The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Stand Hope Watie - Jan. 5th, 2004

www.civilwarhome.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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General Stand Hope Watie
(1806 - 1871)

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Born at Oothcaloga in the Cherokee Nation, Georgia (near present day Rome, Georgia) on December 12, 1806, Stand Watie's Cherokee name was De-ga-ta-ga, or "he stands." He also was known as Isaac S. Watie. He attended Moravian Mission School at Springplace Georgia, and served as a clerk of the Cherokee Supreme Court and Speaker of the Cherokee National Council prior to removal.

As a member of the Ridge-Watie-boundinot faction of the Cherokee Nation, Watie supported removal to the Cherokee Nation, West, and signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, in defiance of Principal Chief John Ross and the majority of the Cherokees. Watie moved to the Cherokee Nation, West (present-day Oklahoma), in 1837 and settled at Honey Creek. Following the murders of his uncle Major Ridge, cousin John Ridge, and brother Elias Boundinot (Buck Watie) in 1839, and his brother Thomas Watie in 1845, Stand Watie assumed the leadership of the Ridge-Watie-Boundinot faction and was involved in a long-running blood feud with the followers of John Ross. He also was a leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle, which bitterly opposed abolitionism.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Watie quickly joined the Southern cause. He was commissioned a colonel on July 12, 1861, and raised a regiment of Cherokees for service with the Confederate army. Later, when Chief John Ross signed an alliance with the South, Watie's men were organized as the Cherokee Regiment of Mounted Rifles. After Ross fled Indian Territory, Watie was elected principal chief of the Confederate Cherokees in August 1862.

A portion of Watie's command saw action at Oak Hills (August 10, 1861) in a battle that assured the South's hold on Indian Territory and made Watie a Confederate military hero. Afterward, Watie helped drive the pro-Northern Indians out of Indian Territory, and following the Battle of Chustenahlah (December 26, 1861) he commanded the pursuit of hte fleeing Federals, led by Opothleyahola, and drove them into exile in Kansas. Although Watie's men were exempt from service outside Indian Territory, he led his troops into Arkansas in the spring of 1861 to stem a Federal invasion of the region. Joining with Maj. GEn. Earl Van Dorn's command, Watie took part in the battle of Elkhorn Tavern (March 5-6, 1861). On the first day of fighting, the Southern Cherokees, which were on the left flank of the Confederate line, captured a battery of Union artillery before being forced to abandon it. Following the Federal victory, Watie's command screened the southern withdrawal.



Watie, or troops in his command, participated in eighteen battles and major skirmishes with Federal troop during the Civil War, including Cowskin Prairie (April 1862), Old Fort Wayne (October 1862), Webber's Falls (April 1863), Fort Gibson (May 1863), Cabin Creek (July 1863), and Gunter's Prairie (August 1864). In addition, his men were engaged in a multitude of smaller skirmishes and meeting engagements in Indian Territory and neighboring states. Because of his wide-ranging raids behind Union lines, Watie tied down thousands of Federal troops that were badly needed in the East.

Watie's two greatest victories were the capture of the federal steam boat J.R. Williams on June 15, 1864, and the seizure of $1.5 million worth of supplies in a federal wagon supply train a the Second battle of Cabin Creek on September 19, 1864.

Watie joined the Confederacy in 1861 because he feared the consequences of Lincoln's election and the Republican Party's free soil promises to open the west and the Indian Territory to white settlement. The Union abandoned all Indian Territory military posts in the spring of 1861, violating treaty pledges and making the area vulnerable to Confederate attack. He was a slave-owning planter that shared many values of the Old South. When Albert Pike and Douglas Cooper recruited Indian soldiers for the Confederacy in 1861, Watie agreed to form a Cherokee cavalry unit. Also, John Drew formed a regiment of full-blood "Pin" Cherokees (wearing a crossed-blades symbol as a pin on uniforms), as did the Choctaws and Chickasaws and Creeks and Seminoles. However, the Creeks were divided like the Cherokees. Creek chief Opothleyaholo refused to join the Confederacy and in April 1861, Confederate Indians began attacks on the neutral Creek settlement on the Deep Fork River, but Opothleyaholo won the Battle of Round Mountain Nov. 19 and Chusto Talasay Dec. 9. However, on Dec. 26, Cooper's Confederate Indians defeated Opothleyaholo at Chustenalah and drove the pro-Union Creeks into Kanasas where they formed the First and Second Union Indian Brigades to retake their homeland. At the Battle of Pea Ridge March 6-8, 1862, Stand Watie and his Cherokee Mounted Rifles captured Union artillery batteries in a dramatic charge and held their position to allow an orderly withdrawal of Earl Van Dorn's Confederate army.



Pea Ridge began the Union invasion of the Indian Territory. John Drew and his Confederate Indians deserted from the Confederacy but Stand Watie continued to fight. The Indian Expedition of 1862 advanced from Fort Leavenworth with 6000 on June 28 led by Col. William Weer, an alcoholic former officer under Jayhawker James Lane who sought to take over the Indian Territory lands for his personal gain. Weer occupied the Confederate capital of Tahlequah and captured John Ross, but paroling him when he agreed not to oppose the Union army . Stand Watie was defeated at Locust Grove July 3 by the 6th Kansas Cavalry and the black First Kansas Colored Infantry. But Weer's officers led by Col Frederick Salomon mutinied against Weer and retreated back to Kansas, re-arresting John Ross and taking him to Kansas (and then was sent to Washington D.C. where he died in 1866).

Watie was left in control of the Cherokee lands and his forces conducted a brutal campaign of revenge against pro-Union Cherokees and white missionaries. Stand Watie was chosen to replace the deposed John Ross as Chief of the Cherokees. Watie joined a Confederate raid into southwest Missouri lead by Col. Cooper and Jo Shelby, defeating Frederick Salomon at Newtonia Sept. 30. But Gen. Schofield led a Union army to retake Newtonia Oct. 4 and drove the Confederates back into Arkansas. Stand Watie and Douglas Cooper were defeated by Schofiled at Old Fort Wayne Oct. 22, and retreated south of the Arkansas River. The Union army diverted 10,000 troops from the west to help Grant at Vicksburg in November. To take advantage of this Union weakness, Gen. John Marmaduke led 2500 Confederate troops to Cane Hill in northwest Arkansas but was defeated there Nov. 28 by Gen. James Blunt and 5000 Union troops. Gen. Thomas Hindman led a Confederate army of 11,300 to attack Blunt, but Gen. Francis Herron brought 6000 Union troops from Springfield to defeat the Confederates at Prairie Grove Dec. 7, 1862. Another Union army of 1200 under Col. William Phillips defeated Stand Watie at Fort Davis Dec. 22. By the end of 1862, Union forces had secured the western flank of the Mississippi to allow Grant's river offensive to continue. Confederate forces had been defeated and pushed south of the Arkansas River.



The Indian Expedition of 1863 under James Blunt captured Fort Gibson. At the Battle of Honey Springs July 17, Blunt defeated Cooper's Confederate Indians and Blunt crossed the Arkansas River and captured Fort Smith Sept. 1, 1863, ending the Union offensive in the Indian Territory. On Sept. 10, Little Rock fell to a Union force under Frederick Steele, and Sterling Price abandoned the Arkansas River and retreated to Arkadelphia in southwest Arkansas. Stand Watie conducted raids in 1863 and 1864, as did other irregular units such as Charles Quantrill who sacked Lawrence Aug. 21, 1864, but Watie focused only on military targets and distributed captured supplies to his people.

In Nov. 1863, he attacked the Union Cherokees at Tahlequah, destroyed the town, and burned the Rose Cottage of John Ross at Park Hill. In December, Gen. Samuel Maxey began to rebuild Confederate Indian forces in the Territory and Watie was ordered to increase his raids to force a Union withdrawal from Fort Gibson. From his bases south of the Canadian River in 1864, he captured hundreds of horses from Fort Gibson and deprived the Union cavalry of fresh mounts. On May 10, he was promoted to Brigadier General. In June 1864 at Pleasant Bluff just below the mouth of the Canadian River he captured the steamer J. R. Williams carrying supplies to Fort Gibson. In September 1864 he captured 300 supply wagons at the Cabin Creek crossing on the road to Fort Gibson


Surrender of General Stand Watie

Watie was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1864, and given command of the first Indian Brigade. He was the only Indian to achieve the rank of general in the Civil War. Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865, the last Confederate general to lay down his arms.

After the war, Watie served as a member of the Southern Cherokee delegation during the negotiation of the Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866. He then abandoned public life and returned to his old home along Honey Creek. He died on September 9, 1871.

Thanks to FReeper stand watie whose Freeper name inspired my interest in finding out more about General Stand Watie

[SAMWolf]

LOL! *Covers and runs*

[SAMWolf]

Evening Phil Dragoo.

I thought Michael Jackson was a white woman?

[Darksheare]

"Here, drink this!"
*Evil laughter*

[SAMWolf]

Capt. Kimberly Hampton
This is a photo provided by the family of Capt. Kimberly Hampton, 27, of Easley, S.C. taken in 2002 while stationed in Korea. Capt. Hampton was killed Friday, Jan. 2, 2004, when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down near Fallujah, Iraq, making her the first woman from South Carolina killed in combat in Iraq. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

[WaterDragon]

This is the first I've heard about Indians' participation in the Civil War! Amazing!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Evening friends. Good to see you all.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Waterdragon.

It's really a shame how much of our history is not taugght.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria. Nice graphic.

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening Victoria. Interesting night tonight. ;-)

[WaterDragon]

True. I try to educate myself, and the Foxhole is such a help!

[PhilDragoo]

He's with Calypso Louie waitin' for the Mother Ship Number Nineteen.

[SAMWolf]

Calypso Louie

Boy, there's a piece of work!!

[Light Speed]

Found this report on Strategypages site written by an insider interviewing troops from the 3rd ID.

I can't tell the story of this fight in an email. It will take me at least an Infantry Magazine article, maybe a series of articles. The enemy at CURLEY turned out to be fanatical Syrian Jihadists, determined to die. They attacked incessantly for 12-14 hours, firing small arms and RPGs from buildings, trenches, bunkers, and rubble along side the cloverleaf intersection. They "charged" the US positions (the only word that fits), in taxis, cars, trucks with heavy machine guns mounted, and even in motorcycles with recoilless rifles tied to the side cars (not a war story, I saw one of them that the battalion captured). They drove cars loaded with explosives at high speed towards the US positions, hoping to take American with them in death when they exploded. The mortar platoon occupied the southern part of the objective with two tubes aimed north and two aimed south. They fired simultaneous indirect fire missions south and north, while the gunners on the .50 caliber machine guns fired direct fire to defend their positions. The mortar men continued to fire missions even while under ground assault and indirect fire. They fired over 20 direct lay missions against buildings housing enemy forces and against "Technical Vehicles" firing against the position. They supported the forces on the two other objectives with nine DANGER CLOSE missions, especially after the supporting FA unit fired a mission that struck US positions and wounded two soldiers. The Bn FSO was so angry at the FA that he ceased calling them and used the mortars exclusively for over 12 hours.

The Combat Engineers earned that title. They were magnificent both as Infantrymen and as engineers. They exposed themselves to incredible fire to blow light poles down to make Abatis to stop the suicide taxis. The ACE drivers went outside the perimeter, alone, to build berms and remove guardrails to allow movement between positions. They formed up scratch teams, along with radio operators and drivers, and cleared trenches and bunkers against fanatical defenders, at least one of who was a woman, armed and fighting to the death in the trench line.

Everyone fought! There was not choice, it is not overly dramatic to state that it was a case of "fight, or die". OBJ CURLEY had to be held. If it could not keep the MSR open, the rest of TF 3-15 and the two armor task forces further north would be cut off and isolated deep within the city. Already the BCT commander had ordered the tankers to shut off their engines in order to save the little remaining fuel. Everyone was critically short ammunition, but the company team fighting on OBJ MOE was "BLACK" on main gun, coax, and small arms ammo. If CURLEY fell, so would MOE, and TF 3-15 would face defeat in detail.

The Task Force commander called and asked the key question of CPT Hornbuckle..."Can TM Zan hold CURLEY and let the ammunition and fuel HEMMTs roll north to the other forces?" CPT Hornbuckle said that he thought he could hold, but the TF commander heard the stress and worry in his voice. He knew that CPT Hornbuckle was a fighter, but he worried that TM ZAN was facing a crisis and he needed to know for certain. He called the CSM and asked him, straight up, did the team need help? CSM Robert Gallagher, who had been wounded fighting with the 75th Rangers at Mogadishu, didn't hesitate. He told LTC Twitty that he needed to do something to help relieve TM ZAN, and he had to do it fast! At that time, CSM Gallagher was already wounded again, and he was standing on one leg beside his M88 firing his M4 carbine. The medics had armed themselves, and all the drivers and RTOs that could be spared were fighting to protect the company TOC against suicide attackers working their way through the rubble and along the off-ramps of the cloverleaf.

LTC Twitty had no other forces, but he did have the uncommitted elements of his last mech infantry Company, back a the FSB. Although they had been fighting a series of running fights themselves, they were ready to move. LTC Twitty called the Commander, CPT Ronnie Johnson, and told him get ready to send a platoon to CURLEY. CPT Johnson made a counter-recommendation. He wanted to take his entire company, the two mech platoons, the BFIST, and the Maintenance and 1SGS's M113s, all the armored fighting vehicles he could lay his hands on. This was probably the crucial decision of the battle. LTC Twitty agreed, and asked the BCT commander to release the company, which he did. B Co, 3-15 Infantry roared north, every gun in the convoy firing, to fight its way to Obj CURLEY. It arrived literally in the nick of time, although it lost a Scout HMMWV and one NCO KIA by an RPG. With the additional forces, CPT Johnson, who took over command at CURLEY, reinforced the defenders and pushed the perimeter further out, far enough that the vital re-supply convoy that was right behind him had a chance to make it through.

Even then, the situation was not secure. The sight of 20 heavy trucks loaded with ammunition and fuel reinvigorated the Syrian Jihadists attacking CURLEY. They opened up with renewed fury. In a moment, several trucks were burning, and the fire was spreading. A sergeant ran out into a hail of fire to try to start one of the trucks to move it away, but it was already too damaged to drive. At this time, LTC Scott Rutter, an old SGI from Fort Benning arrived with the lead elements of TF 2-7. He had been sent, with only an hour's notice, on a long circuitous route from his position near the airport to reinforce the 2nd BCT. He fought his way thru to the objective and assumed control at CURLEY. CPT Johnson moved the remaining re-supply trucks to MOE and LARRY with his forces, and then escorted them further north for the armored task forces, thus ensuring that they could stay in the city for the night and the next day. Scott had a hellava fight at CURLEY the next day, but after that, the heart had been cut out of the enemy forces, and the 3rd Infantry Division was in Baghdad to stay.

I have left out so much that I want to write, but there is only so much I can do. I have it in my notes, in my head, and in my heart. I have never in my life been more proud of the American soldier. I stand humbled before these men.

Hoo Ah!

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you Light Speed.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Love the tank, I love the GI's sense of humor, no one does it better.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Thank you Phil.

You two both got a laugh out of me with your comments.

Elvis was good, Jacko is just a freak and I thought Wayne Newton was a woman!

[Samwise]

Wow! Great thread today (yesterday? whenever...) SAM. I didn't know about the Cherokee participation in the Civil War.

I'm going to bookmark this for Hubby. His great-grandmother was Cherokee. He really wishes he knew something about her. When the Hobbit lass was little, she was was trying to figure out what part Cherokee she was. She looks just like me, light-brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. I jokingly said that she had about enough Cherokee blood for her big toe.

When they studied the Cherokee in school, she proudly announced that her big toe was Cherokee. Her teacher really got a hoot out of that. She let her do a report on the Cherokee.

[SAMWolf]

When they studied the Cherokee in school, she proudly announced that her big toe was Cherokee.

LOL! DOn't you just love the remarks kids make. I can imagine the teacher thinking "Now, what was that about??"

[stand watie]

you oughta try tracking down a bunch of nomadic "blanket@ssed injuns".

that is a TRICK!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

did you ever notice that when the damnyankees murdered a whole bunch of POWs and/or innocent Indian civilians it is A-OK, but every time a good 'ole rebel killed somebody/a bunch of damnyankee somebodys in honorable combat, that it was an Indian massacre?????

passing STRANGE, i think.

free dixie,sw