A Two-Fold Civil War (Part 2)

[Here is Part 2 of this two-fold post.  For work cited, see Part 1.]

The tribe’s seeming unanimity obscured but did not erase its internal conflicts. Like many southern tribes, the Cherokee had mixed feelings about slavery and secession. These differences would become clearer as the Cherokee became involved in another tribe’s internal conflicts.

That tribe was the Muskogee. The Muskogee had a long running internal rift which paralleled that of the Cherokee. Before being relocated to Indian Territory, the Muskogee lived in parts of Georgia and Alabama. Over time a divide emerged between the Upper Muskogee who were largely sheltered from white encroachment, and the Lower Muskogee who intermingled and intermarried with white settlers. The Lower Muskogee by and large assimilated into European American culture. The split between the two groups resulted in bloodshed during the War of 1812 when the Upper Muskogee sided with the British while the Lower Muskogee fought on behalf of the Americans. In 1825, Muskogee Chief William McIntosh and others signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, ceding tribal land to the United States. The Upper Creek were deeply opposed to the treaty, and a group of them killed McIntosh. Like the Cherokee, those in favor of the treaty were able to relocate to Indian Territory peaceably, while the remainder was forced out later, many of them dying en route (Barnhart.)

When it came to an alliance with the Confederacy, the split again reared its head. The Muskogee Council decided to ally the tribe with the Confederacy while Chief Opothleyahola, an Upper Muskogee and staunch traditionalist repudiated such an alliance. He retired to his homestead where 5,000 pro-Union and neutral Muskogees, Cherokees, and Seminoles gathered. As this diverse band made their way towards Kansas they were beset by Confederate forces, including numerous Native American troops (Barnhart.) Two units to engage Opotheleyahola’s group were Cherokees, one lead by Stand Watie, the other lead by Ross supporter John Drew. Watie’s men fought the Unionists willingly. Drew’s men, numbering nearly 500, refused to fight the retreating forces (Cunningham 50.) Despite this refusal, the Confederates eventually routed Opotheleyahola’s followers and sent them on a desperate retreat into Kansas (Barnhart.)

The difference in response between Watie’s command and Drew’s once again highlighted the tribe’s internal difference. Watie and his men had shown their loyalty to the Confederacy even to the point of fighting against other Cherokees. Many of Drew’s men were members of Keetoowah, a traditionalist society with abolitionist leanings (Barnhart.) While nominally allied with the Confederacy, they had more in common with their retreating counterparts. Their similarities were such, in fact, that about 420 out of Drew’s men joined Opetheleyahola’s band, leaving only 60 troops under his command (Barnhart.)

Watie and Drew would lead separate units into battle at Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas. This time Drew’s men would fight, although they would withdraw before the battle’s end. The battle was meant to be the beginning of a campaign to take Missouri for the Confederacy. Instead, it would be a resounding defeat for the Confederate forces (Cunningham 58-64.)

With Confederate forces in retreat, Indian Territory was now exposed to Federal attack. On June 25, 1862, Union troops began their march southward from Baxter Springs, Kansas. During this invasion, Chief Ross fled with his family to Washington, D. C. and approximately 200 of John Drew’s men defected to the Union. Ross’ departure left Stand Watie as the de facto leader of the Cherokee in Indian Territory (Cunningham 68, 72.)

In the winter of 1862, Union forces, including 1,200 Indian soldiers captured Fort Gibson in eastern Indian Territory and destroyed the recently built Fort Davis. The Confederates retreated south and westward. The hardship Stand Watie and his men faced after these losses is illustrated by the name of their winter encampment: Camp Starvation (Cunningham 87.)

On February 4, 1863, the Cherokee Council met under acting Principal Chief Thomas Pegg. They passed resolutions revoking the Cherokee alliance with the Confederacy, disowning those who worked on behalf of the Confederacy, and emancipating Cherokee slaves. Stand Watie, undeterred, continued guerrilla raids against Union forces and even convened a meeting of the Cherokee Legislature. Watie’s raids were not limited to Union soldiers, but also targeted Cherokees loyal to the United States (Cunningham 90-92.)

One of the purposes of Watie’s raiding was to put pressure on the Federal troops in Fort Gibson, which the commander of Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi West wanted to retake (Cunningham 101.) The Confederates intended to assault the fort on July 17. Instead, they were surprised by an aggressive Federal force at the Battle of Honey Creek. The battle was a disastrous defeat for the Southern forces (Comtois.) For the remainder of the war, there would be no serious attempts to regain control of the northern portions of Indian Territory.

As the tide of war turned harder against Confederate Cherokee soldiers, so did it turn against their families. An estimated 6, 000 had fled from Union-controlled land to Choctaw and Muskogee lands as well as Texas. Most of these refuges lived in impoverished conditions, just as thousands of pro-Union refuges had been living in Kansas (Cunningham 104, 109.)

In the fall of 1863, Watie launched a campaign northward. His troops captured the Cherokee capitol of Tahlequah and burned the mansion of absentee Chief John Ross. He also killed numerous pro-Union Cherokees (Cunningham 110.)

As the war ground on, Confederate supplies and support, which had always been scarce, became even scarcer in Indian Territory. The war had turned against the Confederacy on all fronts, leaving the Confederate Indians and Texas in isolation. To make matters worse, Union forces continued to push further into Confederate-held Indian Territory (Cunningham 123, 136-139, 153.)

Watie, promoted to Brigadier General in the Confederate Army in May, 1864, continued his raids (Stebinger.) They were now mostly to acquire supplies or at least to prevent Union forces from receiving them. Watie, though drastically under supplied, was able to disrupt supply lines to Union controlled Fort Gibson by capturing the heavily laden steamship “J. R. Williams” and by burning Union hay supplies (Cunningham 143-144, 154.) Despite these successes, Watie would not be able to return his people to their land, or halt the decline of Confederate fortunes in the larger war. Though he would hold out after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Watie too would eventually surrender to the United States on June 23, 1865 (Cunningham 190, 198.) He was the last Confederate general to do so (Stebinger.)

After Watie’s surrender Cherokee refuges on both sides were able to return to their ravaged portion of Indian Territory. There would be far fewer Cherokee returning. The prewar population of 21,000 had been reduced by to a mere 14,000 persons (Stebinger.) For the second time in three decades, their population had been reduced by a quarter. The land they returned to was ruled by two rival governments, one representing the Union Cherokee and one representing the Confederates. For a time Watie held the position of Principal Chief, but after some political maneuvering and agreeing to restore the full rights of Confederate Cherokees, John Ross and his supporters were able to regain control of a united Cherokee Tribe (Cunningham 203, 207-209.) The return to power of the Ross faction in 1866 brought a delicate peace for the first time since the beginning of the war.

Although Cherokee involvement in the Civil War would have little effect on the United States as a whole, it would have a disastrously large impact on the Cherokee people. Debilitated by the Trail of Tears and divided by cultural and political differences, they found themselves caught between two larger inescapable forces. Just as the United States would be polarized by the war, so would the Cherokee Nation. Old rivalries exploded into widespread armed conflict that left much Cherokee land in ruin and decimated the population. The years of hardship endured during the Civil War, would result not in gains, but only in losses.