MOONEYJ THK CIVIL WAR 140 



T^Yo Cherokee j-ejfinient.s were rsiiised for the C-onfederate .service, 

 under coiiiiiiand of Stand Watie and Colonel Drew, resjiectively. the 

 ft)riiu'r being- eoniniissioned as l)riL;'a(lier-yeneral. 'Phcy ijartieijjated 

 in several engagements, diief among them Ijeing the l)attle of Pea 

 Kidge, Arkansas, on Mai'ch 7. IM):^.' In the following sunnner the 

 Union forces entered the Cherokee country and sent a j)roi)osition to 

 Ross, urging him to repudiate the treaty with the Confederate states, 

 but the oti'er was indignantly declined. Shortly afterwiird. however, 

 the men of Drew's regiment, finding themsehcs unjjaid and generally 

 neglected Ity their allies, went over almost in a body to the l^iuon 

 side, thus compelling Ross to make an arrangement with tiie I'nion 

 coimnauder. Colonel Weir. Leaving the Cherokee country. Ross 

 retired to Philadelphia, from which he did not return until the close 

 of the war.' In the meantime Indian Territory- was ravaged alter- 

 nately by contending factions and arir.ed bodies, and thou.sands of 

 loyal fugitives were obliged to take refuge in Kansas, wiici-c thej'^ 

 were cared for by the goxernment. Among these, at the close of 18()"2, 

 were two thousand Chei-okce. In the following spring they wei'(^ sent 

 back to their homes under armed escort to give them an opportunitj- 

 to put in a croj). steeds and tools being furnished for the purpose, but 

 had hardly begun work when they wei'e forced to retire l)y the 

 approach of Stand Watie and his regiment of Confederate Cherokee, 

 estimated at seven hundred men. Stand Watie and his men. with the 

 CoidVderate Creeks and others, scoured the country at will, destroying 

 or carrying oti everything belonging to the loyal Cherokee, who had 

 now. to the number of nearly seven thousand, taken refuge at Foi't 

 Gibson. Refusing to take sides against a government which was still 

 unable to protect them, they were forced to see all the prosperous 

 accunudations of twenty years of industry sMept ofl" in this guerrilla 

 warfare. In stock alone their losses were estimated at more tiian 

 300,000 head.' 



"The events of the war brought to them more of desolation and 

 ruin than perhaps to any other comnuuiity. Raided and sacked aller- 

 nately. not only by the Confederate and Union forces, but by the vin- 

 dictive ferocity and hate of their own factional divisions, their coiuitry 

 became a blackened and desolate waste. Dri\-en fi'oni comfortable 

 home.s, exposed to want, misery, and (he elemeids, they perished like 

 sheep in a .snow storm. Their hou.-^es, fences, and other imi)rove7j 

 ments were burned, their orchards destroy(>d. their tiocks and luM-d.s 

 slaughtered or driven off, their schools broken up, their schoolhouscs 

 given to the flames, and their churches and public buildings sub- 

 jected to a similar fate; and that entire portion of their country which 



' In this battle the Confederates were assisted by from 4.000 to .'i.OOO Indians of the southern tribes, 

 including the Cherokee, under command of General .\lbcrt Pike. 

 - Royce, Clierokec Nation. Fifth .\nn. Rep. Bureau of KtlinoloRV. i)p. ;i2»,:i:iu, LS8S. 

 » Ibid, p. 331. 



