September 19, 1864
On this day Confederate general Stand Watie and two Cherokee Regiments relieved the Union Army of 130 wagons, 740 mules and $1.5 million in supplies. The haul would be worth about $15 million today.
Remembered as the Second Battle of Cabin Creek, it was critical to placing the 58-year-old Watie, (right) back on the same side of history as his fellow Cherokee. He’d spent most of his adult life on the outs with the tribe. Known as one of the “treaty men,” he had signed on to the 1835 Treaty of New Echola which ceded native land to Georgia. It was vehemently opposed by the Nation’s principal chief, John Ross.
As a result, Watie and his brothers were targeted for assassination. He and his family emigrated to Indian Territory in present-day eastern Oklahoma but Watie’s brother, Elias Boudinot, (left) his uncle, Major Ridge and cousin, John Ridge were all killed by Ross supporters, members of the National Party.
Watie’s wealthy planter father was full-blooded Cherokee, his mother half Cherokee and a member of the Moravian Church. He was educated by Moravian missionaries at a mission school in Spring Place, Cherokee Nation, present day Georgia.
At age 22 Watie was a frequent contributor to the nation’s first Native American newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, (right) published in both English and Cherokee. His older brother, Elias, served as the paper’s editor from 1828 to 1832. It was during that time he became embroiled in the dispute over the increasingly anti-Native laws which stripped the Cherokee of their indigenous government, replacing it with state authority.
When President Andrew Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act, Georgia militia members destroyed the Phoenix offices It convinced the Watie brothers that removal was virtually inevitable even though it was opposed by most members of the Nation.
The advent of the Civil War reunited Watie with the majority of Cherokee, most favoring the Confederacy. As a slave holder himself and a member of a secret pro-slavery organization, Knights of the Golden Circle, (right) he was adamantly opposed to emancipation.
But by 1862, John Ross had renounced his support for the Confederacy and he and his followers threw their support to the Union. As Native American sympathy for the South began to wane, it set up an internal struggle between the northern Ross factions and southern Ridge factions.
Only two Native Americans reached the rank of general during the war, Watie and Seneca lawyer and engineer, Ely Parker. (Right) Parker actually authored the terms of surrender between the Union and Confederate Armies.
Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender in the field, finally signing a cease-fire with Union forces on June 23, 1865. It was more than two months after hostilities ended east of the Mississippi and three weeks past the end of the war in the West.
The conflict between the slave-holding Southern Cherokee and the Union-supporting Northern Cherokee didn’t go away, however. Watie was elected 
principal chief of the Southern Cherokee and went to Washington to argue for an independent state.
The government rejected his argument, named Ross, (right) chief of the entire Cherokee Nation and ordered the Southern Cherokee to free their slaves. Ross didn’t serve long. In failing health, he died in 1866 at the age of 75.
Watie was in exile in the Choctaw Nation when Ross died. A new chief, fellow Confederate, Lewis Downing, (right) was elected. Downing managed a measure of reunification and Watie returned. He renounced politics and worked to rebuild his personal fortune. He died in 1871 at age 65 and is buried in Polson Cemetery, Grove, Oklahoma.
Ely Parker served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Ulysses S. Grant, the first Native American to hold that office. He became wealthy for a time following the Civil War but lost his fortune in the Panic of 1873 and died in poverty in 1895 at the age of 67. He was buried next to his famous ancestor, Seneca orator Red Jacket.
Chief Downing served two terms as head of the Cherokee Nation, squabbling throughout with the remnants of the Ross faction. He died in 1872 at just 49 and was succeeded by William P. Ross, the nephew of his old nemesis, John Ross.
John Ross Musuem, Rural School 15, Park Hill, Oklahoma, feataures interactive displays on the Ross years, the Trail of Tears, the Civil War and comprehensive history of the Cherokee Nation. Near the Ross Cemetery, the musuem includes a picnic site. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and students, children under 5, free. It’s open 10 to 4, Tuesday through Saturday.
Stand Watie Museum
The Stand Watie Gravesite, (right) in Grove, Oklahoma, is located 68 miles north east of Park Hill. The small cemetery also contains the gravesite of Cherokee leaders, Major Ridge and his son, John Ridge. Its near Honey Lake Area at Grand Lake State Park dnd Lendonwood, public gardens, 1308 W 13th Street, Grove. For more information go to travelOK.com.
© Text Only – 2018 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
• Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.