10] Thomas' Confederates were sometimes referred to as Thomas' Legion or Thomas' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders. They were later designated as the 69th North Carolina Regiment.

  • 69th North Carolina Regiment[11]
    • Field & Staff: Colonel William H. Thomas, Lieutenant Colonel James R. Love, Major William W. Stringfield, Luther C. May (Adjutant), James W. Terrell (A.Q.M.), John W. Lawing (Surgeon), and Hezekiah West (Chaplain)[11]
    • Companies: Company A (Captain James W. Terrell), Company B (Captain G. M. Hanks), Company C (Captain Elisha G. Johnson), Company D (Captain William B. Love), Company E (Captain Julius M. Welch), Company F (Captain J. M. McConnell), Company G (Captain Daniel G. Fisher), Company H (Captain Thomas J. Cooper, Captain James W. Cooper), Company I (Captain Willis Parker, Captain Joseph A. Kinsey), Company K (Captain Thomas A. Butler)[11]
    • Total: 1,125 men[12]

Aftermath edit

 
Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903.

The eastern Cherokee faced a severe smallpox outbreak following the war. Thomas and many of his followers were deeply in debt, to the point that the federal government recognized the eastern tribe as separate from the western tribe, and filed a lawsuit against the Cherokee's creditors, in effect leaving the protection of the Cherokee to the federal government.[9]

In the west, at the end of the war, with the Union victorious, the Union Cherokee established policies that confiscated land from the Confederate Cherokee.[citation needed] The Federal government promised the Confederate Cherokee that the laws promoting the confiscation would be annulled. This was due to Indian Commissioner D.N. Cooley, who saw opportunities in splitting the factions of the Cherokee, as represented by Ross and Watie. Cooley even went as far as to portray Ross as a traitor, when Ross had always been a Union advocate.[13] The Cherokee were forced to adopt their slaves into the tribe, and to allow settlement of their lands by whites. In effect, due to the Cherokee split and the maneuverings of Cooley, the Cherokee suffered the worst of Reconstruction.[14]

Monuments edit

Monuments were dedicated for the Cherokee's wartime participation in the early 20th century.[15]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Watie, Stand (1806–1871)" August 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of History and Culture; retrieved 31 Aug 2011
  2. ^ Tindle, James (2019). ""Perpetual Peace and Friendship": The Cherokee-Confederate Coalition in the American Civil War". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Yarbrough, Fay (2004). "Legislating Women's Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century". Journal of Social History. 38 (2): 385–406. doi:10.1353/jsh.2004.0144. ISSN 0022-4529. JSTOR 3790444. S2CID 144646968.
  4. ^ Gibson p.117
  5. ^ Gibson p.119
  6. ^ Hauptman, Laurence M. (1995). "The General, The Western Cherokee and the Lost Cause". Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War. The Free Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780029141809.
  7. ^ a b Rozema p.48
  8. ^ Ferguson, Robert. "Southeastern Indians During The Civil War". The Backwoodsman. Vol. 39, no. 2 (Mar/Apr 2018 ed.). Bandera, Texas: Charlie Richie Sr. pp. 63–65. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Rozema p.49
  10. ^ a b Hauptman, Laurence M. (1995). "Confederate Rangers of the Smokies, Wil-Usdi's Eastern Band of Cherokee". Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War. The Free Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780029141809.
  11. ^ a b c Moore, John W. (1882). "Sixty-Ninth Regiment--Infantry". Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, Vol. 4. Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Binders. p. 151.
  12. ^ Clark, Walter (1901). "Sixty-Ninth Regiment". Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-'65, Vol. III. Nash Brothers, Book and Job Printers. p. 731.
  13. ^ Confer pp. 150
  14. ^ Gibson pp.128,129
  15. ^ McCleland, Jacob (August 31, 2017). "As Cities Remove Confederate Monuments, Cherokees Grapple With Civil War Past". Retrieved September 7, 2017.

Further reading edit

  • Confer, Clarissa (2007), The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0-8061-3803-9
  • Dale, Edward Everett (1947). "The Cherokees in the Confederacy". The Journal of Southern History. 13 (2): 159–185. doi:10.2307/2197976. JSTOR 2197976.
  • Fisher, Paul Thomas. "Confederate empire and the Indian treaties: Pike, McCulloch, and the Five Civilized Tribes, 1861–1862" (MA thesis Baylor U. 2011). online; bibliography pp 107–19.
  • Gibson, Arrell (1981), Oklahoma, a History of Five Centuries, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-1758-3
  • Hauptman, Laurence M. (1995). Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War (First ed.). New York: Free Press. ISBN 9780029141809.
  • Johnston, Carolyn (2003). Cherokee Women In Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907. The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817384661.
  • Moore, Jessie Randolph. "The Five Great Indian Nations: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek: The Part They Played in Behalf of the Confederacy in the War Between the States." Chronicles of Oklahoma 29 (1951): 324–336.
  • Rozema, Vicki (2007), Footsteps of the Cherokees, John F. Blair, ISBN 978-0-89587-346-0
  • Thomsen, Paul A. (2004). Rebel Chief: The Motley Life of Colonel William Holland Thomas C.S.A. (1st ed.). New York: Forge Books. ISBN 0765309580.

February 16, 2024
cherokee, american, civil, were, active, trans, mississippi, western, theaters, east, confederate, cherokees, william, holland, thomas, hindered, union, forces, trying, appalachian, mountain, passes, western, north, carolina, eastern, tennessee, west, confeder. The Cherokee in the American Civil War were active in the Trans Mississippi and Western Theaters In the east Confederate Cherokees led by William Holland Thomas hindered Union forces trying to use the Appalachian mountain passes of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee Out west Confederate Cherokee Stand Watie led primarily Native Confederate forces in the Indian Territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma 1 The Cherokee partnered with the Confederacy in order to get funds as well as ultimately full recognition as a sovereign independent state 2 Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie the only American Indian to reach the rank of general in the Civil War on either side Contents 1 Background 2 Trans Mississippi Theater 2 1 Organization 2 2 Battles and Skirmishes 3 Western Theater 3 1 Organization 4 Aftermath 4 1 Monuments 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Further readingBackground editBefore Indian removal the Cherokee Nation was centered in and around the Blue Ridge Mountains southwestern North Carolina southeastern Tennessee western South Carolina and northeastern Georgia The Cherokee attempted to address their grievances by taking their problems to the American Federal judicial system In 1830 a delegation led by Chief John Ross defended Cherokee rights before the U S Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v Georgia The Indian cases set a precedent in Indian Country but the United States still enforced removal of most of the Cherokee Nation to west of the Mississippi River along what became known as the Trail of Tears After the removals the Cherokee Nation was based west of the Mississippi River Some Cherokee remained in the Blue Ridge Mountains The Cherokee blamed the federal government and former United States President Andrew Jackson for the Trail of Tears They had adopted Southern ways before their removal from the Southeast Cherokee society held slavery as a primary institution throughout the pre war period instituting laws that explicitly prohibited primarily black or negro slaves from obtaining citizenship in their nation and later persons of color altogether Cherokee judiciary and legislative bodies promulgated similar laws regarding race and enslaved status as the Cherokee attempted to legally define themselves as equal to whites or European Americans at the expense and exclusion of non white and non Indian groups and in particular Blacks 3 The Cherokee aligned with the Confederacy in part due to their existing cultural trading and legal affinities with those states that had seceded In addition the Cherokee in Indian Territory opposed William Seward s campaigning in 1860 on behalf of Abraham Lincoln when he said that Lincoln would open the Indian Territory for white settlement 4 Trans Mississippi Theater edit nbsp nbsp The Cherokee Braves Flag as flown by Cherokee General Stand Watie Chief of the Cherokee John Ross was adamant that the Union was not dissolved However another leader of the Cherokee Stand Watie joined the Confederate cause and on June 1 1861 began recruiting for all Indian units that became part of the Confederate army Full blooded Cherokee tended to support Ross who was primarily Scottish while the mixed blooded Cherokee supported the 3 4 Cherokee Stand Watie 5 Stand Watie in 1862 was elected Chief of the newly declared Southern Cherokee Nation For the duration of the war a series of small battles and constant guerrilla warfare were waged by Cherokee in the Indian Territory Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to end fighting on June 25 1865 at Fort Towson in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory Organization edit During the Civil War the Cherokee Nation had approximately 21 000 members with 3 000 of them serving in the Confederacy as soldiers 6 First Cherokee Mounted Rifles 1st Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers 2nd Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers 3rd Cherokee Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry Cherokee Regiment Special Services CSA 1st Cherokee Battalion of Partisan Rangers 2nd Cherokee Artillery Cherokee Special Services Battalion Scales Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry Meyer s Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry Cherokee Battalion of Infantry 1st Squadron of Cherokee Mounted VolunteersBattles and Skirmishes edit Battle of Wilson s Creek August 10 1861 Battle of Bird Creek December 9 1861 Battle of Chustenahlah December 26 1861 Battle of Pea Ridge March 6 8 1862 Battle of Prairie Grove December 7 1862 Battle of Honey Springs July 17 1863 First Battle of Cabin Creek July 1 1863 July 2 1863 Ambush of the steamboat J R Williams June 15 1864 Battle of Fort Smith July 31 1864 Second Battle of Cabin Creek September 19 1864 Western Theater edit nbsp William Holland Thomas was the commander of the well known legion Thomas Legion led by William H Thomas a European American who was adopted Cherokee were originally stationed outside Knoxville Tennessee at Strawberry Plains Tennessee Their primary duty was to protect the Alum Cave and harass Union troops that invaded Tennessee While briefly working around Chattanooga Tennessee in June 1862 Thomas personally captured a Union Soldier after which each of his men vowed to capture at least one Yankee before the war was over 7 The Legion would become infamous due to their actions on September 15 1862 8 While trying to stop a Union advance through Baptist Gap a popular leader among the Cherokee Astoogahtogeh was killed leading a charge Enraged the remaining Cherokee were driven to avenge him In retaliation for Astoogahtogeh s death the Cherokee scalped the dead Union soldiers after the battle After the event was reported in newspapers Union soldiers would fear the Cherokee but Thomas feared for the reputation of the Cherokee as he did not want his people to be seen as barbaric The scalps were sent to be buried with the soldiers they originally came from 7 After a number of Thomas men were captured in February 1864 some were convinced by the Union that they were fighting for slavery and thereafter fought for the Union Others convinced their captors they also would defect to the Union side but instead returned to Thomas and told him Union officials offered 5 000 for Thomas scalp After this many of his men were sent to fight in Virginia some of whom were present at Appomattox Court House for General Robert E Lee s surrender 9 The rest of the Legion continued to fight until surrendering along with the commanding officer of the District of Western North Carolina to the Union commander they had captured on 10 May 1865 Organization edit In May 1861 William H Thomas began recruiting Cherokees from the Quallatown North Carolina area 10 The first two companies were composed mostly of Indian soldiers They were called the Junaluska Zouaves 10 Thomas Confederates were sometimes referred to as Thomas Legion or Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders They were later designated as the 69th North Carolina Regiment 69th North Carolina Regiment 11 Field amp Staff Colonel William H Thomas Lieutenant Colonel James R Love Major William W Stringfield Luther C May Adjutant James W Terrell A Q M John W Lawing Surgeon and Hezekiah West Chaplain 11 Companies Company A Captain James W Terrell Company B Captain G M Hanks Company C Captain Elisha G Johnson Company D Captain William B Love Company E Captain Julius M Welch Company F Captain J M McConnell Company G Captain Daniel G Fisher Company H Captain Thomas J Cooper Captain James W Cooper Company I Captain Willis Parker Captain Joseph A Kinsey Company K Captain Thomas A Butler 11 Total 1 125 men 12 Aftermath edit nbsp Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans 1903 The eastern Cherokee faced a severe smallpox outbreak following the war Thomas and many of his followers were deeply in debt to the point that the federal government recognized the eastern tribe as separate from the western tribe and filed a lawsuit against the Cherokee s creditors in effect leaving the protection of the Cherokee to the federal government 9 In the west at the end of the war with the Union victorious the Union Cherokee established policies that confiscated land from the Confederate Cherokee citation needed The Federal government promised the Confederate Cherokee that the laws promoting the confiscation would be annulled This was due to Indian Commissioner D N Cooley who saw opportunities in splitting the factions of the Cherokee as represented by Ross and Watie Cooley even went as far as to portray Ross as a traitor when Ross had always been a Union advocate 13 The Cherokee were forced to adopt their slaves into the tribe and to allow settlement of their lands by whites In effect due to the Cherokee split and the maneuverings of Cooley the Cherokee suffered the worst of Reconstruction 14 Monuments edit This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it May 2023 Monuments were dedicated for the Cherokee s wartime participation in the early 20th century 15 See also edit nbsp American Civil War portalIndian Territory in the American Civil War Native Americans in the American Civil War Cherokee military history Southern Cherokee Nation of KentuckyNotes edit Watie Stand 1806 1871 Archived August 5 2011 at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Historical Society s Encyclopedia of History and Culture retrieved 31 Aug 2011 Tindle James 2019 Perpetual Peace and Friendship The Cherokee Confederate Coalition in the American Civil War a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Yarbrough Fay 2004 Legislating Women s Sexuality Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century Journal of Social History 38 2 385 406 doi 10 1353 jsh 2004 0144 ISSN 0022 4529 JSTOR 3790444 S2CID 144646968 Gibson p 117 Gibson p 119 Hauptman Laurence M 1995 The General The Western Cherokee and the Lost Cause Between Two Fires American Indians in the Civil War The Free Press p 42 ISBN 9780029141809 a b Rozema p 48 Ferguson Robert Southeastern Indians During The Civil War The Backwoodsman Vol 39 no 2 Mar Apr 2018 ed Bandera Texas Charlie Richie Sr pp 63 65 Retrieved February 19 2018 a b Rozema p 49 a b Hauptman Laurence M 1995 Confederate Rangers of the Smokies Wil Usdi s Eastern Band of Cherokee Between Two Fires American Indians in the Civil War The Free Press p 108 ISBN 9780029141809 a b c Moore John W 1882 Sixty Ninth Regiment Infantry Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States Vol 4 Ashe amp Gatling State Printers and Binders p 151 Clark Walter 1901 Sixty Ninth Regiment Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861 65 Vol III Nash Brothers Book and Job Printers p 731 Confer pp 150 Gibson pp 128 129 McCleland Jacob August 31 2017 As Cities Remove Confederate Monuments Cherokees Grapple With Civil War Past Retrieved September 7 2017 Further reading editConfer Clarissa 2007 The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0 8061 3803 9 Dale Edward Everett 1947 The Cherokees in the Confederacy The Journal of Southern History 13 2 159 185 doi 10 2307 2197976 JSTOR 2197976 Fisher Paul Thomas Confederate empire and the Indian treaties Pike McCulloch and the Five Civilized Tribes 1861 1862 MA thesis Baylor U 2011 online bibliography pp 107 19 Gibson Arrell 1981 Oklahoma a History of Five Centuries University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 0 8061 1758 3 Hauptman Laurence M 1995 Between Two Fires American Indians in the Civil War First ed New York Free Press ISBN 9780029141809 Johnston Carolyn 2003 Cherokee Women In Crisis Trail of Tears Civil War and Allotment 1838 1907 The University of Alabama Press ISBN 9780817384661 Moore Jessie Randolph The Five Great Indian Nations Cherokee Choctaw Chickasaw Seminole and Creek The Part They Played in Behalf of the Confederacy in the War Between the States Chronicles of Oklahoma 29 1951 324 336 Rozema Vicki 2007 Footsteps of the Cherokees John F Blair ISBN 978 0 89587 346 0 Thomsen Paul A 2004 Rebel Chief The Motley Life of Colonel William Holland Thomas C S A 1st ed New York Forge Books ISBN 0765309580 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cherokee in the American Civil War amp oldid 1153858211, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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