Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A Chilly Western Wednesday...!

I think we often overlook the fact that many Native Americans played a pivotal role in the Civil War!

What's most surprising to me is that many sided with the north, while others favored the southern cause! Now that's something you won't find in most of the modern history books!

Dec 12, 1806:
Cherokee leader and Confederate General Stand Watie is born

On this day in 1806, Confederate General Stand Watie is born near Rome, Georgia. Watie, a Cherokee Indian, survived the tribe's Trail of Tears in the 1830s and became the only Native American to achieve the rank of general during the Civil War.

Watie came from an influential family and played a major role during the Cherokee difficulties in Georgia. The tribe was under increasingly intense pressure by their Anglo neighbors to move to a reservation in the West. Watie was part of a faction that began to believe that voluntary removal might be the only way to preserve their autonomy. He was a signer of the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which ceded the Cherokee's Georgia lands for a reservation in Indian Territory. After the disastrous Trail of Tears trek to the West, during which one in four Cherokee died, all who signed the treaty were assassinated except for Watie.

Even though the Cherokee suffered at the hands of Southerners, Watie and others always saw the federal government as the real culprit. When the South began to secede from the Union in 1860, Watie and others supported the new Confederacy. Watie was named colonel and raised a regiment of 300 mixed-blood Cherokee. Watie's first action came against Unionist Creek Indians near the Kansas border in 1861. At the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas in 1862, Watie's regiment captured a Union battery in the midst of a Confederate defeat.

From the summer of 1862 until the end of the war, Watie served back in his home territory. In 1864, he captured a Union steamboat on the Arkansas River and a large supply train at Cabin Creek in Indian Territory. Mostly, however, Watie fought against his own people. The Cherokee became bitterly divided between the followers of John Ross, who pledged loyalty to the Union, and Watie, who stood by his Confederate allies. For the rest of the war, the Cherokee waged a bitter internecine guerilla war. After a brief foray into the tobacco business after the war, Watie died in 1871 at his home along Honey Creek in Indian Territory.

I'd say that General Watie was an interesting man indeed! Wouldn't you?

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. I'll put out some sliced apples and sharp cheddar cheese!

11 comments:

Ken said...

...did you know, that about half the enlisted men, and many of the officers for the union, at the battle of pea ridge here in arkansas were german, and spoke german as a primary/first language...

...lots of examples of federal tyranny using "foreign forces" during the war of northern aggression...

HermitJim said...

Hey Ken...
I didn't know that! Thanks for telling me. Guess I need to study a little more about some of these practices, huh?

Good to see you again, my friend! Thanks for coming by!

Gorges Smythe said...

That war was a tragedy all around, with fault on both sides. Interesting story.

Momlady said...

Most people don't know the real main reason behind the Civil War....and it wasn't slavery.

Randall said...

Interesting story Jim, I'll have to read more on Gen Watie. He and Gen N B Forrest were both guerilla fighters that both rose from private to General. My family and gen Forrest both from same small town in Bedford county Tennessee. Although the deck was stacked against the south. ( the union had henry repeating rifles near end of war and confederates still using muzzle loaders) the south still won most battles.

JO said...

Great post. I did not know this bit of history or the part mentioned by Ken. Very interesting.
Thank you both.
Coffee in the kitchen sounds good to me. 37 here I can't believe its only 1 degree warmer here than up in the mountains.

Randall said...

I'll correct myself. Gen watie was commissioned colonel and rose to rank of general, Forrest did go from private to major general. Still only 2 native americans rose to rank of general during the civil war.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Like Momlady said, it was really about state's rights.

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
Nothing is ever good about war except it's end!

Let's hope we never have to go through that again here on our own soil!

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Momlady...
We actually know so little history about those times, mainly because the schools never taught us!

In my later years, I have learned more history than I ever knew in school!

Thanks so much for dropping by this morning!


Hey Randall...
Guerrilla fighting was very effective for the South! Lack of industry and newer equipment hurt the southern forces as much as anything!

I really do appreciate you coming over today!


Hey Jo...
Nothing like a small history class first thing in the morning! Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the visit today, sweetie!

linda m said...

Very interesting!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

A history lesson and then coffee, apples and cheddar are good things to celebrate, HJ.