U.S Civil war

CHUSTENAHLAH - DECEMBER 26, 1861

Nearly 1400 rebels Texans and Amerindians attack and defeat by surprise 1800 Faithful Creeks and Seminoles commanded by Opothleyahola. The Unionists lost 250 killed and forced to go into exile with their families to neighboring Kansas, where in 1862 they formed several Indian Home Guards regiments ruminating their revenge. Many of these exiles will die of cold and disease en route, leaving the victors in control of the region and large booty.

PEA RIDGE - 6-8 MARCH 1862

This decisive fight, led to the confines of Arkansas, seals the failure of the South to take control of the divided state of Missouri. 25,000 men clash and 3,000 will be killed and wounded on both sides. The Indian brigade that took part on the Confederate side (Pike Brigade) was dispersed by the enemy artillery, despite the fact that the 800 Horsemen of Cherokee were noticeable.

HONEY SPRINGS - JULY 17, 1863

9000 men are engaged, mostly Amerindians or black. One sees, on the one hand, confronting an Indian brigade under the orders of General Cooper, reinforced by an Arkansas brigade; and a small northerly division under General Blunt, consisting mainly of three Home Guard regiments and one black regiment. More numerous but totally outclassed in terms of artillery and individual armaments, the Confederates lost with battle their main depot in the region, as well as any hope of maintaining control of the territory. Feeling the wind turning, many Confederate soldiers Amerindians then change camp and pledge allegiance to the Union.

Ely Samuel Parker (1828 - August 31, 1895), (born Hasanoanda, later known as Donehogawa) was a Seneca lawyer, engineer, and tribal diplomat.

He was educated at a Baptist school and later studied the law, but was turned down at the New York Bar because, as a Native American, he was not an American citizen. He later studied civil engineering and offered his services as an engineer of the armies when the war broke out.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Parker attempted to assemble a regiment of Iroquois volunteers to fight for the Union, but was refused by New York Governor Edwin D. Morgan. He then sought to join the Union Army as an engineer, but Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, told him that as an Indian he could not join the army. Parker contacted his colleague and friend Ulysses S. Grant, whose forces suffered from a shortage of engineers. Parker was appointed captain in May 1863 and was ordered to report to Brigadier Gen. John Eugene Smith. Smith who appointed Parker as the chief engineer of his 7th Division during the siege of Vicksburg.

When Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Mississippi Military Division, Parker became his adjutant during the Chattanooga campaign. He was then transferred with Grant as Warrant Officer of US Army Headquarters and served Grant through the Overland Campaign and the Petersburg headquarters. In Petersburg, Parker was named Grant's military secretary, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He wrote much of Grant's correspondence.

Parker was present when Confederate General Robert E. Lee went to the Appomattox Court in April 1865. He helped draft the surrender documents. At the time of surrender, General Lee "looked at me for a moment," Parker told more than one of his friends and relatives, "He laid his hand out and said," I'm happy to see a real American here . I shook his hand and said, "We are all Americans."

After the Civil War, Parker was made an officer in the 2nd United States Cavalry on July 1, 1866. He again became Grant's military secretary, with the rank of colonel, Parker was a member of the Southern Treaty Commission who renegotiated the treaties with these Indian tribes, mainly from the Southeast, who had sided with Confederation. Parker resigned from the army with the rank of Brigadier General on April 26, 1869.

Shortly after Grant took office in March 1869, he appointed Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Parker served in this office from 1869 to 1871. He was the first Native American to hold this position. Parker became the chief architect of President Grant's peace policy in relation to the Native Americans of the West. Under his leadership, the number of military actions against the Indians was reduced and there was an effort to support the tribes in their transition to lives on reserves.

After leaving the government department, Parker invested in the stock market. At first he knew the success, but eventually he lost the fortune he had accumulated after the panic of 1873.

Parker lived his last years in poverty, and died in Connecticut on August 31, 1895.

Stand Watie (December 12, 1806 - September 9, 1871) (also known as Degataga: "Steadfast" and Isaac S. Watie) was a Cherokee Nation Chief and Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army. of America during the American Civil War. He commanded the Amerindian cavalry, consisting mainly of Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles.

Stand Watie was the only American Indian to achieve the rank of Brigadier General (or Brigadier General in the military terminology used in US armies) in either of the two then-conflicting armies.

After Chief John Ross and the Cherokee Council, who had first proclaimed the Cherokee's neutrality in the conflict, decided to support the cause of the Confederate States of America for fear of dividing the Cherokee nation, Watie decided to lift a cavalry regiment. In October 1861 he received the rank of Colonel of the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles .

Although he formally fought the federal troops, Watie also used his command to engage in internal Cherokee struggles, and similarly turned against Creeks, Seminoles and others who had chosen to support the 'Union. Watie is best known for her role in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, which was held from March 6 to 8, 1862, and ended with a victory for the Union. Watie's troops took the positions of the federal artillery, thereby succeeding in covering the retreat of the Confederate army from the battlefield.

Although Cherokee support for the Confederacy had been dulled, Watie remained at the head of what was left of her troops. He was promoted Brigadier General by General Samuel Bell Maxey, and was entrusted with the command of two cavalry regiments as well as three infantry battalions consisting of Cherokees, Seminoles, and Osages. These soldiers were based south of the Canadian River, which they regularly crossed for incursions into the territory of the Union. They fought in many battles and skirmishes in western Confederate territory, including the Indian Territory, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Stand Watie's forces are said to have been more engaged west of the Mississippi than any other unit.

On June 23, 1865, in Fort Towson, Oklahoma Territory, in the Choctaw area, Watie signed a cease-fire agreement with Union envoys, becoming the last Confederate general to surrender.

Watie led the South Cherokee delegation to Washington after the war to ask for peace, hoping tribal divisions would be recognized. The US government only negotiated with the leaders who sided with the Union and appointed John Ross as chief chief in 1866 under a new treaty.

The tribe was sharply divided over treaty issues and Ross's return. Ross dies in 1867 and a new leader is elected, Lewis Downing. He was an insightful and politically sound leader, bringing reconciliation and reunification among the Cherokee.

Shortly after Downing's election, Watie returned to her nation. After the signing of the treaty, he exiled himself to the Choctaw nation.

Watie stayed out of politics during her last years of life, and tried to rebuild her plantation.

The Indian volunteers wore their uniforms as proudly as their white comrades in arms, and suffered the same losses as their white compatriots in this incredibly brutal and bloody war.

. The truth is that the commanders of the Union regarded the Indians as an enemy to fight, not as warriors to be admitted into their ranks. If it were not for the early recruitment of the Indians by Confederation, it is unlikely that the North Army would have enlisted Native Americans. As early as July 1861, Brigadier-General Albert Pike had succeeded in raising a regiment of Creek members in Indian territory for Confederate service.

The union, on the other hand, offered the tribes only a reduction in wartime of the already meager rations that had been promised at the time of the return. Some tribes, however, chose to honor the treaties in place with the federal government and agreed to form Native American regiments within the Union Army, with white officers at the command.

The War Department, as well as the professional officer corps in general, opposed the recruitment of Indian troops. In addition to the uncertainty surrounding the reliability of Indian soldiers, it was feared that they would not fight according to the rules and standards taught at West Point.

Nevertheless, in the spring of 1862, the Secretary of the Interior formally asked President Lincoln to authorize the recruitment of several Indian regiments from refugees driven out of Indian territory by their Confederate brothers.

Although the Indians were to be a Home Guard, their obvious purpose would be the reclamation of lost lands in Indian territory, and therefore it would be a case of Indians fighting the Indians.

Southern agents were actively searching for Native American allies among the Five Civilized Tribes - Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole - all of whom were slavers.

Neutral in the conflict following the demands of the Union leaders to become allies, tribal leaders and minority groups considered the possibility that the Confederate government could be more honorable than that of the North.

The Confederates offered the tribes new treaties and promised that the Indian regiments would be mobilized only if there was action in Indian territory. And, for the first time, many Indians were offered commissions as officers in the army. In addition, all Amerindian units were to be commanded by Native American officers.

Moreover, the Confederate states offered the same status in the Confederate government. The tribes could send representatives to the Confederate Congress and had the right to impose merchants and traders within their borders. The Confederate government also promised the tribes compensation for damage caused by intruders during the war.

Among those who remained faithful to the union was Opothleyahola, a ninety-year-old chief of a band of Creeks. Because of his refusal to join the Confederate party, his group was attacked by Colonel Cooper and his regiment of Confederate soldiers and driven from their homes in Oklahoma. Old Chief Creek drove his people out of Indian territory to Kansas. Four thousand people, mostly women and children, started the long trek east. They were repeatedly attacked by Colonel Cooper's troops and fought successfully with their rearguard defense.

Cooper then ordered the first Cherokee Mounted Rifles to attack the loyalists. But attacking a retired band of Indian men, women, and children who did nothing but honor their conventional agreements was not an order the Cherokee could honorably accomplish. They deserted en masse and finally joined Opothleyohola as he struggled toward Kansas.