I7t) MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEK Ikth.ann.W 



Kclil. ■"tlicy (lid yoocl work and .service for the South." The mo.st 

 important eno-ag(>uient in which they were concerned occurred at 

 liajjti.st gap, Tennessee, September 15, 1862, where Lieutenant Astu'- 

 gata'ga, "a splendid specimen of Indian manhood," was killed in a 

 charge. The Indians were furious at his death, and before they could 

 be restrained they .scalped one or two of the Federal dead. For tliis 

 action ample apologies were afterward given by their superioi- officers. 

 The war, in fact, brought out all the latent Indian in their natui-e. 

 Before starting to the front everj' man consulted an oracle stone to 

 learn whether or not he might hope to return in safet\'. The start 

 was celebrated with a grand old-time war dance at the townhouse on 

 Soco, and the same dance was repeated at frequent intervals there- 

 after, the Indians Ijeing "painted and feathered in good old style." 

 Thomas himself frequently a.ssisting as master of ceremonies. The 

 ballplay, too, was not forgotten, and on one occasion a detachment of 

 Cherokee, left to guard a bridge, became so engrossed in the excite- 

 ment of the game as to narrowly escape capture by a sudden dash of 

 the Federals. Owing to Thomas's care for their welfare, they suffered 

 but slightly in actual battle, although a number died of hard.ship and 

 disease. When the Confederates evacuated eastern Tennessee, in the 

 winter of 18<):^-ti4, .some of the white troops of the legion, with one or 

 two of the Cherokee companies, were shifted to western Vii'ginia, and 

 by assignment to other regiments a few of the Cherokee were present 

 at the final siege and .surrender of Richmond. The main body of the 

 Indian.s, with the rest of the Thomas Legion, ci'ossed over into North 

 Carolina and did service protecting the western ))order until the close 

 of the war, when they surrendered on parole at Waynesville, North 

 Carolina, in May, 186.5, all those of the connnand l)eing allowed to 

 keep their guns. It is claimed b}' their officers that they were the 

 last of the Confederate forces to surrender. About fifty of the Cher- 

 okee veterans still survive, nearly half of whom, under conduct of 

 Colonel Stringfield, attended the Confederate reunion at Louisville, 

 Kentuckj^ in 1900, where they attracted much attention.' 



In 1863, by resolution of February 12, the Confederate House of 

 Representatives called for information as to the number and condition 

 of the East Cherokee, and their pending relations with the Federal 

 goveriuiient at the beginning of the war, with a view to continuing 

 these relations under Confederate au.spices. In response to this 

 inquiry a report was submitted by the Confederate connuissioner of 

 Indian afiairs, S. S. Scott, based on information furnisiied by Colonel 

 Thomas and Captain James W. Terrell, their former disbursing agent, 

 showing that interest upon the " removal and subsistence fund" estab- 



1 Personal Information from Colonel W. H. Thomas, Lieutenant-Colonel W. W. Stringfield, Captain 

 James W. Terrell, Chief N, J. Smith (first sergeant Company B), and others, with other details from 

 Moore's (Confederate) Roster of North Carolina Troops, iv: Raleigh, 1882; also list of survivors in 

 1890, by Carrington, in Eastern Band of Cherokees, Extra Bulletin of Eleventh Cen.sus, p. £1, 1S92. 



