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Native American Veteran and Canadian aboriginal veteran List.

U.S Civil war

APRIL 12, 1861 - APRIL 9, 1865

 

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28,696 COMMITTED

1,019 DEATH IN SERVICE

 

Union flag

At least 13,000 soldiers

NORTH ARMY

 

- 1 st Indian Home Guard Regiment (Creek and Seminole)

- 2 nd Indian Home Guard Regiment (Delaware)

- 3 rd Indian Home Guard Regiment (Cherokee)

- 4 th Regiment Indian Home Guard

Mohawk and Oneida in regiments of the state of New York

Pawnee Scout and Omaha Scout

More than half of the Amerindians engaged in the Union forces are personally serving in infantry, artillery or navy units.

 

Confederate flag

At least 15,000 soldiers

SOUTH ARMY

 

 

- Cherokee: 11 Infantry Regiment, 1 Cavalry Unit, 1 Artillery Unit.

- Creek: 3 Infantry Regiments, 1 Cavalry Unit.

- Seminole: 2 Infantry Regiments.

- Chickasaw: 4 Infantry Regiments, 1 Cavalry Unit.

- Choctaw: 7 Infantry Regiments, 1 Cavalry Unit.

- Osage: 1 Infantry Regiment.

 

 

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The soldiers identified

to date are from

of 58 Native American nations

different.


 

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As historian Laurence Hauptman points out in his important study "Between two fire", many fought because they believed it was their last hope of stopping the genocide that began on the East Coast, continued through the path of tears in the West during the 1830s and exploded with the 1849 Gold Rush. But as Hauptman points out, civil war, rather than being the last hope, proved to be the last nail in the coffin in Indian efforts to stop the tide of American expansion.
 

 

 

Pea ridge battle


4 MAJOR NATIVE AMERICAN BATTLES

 

 

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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.

 

MIDDLE BOGGY - FEBRUARY 13, 1864

Important by its symbol, this battle amrque one of the last clashes in Indian territory. A small force 
Unionist from Kansas attacks a Confederate position during a raid. The Confederate wounded left on the battlefield are slaughtered. Two months later, in Poison Spring, Arkansas, the Confederates are guilty of massacres and mutilations.


 

 

 

 

 

Ely s parker

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.


 

 

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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.


 

 

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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.


 

 

 
The Amerindians were so successful that the War Department not only relaxed these objections to their use but looked at the possibility of imposing conscription to fill the lack of soldiers. The investigation, which did not go beyond the Ministry of the Interior, stressed that the Amerindians not being citizens, could not be conscripts. Yet nearly 566 of them, mostly from Michigan, were still conscripted.

 

The Unionists' original objections to Indian soldiers seemed well founded after the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in March 1862, when some Union soldiers had obviously been scalped. Further evidence of scalping was found on the Confederate dead soldiers and union in September 1862, after the Battle of Newtonia, Missouri. It was one of the few battles of the civil war in which a significant number of Indians fought on both sides. These discoveries concerned both the commanders of the union and those of the Confederates, who then refrained from using Indian soldiers outside Indian territory.


During the remainder of the civil war, Indian regiments obtained honors on both sides, and Indian officers received the greatest number of medals and promotions, some reaching the rank of Brigadier General. This did not prevent the popular press from calling them "indigenous bodies of tomahawkers and scalpers".

The military reports indicated that, whatever Indian units lacked military training, weapons and uniforms, they were more than compensated for by the courage and dedication they displayed, whether blue or gray. The reports show, however, that they did not like repressive training and military ceremonies, which for them had no cultural or practical significance.


Regulations regarding unauthorized absences, one of the cornerstones of military discipline, meant little for the Indian soldiers who came and went as often as they wanted. Desertion was also common since Indian soldiers generally had no loyalty to the cause other than the recovery or protection of their homes and lands. When, for example, the Home Guard's first expedition into Indian territory captured the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, an entire regiment of Confederate Indians deserted at the side of the union.


At the end of the civil war, Indian soldiers and officers from both sides came back to find what they had devastated. Regardless of the number of fighters of a tribe decorated and dead for the cause of the Union, any participation of members of this tribe with the Confederates led to the subjection of the whole tribe to punitive measures of reconstruction. Tribal lands and property were seized and often sold to the highest bidder. And the great Oklahoma rush of 1895 was made possible by the seizure of Indian lands at the end of the Civil War.


 

Last edited: 25/04/2018