The original Stand Watie was a signer of the Treaty of New Echota that started the, Trail of Tears, the forced removal of The Five Civilized Tribes to Indian Territory, Oklahoma. Most of the treaty signers were later on assassinated by the tribe but Stand Watie evaded the assassins by minutes.
Twenty five years later, no longer trusting the Federal government, Principal Chief Stand Watie organized a Confederate States regiment of mounted infantry, becoming Colonel of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. He was later promoted to Brigadier General and commanded the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, composed of two regiments of Mounted Rifles and three battalions of Cherokee, Seminole and Osage infantry.
My wife has a small percentage of Cherokee DNA. My Father-in-Law grew up at Spring Place, the small Georgia town that was settled beside the old Cherokee Capital of New Echota. Major Ridge (also known as Pathkiller II), another signer of the Treaty of New Echota, had his plantation home in Rome, Georgia where I grew up. Steeped in Cherokee lore, I have visited the New Echota site many times.
Stand Watie was the last Confederate General to surrender his troops in the field.
R.I.P. Jim Freeman/Stand Watie.
Thank you for that post.