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The Civil War: 8 Strange and Obscure Facts You Didn't Know | Past Imperfect
The Civil War: 8 Strange and Obscure Facts You Didn't Know Past Imperfect
A heaping helping of food news, science and culture
Where paleontology meets pop culture
Meet the members of the tangled human family tree
How human ingenuity is changing the way we live
Ideas, news and discoveries from the world of science
Cultural insights and practical advice from a globe-trotting journalist
The travel adventures of a nomad on the cheap
November 15, 2011
The Civil War: 8 Strange and Obscure Facts You Didn’t Know
Reenactors at the 150th anniversary of First Bull Run, July 2011. Courtesy of the author.
Gertrude Stein said it best: “There will never be anything more interesting in America than that Civil War.” And of course interest is high, now that we’ve begun commemorating the sesquicentennial anniversaries of the war’s key events. For the First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas, to Southerners) last July, re-enactors descended upon Gainesville, Virginia, from as far afield as Germany, Uruguay, and Hawaii.
Even with the war’s vast bibliography—more than 60,000 books have been published since the last shot was fired, in June 1865—some of the odder coincidences and bizarre facts of the period are overlooked. Wilmer McLean became one of the legendary figures of the war merely by trying to escape it. (After his house was shelled during the First Battle of Bull Run, he moved—to Appomattox Court House, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant.) Here are some other noteworthy people and artifacts:
• The Unusual Bunker Brothers. Chang and Eng Bunker are best known as “the original Siamese Twins.” Natives of Siam (modern Thailand) and joined at the sternum, they became a popular attraction with traveling museum exhibitions.In 1839, they bought 110 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and settled down. They married sisters, built a successful farm (with slave labor) and became naturalized citizens and devoted Confederates. In 1865, Union General George Stoneman raided North Carolina and decided to draft some of the locals, regardless of sympathies; the names of men over 18 were put into a lottery wheel. Eng’s name was drawn, but he resisted the draft. Since Chang’s name was not drawn, there was little General Stoneman could do; the brothers were not only joined at the sternum, their livers were fused. Neither one served in the war, but their eldest sons both enlisted and fought for the Confederacy.
The "rectal acorn." Courtesy of the Museum of the Confederacy.
• The secret hiding place. In 2009, a woman visited the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, with an acorn-shaped object in hand. It was made of brass and had no inscriptions or markings. She that according to family lore, one of her ancestors (edit: whoops! thanks for the catch!), a Confederate soldier, used the device to smuggle secret messages, hiding it in his posterior until he reached his destination. Museum officials were intrigued by what she called a “rectal acorn,” but she declined to donate it.
• General Lee’s chicken. In 1862, a Virginia farmer gave Robert E. Lee a flock of chickens. Confederate General John Bell Hood’s men ate all of them—except for one, who had survived by making her roost in a tree overhanging Lee’s tent. Lee took a liking to the chicken. He named her “Nellie” and raised the flap of his tent so she could come and go as she pleased. She began laying eggs nearly every day under the general’s cot. On the eve of the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee invited a group of generals to dine with him, but his slave cook, William Mack Lee, couldn’t find sufficient food to make a meal. Although he “hated to lose her,” the cook said he “picked her good, and stuffed her with bread stuffing, mixed with butter.” He said it was the only time in four years that Lee scolded him. “It made Marse Robert awful sad to think of anything being killed,” he said, “whether ’twas one of his soldiers or his little black hen.”
• Mourning rituals. Wartime convention decreed that a woman mourn her child’s death for one year, a brother’s death for six months, and a husband’s death for two and a half years. She progressed through prescribed stages of heavy, full, and half mourning, with gradually loosening requirements of dress and behavior. Mary Todd Lincoln remained in deep mourning for more than a year after her son Willie’s death, dressing in black veils, black crepe and black jewelry. Flora Stuart, the widow of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, remained in heavy morning for 59 years after the 1864 death of her husband, wearing black until she died in 1923. By contrast, a widower was expected to mourn for only three months, simply by displaying black crepe on his hat or armband.
• Glowing wounds. After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers reported a peculiar phenomenon: glow-in-the-dark wounds. More than 16,000 soldiers from both armies were wounded during the battle, and neither Union nor Confederate medical personnel were prepared for the carnage. Soldiers lay in the mud for two rainy days, and many of them noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In fact, the injured whose wounds glowed seemed to heal better than the others. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers solved the mystery (and won a top prize at an international science fair). The wounded became hypothermic, and their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens, which inhibits pathogens.
• The other Jefferson Davis. Union General Jefferson Davis shared a name with the Confederate president, a circumstance that didn’t cause as much confusion as might be expected—with one notable exception. During the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, as darkness fell on Horseshoe Ridge, members of the 21st Ohio saw a swarm of men approaching but couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe. Most assumed they were Union reinforcements, but a few feared they were Confederates. As the troops grew closer, one Union soldier called out, “What troops are you?” The collective reply was “Jeff Davis’s troops.” The Ohio soldiers relaxed, believing they meant the Union general. A few moments later, they were staring down the muzzles and bayonets of the 7th Florida. The Ohioans surrendered. The Confederates won the battle.
Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
• Stonewall Jackson, hypochondriac. The Confederate general thought himself “out of balance.” Even under fire, he would raise an arm so the blood might flow down into his body and re-establish equilibrium. (His hand was wounded when he did this during the First Battle of Bull Run). His refused to eat pepper because it seemed to make his left leg weak. He sucked lemons, believing that they helped his “dyspepsia.” He was most comfortable standing upright so that all of his organs were “naturally” aligned. He suffered from poor eyesight, which he tried to treat by dunking his head into a basin of cold water, eyes open. And yet he once told a captain that he felt “as safe in battle as in bed.”
• The Things He Carried. After President Abraham Lincoln died, on April 15, 1865, his leather wallet was found to contain a $5 Confederate bill, imprinted with the image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Lincoln may have gotten the bill when he visited Petersburg and Richmond earlier in the month.
SOURCES
Books: Andrew Ward. The Slaves’ War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008; Derek Smith. The Gallant Dead: Union and Confederate Generals Killed in the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005; Archibald Gracie. The Truth About Chickamauga. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911; Burke Davis. The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts. New York: Fairfax Press, 1960; Drew Gilpin Faust. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Articles: “Mystery of Glowing Wounds Solved,” by Linda Searing. HealthScout News, June 11, 2001.
A heaping helping of food news, science and culture
Where paleontology meets pop culture
Meet the members of the tangled human family tree
How human ingenuity is changing the way we live
Ideas, news and discoveries from the world of science
Cultural insights and practical advice from a globe-trotting journalist
The travel adventures of a nomad on the cheap
November 15, 2011
The Civil War: 8 Strange and Obscure Facts You Didn’t Know
Reenactors at the 150th anniversary of First Bull Run, July 2011. Courtesy of the author.
Gertrude Stein said it best: “There will never be anything more interesting in America than that Civil War.” And of course interest is high, now that we’ve begun commemorating the sesquicentennial anniversaries of the war’s key events. For the First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas, to Southerners) last July, re-enactors descended upon Gainesville, Virginia, from as far afield as Germany, Uruguay, and Hawaii.
Even with the war’s vast bibliography—more than 60,000 books have been published since the last shot was fired, in June 1865—some of the odder coincidences and bizarre facts of the period are overlooked. Wilmer McLean became one of the legendary figures of the war merely by trying to escape it. (After his house was shelled during the First Battle of Bull Run, he moved—to Appomattox Court House, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant.) Here are some other noteworthy people and artifacts:
• The Unusual Bunker Brothers. Chang and Eng Bunker are best known as “the original Siamese Twins.” Natives of Siam (modern Thailand) and joined at the sternum, they became a popular attraction with traveling museum exhibitions.In 1839, they bought 110 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and settled down. They married sisters, built a successful farm (with slave labor) and became naturalized citizens and devoted Confederates. In 1865, Union General George Stoneman raided North Carolina and decided to draft some of the locals, regardless of sympathies; the names of men over 18 were put into a lottery wheel. Eng’s name was drawn, but he resisted the draft. Since Chang’s name was not drawn, there was little General Stoneman could do; the brothers were not only joined at the sternum, their livers were fused. Neither one served in the war, but their eldest sons both enlisted and fought for the Confederacy.
The "rectal acorn." Courtesy of the Museum of the Confederacy.
• The secret hiding place. In 2009, a woman visited the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, with an acorn-shaped object in hand. It was made of brass and had no inscriptions or markings. She that according to family lore, one of her ancestors (edit: whoops! thanks for the catch!), a Confederate soldier, used the device to smuggle secret messages, hiding it in his posterior until he reached his destination. Museum officials were intrigued by what she called a “rectal acorn,” but she declined to donate it.
• General Lee’s chicken. In 1862, a Virginia farmer gave Robert E. Lee a flock of chickens. Confederate General John Bell Hood’s men ate all of them—except for one, who had survived by making her roost in a tree overhanging Lee’s tent. Lee took a liking to the chicken. He named her “Nellie” and raised the flap of his tent so she could come and go as she pleased. She began laying eggs nearly every day under the general’s cot. On the eve of the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee invited a group of generals to dine with him, but his slave cook, William Mack Lee, couldn’t find sufficient food to make a meal. Although he “hated to lose her,” the cook said he “picked her good, and stuffed her with bread stuffing, mixed with butter.” He said it was the only time in four years that Lee scolded him. “It made Marse Robert awful sad to think of anything being killed,” he said, “whether ’twas one of his soldiers or his little black hen.”
• Mourning rituals. Wartime convention decreed that a woman mourn her child’s death for one year, a brother’s death for six months, and a husband’s death for two and a half years. She progressed through prescribed stages of heavy, full, and half mourning, with gradually loosening requirements of dress and behavior. Mary Todd Lincoln remained in deep mourning for more than a year after her son Willie’s death, dressing in black veils, black crepe and black jewelry. Flora Stuart, the widow of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, remained in heavy morning for 59 years after the 1864 death of her husband, wearing black until she died in 1923. By contrast, a widower was expected to mourn for only three months, simply by displaying black crepe on his hat or armband.
• Glowing wounds. After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers reported a peculiar phenomenon: glow-in-the-dark wounds. More than 16,000 soldiers from both armies were wounded during the battle, and neither Union nor Confederate medical personnel were prepared for the carnage. Soldiers lay in the mud for two rainy days, and many of them noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In fact, the injured whose wounds glowed seemed to heal better than the others. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers solved the mystery (and won a top prize at an international science fair). The wounded became hypothermic, and their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens, which inhibits pathogens.
• The other Jefferson Davis. Union General Jefferson Davis shared a name with the Confederate president, a circumstance that didn’t cause as much confusion as might be expected—with one notable exception. During the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, as darkness fell on Horseshoe Ridge, members of the 21st Ohio saw a swarm of men approaching but couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe. Most assumed they were Union reinforcements, but a few feared they were Confederates. As the troops grew closer, one Union soldier called out, “What troops are you?” The collective reply was “Jeff Davis’s troops.” The Ohio soldiers relaxed, believing they meant the Union general. A few moments later, they were staring down the muzzles and bayonets of the 7th Florida. The Ohioans surrendered. The Confederates won the battle.
Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
• Stonewall Jackson, hypochondriac. The Confederate general thought himself “out of balance.” Even under fire, he would raise an arm so the blood might flow down into his body and re-establish equilibrium. (His hand was wounded when he did this during the First Battle of Bull Run). His refused to eat pepper because it seemed to make his left leg weak. He sucked lemons, believing that they helped his “dyspepsia.” He was most comfortable standing upright so that all of his organs were “naturally” aligned. He suffered from poor eyesight, which he tried to treat by dunking his head into a basin of cold water, eyes open. And yet he once told a captain that he felt “as safe in battle as in bed.”
• The Things He Carried. After President Abraham Lincoln died, on April 15, 1865, his leather wallet was found to contain a $5 Confederate bill, imprinted with the image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Lincoln may have gotten the bill when he visited Petersburg and Richmond earlier in the month.
SOURCES
Books: Andrew Ward. The Slaves’ War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008; Derek Smith. The Gallant Dead: Union and Confederate Generals Killed in the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005; Archibald Gracie. The Truth About Chickamauga. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911; Burke Davis. The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts. New York: Fairfax Press, 1960; Drew Gilpin Faust. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Articles: “Mystery of Glowing Wounds Solved,” by Linda Searing. HealthScout News, June 11, 2001.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Civil War Judge Advocate/Provost Marshall (living history) (1)
Civil War Judge Advocate/Provost Marshall (living history) (1)
This unit will work closely with surrounding re-enactments and re-enactmentunits. Our main focus will be that of being assistance to those of the EasternRe-enactors Association located in western New York, Gabriel's Legion located inwestern and central New York, 36th Virginia-Echoes Through Time Civil War Museum & Learning Center located in Williamsville New York.
We will be at the submission to the overall commander of those units in the venue that they are working. This unit is to be one of leadership, proper onduct and control. It shall mirror those of the Corps. Used during the war. In other word...s, a small group which can attach itself to other Provost Marshall units if need be. Headed by an overall commander of which in my past there is always a lacking of.Such commander as per many times during the way, the Asst or Judge AdvocateGeneral. This is title and not rank. Rules and Regulations dictate the rank. Being that this is regimental size, Capt or Major is quite high enough.As for equipment. Provost Marshall badge, manacles (handcuffs) and leg irons, of course would be nice but I do believe (handcuffs) will survive.During re-enactments and when the battle scenarios are on, many times instead of being a part of the battle we are used for crowd control and other necessities which may be required of us. Or one can join in the battle. For me, being disabled, this works.At this point it is a southern impersonation but I do hope to be able togalvanize in the future and see no problem.I am also currently working on obtaining necessary paperwork, passes, leave requests, orders etc. to add to the realism of what we intend to do.There is no unit association as to a number as of this time other than we will be with the Army of Northern Virginia. There is also no necessity for a member to be Cavalry, Infantry or whatever. Anyone can be a provost.Contact me at anytime via emai
This unit will work closely with surrounding re-enactments and re-enactmentunits. Our main focus will be that of being assistance to those of the EasternRe-enactors Association located in western New York, Gabriel's Legion located inwestern and central New York, 36th Virginia-Echoes Through Time Civil War Museum & Learning Center located in Williamsville New York.
We will be at the submission to the overall commander of those units in the venue that they are working. This unit is to be one of leadership, proper onduct and control. It shall mirror those of the Corps. Used during the war. In other word...s, a small group which can attach itself to other Provost Marshall units if need be. Headed by an overall commander of which in my past there is always a lacking of.Such commander as per many times during the way, the Asst or Judge AdvocateGeneral. This is title and not rank. Rules and Regulations dictate the rank. Being that this is regimental size, Capt or Major is quite high enough.As for equipment. Provost Marshall badge, manacles (handcuffs) and leg irons, of course would be nice but I do believe (handcuffs) will survive.During re-enactments and when the battle scenarios are on, many times instead of being a part of the battle we are used for crowd control and other necessities which may be required of us. Or one can join in the battle. For me, being disabled, this works.At this point it is a southern impersonation but I do hope to be able togalvanize in the future and see no problem.I am also currently working on obtaining necessary paperwork, passes, leave requests, orders etc. to add to the realism of what we intend to do.There is no unit association as to a number as of this time other than we will be with the Army of Northern Virginia. There is also no necessity for a member to be Cavalry, Infantry or whatever. Anyone can be a provost.Contact me at anytime via emai
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The Cherokee Nation Wishes for a Confederate Alliance
The Cherokee Nation Wishes for a Confederate Alliance
The land that is, in modern times, known as “Oklahoma” was, at the time of the Civil War, known only as “Indian Territory.” It was to Indian Territory that the Trail of Tears led in the 1830s. The Five Civilized Tribes (Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek) were forcibly relocated from the South to west of the Mississippi River. By 1861, the Nations, as they were known, were divided on how to react to the Civil War.
On one hand, it was the states in the South that lobbied for their forced relocation. On the other, many of the prominent chiefs of the Nations were slaveholders. Also, if the South was victorious, they thought, perhaps there was a chance to secede from the Union as well.
As per treaty obligations, the Federal Government was to make annuity payments to the Tribes, but had stopped in a supposed fear of the money falling into the pockets of the Confederates. For many natives, this was the last straw. The Choctaws and the Chickasaws threw in with the Confederacy. They even organized a regiment of dragoons to fight with the South. President Jefferson Davis agreed to take over the annuity payments, promised the Natives self-government within their borders, and even let the Nations send delegates to the Confederate Congress.
All was not as it seemed, however. Albert Pike, a newspaper editor sent by Davis to broker treaties in Indian Territory, had plans of his own. He wrote Davis of the territory’s good farming land, its natural resources and how the Confederacy could use them with or without the consent of the Indians. Pike saw the value of settling Indian Territory as a Confederate state with free whites and their slaves.
The Cherokees were divided on the matter. One faction, the more traditional, full-blooded and nonslave-holding Keetowahs were for remaining neutral. Countering them were the Knights of the Golden Circle, mostly made up of mixed-blood slaveholders, who wished to side with the South.
Representing the Keetowahs was John Ross, ironically a slaveholder who was only one-eighth Cherokee. The Knights were led by Stand Watie, a slave owner who was three-fourths Cherokee. Watie had already raised a mixed-blood cavalry regiment.
Ross was holding out for peace and neutrality as long as he could. “We do not wish to be brought into the feuds between yourselves and your Northern Brethren,” wrote Ross to the Confederacy’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs. “Our wish is for peace. Peace at home and Peace among you.”1
On this date, a Cherokee national conference was held at Tahlequah (sixty miles southeast of Tulsa). Four thousand Cherokees had assembled and John Ross, leader of the peaceful Keetowah faction, spoke.
Ross was nearly convinced that the South was about to win their independence. With victories at Bull Run and Wilson’s Creek, it was no wonder. In the past, said Ross, he was for neutrality. But now he was for unity within the Cherokee Nation.
“Union is strength; dissension is weakness, misery, ruin,” warned Ross. “In time of peace, enjoy peace together; in time of war, if war must come, fight together. As brothers live, as brothers die. While ready and willing to defend our firesides from the robber and murderer, let us not make war wantonly against the authority of the United or Confederate States, but avoid conflict with either, and remain strictly on our own soil.”
Ross, however, moved from his stance of neutrality to one of, what he viewed as, practicality. Indian Territory was bordered on three sides by the Confederacy, whose fate was linked to that of the Cherokee. “The time has now come,” concluded Ross, “when you should signify your consent for the authorities of the nation to adopt preliminary steps for an alliance with the Confederate States upon terms honorable and advantageous to the Cherokee Nation.”
The meeting at Tahlequah did not officially bind the Cherokee Nation with the Confederacy. In fact, the resolutions passed at the conference favored neutrality and friendship with people of all of the States, “particularly those on our immediate border.” Clearly, the Nation was paving a path that would soon lead them to an official alliance with the South.
Another of the resolutions addressed slavery. It was resolved: “That among the rights guaranteed by the constitution and laws we distinctly recognize that of property in negro slaves, and hereby publicly denounce as calumniators those who represent us to be abolitionists, and as a consequence hostile to the South, which is both the – land of our birth and the land of our homes.”
The meeting concluding by assuring that “the relations between the United and Confederate States of America… may render an alliance on our part with the latter States expedient and desirable.”((Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 3, p673-675.))
__________________
Two Generals Set Aright
Meanwhile, two Confederate generals were chastised by their respective commanders. In Missouri, General Polk admonished General Pillow for disobeying orders concerning the 4th Tennessee regiment. Polk wanted the 4th to occupy Island No. 10, but Pillow, who had no command over the Tennessee troops, ordered them to march north. As it was too late to recall them, Polk instead scolded Pillow for giving an order to a regiment not under his command and decided to report him to the War Department in Richmond.2
In Western Virginia, Generals Wise and Floyd were constantly bickering while marching towards the Federals at Gauley Bridge. All Floyd wanted was for Wise to hurry along and all Wise wanted was to keep his brigade, called Wise’s Legion, together. Intervening, General Robert E. Lee wrote to Wise, again explaining that since Floyd was the commanding officer, it was up to him where specific regiments were brigaded. Under Wise’s command were two Virginia regiments not in his Legion. Lee moved both to Floyd’s command, leaving Wise with only his Legion to head. Floyd was still in ful command of the Army of the Kanawha.3
A People’s History of the Civil War by Davis Williams, The New Press, 2005. [↩]
Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 3, p668. [↩]
Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p799-800. [↩]
The land that is, in modern times, known as “Oklahoma” was, at the time of the Civil War, known only as “Indian Territory.” It was to Indian Territory that the Trail of Tears led in the 1830s. The Five Civilized Tribes (Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek) were forcibly relocated from the South to west of the Mississippi River. By 1861, the Nations, as they were known, were divided on how to react to the Civil War.
On one hand, it was the states in the South that lobbied for their forced relocation. On the other, many of the prominent chiefs of the Nations were slaveholders. Also, if the South was victorious, they thought, perhaps there was a chance to secede from the Union as well.
As per treaty obligations, the Federal Government was to make annuity payments to the Tribes, but had stopped in a supposed fear of the money falling into the pockets of the Confederates. For many natives, this was the last straw. The Choctaws and the Chickasaws threw in with the Confederacy. They even organized a regiment of dragoons to fight with the South. President Jefferson Davis agreed to take over the annuity payments, promised the Natives self-government within their borders, and even let the Nations send delegates to the Confederate Congress.
All was not as it seemed, however. Albert Pike, a newspaper editor sent by Davis to broker treaties in Indian Territory, had plans of his own. He wrote Davis of the territory’s good farming land, its natural resources and how the Confederacy could use them with or without the consent of the Indians. Pike saw the value of settling Indian Territory as a Confederate state with free whites and their slaves.
The Cherokees were divided on the matter. One faction, the more traditional, full-blooded and nonslave-holding Keetowahs were for remaining neutral. Countering them were the Knights of the Golden Circle, mostly made up of mixed-blood slaveholders, who wished to side with the South.
Representing the Keetowahs was John Ross, ironically a slaveholder who was only one-eighth Cherokee. The Knights were led by Stand Watie, a slave owner who was three-fourths Cherokee. Watie had already raised a mixed-blood cavalry regiment.
Ross was holding out for peace and neutrality as long as he could. “We do not wish to be brought into the feuds between yourselves and your Northern Brethren,” wrote Ross to the Confederacy’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs. “Our wish is for peace. Peace at home and Peace among you.”1
On this date, a Cherokee national conference was held at Tahlequah (sixty miles southeast of Tulsa). Four thousand Cherokees had assembled and John Ross, leader of the peaceful Keetowah faction, spoke.
Ross was nearly convinced that the South was about to win their independence. With victories at Bull Run and Wilson’s Creek, it was no wonder. In the past, said Ross, he was for neutrality. But now he was for unity within the Cherokee Nation.
“Union is strength; dissension is weakness, misery, ruin,” warned Ross. “In time of peace, enjoy peace together; in time of war, if war must come, fight together. As brothers live, as brothers die. While ready and willing to defend our firesides from the robber and murderer, let us not make war wantonly against the authority of the United or Confederate States, but avoid conflict with either, and remain strictly on our own soil.”
Ross, however, moved from his stance of neutrality to one of, what he viewed as, practicality. Indian Territory was bordered on three sides by the Confederacy, whose fate was linked to that of the Cherokee. “The time has now come,” concluded Ross, “when you should signify your consent for the authorities of the nation to adopt preliminary steps for an alliance with the Confederate States upon terms honorable and advantageous to the Cherokee Nation.”
The meeting at Tahlequah did not officially bind the Cherokee Nation with the Confederacy. In fact, the resolutions passed at the conference favored neutrality and friendship with people of all of the States, “particularly those on our immediate border.” Clearly, the Nation was paving a path that would soon lead them to an official alliance with the South.
Another of the resolutions addressed slavery. It was resolved: “That among the rights guaranteed by the constitution and laws we distinctly recognize that of property in negro slaves, and hereby publicly denounce as calumniators those who represent us to be abolitionists, and as a consequence hostile to the South, which is both the – land of our birth and the land of our homes.”
The meeting concluding by assuring that “the relations between the United and Confederate States of America… may render an alliance on our part with the latter States expedient and desirable.”((Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 3, p673-675.))
__________________
Two Generals Set Aright
Meanwhile, two Confederate generals were chastised by their respective commanders. In Missouri, General Polk admonished General Pillow for disobeying orders concerning the 4th Tennessee regiment. Polk wanted the 4th to occupy Island No. 10, but Pillow, who had no command over the Tennessee troops, ordered them to march north. As it was too late to recall them, Polk instead scolded Pillow for giving an order to a regiment not under his command and decided to report him to the War Department in Richmond.2
In Western Virginia, Generals Wise and Floyd were constantly bickering while marching towards the Federals at Gauley Bridge. All Floyd wanted was for Wise to hurry along and all Wise wanted was to keep his brigade, called Wise’s Legion, together. Intervening, General Robert E. Lee wrote to Wise, again explaining that since Floyd was the commanding officer, it was up to him where specific regiments were brigaded. Under Wise’s command were two Virginia regiments not in his Legion. Lee moved both to Floyd’s command, leaving Wise with only his Legion to head. Floyd was still in ful command of the Army of the Kanawha.3
A People’s History of the Civil War by Davis Williams, The New Press, 2005. [↩]
Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 3, p668. [↩]
Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p799-800. [↩]
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