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[cccalco]

Excerpts from The Keetoowah Society and the Avocation of Religious Nationalism in the Cherokee Nation, 1855-1867 Chapter Five
http://www.tngenweb.org/tncolor/keetood5.htm

"Less than a month before the surrender of Watie, a Grand Council of the Southern Indians had been held at Armstrong Academy in the western portion of the Indian Territory for the purposes of establishing a “United Nations of the Indian Territory.” [6] The “United Nations” was presided over by the leaders of the Five Nations as well as Plains Indians who had fought on the side of the Confederacy; present at the meeting were freemasons Stand Watie, William Penn Adair, John Jumper, Samuel Checote, George Stidham, Robert Jones, Peter Pitchlyn, Chilly McIntosh, D.N. McIntosh, and Reverend J.S. Murrow. Originally planned to present a united front in dealing with an impending surrender to the Federal Government, the council quickly took on other meaning. [7]"
[7] Dale and Lytton, 229; Wardell, 179; Foreman, 132


"...Bloodied yet unbowed, the Confederate Indians made no mention of defeat, wrongdoing, or mistakes in judgment. They also required that any permanent treaty, i.e. terms of surrender, be ratified by the national councils of each tribe. [11]"
[11] ibid.


"On June 15, 1865, a second meeting of the “United Nations of the Indian Territory” ratified the positions put forward at the earlier meeting and Stand Watie appointed a commission of six delegates that would “forward the great work of establishing thorough harmony among all Indian tribes.” [12] Shortly after the council disbanded, Major General Francis Herron (Iowa Mosaic Lodge #125) sent Lieutenant Colonel Matthews as Federal peace commissioner to Doaksville, Choctaw Nation to come to terms with members of the council. When he surrendered on June 19, Chief Peter Pitchlyn (Knights Templar Washington Commandery #1) expressed the sentiments of many of the Southern Indians:

"Our late allies in war, the Confederate armies, have long since ceased to resist the national authorities; they have all been either captured or surrendered to the forces of the United States. It therefore becomes us as brave people to forget and lay aside our prejudices and prove ourselves equal to the occasion. Let reason obtain now that the sway of our passions and let us meet in council with the proper spirit and resume our former relations with the United States. [13]
On June 28, Stand Watie sent Knights of the Golden Circle William P. Adair and James Bell to meet with General Francis Herron to negotiate terms of surrender for the Confederate Cherokee. [14]"
[12] Watie quoted in Wardell, 180.
[13] United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 130 Volumes, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1900), Vol. 67, 1105.
[14] Franks, 182.


"When the Keetoowah heard that Watie and the Knights of the Golden Circle sought a “thorough harmony” within the Cherokee people, it seemed that peace was truly at hand. However, when the Watie delegation arrived at Fort Gibson to present themselves to the government, they were bearing arms, bristling with defiance, and walked and talked not like a people who sought conciliation. [42] The delegation presented John Garrett, the commander of Fort Gibson, with a copy of Watie's surrender treaty which allowed for an unprecedented surrender “without demanding their paroles or their arms.”
[42] Abel, 156


"In October 1865, the Cherokee Council met in its entirety for the first time since the beginning of hostilities in 1861. The Fort Smith “treaties” were actually truces which provided a temporary settlement of affairs and a stable political arrangement until a more permanent treaty could be signed in Washington. However, the October Council was still dominated by the Keetoowah faction as many of the Knights of the Golden Circle were reticent to return to the active political affairs of the Nation until their security could be guaranteed. [77]"
[77] McLoughlin, Champions of the Cherokee, 415; Wardell, 194.


"Shortly after arriving in Washington, the Keetoowah delegation received an audience with President Andrew Johnson, Secretary Harlan, and Commissioner Cooley in the President's office in the White House. Thomas Pegg addressed the President and his representatives and presented them with the Memorial of the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States and the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress. The memorial began with a discussion of the Harlan Bill, but quickly moved to the critical issues:

When the rebellion broke out the Cherokees were divided into two parties. The loyal and the disloyal. Both had been thoroughly organized for two or three years -- and prepared for the struggle. Under the lead of Stand Watie, lately a General in the rebel army, the disloyal element, (small in numbers but backed by strong influences from the rebellious states) had been organized into “Blue Lodges,” and Knights of the Golden Circle.” The loyal masses, by a general movement of the populace, had organized themselves into a Loyal League, known as the Keetoowah Society, but by the rebels it was called, in derision, “The Pin Society.” The Loyal League embraced the great mass of the men of the Cherokee nation, especially the full-blooded Indians."


"...the Southern delegation led by John Rollin Ridge and composed of Knights of the Golden Circle Stand Watie, Saladin Watie, Elias C. Boudinot, and William Penn Adair. They were assisted behind the scenes by the ever wily Albert Pike. Boudinot and Adair, responding in early February, noted that though the Civil War may have accentuated the divide between these two parties, their struggle went much further back in Cherokee history than the Civil War."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle/

 

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Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Texas Jay]

Thank you, cccalco, for setting the record straight about Stand Watie's membership in the KGC and the Cherokee's Masonic connections as well. I commend you for your research ability.
~Texas Jay

 

[lamar]

Dear ccalco;
You wrote:
VOICE: “Hast thou cleansed thyself from human guilt and impurity?”
RED HAND: “ I have”.
VOICE: “Hast thou ill will toward any of they fellow creatures?”
RED HAND: “I have not”.
VOICE: “Wilt thou trust and obey us, keeping thyself always chaste and valorous?”
RED HAND: “I will”.
VOICE: “Wilt thou hold this power with which we endow thee for thine own chosen company only?”
RED HAND: “I will”.
VOICE: “Wilt thou endure death or torture in its cause?”
RED HAND: “I will”.
VOICE: “”Wilt thou vow this secret never to be revealed save at thy death hour?’
RED HAND: “I will”.
VOICE: “They death hour will be revealed to thee; thou wilt be allowed to choose thy successor, and at the end of thy journey thou wilt be rewarded for faith and obedience.”(2)


My question is, how the the American Indians learn how to speak late middle English so well?
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[Rebel - KGC]

HA! EASY answer is that the rituals of the Blue Lodge of FreeMasons has similar old "BRIT style" language; AND! Some tribes in North Carolina "speak" like that in FORMAL "sessions"; it is thought that the LUMBEE Nation is descended from the BRIT Lost Colony.
The migration from there to the mountains of WESTERN N.C., Tennessee, and SW Virginia... gave us, the "broken English" speech (BRIT), of the MELUNGEONS! PROBABLY written down that way, for "rituals purposes". The 1611 KJV BIBLE, is PROBABLY the "source", of the speech pattern... check it out.

 

[cccalco]

My question is, how the the American Indians learn how to speak late middle English so well?
Your friend;
LAMAR

Of course it is unclear here whether the English being written is that of the native speaker or the English speaking transcriber/translator. And the English/French/Spanish spoken by the Amerindian was always representative of the first European contact. Could come through contact by trade or even contact with the missing colony at Roanoke. Early colonist often spoke of English speaking "white Indians".

 

[Timberwolf]

Tubal-Cain

TW

 

[Rebel - KGC]

 

[cccalco]

Excerpt from: The escape and suicide of John Wilkes Booth:
or, The first true account of Lincoln's assassination,
containing a complete confession by Booth
by Finis Langdon Bates, 1907
http://www.archive.org/details/escapesuicideofj00bate

Chapter XV. Gen. Albert Pike Identified Booth beginning page 222

CHAPTER XV.

GEN. ALBERT PIKE IDENTIFIES BOOTH.

While trying to trace Booth after he left Fresno,
California, I read a story from Col. Edward Levan,
of Monterey, Mexico. He says that a man whom he
believed to be Booth roomed with him during the
winter of 1868, in Lexington, Kentucky. The two
became quite friendly, and Col. Levan openly de-
clared to the man, who was going by the name of
J. J. Marr, that he believed him to be John Wilkes
Booth. Mr. Marr did not deny the allegation, but
shortly thereafter left Lexington, where he was
"playing the character of a lawyer."

Col. Levan says that he afterward learned that
Mr. Marr had settled at Village Mills, Texas, and
from there went to Glenrose Mills, Texas, at which
place I first met John St. Helen, and where he de-
clared himself to be John Wilkes Booth.

Col. M. W. Connolly, a distinguished newspaper
man, at present and for many years past connected
The Veteran Mason, Statesman, Lawyer and Poet, as He
Appeared at the Time of His Recognition of John Wilkes
Booth at Port Worth, Texas, in 1885.
with the leading papers as editor-in-chief, a gentle-
man of the highest type, a brilliant writer and a man
of honor and integrity, says :

"I am strongly inclined to believe that David B.
George, who died at Enid, Oklahoma Territory, was
John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Lincoln.

"In 1883, while in the little town of Village Mills,
Texas, I met George, although I never knew his
name, and cannot say whether he went under that
name or not. He impressed me. I had seen Edwin
Booth once in Galveston, and had some knowledge
of the appearance of the Booth family. Later I went
to Fort Worth as editor of the Gazette, under the
late Walter Malone. I had forgotten all about my
casual acquaintance of Village Mills.

"One night I was in the Pickwick Hotel barroom
talking to Gen. Albert Pike, who had come down
from Washington on legal business. I had called on
him to inquire about a claim against the government
in which he was interested the claim of the heirs
of my wife's grandfather, Major Michie, of La-
Grange, Tennessee, whose cotton and cotton gins
were burned by the Federal troops when Grant was
at LaGrange. Capt. Day, of Day & Maas, proprie-
tors, was behind the bar. It was in 1884 or 1885,
and we were unconventional then.

"Tom Powell, mayor of Fort Worth, joined us, and
Temple Houston, youngest son of the ex-Governor
of Tennessee, the man who whipped Santa Anna at
San Jaeinto, and the first president of the Texas
republic (Gen Sam Houston), was there. I was
about to leave, was waiting for a pause in order to
excuse myself ; Gen. Pike was explaining how he had
been credited with the authorship of 'The Old
Canoe,' which he said was written by some woman;
just then my Village Mills friend came in accom-
panied by some one, I think Long Scurlock, who
used to edit the Chronicle at Cleburne, Texas. Capt.
Day turned to make a change. I was watching Gen.
Pike closely (trying to get away), when suddenly
he threw up his hands, his face white as his hair and
beard, and exclaimed :

'"My God! John Wilkes Booth!' He was much
excited, trembled like an aspen, and at my sugges-
tion went to his room. He seemed weakened by the
shock, the occasion of which I could not realize at
the moment. I saw him climb the stairs to his room
and turned to look for my Village Mills acquaint-
ance, but could not find him.

"While talking to Temple Houston the next morn-
ing I pointed out my Village Mills friend when I
was called to Gen. Pike, who was standing on the
opposite side of the street, and Temple Houston
promised me that he would look the man up and get
a story. I have heard that the alleged Booth, the
man whom I had met, moved to the Territory later,
but I took no newspaper interest in the matter.

"I never saw J. Wilkes Booth, but I have seen his
pictures, and while I am in no way certain, I am
strongly of the belief that the man who died at Enid
was John Wilkes Booth. I am quite sure that the
venerable author of 'Every Year* believed it was
the infatuated actor, and I am sure that he was
amazed to find that his bewailment, 'There are fewer
to regret us,' did not include the man who took a
leading part in our great national tragedy."

It is of interest in this connection to state that
Fort Worth, Texas, is only about forty-fives miles
to the northeast of Grandberry, Texas, my old home
and St. Helen's. It was from this place, in 1878,
that he drifted to Leadville, Colorado, and from
thence to Fresno, California, and was next seen in
1884 or 1885 at Fort Worth, Texas, near his old
home, by Gen. Albert Pike, in company with M.
W. Connolly, and by Gen. Pike recognized as John
Wilkes Booth.

The man supposed to be Booth was seen by others
before he settled at Glenrose Mills, for Dr. H. W.
Gay says :

"I knew John Wilkes Booth in 1857, and while I
was at Fort Donaldson, a prisoner of war, the news
was flashed over the world that President Lincoln
had been slain by John Wilkes Booth. I was horri-
fied to think of such a thing, for Booth, though a
boy when I knew him, in appearance was the most
accomplished gentleman with whom I had ever come
in contact. All who knew him well were captivated
by him. He was the most hospitable, genial fellow
to be met, and when drinking or much in company,
he was always quoting Shakespeare, or some other
poet. How many times have I seen him strike a
tragic attitude and exclaim:

O'The aspiring youth who fires the Ephesians dome
Outlives in fame the pious fools who reared it.'

"I read of his capture and death and never
doubted it until the year 1869. I was then living in
what is now Tate county, Mississippi. One evening
about dusk a man came to my house claiming that
he was one of the Ku-Klux Clan run out of Arkansas
by Clayton's militia (the Clayton referred to being
Powell Clayton, until recently Ambassador to Mexico).

"I soon recognized this man as an erratic fellow.
During his stay at my house he told me that John
Wilkes Booth was not killed, but made his escape
and spent a short while in Mexico with Maximilian 's
army, but got into trouble, and his life was saved
by reason of the fact that he was a Catholic. The
man also stated that during Booth's short stay in
Mexico he had lived in disguise as an itinerant Cath-
olic priest. He also told me the story of how Booth
had escaped after the assassination was done, and it
corresponded exactly with Mr. Bates' story as told
by John St. Helen, even to the crossing of the Mis-
sissippi river at Catfish Point and going thence up
the Arkansas river to Indian Territory. And that
Booth afterward met Junius Brutus Booth and his
mother in San Francisco."

This meeting was possibly arranged while John
Wilkes Booth was in the Indian Territory, and may
explain in some measure his employment to drive a
team from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Salt Lake,
Utah, for Mr. L. Treadkel, in 1866 or 1867, and his
unceremonious desertion of duty before reaching
Salt Lake City.

So we have Booth, or St. Helen, meeting his oldest
brother, Junius Brutus Booth, at San Francisco in
1866 or 1867. Again we locate him in Lexington,
Kentucky, in company with Col. Levan, in 1868 or
1869, and seen by Dr. Gay in Tate county, Mississip-
pi, in 1869. In 1872 I met and knew him intimately at
Glenrose Mills, Texas. In 1883 Mr. Connolly saw
him at Village Mills, Texas, and again in 1884 or
1885 at Fort Worth, Texas, where he was recog-
nized by Gen. Albert Pike.

At Fort Worth we lost sight of Booth for a num-
ber of years, but it seems from the best obtainable
information that he drifted into the vicinity of Guthrie,
Oklahoma Territory, but was located at He.i-
nessy, Oklahoma Territory, in the year 1896, play-
ing the role of a gentleman of leisure, under the name
of George D. Ryan, where he remained until some
time in the year 1899, when he located at El Reno,
Oklahoma Territory, sixty-five miles south of Hen-
nessy, stopping at the Anstein hotel, where he was
domiciled in 1898 when I took up the matter with
the government authorities at Washington. %

On moving to El Reno, in 1899, Booth made de-
posits of money, opening an account with the State
bank of that place, under the name of David E.
George. Assuming the character of a journeyman
house painter he took a contract and painted a small
cottage for Mr. Anstien, the proprietor of the An-
stein hotel, and advertised himself as David E.
George, house painter, in the Daily Democrat, a
newspaper published at El Reno, but took no jobs of
painting after that first one for Mr. Anstien, and did
no other work in this nor any other business at El Reno.

At the El Reno State bank, where Booth made his
deposits as David E. George, the tintype picture of
St. Helen (Booth), taken twelve years after the as-
sassination of President Lincoln, was at once identi-
fied by the officials of the bank as being a true like-
ness of the man David E. George, who made the de-
posits at their bank and with whom they were per-
sonally acquainted. At the request of Mr. Bellamy,
one of the bank officials, I went with him to another
bank, the name of which I do not now remember,
and was introduced to the president of this bank,
whose name I believe was- Dr. Davis, who at once
identified the tintype picture of St. Helen as a true
and correct likeness of David E. George.

After remaining at the Anstien Hotel for quite a
long while David E. George (Booth) bought a cot-
tage at El Eeno, paying thirty-five hundred dollars
for it, where he installed a family by the name of
Simmons, who were to board him for the rent of the
place. He told the Anstiens that he was tired of
hotel life and requested them to look for a wife for
him, saying in a joking way that he would pay hand-
somely for one well suiting his fancy, who would be
willing to take charge of his cottage home.

Mrs. Simmons also took to board with her the
Methodist minister and his wife, the Rev. and Mrs.
Harper. Mr. Harper is a man of means and follows
the ministry as a matter of choice and not as a means
of livelihood, and his wife is a lady of great refine-
ment and culture, occupying in church and social
circles a high position. Being thrown much together
in the ordinary course of everyday life at the cottage
Mrs. Harper as well as the members of the Simmons
family grew to be on intimate terms with George
(Booth), who fell ill with his chronic asthmatic af-
fliction, from which he suffered a great deal, and
was removed from his cottage home to the Kerfoot
Hotel. Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Simmons and other kind-
hearted ladies of the city visited George (Booth),
who by right of birth and breeding moved in the so-
cial circle to which he was born, regardless of his
advertisement in the Democrat as a house painter,
performing for him such ministries as were neces-
sary.

Mrs. Harper makes the following statement:
"Mr. George (Booth) had been a resident of the
Territory for several years. He had always been
well supplied with money, the origin or source of
which no one knew, for from some mysterious source
he received a regular remittance. He was a familiar
figure in Guthrie, El Reno and Enid. My acquaint-
ance with Mr. George led me to believe him to be a
very different person from what he represented him-
self to be as David E. George, the painter. He was
eccentric, and though he claimed to be a painter of
houses, yet he did no work. He was possessed of
the highest degree of intelligence, had always the
bearing of a gentleman of cultivation and refine-
ment, and in conversation was fluent and captivat-
ing, while he discussed subjects of the greatest mo-
ment with learning, familiarity and ease. There
were very few people with whom he cared to asso-
ciate. Generally he was gloomy, though at times he
would brighten up, sing snatches of stage songs and
repeat Shakespeare's plays in an admirable manner.
He was so well versed in these plays and other writ-
ings that he would often answer questions with a
quotation.

"At one time the young people of El Reno had a
play of some kind. One of the actors became ill and
Mr. George (Booth) filled the place to the great ad-
miration and entertainment of those who saw him.
When surprise was expressed at his ability as an
actor he replied that he had acted some when he was
a young man.

"Regarding his people, he told different stories.
One time he said his father was a doctor, and he
and a brother were the only children; that his
mother had married again and two half brothers
were living in the Indian Territory, their name being
Smith, and that he had property in the Indian Ter-
ritory. Again he seemed very lonely at times, and
said that he had not a relative in the world. He was
subject to fits of melancholia, was extremely sensi-
tive, quick tempered and rather excitable. He said
he had never married. There seemed to be some-
thing constantly on his mind about which he thought,
and which made him miserable. He seemed to love
to have one understand that he was in trouble and
appreciated sympathy.

"He remained with the Simmons family three
months and treated everyone with the greatest kind-
ness and consideration. Never do I remember his
mentioning the history of his past life or that he
was other than David E. George until the time he
thought he was going to die that was about the
middle of April, 1902.

"He had gone up town, but returned shortly and,
entering the room where Mrs. Simmons, Mrs. Bears
and myself were seated, he made some remarks re-
garding the weather, which was unusually fine for
the time of year. He then went to his room and in
about fifteen minutes called for us, and said :

" 'I feel as if I am going to be very sick.' He
was lying on his bed and asked me to get him a
mirror. For some time he gazed at himself in the
mirror.

"Mrs. Bears said she could see the pupils of his
eyes dilate and believed that he had taken mor-
phine. Being uneasy, she went out o. che room and
got him a cup of coffee and insisted until he drank
it, but when she suggested sending for a physician
he roused himself and in a peculiar and dramatic
manner and voice said, while holding the mirror in
front of his face :

" 'Stay, woman, stay. This messenger of death
is my guest, and I desire to see the curtain of death
fall upon the last tragic act of mine, ' which passion-
ate utterance brought tears to our eyes. And when
I turned to wipe the tears from my eyes he called
me to his side and said :

' 'I have something to tell you. I am going to
die in a few minutes, and I don't believe you would
do anything to injure me. Did it ever occur to you
that I am anything but an ordinary painter? I
killed the best man that ever lived.' I asked him
who it was and he answered:

" 'Abraham Lincoln.'

"I could not believe it. I thought him out of his
head and asked: 'Who was Abraham Lincoln?'

" 'Is it possible you are so ignorant as not to
know?' he asked. He then took a pencil and paper
and wrote down in a peculiar but legible hand the
name, 'Abraham Lincoln,' and said:

" 'Don't doubt it, it is true. I am John Wilkes
Booth.'

" 'Am I dying now?' he asked. 'I feel cold, as if
death's icy hand was closing my life as the forfeit
for my crime.'

"He then told me that he was well off. He seemed
to be perfectly rational while talking to me. He
knew me and knew where he was, and I believe he
really thought in fact that he was dying, and asked
me to keep his secret until he was dead, adding that
if any one should find out now that he was J. "Wilkes
Booth they would take him out and hang him, and the
people who loved him so well now would despise him.
He told me that people high in official life hated
Lincoln and were implicated in his assassination. He
said that the suspense of possibly being detected
preyed on his mind all the time and was something
awful, and that his life was miserable. He said that
Mrs. Surratt was innocent and he was responsible
for her death as well as that of several others. He
said that he was devoted to acting, but had to give
it up because of his crime, and the fact that he must
remain away from the stage, when he loved the life
and profession of acting so well, made him restless
and ill tempered. He said he had plenty of money,
but was compelled to play the character of a work-
ing man to keep his mind occupied.

"In the mean time Dr. Arnold arrived and as ft
result of his efforts Mr. George was restored. After
this he was very anxious for weeks regarding what
he had told me and questioned me concerning it.
I answered him that he had told me nothing of im-
portance, but he seemed to know better. One day
he saw me looking at a picture of Lincoln and asked
me why I was looking at it. I told him that I had
always admired Lincoln.

" 'Is that the only reason you have for looking at
it?' he asked, regarding me with a fierce look. A
peculiar expression came over his face, his eyes
flashed and he turned pale and walked off.

"One peculiar feature of Mr. George, or Booth's,
face was that one eyebrow was somewhat higher
than the other. I have noticed him limp slightly,
but he said it was rheumatism. That Mr. George had
a past we all knew, but what his secret was remains
unknown except in so far as he may have communi-
cated the truth to me."

Booth's, or George's, life at El Reno was much
the same as I have found it at other places a simi-
larity and accumulative evidence unmistakably es-
tablishing his identity of person and character
wherever he located. It seems to have been his pol-
icy to change his name and character as often as he
changed his place of residence. It will be remem-
bered that when he left Hennessy for El Reno that
he changed his name from George D. Ryan to David
E. George, and his occupation and dress from that
of a gentleman of leisure to that of a journeyman
painter of houses, which character he acted to such
perfection that, although he painted but one house,
and did that in such an uneven and unworkmanlike
manner as to show that he knew little or nothing
about painting, yet people thought he knew all about
it, and just why he did no more painting the general
public did not understand. Upon inquiry, however,
George, or Booth, was always ready with a satis-
factory explanation. When the editor of the El Reno
Democrat, in which paper he put an advertisement
as a tradesman of house painting, at a cost of four
dollars a month, thinking it a useless expense, so
universally was it known that George, or Booth, did
no such work, suggested this to him, George, or
Booth, indignantly demanded to know if the editor
was uneasy about the price of the card, if so he
would pay for it in advance. The editor apologized
and the card continued from month to month for
two years, up to the date of the death of George.

Booth's purpose in this is obvious. He wanted to
keep himself constantly before the public as a paint-
er, not that he wanted work, but to keep alive his
identity as a painter while he played the deceptive
character. The 'little cottage painted for Mr. An-
stien was the stage setting to the character, the card
in the paper was his program and he played to a suc-
cessful finish this drama of the journeyman painter.

Booth's idea in purchasing the cottage and estab-
lishing a home for himself was probably because he
thought he would enjoy it after a long and homeless
life, alone whether on the plains, in the mountains
or the best hotels for it was his custom to put up
at only the best hotels wherever he went. Thus,
when he reached El Reno he went to the Anstien
Hotel, the best one then in the city, and as good as
any there now. But three months of home life was
quite sufficient for him and he moved into the Ker-
foot Hotel, 1he newest and most up-to-date hotel in
El Reno, which was completed after he left the An-
stien for his cottage. Just how it was possible for
Booth to stay at this hotel, the stopping place of
most ol the traveling public, and escape detection
in his changed character from " Gentleman Ryan"
to "Journeyman House Painter George," by people
from Hennessy, only about sixty-five miles away,
who must have frequented this hotel, is hard to un.
derstand. Nevertheless it is true. It would be pos-
sible, perhaps easy, to deceive as to occupation, but
to successfully disguise his person, and change his
name, is remarkable and certainly required all the
genius of the actor, John "Wilkes Booth, who played
the change of name, person and character practically
in the same community. At El Reno, Guthrie and
Enid he was known as George, while at Hennessy,
within the same section, he was known as George D.
Ryan, and that he was not recognized and exposed
staggers comprehension and creates disbelief, nev-
ertheless Booth did this successfully, as he aid many
other surprising things.

Leaving El Reno, Booth, or George, arrived at
Enid on the 3d day of December, 1902, and registered
at the Grand Avenue Hotel, under the name of David
E. George. In the meantime Mr. Harper and his
wife had removed from El Reno to Enid, from which
place she made the following statement:

"On the evening of January 13th, I was startled
and surprised by reading in the Enid Daily News
of the suicide of David E. George, of El Reno, with
whom I first became acquainted in March, 1900, iu
El Reno, at the home of Mr. Simmons.

"Mr. Harper went down on Wednesday morning,
the 14th instant, and recognized him, and told the
embalmers of a confession that David E. George had
made to myself, and that they had better investi-
gate.

"I went to the morgue with Mr. Harper on the
15th and identified the corpse of David E. George
as the man who had confessed to me at El Reno that
he was John Wilkes Booth, and, as brevity has been
enjoined on me, will reaffirm my former statement
made in detail of David E. George's confession to me
at El Reno, about the middle of April, 1900, as fully
as if same were set forth herein.

(Signed.) "MRS. E. C. HARPER."

" Territory of Oklahoma,
" County of Garland.

"Mrs. E. C. Harper, first being duly sworn, upon
her oath says that the facts were written above by
herself; that she knows the facts she has written,
and that the same are true.

(Signed) "MRS. B. C. HARPER,
' ' Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 24th
day of January, 1903.

(Signed) "A. A. STRATFORD,
"Notary Public.
(L. S.) "My commission expires November 18th, 1906."

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Indian cavalry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cavalry
Indian cavalry is the name collectively given (for lack of a better one) to the Midwest and Eastern American Indians who fought during the American Civil War, most of them on horseback and for the South.

The Cherokee Braves Flag, as flown by Stand Watie.
Scales'/Fry's Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry
Meyer's Battalion of Cherokee Cavalry
Cherokee Battalion of Infantry
Second Cherokee Artillery
Contents

1 Chickasaw Nation
2 Choctaw Nation
3 Creek Nation
4 Seminole Nation
5 Osage Cavalry Battalion
6 Native American units in the US Armed forces
7 See also
8 External links
Chickasaw Nation

First Regiment of Chickasaw Infantry
First Regiment of Chickasaw Cavalry First Colonel: William L. Hunter
First Battalion of Chickasaw Cavalry
Shecoe's Chickasaw Battalion of Mounted Volunteers
Choctaw Nation

First Regiment Choctaw & Chickasaw Mounted Rifles
First Regiment of Choctaw Mounted Rifles
Deneale's Regiment of Choctaw Warriors
Second Regiment of Choctaw Cavalry
Third Regiment of Choctaw Cavalry
Folsom's Battalion of Choctaw Mounted Rifles
Capt. John Wilkin's Company of Choctaw Infantry
Northwest Frontier Command of Indian Territory
Creek Nation

First Creek Mounted Rifles - Col. Daniel N. McIntosh, Commanding
Co. A - 2nd Lt. William McIntosh
Co. C - Capt. William F. McIntosh, Commanding
Co. G - Capt. William H. McIntosh, Commanding
Co. G - 2nd Lt. A.H. McIntosh
Second Creek Mounted Rifles - Lt. Col. Chilly McIntosh, Commanding
Seminole Nation

First Battalion Seminole Mounted Volunteers
First Regiment Seminole Mounted Volunteers
Osage Cavalry Battalion

First Commander: Major Broken Arm [1][2]
Native American units in the US Armed forces

Indian Home Guard (American Civil War)

See also

Albert Pike
Battle of Chustenahlah
Battle of Chusto-Talasah
Battle of Pea Ridge
Battle of Round Mountain
Benjamin McCulloch
Billy Bowlegs
Cherokee Nation Warriors Society
Douglas H. Cooper
Ely S. Parker
First Confederate Congress
Fort Smith Council
Halleck Tustenuggee
James G. Blunt
John Rollin Ridge
Keetoowah Nighthawk Society
Lewis Downing
Lumbee
Murrell Home
Opothleyahola
Richard Montgomery Gano
Sam Sixkiller
Samuel B. Maxey
Second Confederate Congress
Confederate Government Civil War units: Indian cavalry
External links

LewRockwell.com article on the Cherokee Nation and the CSA
Source page, used with permission from the author
Native American CSA Records
http://juntosociety.com/native/black_dog.htm
Stand Watie Civil War Regiment Roster
http://www.us-data.org/us/minges/keetoodi.html
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cavalry"
Categories: Confederate States of America | Cherokee tribe | Native American history | Oklahoma in the American Civil War | Arkansas in the American Civil War | Bleeding Kansas | Native Americans in the Civil War | Irregular forces of the American Civil War
This page was last modified on 20 August 2009 at 06:22.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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Why the Cherokee Nation Allied Themselves With the Confederate States of America in 1861
by Leonard M. Scruggs
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/scruggs4.html

Many have no doubt heard of the valor of the Cherokee warriors under the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie in the West and of Thomas’ famous North Carolina Legion in the East during the War for Southern Independence from 1861 to 1865. But why did the Cherokees and their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws determine to make common cause with the Confederate South against the Northern Union? To know their reasons is very instructive as to the issues underlying that tragic war. Most Americans have been propagandized rather than educated in the causes of the war, all this to justify the perpetrators and victors. Considering the Cherokee view uncovers much truth buried by decades of politically correct propaganda and allows a broader and truer perspective.

On August 21, 1861, the Cherokee Nation by a General Convention at Tahlequah (in Oklahoma) declared its common cause with the Confederate States against the Northern Union. A treaty was concluded on October 7th between the Confederate States and the Cherokee Nation, and on October 9th, John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation called into session the Cherokee National Committee and National Council to approve and implement that treaty and a future course of action.

The Cherokees had at first considerable consternation over the growing conflict and desired to remain neutral. They had much common economy and contact with their Confederate neighbors, but their treaties were with the government of the United States.

The Northern conduct of the war against their neighbors, strong repression of Northern political dissent, and the roughshod trampling of the U. S Constitution under the new regime and political powers in Washington soon changed their thinking.

The Cherokee were perhaps the best educated and literate of the American Indian Tribes. They were also among the most Christian. Learning and wisdom were highly esteemed. They revered the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution as particularly important guarantors of their rights and freedoms. It is not surprising then that on October 28, 1861, the National Council issued a Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America.

The introductory words of this declaration strongly resembled the 1776 Declaration of Independence:

"When circumstances beyond their control compel one people to sever the ties which have long existed between them and another state or confederacy, and to contract new alliances and establish new relations for the security of their rights and liberties, it is fit that they should publicly declare the reasons by which their action is justified."

In the next paragraphs of their declaration the Cherokee Council noted their faithful adherence to their treaties with the United States in the past and how they had faithfully attempted neutrality until the present. But the seventh paragraph begins to delineate their alarm with Northern aggression and sympathy with the South:

"But Providence rules the destinies of nations, and events, by inexorable necessity, overrule human resolutions."

Comparing the relatively limited objectives and defensive nature of the Southern cause in contrast to the aggressive actions of the North they remarked of the Confederate States:

"Disclaiming any intention to invade the Northern States, they sought only to repel the invaders from their own soil and to secure the right of governing themselves. They claimed only the privilege asserted in the Declaration of American Independence, and on which the right of Northern States themselves to self-government is formed, and altering their form of government when it became no longer tolerable and establishing new forms for the security of their liberties."

The next paragraph noted the orderly and democratic process by which each of the Confederate States seceded. This was without violence or coercion and nowhere were liberties abridged or civilian courts and authorities made subordinate to the military. Also noted was the growing unity and success of the South against Northern aggression. The following or ninth paragraph contrasts this with ruthless and totalitarian trends in the North:

"But in the Northern States the Cherokee people saw with alarm a violated constitution, all civil liberty put in peril, and all rules of civilized warfare and the dictates of common humanity and decency unhesitatingly disregarded. In the states which still adhered to the Union a military despotism had displaced civilian power and the laws became silent with arms. Free speech and almost free thought became a crime. The right of habeas corpus, guaranteed by the constitution, disappeared at the nod of a Secretary of State or a general of the lowest grade. The mandate of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was at naught by the military power and this outrage on common right approved by a President sworn to support the constitution. War on the largest scale was waged, and the immense bodies of troops called into the field in the absence of any warranting it under the pretense of suppressing unlawful combination of men."

The tenth paragraph continues the indictment of the Northern political party in power and the conduct of the Union Armies:

"The humanities of war, which even barbarians respect, were no longer thought worthy to be observed. Foreign mercenaries and the scum of the cities and the inmates of prisons were enlisted and organized into brigades and sent into Southern States to aid in subjugating a people struggling for freedom, to burn, to plunder, and to commit the basest of outrages on the women; while the heels of armed tyranny trod upon the necks of Maryland and Missouri, and men of the highest character and position were incarcerated upon suspicion without process of law, in jails, forts, and prison ships, and even women were imprisoned by the arbitrary order of a President and Cabinet Ministers; while the press ceased to be free, and the publication of newspapers was suspended and their issues seized and destroyed; the officers and men taken prisoners in the battles were allowed to remain in captivity by the refusal of the Government to consent to an exchange of prisoners; as they had left their dead on more than one field of battle that had witnessed their defeat, to be buried and their wounded to be cared for by southern hands."

The eleventh paragraph of the Cherokee declaration is a fairly concise summary of their grievances against the political powers now presiding over a new U. S. Government:

"Whatever causes the Cherokee people may have had in the past to complain of some of the southern states, they cannot but feel that their interests and destiny are inseparably connected to those of the south. The war now waging is a war of Northern cupidity and fanaticism against the institution of African servitude; against the commercial freedom of the south, and against the political freedom of the states, and its objects are to annihilate the sovereignty of those states and utterly change the nature of the general government."

The Cherokees felt they had been faithful and loyal to their treaties with the United States, but now perceived that the relationship was not reciprocal and that their very existence as a people was threatened. They had also witnessed the recent exploitation of the properties and rights of Indian tribes in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon, and feared that they, too, might soon become victims of Northern rapacity. Therefore, they were compelled to abrogate those treaties in defense of their people, lands, and rights. They felt the Union had already made war on them by their actions.

Finally, appealing to their inalienable right to self-defense and self-determination as a free people, they concluded their declaration with the following words:

"Obeying the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and true to their obligations to duty and honor, they accept the issue thus forced upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause, and with entire confidence of the justice of that cause and with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide the consequences.

The Cherokees were true to their words. The last shot fired in the war east of the Mississippi was May 6, 1865. This was in an engagement at White Sulphur Springs, near Waynesville, North Carolina, of part of Thomas’ Legion against Kirk’s infamous Union raiders that had wreaked a murderous terrorism and destruction on the civilian population of Western North Carolina. Col. William H. Thomas’ Legion was originally predominantly Cherokee, but had also accrued a large number of North Carolina mountain men. On June 23, 1865, in what was the last land battle of the war, Confederate Brigadier General and Cherokee Chief, Stand Watie, finally surrendered his predominantly Cherokee, Oklahoma Indian force to the Union.

The issues as the Cherokees saw them were 1) self-defense against Northern aggression, both for themselves and their fellow Confederates, 2) the right of self-determination by a free people, 3) protection of their heritage, 4) preservation of their political rights under a constitutional government of law 5) a strong desire to retain the principles of limited government and decentralized power guaranteed by the Constitution, 6) protection of their economic rights and welfare, 7) dismay at the despotism of the party and leaders now in command of the U. S. Government, 8) dismay at the ruthless disregard of commonly accepted rules of warfare by the Union, especially their treatment of civilians and non-combatants, 9) a fear of economic exploitation by corrupt politicians and their supporters based on observed past experience, and 10) alarm at the self-righteous and extreme, punitive, and vengeful pronouncements on the slavery issue voiced by the radical abolitionists and supported by many Northern politicians, journalists, social, and religious (mostly Unitarian) leaders. It should be noted here that some of the Cherokees owned slaves, but the practice was not extensive.

The Cherokee Declaration of October 1861 uncovers a far more complex set of "Civil War" issues than most Americans have been taught. Rediscovered truth is not always welcome. Indeed some of the issues here are so distressing that the general academic, media, and public reaction is to rebury them or shout them down as politically incorrect.

The notion that slavery was the only real or even principal cause of the war is very politically correct and widely held, but historically ignorant. It has served, however, as a convenient ex post facto justification for the war and its conduct. Slavery was an issue, and it was related to many other issues, but it was by no means the only issue, or even the most important underlying issue. It was not even an issue in the way most people think of it. Only about 25% of Southern households owned slaves. For most people, North and South, the slavery issue was not so much whether to keep it or not, but how to phase it out without causing economic and social disruption and disaster. Unfortunately the Southern and Cherokee fear of the radical abolitionists turned out to be well founded.

After the Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867 the radical abolitionists and radical Republicans were able to issue in a shameful era of politically punitive and economically exploitive oppression in the South, the results of which lasted many years, and even today are not yet completely erased.

The Cherokee were and are a remarkable people who have impacted the American heritage far beyond their numbers. We can be especially grateful that they made a well thought out and articulate declaration for supporting and joining the Confederate cause in 1861.

PRINCIPAL REFERENCES:

Emmett Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, published by the Warden Company, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1921. Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company, Millwood, New York, 1977.
Hattie Caldwell Davis, Civil War Letters and Memories from the Great Smoky Mountains, Second Edition published by the author, Maggie Valley, NC, 1999.

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Union and Confederate Indians in the Civil War
http://www.civilwarhome.com/unionconfedindians.htm
THE Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes were the only Indian tribes who took an active part in the civil war. Before the war very few of the Indians of these tribes manifested any interest in the question of slavery, and only a small number owned slave property. Slavery among them was not regarded in the same light as among the whites, for in many instances the slaves acted as if they were on an equality with their masters. But the tribes named occupied valuable territory, and the Confederate authorities lost no time in sending agents among them to win them over. When the Confederate agents first approached the full-blood leaders of the Cherokee and Creek tribes on the subject of severing their relations with the United States, the Indian expressed themselves cautiously but decidedly as preferring to remain neutral.
Conspicuous among these who took a decided stand against organizing the Indians to oppose the Federal Government was Hopoeithelyohola, the old chief of the Creek tribe. The Confederate agents had succeeded in winning over ex-Chief McIntosh, by appointing him colonel, but, perhaps, two-thirds of the people preferred to be guided by the advice of their valuable old chief, Hopoeithleyohola.
In the fall of 1861, Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, commanding the department of Indian operations under authority from the Confederate Government, made several ineffectual efforts to have a conference with the old chief of for the purpose of effecting a peaceful settlement of the difficulties that were dividing the nation into two hostile camps. Finding Hopoeithleyhola unwavering in his loyalty to the United States, Colonel Cooper determined to force him into submission, destroy his power, or drive him out of the country, and at once commenced collecting forces, composed mostly of white troops, to attack him. In November and December, 1861, the battles of Chusto Talasah and Chustenhlah were fought, and the loyal Indians finally were defeated and forced to retire to Kansas in midwinter.
In the spring of 1862 the United States Government sent an expedition of five thousand men under Colonel William Weer, 10th Kansas Infantry, into the Indian Territory to drive out the Confederate forces of Pike and Cooper, and to restore the refugee Indians to their homes. After a short action at Locust Grove, near Grand Saline, Cherokee Nation, July 2d, Colonel Weer's cavalry captured Colonel Clarkson and part of his regiment for Missourians. On the 16th of July Captain Greeno, 6th Kansas Cavalry, captured Tahlequah, the captain of the Cherokee Nation, and on the 19th of July Colonel Jewell, 6th Kansas Cavalry, captured Fort Gibson, the most important point in the Indian Territory.
The Confederate forces were now driven out of all that part of the Indian country north of the Arkansas River, and the loyal Indians of the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations were organized, by authority of the United States Government, into three regiments, each fully a thousand strong, for the defense of their country. The colonel and part of the field and line officers of each regiment were white officers. Most of the captaiwere IWilliam A. Phillips, of Kansas, who was active in organizing these Indian regiments, commanded the Indian brigade from its organization to the close of the war. He took part with his Indian troops in the action at Locust Grove, C. N., and in the battles of Newtonia, Mo., Maysville, Ark., Prairie Grove, Ark., Honey Springs, C. N., Perryville, C. N., besides many other minor engagements.
In all the operations in which they participated they acquitted themselves creditably, and to the satisfaction of the Federal commander in the Indian Territory.
On the Confederate side, General Albert Pike and Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, in the all and winter of 1861, organized three regiments of Indians from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations or tribes, for service in the Indian Territory. These regiments, under General Pike, participated in the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., on the 7th and 8th of March, 1862. In the five tribes named a battalion and parts of four regiments were raised for the Confederate service, but these amounted in all to perhaps not over 3500 men.
At the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration nearly all the United States Indian agents in the Indian agents in the Indian Territory were secessionists, and the moment the Southern States commenced passing ordinances of secession, these men exerted their influence to get the five tribes committed to the Confederate cause. Occupying territory south of the Arkansas River, and having the secessionists of Arkansas on the east and those of Texas on the south for neighbors, the Choctaws and Chickasaws offered no decided opposition to the scheme. With the Cherokee, the most powerful and most civilized of the tribes of the Indian Territory, it was different. Their chief, John Ross, was opposed to hasty action, and as first favored neutrality, and in the summer of 1861 issued a proclamation, enjoining his people to observe a strictly neutral attitude during the war between the United States States. In June, 1861, Albert Pike, a commissioner of the Confederate States, and General Ben. McCulloch, commanding the Confederate forces in western Arkansas and the Department of Indian Territory, visited Chief Ross with the view of having him make a treaty with the Confederacy. But he declined to make a treaty, and in the conference expressed himself as wishing to occupy, if possible, a neutral position during the war. A majority of the Cherokees, nearly all of whom were full-bloods, were known as Pin Indians, and were opposed to the South.
Commissioner Pike went away to make treaties with the less civilized Indian tribes of the plains, and in the mean time the battle of Wilson's Creek was fought, General Lyon killed, and the Union army defeated and forced to fall back from Springfield to Rolla.
Chief Ross now thought that the South would probably succeed in establishing her independence, and expressed a willingness to enter into a treaty with the Confederate authorities. On his return from the West in September, 1861, Commissioner Pike, at the request of Mr. Ross, went to Park Hill and made a treaty with the Cherokees. The treaties made with each tribe provided that the troops it raised should be used for home protection, and should not be taken out of the Indian Territory. Even before the treaty with Commissioner Pike, Chief Ross had commenced to organize a regiment composed nearly altogether of Pin Indians. John Drew, a stanch secessionist, was commissioned colonel, and William P. Ross, lieutenant-colonel, of this regiment. Colonel Stand Watie, the leader of the secession party, had also commenced to raise a regiment of half-breeds for General McCulloch's division. As already stated, there were two facing among the Creeks, one of which was led by Hopoeithleyohola and the other by D. N. and Chitty McIntosh, who were sons of General William McIntosh, killed in 1825 by Hopoeithleyhola and his followers in Georgia, for making the treaty of Indian Springs. It is asserted by General Pike and others that will Hopoeithleyohola it was not a question of loyalty or disloyalty to the United States, but simply one of self-preservation; that when he found the Confederate authorities had commissioned D. N. McIntosh as colonel of a Creek regiment, and Chitty McIntosh as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of Creeks, he left certain that the Indian troops thus being raised would be used to persecute and destroy him and his followers. In November, 1861, he started for Kansas, and was pursued and overtaken by the Confederate Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokee, and Texans under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper. A fight took place in the night, and Colonel Drew's regiment of Cherokees, which had been raised by Chief Ross, went over to Hopoeithleyohola, and fought with him in the next day's desperate battle (known as the battle of Chusto Talasah), in which five hundred of the Union Indians were reported by Colonel Cooper to have been killed and wounded.@@ The Confederate Indians of Colonel Stand Watie's regiment, and those of Colonel Drew's regiment, who had returned to the Confederate service under Pike and Cooper, also participated in the battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862, where they were charged with scalping and mutilating the Federal dead on the field. General Pike, hearing of the scalping, called up the surgeon and assistant-surgeon of his field-hospital for reports, and in their reports they stated that they found one of the Federal dead who had been scalped. General Pike then issued an order, denouncing the outrage in the strongest language, and sent a copy of the order to General Curtis. General Pike claimed that part of the Indians were in McCulloch's corps in the first day's battle; and that the scalping was done at night in a quarter of the field not occupied by the Indian troops under his immediate command. After Pea Ridge the operations of the Confederate Indians under General Cooper and Colonel Stand Watie were confined, with a few exceptions, to the Indian Territory. In connection with while troops from Texas, they participated in several engagements with the Federal Indian brigade under Colonel Phillips, after he recaptured Fort Gibson in the spring of 1863; and they made frequent efforts to capture Federal supply trains from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson and Fort Smith, but were always unsuccessful. They fought very well when they had an opportunity to take shelter behind trees and logs, but could not easily be brought to face artillery, and a single shell thrown at them was generally sufficient to demoralize them and put them to flight.

@@The position chosen by Hopoeithleyhola at Chusto Talasah, where he determined to make a stand and fight the Confederate forces, was naturally a very strong one to resist an attack made with small-arms. It was at a gorge of a bend of Bird Creek, the bend being in the form of a horse-shoe, and fourth hundred yards in length. The creek made up to the prairie on the side approached by the Confederate forces in an abrupt and precipitous bank about thirty feel high. On the opposite side of this precipitous bank was the inside of the horse-shoe or bend, which was densely covered with heavy timber cane, and tangled thickets. The position was also strengthened by felled trees and by the creek forming the bend or horse-shoe. The creek was deep and was fordable only at certain places known to the Union Indians. In this been Hopoeithleyhola's forces were posted after they were obliged to fall back in the preliminary skirmish. A house and crib at the mouth of the bend served as a shelter for a while, from which his sharp-shooters kept back the Confederate. The Union Indians, however, were finally driven from this position back into the bend, contesting the ground with much obstinacy. The Confederate troops made repeated efforts to dislodge them from the bend, but without success. Every time a detachment of Hopoeithleyhola's warriors showed themselves in an opening or in the prairie, the Confederates charged them to the timber, when a volley from the concealed Union Indian threw the charging column into confusion and sent it back in a hasty retreat. Night coming on put an end to the fight.-W. B.

Source: "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" article by Wiley Britton
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Native American CSA Records
Military Service Records in the War Department Collection of
Confederate Records
(Record Group 109)
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ga/topic/military/CivilWar/csaindianrecords.htm

The War Department Collection of Confederate Records
consists of records of the Confederate States of America acquired
by capture or surrender at the close of the Civil War and those
later acquired by donation or purchase. On July 21, 1865, the
Secretary of War established a unit in the Adjutant General's
Office for the collection, safekeeping, and publication of the
"rebel archives."

Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in
Organizations Raised Directly by the Confederate Government.
M258. 123 rolls. DP. 16mm.

Roll Contents
77 First Cherokee Mounted Rifles (1st Arkansas Cherokee
Mounted Rifles), A-L
76 M-Y
79 First Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (Watie's Regiment,
Cherokee Mounted Volunteers; 2d Regiment, Cherokee Mounted
Rifles, Arkansas; 1st Regiment, Cherokee Mounted Rifles or
Riflemen), A-K
80 L-Y
First Squadron, Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (Holt's
Squadron, Cherokee Mounted Volunteers)
81 First Chickasaw Infantry (Hunter's Regiment, Indian
Volunteers)
82 First Choctaw Mounted Rifles
83 First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, A-G
84 H-N
85 O-Y
86 First Creek Mounted Volunteers (1st Regiment, Creek Mounted
Rifles or Riflemen; Creek Regiment, Mounted Indian
Volunteers; 2d Regiment, Arkansas Creeks), A-H
87 I-S
88 T-Z
First Osage Battalion, C.S.A.
First Seminole Mounted Volunteers, A-C
89 D-Y
90 Second Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (2d Regiment, Cherokee
Mounted Rifles or Riflemen)
91 Second Creek Mounted Volunteers Cherokee Regiment (Special
Service)
Deneale's Regiment, Choctaw Warriors (Deneale's Confederate
Volunteers)
Shecoe's Chickasaw Battalion, Mounted Volunteers
Washington's Squadron of Indians, C.S.A. (Reserve Squadron
of Cavalry)
Capt. Wilkins's Co., Choctaw Infantry
Miscellaneous Indian Records


Compiled Records Showing Service of Military Units in Confederate
Organizations. M861. 74 rolls. DP. 16mm.

Roll Contents
74 First Cherokee Mounted Rifles (First Arkansas Cherokee)
First Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (Watie's Regiment,
Cherokee Mounted Volunteers; Second Regiment, Cherokee
Mounted Rifles, Arkansas; First Regiment, Cherokee Mounted
Riflemen)
First Squadron, Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (Holt's
Squadron)
First Chickasaw Infantry (Hunter's Regiment, Indian
Volunteers)
First Choctaw Mounted Rifles
First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles
First Creek Mounted Volunteers (First Regiment, Creek
Mounted Rifles or Riflemen; Creek Regiment, Mounted Indian
Volunteers; Second Regiment, Arkansas Creeks)
First Osage Battalion, C.S.A.
First Seminole Mounted Volunteers
Second Cherokee Mounted Volunteers (Second Regiment,
Cherokee Mounted Rifles or Riflemen)
Second Creek Mounted Volunteers
Cherokee Regiment (Special Service)
Deneale's Regiment, Choctaw Warriors (Deneale's Confederate
Volunteers)
Shecoe's Chickasaw Battalion, Mounted Volunteers
Washington's Squadron of Indians, C.S.A. (Reserve Squadron
of Cavalry)
Capt. Wilkins's Co., Choctaw Infantry
Miscellaneous Indian Records

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Confederate Cherokee General, Stand Watie
His Civil War Regiment rosters.
http://www.quillspirit.org/History/Civil_War_Data/Waties_Regiments/main.php

INTRODUCTION

(Original preface by compiler)

This index to the First Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, Holt's Squadron, and the Second Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, (Cherokee General Stand Waties' Confederate regiments), has been compiled from the service records of these organizations that are National Archives publications on microcopy 258 - rolls 79, 80, and 90.

Please note that the names and rank are listed alphabetical under each company. Researchers should check all companies as some individuals served in more than one during their service. Many times the company number and rank are not given for some of the soldiers.

Some of these Confederate service records contain very little information, but will indicate where the person signed up for service, and the date he signed up. However, other service records will indicate age and physical description such as height, color of eyes, hair, and complexion. Many men were captured as prisoners of war, and the record will give where the soldier was captured. There will be some records with information about pensions
applied for about the year 1915. Whenever a name can be spelled more than one way, or if the name is listed with any difference, the index will indicate which name the service cards will be filed with. Researchers wanting copies of the service record for an individual should write to the National Archives, Washington, D.C., and request a military form to submit for a copy of the record.

Marybelle W. Chase
5802 E. 22nd PI.
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74114
July, 1989

I have compiled these records in digital format, so that you can research them from your browser. If you have any similar information to share, please email me!

Good luck in your search!,
Shawn M. J. Mann

Here are some related items that may help you in your search~

The American Indian as participant in the Civil War - by Annie Heloise Abel, Ph.D. (Free Digital Book)
The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865 (Paperback) by Annie Heloise Abel
The American Indian and the End of the Confederacy 1863-1866 (Civil War) by Annie Heloise Abel
Military Records: Civil War Service Records (5.3 million records on three discs! - CD-ROM)
The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites (Paperback)
Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians by John C. Waugh
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle

 

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Osage - Chief Black Dog
http://juntosociety.com/native/black_dog.htm
American Indians of the Mid - West
Black Dog

The young Black Dog was reported to be about 6 foot, 2 inches, in height and weighed around 220 pounds. He did marry and had several sons and daughters. None of his sons survived to manhood. During the War Between the States (Civil War), Black Dog and many of the Osage Indians decided to join the Confederate States Army.

Some of the Osage Indians joined the 9th Kansas Volunteers as Union supporters, but they were determined to be too wild and untrainable for military service. They were discharged from Kansas military service. In 1861 about 50 Osage Indians joined Colonel Tom Livingston's Missouri Home Guards and fought with General Price at Wilsons Creek.

Osage - Chief Black Dog
By Don Wise

Black Dog or Zhin-ga'wa-ca (Manka-chonkah) was an Osage Indian born circa 1780 near what later became St. Louis, Missouri. Zhin-ga'wa-ca is a very old Indian name which is not translatable since the last part is archaic and the meaning lost. The Osage Indians are descendants of the Siouan Tribe. They originally came from the Alleghaney and Monogahela River Valleys. When Zhin-ga'wa-ca was young, he lost his left eye in a childhood accident. He grew to be seven (7) feet tall and weighed around 300 pounds.

During a raid upon a Comanche camp, a small, black dog started barking and Zhin-ga'wa-ca shot an arrow in the direction of the dog which killed it. Thereafter, he was known by the name of Black Dog. Later Black Dog was named chief of his tribe which became known as the Black Dog Tribe. Their camp was located in the vicinity of where the city of Coffeyville, Kansas, is now located. The Osages were a migratory tribe which would plant corn in an area, then go hunting for buffalo. Once they had their capacity of buffalo meat and hides, the tribe would return to their camp area where the corn had been planted and harvest it. Their trail in southern Kansas became known as the Black Dog Trail.

Black Dog Married Menanah, an Osage Woman
They had a son in 1827 who became known as Black Dog, the second

Black Dog and some of his tribe did join the 1st Osage Battalion, C.S.A. around 1862 whose commander was Major Broke Arm. This military unit was composed of three companies. Black Dog served as a Captain of Company B. Military records are incomplete on their activities, but we believe that this unit was involved at Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove.

Chief Black Dog and Bighill Joe

Black Dog was elected Principal Chief of the Osages in 1880 and died in 1910. A creek near Hominy is named Black Dog Creek and a township in Tulsa County , Oklahoma, is named Black Dog Township.

George Catlin, the artist, painted Chief Black Dog in 1834. The artist, John Mix Stanley, painted Chief Black Dog in 1843, but this portrait was lost during a fire in the Smithsonian Institute in 1866. Black Dog died on 24 March 1848 at the age of about 68 years old.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle

 

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borrowed from Texas Jay and the BloodyBillAnderson forum

From: "Quantrill in Texas - The Forgotten Campaign" by Paul R.
Petersen, 2007, page 40.

***
"After the surrender of Fort Sumter, Indian leader Stand Watie
immediately began recruiting a troop of both Cherokees and whites to
protect Indian Territory from Federal forces. Watie was made a
general after organizing a large number of tribesmen into militia
units. His command became known as the Cherokee Mounted Rifles, of
which Quantrill, under Mayes's command, was shortly attached. Fifty-
five-year-old Watie became a superb commander of Indian forces during
the war. He never ordered a charge that he did not lead, and he
never received a wound in battle. Watie was small in stature but had
great physical strength and endurance, and while not a great orator,
he was a good writer. Later, on May 10, 1864, Jefferson Davis
appointed Watie as a brigadier general in the Confederate army. He
was the only Indian of this rank on either side during the Civil
War. When the war began, Watie reported to General Benjamin McCulloch.
Quantrill was only with Mayes's Cherokees a short while. He traveled
north with them until he could find a Missouri unit to join. Once he
found Gen. Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard, Quantrill
transferred to the partisan ranger company commanded by Col. Jeremiah
Vardeman Cockrell attached to the First Brigade, Eighth Division
under James Spencer Rains. His company commander was Capt. William
Steward, whose men were settlers from southern Kansas who had joined
Watie's Cherokee Mounted Rifles. Quantrill had already become a well-
known personality among the early Southern volunteers. He was easily
recognized by the four Colt Navy revolvers stuck into his belt and
his Sharp's carbine."

***
~Jay~

 

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John Rollin Ridge, (Yellow Bird) (1827-67)
Encyclopedia of North American Indians
http://www.college.cengage.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_033200_ridgejohnrol.htm
Oklahoma Cherokee newspaper editor, novelist, and poet
Born just a few years prior to the crisis surrounding the Cherokee removal from Georgia, John Rollin Ridge experienced firsthand the most traumatic moments in the tribe's history. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act established the process that allowed for the removal of Cherokees from their homes in the Southeast. The Cherokees resisted this process, but federal officials exploited splits within the Cherokee Nation over relocation to advance their policy. In 1835 the government convinced twenty-one Cherokees, including Major Ridge (John Rollin Ridge's grandfather), John Ridge (John Rollin Ridge's father), Elias Boudinot, and Stand Watie, Boudinot's younger brother, to sign the Treaty of New Echota. The treaty provided for the cession of all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi and the subsequent removal of the tribe to the West.

Within months of removal, tribal leaders held general meetings to establish a new government. Negotiations between the pro-removal treaty faction and the Ross anti-removal faction quickly broke down, and on June 22, 1839, Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot were murdered by their political enemies. As a twelve-year-old boy, John Rollin Ridge witnessed his father's murder, an event that deeply affected him. Because of continuing hostilities between the two factions, John Ridge's widow, a white woman, and her son immediately left Indian Territory for Fayetteville, Arkansas. In 1843, young Ridge was sent to the Great Barrington School in Massachusetts, where he stayed until 1845. He then returned to Fayetteville and began studying law.

In 1847, Ridge married Elizabeth Wilson, a white woman he had met in Massachusetts, and one year later they had their first and only child, Alice. His years in Arkansas, however, were also marked by conflict. He became involved in Cherokee politics, closely following the internecine struggles of the nation. On one occasion, he expressed his desire to avenge his father's death by killing one of the men implicated in the murder, the anti-removal leader John Ross. Ridge's involvement reached a climax in 1849 when he killed David Kell, a Cherokee he believed was one of his father's assassins.

In 1850, largely because of Kell's murder, Ridge left for California. He worked briefly in the gold mines there and soon afterward began writing. His poetry, dealing primarily with love and nature, was published in various magazines; it was collected and published posthumously in 1868. His major literary accomplishment, however, was his first and only novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit (1854), whose story gave Ridge a chance to verbally avenge his father's death. His hero committed murders in the name of justice and stood up to all who resisted him. Ridge's novel also condemned American racism, particularly the hatred he saw being directed toward Mexican Americans. He declared in the book's conclusion that "there is nothing so dangerous in its consequences as injustice to individuals—whether it arises from prejudice of color or any other source; that a wrong done to one man is a wrong to society and to the world." Joaquín Murieta is considered "historical fiction," given the fact that the novel was based on the life of an actual California bandit. Ridge utilized newspaper articles extensively, and he claimed to have interviewed those close to Murieta. Several California historians later used the novel as a source in their own works.

From 1857 to 1862, Ridge worked as an editor for several California newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, the California Express, the National Democrat, the San Francisco Herald, and the Red Bluff Beacon. As an editor he often advocated assimilationist policies and federal protection for American Indians. Like his father, he felt that American Indians needed the guidance and assistance of the federal government to maintain their rights. Also like his father, he often ignored the ways in which the federal government abused those rights. In regard to California Indians, Ridge felt they were inferior to the Indians of the Southeast and Northeast, and supported policies that confined them to reservations while upholding the claims of Euro-Americans to California lands.

During his years as an editor, Ridge also became increasingly involved in national politics. As a slave-owning southerner, he found himself sympathetic to the "Copperheads," a politically conservative faction of the Democratic Party. His critics accused him of establishing several chapters of the pro-slavery Knights of the Golden Circle. He worked for Democratic newspapers and openly supported the party's platform in his writings.

With the coming of the Civil War, Ridge expressed the sentiment that the Union should be preserved at all costs. While working for the Red Bluff Beacon in 1862, he protested the election of Abraham Lincoln and, later, insisted that the Emancipation Proclamation subverted democratic principles. In addition, while working for the National Democrat, he spoke in favor of the Confederacy and blamed the Civil War on abolitionists.

With the end of the Civil War, Ridge was given the opportunity to work toward his political goals for Cherokees. Invited by the federal government to head the Southern Cherokee delegation in postwar treaty proceedings, Ridge eagerly traveled to Washington, D.C. He worked diligently but failed to acquire Cherokee admission into the Union. In December 1866 Ridge returned home to Grass Valley, California. He died there on October 5, 1867.

Much of John Rollin Ridge's significance lies in his status as the first professional American Indian writer. More importantly, his life demonstrates that it was not only Euro-Americans who supported contradictory positions and detrimental policies toward American Indians and African Americans. Ridge, an American Indian writer whom we might expect to have thought otherwise, clearly helped to reinforce systems of thought and practice whose violent reverberations continue to be felt today.

See also Cherokee; Ridge, Major.

James W. Parins, John Rollin Ridge: His Life and Works (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991).

Liza E. Black
Oklahoma Cherokee
University of Washington

 

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Secret Society of Pin Indians Disappear Into History After Civil War

The Civil War was to have a great impact on everyone who lived in Arkansas, and that included members of the Civilized Cherokee tribe. While Chief Ross forbade his people to take part in border warfare or to organize a band of guerrillas to help protect Arkansas, Elias Boudinot, a resident of Arkansas, encouraged Ross’s nemesis, Stand Watie, to fight for the Confederates. And so was formed a secret society of Cherokee known as Knights of the Golden Circle, finally changed to The Southern Rights party.

Another organization, made up of full bloods who called themselves Keetoowahs began to operate in the Indian Nation on the side of the Union. They were reorganized in 1859 by Evan Jones and his son John, and were claimed to be designed to perpetuate tribal traditions. It was common knowledge in the Nations that they really had been reorganized to fight slavery. This group of Cherokee became known as Pins Indians because of the insignia of crossed pins they wore on their hunting shirts and coats.

Asked to leave the Nations, the Pins reverted to their ancestors way of fighting. Though supposedly aligned with the United States against the Confederate States of America, they consistently raided their arch enemies the Knights of the Golden Circle, using guerrilla warfare at every opportunity.

It was only natural that settlers in the area just across the border in Northwest Arkansas should become unwitting targets of these hit and miss raids by this unruly band of warriors. In fact, according to records, Jones, said to be a white man with his own agenda, trained the Pins in a school in Cincinnati near Cane Hill, Arkansas.

After much political ado, Cherokee Stand Watie was made a General in the Confederate Army. When he and his men attempted to raise the Confederate flag in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, about 150 Pins led by Chief Doublehead stopped him.

In the book, The Cherokees, by Grace Steele Woodward, the final mention of the Pins Indians is made when the factions, split by the Civil War reunited in the Indian Nation in 1867.

In the book Mankiller by Chief Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis, the Pins are referred to as an ultra secret society. They used secret signs to identify themselves to other members. Touching their hats in salutation would be followed by “Who are you?”, with the proper response being, “I am Keetoowah’s son.” Among the Cherokees it was also known that those who had split from the tribe and fought for the Union forces wore strips of split corn husks in their hair before they went into battle.

Chief Ross never wished to align himself with the Confederate cause and slavery, though many Cherokees did indeed own slaves. So when the Union troops entered Indian Territory in 1862 he welcomed them and left under their protective custody.

Ever a rival of Chief Ross, Stand Watie saw his chance when Ross left the Indian Nations, and declared himself the new principal chief of the Cherokees. Many members of the tribe did not back Watie, and the war within a war spilled into Arkansas to affect those already under constant attack by gangs of bushwhackers.

Pin Indians attacked, burned and killed southern sympathizers on both sides of the border. Those living in Washington County became unwilling victims in this battle between the two factions of Cherokees as well as the two factions of men fighting in the Civil War. Many of the Cherokees caught up in this guerilla warfare fled into neutral lands in Kansas. Hundreds of Indian refugees, being cared for rather poorly in Kansas by the Federal Government, died during the first year of the war.

While down in the Indian Nations and Arkansas, the two factions continued to wage a bitter war. In 1864 Stand Watie was promoted to Brigadier General in the confederacy, the highest rank to be achieved by any Native American. The confederate troops led by General Stand Watie continued to fight long after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his confederate army at Appamattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. It would be late June before Watie’s army finally laid down their arms. In all, 7,000 Cherokees lost their lives in that war. Their homes, libraries, businesses and livestock suffered devastating losses.

White settlers living along the borderland of Northwest Arkansas suffered great losses as well. The white man’s law held no power in the Indian Nation and on the Arkansas side Indians were free from tribal jurisdiction. Outlaw gangs frequenting the area could step across the border from either direction and be free from punishment for their crimes committed on the other side.

According to Conrad Russell, a native of Cane Hill and a historian who wrote many articles about the Civil War from stories he heard at his grandfather’s knee, Jones was white and his name probably wasn’t Jones at all. It was known that he hated slavery in any form and didn’t care how it might be stomped out. He taught the young men to kill, rob and otherwise destroy slave owners. Soon they didn’t much care who they raided. Russell said that soon no man, woman or child was safe from raids by the Pin Indians. The group of outlaw Indians held no loyalties to either side. It was known that they raided both Confederate and Northern sympathizers alike.

Isaac Buchanan, a prosperous farmer living near Cane Hill became a victim of the Pins. One day three of them arrived at his farm and asked for food. Buchanan led them to his cellar where he gave them some apples. When he followed them from the cellar and turned to close the door, they shot and killed him. Buchanan’s three sons had already been cut down by bushwhackers and this deed left his womenfolk defenseless. Finally tiring of the killing, a band of Confederates and local citizens in the beleaguered area gathered weapons and ammunition and set up a series of clever ambushes. Spotting a large band of Pins headed for Cane Hill, they lay in wait south of the settlement along the road they were known to travel.

A group of about 60 Pins rode through and the first contingent closed up any retreat, driving the band into the second and third group who waited in hiding. By the time the renegades made the border, there were few left. It is said they never returned to pull another raid on the citizens around Cane Hill. Thus, according to Arkansas legend, ended the reign of the Pins and they disappeared for good into Indian Territory. Cherokee writings make no more mention of the secret Pins Indians after 1867.

Stories always differ, depending on which side the storyteller is on, but the story of the Pins has been recorded in most Cherokee histories, but few whites. Conrad Russell admits the stories he heard from his grandfather are only hearsay, as is most of our folk lore. However, the written history of the Pins by Cherokee sources are more than hearsay. The mystery of who is entirely correct will probably always remain just that. A mystery.


Velda Brotherton is currently working on a history of Springdale, Arkansas, which will be published by Arcadia Publishers in their Making of America Series.
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Copyright © 2001 Velda Brotherton originally published in The White River Valley News, Elkins, Arkansas

 

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http://www.truthontheweb.org/abe.htm