The surrender of Brigadier General Stand Watie on June 23, 1865, at Doaksville, in the Choctaw Nation of the Indian Territory, marked a significant moment in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Watie, a Cherokee leader, holds the distinction of being the last major Confederate field commander to lay down arms, a full 75 days after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. This act signified the final embers of Confederate resistance being extinguished in the vast expanse of the Trans-Mississippi Theater. His surrender came 66 days after Joe Johnston’s to William Tecumseh Sherman, at Bentonville, North Carolina, and 21 days after Trans-Mississippi Department head Edmund Kirby Smith’s to E. R. S. Canby at Galveston, Texas.
A Cherokee Leader in a Divided Nation
Stand Watie’s story is one intricately woven with the complex tapestry of 19th-century America. Born Degataga, meaning "Stand Firm," on December 12, 1806, in Oothcaloga (present-day Calhoun) in the Cherokee Nation of northwestern Georgia, Watie was of mixed Cherokee and European heritage. His parents, David Uwatie (meaning "Ancient One"), and Susanna Reese, were both full-blooded Cherokee. He was to become the only Native American on either side of the conflict to attain the rank of brigadier general.
Watie’s early life was marked by his involvement in the political and intellectual life of the Cherokee Nation. He collaborated with his brother, Elias Boudinot, on the Cherokee Phoenix, a bilingual newspaper that served as a voice for Cherokee rights and sovereignty amidst the growing pressures of westward expansion and the encroaching influence of the Deep South cotton states. The newspaper stood as a testament to the Cherokee Nation’s commitment to self-determination within the boundaries of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.
The Shadow of Removal
The passage of the Indian Removal Act by the U.S. Congress in 1830 cast a long and ominous shadow over the Cherokee Nation. This legislation paved the way for the forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to the Indian Territory, a vast area west of the Mississippi River often referred to as the "Great American Desert," now primarily the state of Oklahoma.
The state of Georgia, driven by its insatiable hunger for land suitable for cotton plantations and the allure of short-term gold deposits found on Cherokee territory, aggressively pursued the removal of the Cherokee people. This relentless pressure led to a deep schism within the Cherokee Nation, dividing the people into factions with differing views on how to respond to the inevitable displacement.
Fractures Within the Nation
The seizure of Cherokee lands and the kidnapping of Chief John Ross by state agents served as catalysts for the division within the Cherokee Nation. Two primary factions emerged: the majority faction, led by the respected Principal Chief John Ross, and a minority faction comprised of political rivals, including Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and Stand Waite.
On December 29, 1835, a pivotal and controversial event occurred: a minority faction, known as the "Treaty Party," which included Stand Waite, unilaterally signed the Treaty of New Echota. This treaty ceded Cherokee lands to the United States in exchange for resettlement in the Indian Territory.
A Pragmatic Choice?
Watie and the Treaty Party believed that signing the treaty, despite its inherent injustices, was the only pragmatic path to survival for the Cherokee Nation. They reasoned that resisting removal would ultimately lead to the disintegration of their nation and its complete absorption into the rapidly expanding United States. President Andrew Jackson’s refusal to intervene on behalf of the Cherokee against Georgia, despite Supreme Court rulings supporting Cherokee sovereignty, further solidified their belief that removal was unavoidable.
The consequences of the Treaty of New Echota were devastating. The forced removal, known as the Trail of Tears, resulted in immense suffering and the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokee people in late 1838, including Quatie Ross, the wife of Chief John Ross.
Blood Feud and Division
The signing of the Treaty of New Echota and the subsequent Trail of Tears ignited a blood feud within the Cherokee Nation. In 1839, vengeful anti-treaty Cherokees assassinated Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge, and John Ridge, in accordance with Cherokee tribal law, which considered the cession of ancestral lands a capital offense. Stand Waite, the sole surviving member of his family, retaliated in 1842 by killing one of the assassins, extending the cycle of violence into the Indian Territory. His other brother, Thomas Watie, was killed in 1845.
When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, the Cherokee Nation, already fractured by internal divisions, was further torn apart. Chief John Ross, fearing being overthrown, reluctantly led the Cherokee Nation into an alliance with the Confederacy. This decision, however, did not unite the Cherokee people. Instead, it deepened the existing rifts and ignited a parallel civil war within the Cherokee Nation itself.
Cherokee Against Cherokee
The Cherokee people were divided along Union and Confederate lines, mirroring the divisions within the larger American society. The Ross faction, composed primarily of full-blooded Cherokees who favored a united Cherokee Nation, supported the Union. The Watie faction, largely comprised of mixed-blood Cherokees, advocated for a divided Cherokee Nation, with separate Southern and Northern entities within the Indian Territory.
In 1862, John Ross, facing increasing opposition from Confederate sympathizers, fled to the Northern-controlled area, taking with him the Cherokee Nation’s government archives. Stand Waite remained in the Indian Territory and, in August, assumed the role of principal chief, effectively usurping Ross’s authority.
A Confederate General
Stand Waite proved to be a capable military leader, taking command of the 1st Mounted Cherokee Rifles, a regiment that numbered approximately 1,800 horsemen. His unit fought alongside white Confederate soldiers in several key battles, including Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern (1862), First Cabin Creek (1863), Flat Rock (1864), Second Cabin Creek (1864), and the capture of the federal river supply steamboat J. R. Williams (1864).
The September 16, 1864, Battle of Flat Rock is shrouded in controversy. Infamous stories emerged alleging that Watie’s Cherokees, or accompanying Texas troopers, massacred Black Union soldiers, who were working as hay-cutters, as well as Black women and children who were also present.
Confederate Cherokee soldiers had a high desertion rate throughout the Civil War. When they captured enemy rations, they usually deserted to take them home to their families.
Challenges and Controversies
Stand Waite‘s military career was not without its challenges and controversies. Confederate Cherokee had an escalating desertion rate during the Civil War. If they captured enemy supply rations, they tended to leave the army to take them home to their families. Facing-off for a battle, large groups of the Southern Cherokees openly deserted to the Union Creeks, with whom they felt no animosity. During the war, the Confederate Cherokees sometimes became Union Cherokees. Native American Civil War soldier self-discipline was sporadic in battle. Artillery fire terrified the Confederate Cherokee soldiers. To them, the “Yankee wagon-guns” (cannons) were bad spirits spewing forth flame and thunder, which abruptly in turn brought death and disruption.
On May 10, 1864, Watie was promoted from colonel to brigadier general by Gen. Samuel Bell Maxey. The white Texas troopers resented his advancement in rank. Watie focused his efforts on guerilla warfare against the Union Cherokee for control of the Indian Territory itself.
The Final Surrender and Aftermath
Even after the Confederate "Cherokee Braves" battle standard was furled in June 1865, Watie and his men still needed bravery. As mentioned earlier, Stand Waite finally surrendered his command on June 23, 1865, at Doaksville, marking the end of organized Confederate resistance in the Indian Territory.
The surrender did not bring immediate peace to the Cherokee Nation. Intense division loomed over both Ross and Watie factions as to the fate of their former black slaves, now freed-men, -women, and -children. The Northern Cherokee wanted to adopt the mixed black-Cherokee ex-slave families into the overall tribe, however Watie’s Southern Cherokee wanted them to be segregated outside of the Indian Territory.
Chief Ross, 75, signed a treaty on July 19, 1866, in Washington, which gave the Cherokee Freedmen U.S. citizenship, federal annuities, and land in the new Canadian (River) Addition. Ross died in Washington on Aug. 1.
Exiled in the Choctaw Nation, Stand Waite returned to his land on Honey Creek in Cherokee Territory. Sadly, all three of his sons had already perished, from non-war causes.
Although wealthy from his eastern plantation years, he could not bear his solitary loneliness (likely mental depression), dying at 64, on Sept. 9, 1871.
New compromise principal chief, full-blooded Cherokee Lewis Downing brought permanent peace to the post-Civil War reunited Cherokee Nation.
A Complex Legacy
The life of Stand Waite is a testament to the complexities and contradictions of the American Civil War era. He was a Cherokee leader who fought for the Confederacy, a slave owner who advocated for Native American rights, and a figure whose actions continue to be debated and interpreted to this day. His surrender as the last major Confederate general marked the end of an era, but his story remains a vital part of the American narrative, reminding us of the enduring impact of the Civil War on all segments of society, including the Native American nations caught in its crossfire.