Belle Montgomery
2nd Lieutenant
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2017
- Location
- 44022
Even after Confederate commander Robert E. Lee surrendered in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, one Confederate army refused to acknowledge defeat and for months stubbornly fought on.
It was led not by one of the wealthy white southerners who made up much of the Confederacy's officer class — but by a Native American chief called Stand Watie.
So how did a leader of a people facing systematic persecution come to fight for a cause founded on racism and the right to own slaves?
The story illustrates how in the Civil War, the presence of a common enemy caused unexpected alliances to be formed, including an alliance Paul Chaat Smith, a curator at the National Museum of the Native American, has characterised as a "mangy, snarling dog standing between you and a crowd-pleasing narrative."
Watie was himself a plantation holder and slave owner, and had...
Rest of Article with pics:https://www.businessinsider.com/how-native-americans-ended-up-fighting-for-the-confederacy-2019-6
It was led not by one of the wealthy white southerners who made up much of the Confederacy's officer class — but by a Native American chief called Stand Watie.
So how did a leader of a people facing systematic persecution come to fight for a cause founded on racism and the right to own slaves?
The story illustrates how in the Civil War, the presence of a common enemy caused unexpected alliances to be formed, including an alliance Paul Chaat Smith, a curator at the National Museum of the Native American, has characterised as a "mangy, snarling dog standing between you and a crowd-pleasing narrative."
Watie was himself a plantation holder and slave owner, and had...
Rest of Article with pics:https://www.businessinsider.com/how-native-americans-ended-up-fighting-for-the-confederacy-2019-6