How many men did Stand Watie surrender?

[W. Caldwell-37thNC]

When Stand Watie surrendered his men at the end of the conflict, how many did he surrender?

 

[ucvrelics]

I'll let you wade thru it all as there is a LOT of reorganization etc but looks like around 300 men.

A Guide to Cherokee Confederate Military Units, 1861 – 1865

www.thepeoplespaths.net

 

[W. Caldwell-37thNC]

I'll let you wade thru it all as there is a LOT of reorganization etc but looks like around 300 men.

A Guide to Cherokee Confederate Military Units, 1861 – 1865

www.thepeoplespaths.net

Wow, I was expecting at least 2000.

 

[W. Caldwell-37thNC]

@archieclement Do you know much about this topic?

 

[archieclement]

Looked at 3 books including a Watie bio none gave a number. However on June 15th the tribes of the Confederate indians held a grand council where it was decided the tribes would end the war, so commands started to surrender, Watie was the last on June 23rd.

 

[W. Caldwell-37thNC]

Looked at 3 books including a Watie bio none gave a number. However on June 15th the tribes of the Confederate indians held a grand council where it was decided the tribes would end the war, so commands started to surrender, Watie was the last on June 23rd.

Ok, so there we're other Confederate Indian units?

 

[ucvrelics]

There were many CS Indian units.

Civil War Confederate Regular Troops, Indian Units

The information in this list of Civil War Confederate Regular Troops comes from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site (CWSS). That web site can also be searched by the name of a soldier.

www.familysearch.org

 

[archieclement]

Yes probably 15-20K total during war

 

[archieclement]

There was quite a few units actually,5 regt, 2 batt, 1 company raised in 1861 alone

 

[W. Caldwell-37thNC]

There were many CS Indian units.

Civil War Confederate Regular Troops, Indian Units

The information in this list of Civil War Confederate Regular Troops comes from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site (CWSS). That web site can also be searched by the name of a soldier.

www.familysearch.org

Oh I know, sorry I should've been more specific, I ment that were active around the time Watie surrenderd.

 

[Frank Watson]

I would think the Confederate Indians were like most Trans-Missippi Confederates in 1865. Most don't march someplace to surrender, they just go home.

On the other hand, some go to surrender so they will have the paperwork, so Jeff Thompson surrenders significantly more soldiers than he actually had.

 

[archieclement]

I would think the Confederate Indians were like most Trans-Missippi Confederates in 1865. Most don't march someplace to surrender, they just go home.

On the other hand, some go to surrender so they will have the paperwork, so Jeff Thompson surrenders significantly more soldiers than he actually had.

Would imagine the last year many deserted in the months leading up to the Grand Council.

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

The main thing to remember of Indian units, North and South, was they tended to shift on numbers constantly. @ucvrelics link and 300 number sounds about right.

Indian troops in the I.T. tended to desert more than any other type of unit. If they got defeated, they'd switch sides, if they won a battle, they'd go home, and if there was nothing going on but marching and riding, they'd just go home on that to.

Stand Watie's troops did get up to the 1,000 range for the 2nd Battle of Cabin Creek, and the Sinking of the J.R. Williams, Oklahoma's only naval battle, but after both battles the troops would loot what they could and go home. With the J.R. Williams, that victory disintegrated Watie's force. The memoirs of one mix-blood captain lay out how his company was to be the rear guard, and he ended up doing the job all by himself cause his men looted the ship, and took off.

Most reliable thing with Indian troops you could count on was that they would be unreliable.

 

[Frank Watson]

Oh I know, sorry I should've been more specific, I ment that were active around the time Watie surrenderd.

The Choctaws, under a new chief named Peter Pitchlynn, surrendered June 19, four days before Watie and his Cherokees. The Chickasaws and Caddos didn't formally surrender until July (per Steve Cotrell in Civil War in the Indian Territory).

(If Chief Peter had waited a week he would he have become the trivia question answer, or would Watie have waited?)

I would GUESS that in 1865 there were more Choctaws still under arms than Cherokees, since most of the Cherokee Nation was up north and the Choctaw Nation was adjacent to Texas.

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Lots of Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws fled to what is now Southern Oklahoma, and disease was rife in they're camps which only exasperated the soldier under arms problem.