The American civil war was a dark chapter in America's history. It was a fight for African-American freedom in a supposedly "free county". Contrary to many people's beliefs, our civil war wasnt fought by the white and black Union army and the all white Confederate army. The confederates had an Indian General who also happened to be a Cherokee chief. His name was General Stand Watie. He sided with the south's cause even though it was the south who drove them from their land. General Watie and his tribesmen were very loyal to the confederate's cause.
Cherokee Indian chief Stand Watie became a Confederate general officer with his Cherokee tribesmen following him from Wilson's Creek, Missouri, to the end of the war in the West. A majority of his tribe blamed him and his faction for the removal of the Cherokees along what would later be referred to as "The Trail of Tears". General Watie was an aristocratic, slaveholding planter and Cherokee mixed bloods. Chief Watie and the civilized tribes of Indian territory sided with the same South that had expelled them from their ancestral homelands less than 30 years before is a fascinating study in human nature. Rather than blame Southerners, the Indians directed their animosity toward the Federal government, whose intrusion was as much a continued threat in their lives as it was to Confederate states' rights.
The Confederacy's inability to properly support the Five Civilized Tribes caused major dilemmas for the loyal Cherokees. Already poor in resources, the Indians often went to battle without adequate weapons, hoping to obtain battlefield residue. Watie's Indians loyally supported secession until the end, even though they were ill supplied. .
Unfortunately, the Indians were not only on the losing side, they were still Indians. Post-war Federal policies treated them doubly harsh.
A gentleman-soldier of great character, Watie stuck by his convictions and fought with tremendous zeal for the Confederacy.