Posted on 01/12/2004 6:50:08 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
The discovery of an iron cross that once marked the grave of a Cherokee chief and Civil War general has a Hot Springs man feeling like he hit the jackpot.
Lee Matous, recruiting officer for the Hot Springs-based James M. Keller Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, went to Delaware County, Okla., a little more than a year ago in hopes of buying a Civil War cannon. He returned with what appears to be a grave marker belonging to Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, the highest-ranking Indian to serve in the Civil War. "That’s like hitting the lottery," he said of the odds of finding the artifact, which resembles a Maltese Cross.
Matous and his group’s historian, Bob Freeman, passed on the cannon, which they determined to be a replica. "We started to leave and all of a sudden this iron cross came out," he said of the marker, which measures about a square foot. Realizing its rarity, Matous and Freeman jumped at the opportunity to buy the cast iron relic.
Matous said the marker was patterned after the Southern Cross of Honor, which was issued after the war to a select group of Confederate heroes.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy at Richmond, Va., thought of the Southern Cross in 1898. And, according to the group’s Web site, about 79,000 of the medals were issued between 1900 and 1913. "Money could not buy the Cross, they were bought by loyal, honorable service to the South and were given in recognition of this devotion," the Web posting stated.
Matous’ research led him to conclude that the marker was fashioned after the medal and was affixed to the boulder that marked Watie’s grave in 1913, some 42 years after the general’s death. The marker was stolen from Polson Cemetery southeast of Grove, Okla., in Delaware County around 1920.
There was one key indicator that helped point Matous to that conclusion. "I finally found out what the 1-4-5-0 was," he said of a digit appearing on the marker. "It was an ID number" for a Daughters of the Confederacy chapter at Pryor, Okla., which he later learned was once headed by the general’s niece, Mabel Washburn Anderson.
Matous noted that the previous owner, who claimed to have picked up the item at a Tulsa flea market some 30 years earlier, could have been guilty of possessing and trafficking a stolen artifact. However, he said, he and Freeman declined to go to the police to report their discovery for fear the relic might disappear or become tangled in court proceedings for many years.
Instead, the men agreed to pay "many several hundreds of dollars" for the piece, which they plan to return to the Cherokee Nation, of which Watie was a member. "We’re not asking for a dime" in return, he added. "This is part of our heritage."
Matous said the money to purchase the relic came from donations from the Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and from a chapter in north Texas.
Bill John Baker, a tribal council member from Tahlequah, Okla., said, "We believe it’s the real thing.... I’m pretty well satisfied."
Baker, who heads a committee working with Matous for the return of the marker, said the piece is "awfully rare," noting that it is a one-of-a-kind memorial to the nation’s only American Indian general of the Civil War and to the last Confederate commander to lay down his arms in the conflict.
According to the Oklahoma Historical Society’s "Chronicles of Oklahoma," Watie was both a beloved and controversial figure in Cherokee history.
As the brother of one of the signers of the 1835 treaty that forced the tribe from the eastern United States into the Indian Territory of modern-day Oklahoma, Watie led a faction that was often at odds with Chief John Ross, who sought neutrality during the war.
Encouraged by Albert Pike of Arkansas, Confederate commissioner to the Indian Territory, Watie persuaded the majority of the 4,000 members at a tribal meeting in August 1861 to side with the South, thus earning himself a colonel’s commission in the Confederate Army in July 1861.
Ross later fled the Indian Territory and Watie was elected principal chief of the Confederate Cherokees in August 1862.
Watie’s military command saw action in at least 18 engagements, including a battle at Oak Hills in August 1861 that assured the South's hold on the Indian Territory by forcing pro-federal Indians into Kansas.
He also participated in the capture of the Union steamboat J. R. Williams and the seizure of $1.5 million worth of supplies from a federal wagon train.
Although exempt from service outside the territory, Watie led his men into Arkansas in the spring of 1861, where he joined Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn in the battle of Elkhorn Tavern.
Watie was promoted to brigadier general May 6, 1864, and was given command of all Confederate Cherokees, as well as Creek and Seminole troops. The Choctaw and Chickasaw, which made up the remaining "Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma, were later attached to Watie's command.
Watie also won fame after the war, becoming the last general to lay down his arms in a surrender at Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, on June 23, 1865, nearly three months after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender.
Baker admits that Watie, because of his beliefs and actions, has his detractors among the tribe, adding, "I don’t know anyone who didn’t have family on both sides of the war." But, he said, the man and his grave maker have a unique place in Cherokee history, one that needs to be recognized and preserved.
And should the Arkansans’ efforts prevail, he said, the artifact could be returned in time for the Cherokee Nation Days celebration at Tahlequah over the Labor Day weekend. "My guess is, when it’s presented, we will actually place the marker back on the actual grave of Stand Watie, where it belongs," Baker said. "And, hopefully, it won’t be stolen again so that we’ll have to be repeating this 100 years from now."
Free Dixie bump
Rightfully so. Thank you for your service Brig Gen Stand Watie.
Good men. Thanks for posting this
Only a scumbag could do such a thing!
Brig Gen Stand Watie,, a brave and noble man!
fyi,i am only his humble horseholder.
free dixie,sw
As an American with Cherokee (as well as Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek) branches in my family tree, this just warms my heart.
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