Okla-homey
12/12/2006, 08:25 AM
Dec. 12, 1806: Stand Watie born
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/6488/2000385732575862024_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000385732575862024)
Today is the bicentennial of the birth of Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie. He was born near Rome, Georgia. Watie, a Cherokee, survived the tribe's removal to Indian Territory (ak/a the "Trail of Tears") in the 1830s and became the only Native American to achieve general officer rank 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 white neighbors. Watie was part of a faction that began to believe that voluntary removal might be the only way to preserve their autonomy.
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/8843/2004758375249284244_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004758375249284244)
Post-war photo of Watie
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 modern day Oklahoma, during which some historians claim one in four Cherokees died.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/9460/2005538083720443609_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005538083720443609)
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/7003/2005522113154300089_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005522113154300089)
Reconstructed council house where the Treaty of new Echota was signed by Watie and other Cherokee leaders
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/7363/2000830538185912135_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000830538185912135)
After they arrived in the Nations, all who signed the treaty in Georgia, except for Watie, were subsequently killed by disgruntled members of the tribe who believed the signers had sold them out and were thus ultimately responsible for the disastrous removal to Indian Territory. On June 22, 1839, Major Ridge, his cousin, John Ridge and his brother, Elias Boudinot were ambushed and murdered by anti-treaty tribesmen. Watie himself escaped death due to a timely warning. After the murders, he became the leader of the pro-treaty faction.
As an aside, your correspondent believes removal or cultural genocide was inevitable given the political climate of the era. IOW, Watie and the rest of the treaty signers knew the score and were sincerely doing what they believed, and history has proved, was best for their people.
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. They also had more in common with the Confederate "cause" because by 1860, thousands of members of the Five Civilzed Tribes in Indan Territory (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee (Creek)) engaged in agriculture and employed black slaves on their farms and plantations.
Among Confederate Cherokee, Watie was named colonel and raised a regiment of 300 mixed-blood Cherokee named the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/9221/2000317672106875561_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000317672106875561)
Flag of the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Watie's original unit
A portion of Watie's command saw action at Oak Hills (August 10, 1861) in a battle that assured the South's hold on Indian Territory and made Watie a Confederate military hero. Afterward, Watie helped drive pro-Northern Indians out of Indian Territory, and following the Battle of Chustenahlah (December 26, 1861) he commanded the pursuit of the fleeing Federals, led by Opothleyahola, and drove them into exile in Kansas.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/9215/2005558388178895763_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005558388178895763)
Stand Watie Elementary School in OKC
Although Watie's men were exempt from service outside Indian Territory, he led his troops into Arkansas in the spring of 1861 to stem a Federal invasion of the region. Joining with Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's command, Watie took part in the fight at Elkhorn Tavern (March 5-6, 1861). On the first day of fighting, the Southern Cherokees, which were on the left flank of the Confederate line, captured a battery of Union artillery before being forced to abandon it. Following the Federal victory, Watie's command screened the southern withdrawal.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/6007/2000320909877224987_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000320909877224987)
Watie, or troops in his command, participated in eighteen battles and major skirmishes with Federal troop during the Civil War, including Cowskin Prairie (April 1862), Old Fort Wayne (October 1862), Webber's Falls (April 1863), Fort Gibson (May 1863), Cabin Creek (July 1863), and Gunter's Prairie (August 1864).
In addition, his men were engaged in a multitude of smaller skirmishes and meeting engagements in Indian Territory and neighboring states. Because of his wide-ranging raids behind Union lines, Watie tied down thousands of Federal troops that were badly needed in the East.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/5661/2000314564535974740_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000314564535974740)
Watie's applewood field desk in the collection of the Delaware County Historical Society.
Watie's two greatest victories were the capture of the federal steam boat J.R. Williams on June 15, 1864, and the seizure of $1.5 million worth of supplies in a federal wagon supply train a the Second battle of Cabin Creek on September 19, 1864.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/7652/2000395290886669016_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000395290886669016)
Watie was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1864, and given command of the First Indian Brigade. He was the only Indian to achieve the rank of general in the Civil War*. Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865, the last Confederate general to lay down his arms.
As a tribal leader after the war, he was involved in negotiations for the 1866 Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty and initiated efforts to rebuild tribal assets. Watie and his nephew Elias Cornelius Boudinot were arrested for evading taxes on income from a tobacco factory, and were plaintiffs in the Cherokee Tobacco Case of 1870, which negated the 1866 treaty provision establishing tribal tax exempt status. As a result of this case, Congress officially impeded further treaties with Indian tribes, delegating Indian policy to acts of Congress or executive order.
Watie married four times, the first three before tribal relocation to the West. His fourth marriage in 1843, to Sarah Caroline Bell, produced five children. After the brief foray into the tobacco business after the war, Watie died in 1871 at his home along Honey Creek in Indian Territory. Watie is buried in the Polson Cemetery, east of Grove, (Delaware County) OK, located on E 325 Rd.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/7791/2000340646294520283_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000340646294520283)
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/8607/2000353904029664640_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000353904029664640)
*Note: While not a general, Lt Col Ely S. Parker, a Senaca who was a pre-war friend of Ulysses Grant, served on Grant's staff and was an influential member of Grant's "inner circle." Arguably, in this role, Parker had a more significant role in the war as a Federal lieutenant colonel in the eastern theater than Watie as a Confederate brigadier out west, but that's another story.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/7762/2004886394101177055_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004886394101177055)
Ely Parker. During the post-war Grant presidential administration, Parker was appointed as the Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/6238/insane7zocn2.jpg
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/6488/2000385732575862024_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000385732575862024)
Today is the bicentennial of the birth of Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie. He was born near Rome, Georgia. Watie, a Cherokee, survived the tribe's removal to Indian Territory (ak/a the "Trail of Tears") in the 1830s and became the only Native American to achieve general officer rank 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 white neighbors. Watie was part of a faction that began to believe that voluntary removal might be the only way to preserve their autonomy.
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/8843/2004758375249284244_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004758375249284244)
Post-war photo of Watie
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 modern day Oklahoma, during which some historians claim one in four Cherokees died.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/9460/2005538083720443609_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005538083720443609)
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/7003/2005522113154300089_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005522113154300089)
Reconstructed council house where the Treaty of new Echota was signed by Watie and other Cherokee leaders
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/7363/2000830538185912135_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000830538185912135)
After they arrived in the Nations, all who signed the treaty in Georgia, except for Watie, were subsequently killed by disgruntled members of the tribe who believed the signers had sold them out and were thus ultimately responsible for the disastrous removal to Indian Territory. On June 22, 1839, Major Ridge, his cousin, John Ridge and his brother, Elias Boudinot were ambushed and murdered by anti-treaty tribesmen. Watie himself escaped death due to a timely warning. After the murders, he became the leader of the pro-treaty faction.
As an aside, your correspondent believes removal or cultural genocide was inevitable given the political climate of the era. IOW, Watie and the rest of the treaty signers knew the score and were sincerely doing what they believed, and history has proved, was best for their people.
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. They also had more in common with the Confederate "cause" because by 1860, thousands of members of the Five Civilzed Tribes in Indan Territory (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee (Creek)) engaged in agriculture and employed black slaves on their farms and plantations.
Among Confederate Cherokee, Watie was named colonel and raised a regiment of 300 mixed-blood Cherokee named the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/9221/2000317672106875561_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000317672106875561)
Flag of the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Watie's original unit
A portion of Watie's command saw action at Oak Hills (August 10, 1861) in a battle that assured the South's hold on Indian Territory and made Watie a Confederate military hero. Afterward, Watie helped drive pro-Northern Indians out of Indian Territory, and following the Battle of Chustenahlah (December 26, 1861) he commanded the pursuit of the fleeing Federals, led by Opothleyahola, and drove them into exile in Kansas.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/9215/2005558388178895763_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005558388178895763)
Stand Watie Elementary School in OKC
Although Watie's men were exempt from service outside Indian Territory, he led his troops into Arkansas in the spring of 1861 to stem a Federal invasion of the region. Joining with Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's command, Watie took part in the fight at Elkhorn Tavern (March 5-6, 1861). On the first day of fighting, the Southern Cherokees, which were on the left flank of the Confederate line, captured a battery of Union artillery before being forced to abandon it. Following the Federal victory, Watie's command screened the southern withdrawal.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/6007/2000320909877224987_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000320909877224987)
Watie, or troops in his command, participated in eighteen battles and major skirmishes with Federal troop during the Civil War, including Cowskin Prairie (April 1862), Old Fort Wayne (October 1862), Webber's Falls (April 1863), Fort Gibson (May 1863), Cabin Creek (July 1863), and Gunter's Prairie (August 1864).
In addition, his men were engaged in a multitude of smaller skirmishes and meeting engagements in Indian Territory and neighboring states. Because of his wide-ranging raids behind Union lines, Watie tied down thousands of Federal troops that were badly needed in the East.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/5661/2000314564535974740_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000314564535974740)
Watie's applewood field desk in the collection of the Delaware County Historical Society.
Watie's two greatest victories were the capture of the federal steam boat J.R. Williams on June 15, 1864, and the seizure of $1.5 million worth of supplies in a federal wagon supply train a the Second battle of Cabin Creek on September 19, 1864.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/7652/2000395290886669016_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000395290886669016)
Watie was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1864, and given command of the First Indian Brigade. He was the only Indian to achieve the rank of general in the Civil War*. Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865, the last Confederate general to lay down his arms.
As a tribal leader after the war, he was involved in negotiations for the 1866 Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty and initiated efforts to rebuild tribal assets. Watie and his nephew Elias Cornelius Boudinot were arrested for evading taxes on income from a tobacco factory, and were plaintiffs in the Cherokee Tobacco Case of 1870, which negated the 1866 treaty provision establishing tribal tax exempt status. As a result of this case, Congress officially impeded further treaties with Indian tribes, delegating Indian policy to acts of Congress or executive order.
Watie married four times, the first three before tribal relocation to the West. His fourth marriage in 1843, to Sarah Caroline Bell, produced five children. After the brief foray into the tobacco business after the war, Watie died in 1871 at his home along Honey Creek in Indian Territory. Watie is buried in the Polson Cemetery, east of Grove, (Delaware County) OK, located on E 325 Rd.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/7791/2000340646294520283_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000340646294520283)
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/8607/2000353904029664640_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000353904029664640)
*Note: While not a general, Lt Col Ely S. Parker, a Senaca who was a pre-war friend of Ulysses Grant, served on Grant's staff and was an influential member of Grant's "inner circle." Arguably, in this role, Parker had a more significant role in the war as a Federal lieutenant colonel in the eastern theater than Watie as a Confederate brigadier out west, but that's another story.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/7762/2004886394101177055_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004886394101177055)
Ely Parker. During the post-war Grant presidential administration, Parker was appointed as the Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/6238/insane7zocn2.jpg