Chapter 12 - Union Conscription
Chapter 13 - Brave Women
Chapter 14 - Peace
James Kornelius O'Neal, Circa 1865, Ft. Lewisburg, Arkansas, Union
Northwest Arkansas 1864
"Boy! Yeah, you! Look at me!" The Union officer had spotted a prospective recruit trying not to be noticed.
Baptist farm boy Jim O'Neal was taking a walk to town, trying to sell eggs to help families while the rest of the men were at war. Few families in Northwest Arkansas were still living there since most had been driven out to become refugees or had everything robbed by guerilla fighters, raiders like Quantrill, Confederate forces and often Union forces as well. Many farmers from the area were placed in guarded Union farm cooperatives to grow food for refugees and federal troops.
Jim stood frozen in time, unable to turn around. The day of dread for every Arkansas boy was upon him. He hung his head and begged. "I'm barely sixteen and the only one my family has to feed 'em, Sir."
The officer nodded his head, spat a large chew of tobacco on the ground, leaned on his saddle horn and said, "Well, I'm gonna give you a real special allowance that I don't give other whippersnappers like you. I'm gonna let you stop and tell your Mama good bye on our way to camp. Let's go. Hand me that basket, we can use them eggs and we'll see what else your Mama's got at home to go with 'em."
After Arkansas seceded from the Union in the Spring of 1861, Confederate forces took control of Fort Smith for over two years until September, 1863 when Union troops were once again able to regain the fort and become a greater military presence in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Searcy County was primarily 'republican' and against slavery. At the outset of the war, the Confederates conscripted many of these men into service whether they wanted to fight for the South or not because Arkansas declared for the South.
Confederate troops along with Union troops and various partisan outlaws and bushwhackers, furthering their own ends destroyed or appropriated anything of value from the local farms and businesses. Rather than providing protection for the farmers, occupying Union forces often confiscated the crops and livestock, sometimes shipping them to Kansas where refugees and freed slaves were being held.
Many loyal Union families were forced out as refugees themselves to a post near Little Rock, having nothing left to survive on and most of the men and boys recruited to the war. Others stayed in their communities and hung on through the battles and raids and hunger, lasting out the war somehow.
Finally the Lincoln Administration, in an effort to halt some the abuse of those siding with the Union, ordered the Army to set up a system of armed agricultural colonies to supply citizens and troops. The farms were composed solely of farmers who were expected to protect and farm the land. They received no subsistence or pay from the government but were supplied with seeds, arms and ammunition until the crops were harvested. Sixteen armed farm colonies in three counties of Northwest Arkansas had been established by March of 1865.
Commodities coming down the Arkansas River were not only vital to the area, but were also valuable 'booty' for the enemy. Stand Watie, the Bells and their Indian troops captured the Federal Steam Boat J.R. Williams destined for Fort Gibson with a load value over one hundred thousand dollars on July 15, 1864. Full of food, clothing and other provisions, it may have been the largest cargo ever sent by water down the Arkansas River. The ambushed Union guard of twenty-five men deserted the vessel that Watie hit with a three gun artillery battery and a cavalry unit. In celebration, most of the Cherokee took time from the war to visit their families.
Jim hadn't given much thought whether he was Union or Confederate. He'd kept busy the first three years of the war doing what civilians of war do, trying to feed the living and burying fatalities. He sometimes thought the local Peace Society had the right idea. Don't take sides, stay out of the war and protect your own. The Peace Society was prominent at the start of the war in Searcy County, until most were arrested and placed into service in the Confederate Army. Jim hated the idea of slavery, but he worked for no pay his whole life and didn't get a chance to read and write either. So he didn't see much difference between them and him.
Nonetheless, after a hard two day march they reached the fort at Lewisburg, along the banks of the Arkansas River. There he found himself a private of the Third Regiment, Arkansas Volunteers, United States Army. He couldn't help thinking about that word.... 'volunteer'. In no way could he imagine 'volunteer' being a part of the past few days. And he thought about home on the mountain, the women and children left on their own.
As he was mustering in, a few were going home. Always lines of men coming and going, too many of them being carried or missing limbs.
"Mr. Kimbrell? Elias Kimbrell, is it really you? Jim asked as he studied the crippled little old man making his way through a mustering out line of spent and injured recruits.
"James! It's good to see a face from home!" The old man seemed to come to life. "They won't let me stay. Say I was too old and beat up to join in the first place. Well! I made it a over a year! And it's an honorable discharge by God! I got life left in me yet! Aye, I s'pose I've done my turn."
Jim admitted, "They didn't give me no choice, just said I was goin'"
"I seen your cousin Blackburn O'Neal in camp the other day, so look out fer him." Eli said.
"Thanks, Mr. Kimbrell, I'll be lookin' forward to seein' him again. Did you happen to see my Uncle Redford? He volunteered when the war first broke out and went East. Been in all this time, don't even know if he ever gets back this way."
"No, son, I didn't hear of him." Replied Eli.
Jim wondered, "Why did you join up, Mr. Kimbrell? You didn't have to at your age."
The old man was quiet for a moment, peeking from under his cap at Jim, before he spoke. "My family first came to this country over two hundred years ago. We fought in the Revolution and 1812 and a bunch of nonsense since. We settled Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and places that didn't have a name. Some of 'em died building this Republic and we did it without slaves. So did your people. Money isn't our God. And we're all dirt poor just to prove it I suppose." He paused and shook his head. "Son, I didn't have no choice neither."
No time was left for conversation as the unstoppable lines of bewildered and battered humanity were moving along when Jim bid his neighbor farewell.
"I'm happy I got to see you, Mr. Kimbrell. One of these days I'm coming home and I'm gonna marry that purty daughter of yours!"
"You watch your back, young Jim!" Eli lectured. "You make it back in one piece, and I might just let ya! All hell's gonna break out around here one day soon. I'm sorry I can't be with ya. The rebs have moved in the Indian troops. They're fighting us and each other, most of the Confederate troops have gone East, 'cept for them and Texans. They're the only ones with uniforms and they're wearin' Union duds 'cause they got to the supply train with all our provisions on it. Can't tell who to shoot at no more! Take care of them brogans, son, they don't have no more shoes to give out. You'll be lucky to eat. God Bless ya!"
Jim watched Eli lean on his make shift crutch and amble down the long trail toward home and he thought about the devastation wreaked on their community since Eli left. Jim did his best to convince himself that the outlook wasn't as bleak as it seemed as he contemplated what the sickening stench was he couldn't escape while searching for familiar faces. Soon he passed the medic tent with a pile of limbs and flesh rotting in the heat.
"Boy! Yeah, you! Look at me!" The Union officer had spotted a prospective recruit trying not to be noticed.
Baptist farm boy Jim O'Neal was taking a walk to town, trying to sell eggs to help families while the rest of the men were at war. Few families in Northwest Arkansas were still living there since most had been driven out to become refugees or had everything robbed by guerilla fighters, raiders like Quantrill, Confederate forces and often Union forces as well. Many farmers from the area were placed in guarded Union farm cooperatives to grow food for refugees and federal troops.
Jim stood frozen in time, unable to turn around. The day of dread for every Arkansas boy was upon him. He hung his head and begged. "I'm barely sixteen and the only one my family has to feed 'em, Sir."
The officer nodded his head, spat a large chew of tobacco on the ground, leaned on his saddle horn and said, "Well, I'm gonna give you a real special allowance that I don't give other whippersnappers like you. I'm gonna let you stop and tell your Mama good bye on our way to camp. Let's go. Hand me that basket, we can use them eggs and we'll see what else your Mama's got at home to go with 'em."
After Arkansas seceded from the Union in the Spring of 1861, Confederate forces took control of Fort Smith for over two years until September, 1863 when Union troops were once again able to regain the fort and become a greater military presence in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Searcy County was primarily 'republican' and against slavery. At the outset of the war, the Confederates conscripted many of these men into service whether they wanted to fight for the South or not because Arkansas declared for the South.
Confederate troops along with Union troops and various partisan outlaws and bushwhackers, furthering their own ends destroyed or appropriated anything of value from the local farms and businesses. Rather than providing protection for the farmers, occupying Union forces often confiscated the crops and livestock, sometimes shipping them to Kansas where refugees and freed slaves were being held.
Many loyal Union families were forced out as refugees themselves to a post near Little Rock, having nothing left to survive on and most of the men and boys recruited to the war. Others stayed in their communities and hung on through the battles and raids and hunger, lasting out the war somehow.
Finally the Lincoln Administration, in an effort to halt some the abuse of those siding with the Union, ordered the Army to set up a system of armed agricultural colonies to supply citizens and troops. The farms were composed solely of farmers who were expected to protect and farm the land. They received no subsistence or pay from the government but were supplied with seeds, arms and ammunition until the crops were harvested. Sixteen armed farm colonies in three counties of Northwest Arkansas had been established by March of 1865.
Commodities coming down the Arkansas River were not only vital to the area, but were also valuable 'booty' for the enemy. Stand Watie, the Bells and their Indian troops captured the Federal Steam Boat J.R. Williams destined for Fort Gibson with a load value over one hundred thousand dollars on July 15, 1864. Full of food, clothing and other provisions, it may have been the largest cargo ever sent by water down the Arkansas River. The ambushed Union guard of twenty-five men deserted the vessel that Watie hit with a three gun artillery battery and a cavalry unit. In celebration, most of the Cherokee took time from the war to visit their families.
Jim hadn't given much thought whether he was Union or Confederate. He'd kept busy the first three years of the war doing what civilians of war do, trying to feed the living and burying fatalities. He sometimes thought the local Peace Society had the right idea. Don't take sides, stay out of the war and protect your own. The Peace Society was prominent at the start of the war in Searcy County, until most were arrested and placed into service in the Confederate Army. Jim hated the idea of slavery, but he worked for no pay his whole life and didn't get a chance to read and write either. So he didn't see much difference between them and him.
Nonetheless, after a hard two day march they reached the fort at Lewisburg, along the banks of the Arkansas River. There he found himself a private of the Third Regiment, Arkansas Volunteers, United States Army. He couldn't help thinking about that word.... 'volunteer'. In no way could he imagine 'volunteer' being a part of the past few days. And he thought about home on the mountain, the women and children left on their own.
As he was mustering in, a few were going home. Always lines of men coming and going, too many of them being carried or missing limbs.
"Mr. Kimbrell? Elias Kimbrell, is it really you? Jim asked as he studied the crippled little old man making his way through a mustering out line of spent and injured recruits.
"James! It's good to see a face from home!" The old man seemed to come to life. "They won't let me stay. Say I was too old and beat up to join in the first place. Well! I made it a over a year! And it's an honorable discharge by God! I got life left in me yet! Aye, I s'pose I've done my turn."
Jim admitted, "They didn't give me no choice, just said I was goin'"
"I seen your cousin Blackburn O'Neal in camp the other day, so look out fer him." Eli said.
"Thanks, Mr. Kimbrell, I'll be lookin' forward to seein' him again. Did you happen to see my Uncle Redford? He volunteered when the war first broke out and went East. Been in all this time, don't even know if he ever gets back this way."
"No, son, I didn't hear of him." Replied Eli.
Jim wondered, "Why did you join up, Mr. Kimbrell? You didn't have to at your age."
The old man was quiet for a moment, peeking from under his cap at Jim, before he spoke. "My family first came to this country over two hundred years ago. We fought in the Revolution and 1812 and a bunch of nonsense since. We settled Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and places that didn't have a name. Some of 'em died building this Republic and we did it without slaves. So did your people. Money isn't our God. And we're all dirt poor just to prove it I suppose." He paused and shook his head. "Son, I didn't have no choice neither."
No time was left for conversation as the unstoppable lines of bewildered and battered humanity were moving along when Jim bid his neighbor farewell.
"I'm happy I got to see you, Mr. Kimbrell. One of these days I'm coming home and I'm gonna marry that purty daughter of yours!"
"You watch your back, young Jim!" Eli lectured. "You make it back in one piece, and I might just let ya! All hell's gonna break out around here one day soon. I'm sorry I can't be with ya. The rebs have moved in the Indian troops. They're fighting us and each other, most of the Confederate troops have gone East, 'cept for them and Texans. They're the only ones with uniforms and they're wearin' Union duds 'cause they got to the supply train with all our provisions on it. Can't tell who to shoot at no more! Take care of them brogans, son, they don't have no more shoes to give out. You'll be lucky to eat. God Bless ya!"
Jim watched Eli lean on his make shift crutch and amble down the long trail toward home and he thought about the devastation wreaked on their community since Eli left. Jim did his best to convince himself that the outlook wasn't as bleak as it seemed as he contemplated what the sickening stench was he couldn't escape while searching for familiar faces. Soon he passed the medic tent with a pile of limbs and flesh rotting in the heat.
"Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling
'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide
And when ye come, and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an 'Ave' there for me "
Frederick Weatherly, 1910
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling
'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide
And when ye come, and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an 'Ave' there for me "
Frederick Weatherly, 1910
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 13 - Brave Women
October, 1864, Canadian Dist. Webbers Falls, I. T.
During the war, Sarah Watie refugeed where ever she and her children could find safety, often with various relatives in Texas, sometimes at her sister Charlotte and husband Dr. Bill Dupree's farm in Wood County. The Dupree farm served as a hospital and infirmary for wounded soldiers, as well as a remount center for the rebel army's horses and stock. From there she moved to Mt. Tabor with sister Nancy whose own husband George Harlan Starr was serving with the Cherokee volunteers as Captain in Co. G. The Starrs had settled in Texas in 1845.
"Sally" was a target for the enemy as was her husband. Back and forth into Indian Territory she ventured, sometimes with Watie in camp in the Choctaw Nation, then back to towns in Texas, like Paris and Bellview seeking to find schooling for her children, but more often than not finding nothing available. In the end she, like the other Cherokee women and children, also endured the refugee camps.
Gray clouds stretched long on the horizon. She recognized them as the kind that warned of an early snowfall. The overland trip from Cherokee Nation to Texas was no minor undertaking. Daisy and the other Negroes had no intention of being left behind when Carrie at last, though reluctantly, agreed to go to Texas. First, she insisted that their newly arrived baby be born in Indian Territory. The day came to leave shortly after William Watie Bell made his appearance to the world.
Jim, Carrie and Sally stood silently watching the wagons and carts, carrying what was left of their lives after three years of war, line up for the six week winter journey surrounded by soldiers. Suddenly it seemed they were thrown into 1838 again as helpless children in the cold being taken from their homes. The scene and the mood was too familiar and contrary to the promise they seemed to never be able to keep to their own children; that they would live free and never be driven from their homes again.
Sally had more bad news for Jim. "Sister Nancy is no better than she was last summer. She is very weak but does not cough much like most people with her disease though she does not seem to have the real consumption but it is almost the same. I do not think that she will live long though she may last a year or two."
She broke the ever depressing mood to comment to Colonel Bell on the supplies they would now all have for the starving refugees they would soon be living among, thanks to their capture of the Union Supply Train at Cabin Creek. "I thought I would send you some clothes but I hear that you have done better than to wait on me for them," she coyly offered as she went on her way to load a wagon.
"It just takes a little faith, Sister Sally!" teased Jim.
Sally scooped up baby Watie Bell as she told the other children, who were milling around confused and whining, "Go count your blessings, then complain to me. Come with me to get another load!"
This was the only time Jim would have to speak with his wife for he didn't know how long and meet his new son. They sat on their huge front porch one last time as she spoke.
"Uncle Blue tells me that he understood that my brothers Chick and Billy were not killed, but are prisoners. The bare idea of the Pins having them is almost enough to convince any one that they are killed, but Chick not belonging to the army and Billy a mere boy I have some hopes. It is dreadful to think of. I am fearful some of those wild tribes will get hold of him and take him off where we may never hear of him again. Death to that, for me, would be preferable. Oh, Jim, you cannot imagine what trouble, what anxiety, what agonizing suspense I suffer. Except you and the children, my brothers are all that is left me to love. It seems as if trouble thickens around us. But I haven't yet learned to say, 'not my will Lord, but thine be done'."
Jim looked down at her tiny frame and frightened face. "You must be cheerful and happy and encourage the children. Make them get up and study their books. Kiss the children every day......Baby Watie a hundred times at least. And tell them to send me some word. I always want them to send me some word."
Carrie replied, "I was opposed to going to Texas, on account of being so far off, but the interests of our children seem to require it and I am willing to make almost any sacrifice for their benefit," said Carrie as she smiled. "I must congratulate you on your promotion, it is a considerable office, though Colonel is a grade or two lower than it should have been. You think I have a very great opinion of you don't you?"
"My own dear one," Jim answered as he cradled her face in his hands.
"I have always told you that we must be independent. I have as much faith in our ability to withstand the Federal troops now even more than at the commencement of the war. Why should we not? Our cause must be a just one and we are only trying to defend our rights, our home, our wives and our children. Will you love us the better for doing so or not? I sometimes think you will not."
Shortly after arriving in Lamar, Texas in 1864, Sally wrote to her husband.
"I do wish you would leave the service and let them see whether they can do so well without you as some seem to think. As for me I want some to learn how well they will do, for I don't feel as if they treat you right, so let them go where they want to go. As for the [Cherokee] Nation I believe it is bound to go to the dogs and the more one does to save it the more blame they will have to bear.
I don't never expect to sit down in peace among them and if I could I would not for my weight in gold, for I am tired of it. And if nothing better than the last few years remains for me, why I have no desire to live, if it was not for our precious girls Jack and Ninny, I would rather die than always live in dread as we did. It is no pleasure. I would like to live a short time in peace just to see how it would be. I would like to feel free once in life again and feel no dread of war or any other trouble."
Not only were the Cherokees involved in the war and destined to choose sides, but many Plains tribes being removed to Indian Territory allied themselves with one side or the other. Addressing Watie as General, Principal Chief of the Creek Nation, Tuckabatcho Micco wrote,
"The within is a letter from the 2nd Chief of the Commanches the purport of which show their feeling towards us. There is a perfect estrangement between these people and the North and they may now be relied on as true friends to the South.......I send the words as they were told me by our wild Brothers."
The letter Micco enclosed from the Commanche Chapey a ne Chis in March of 1865 told of a council with Federal agents bearing guns and merchandise as inducement. The agents asked the Prairie Indians, Commanches, Kiowa's and Arapahoes to turn from their alliance with the Confederacy and join the Union cause to fight the rebels. The 'wild Indians' as they were referred to, had managed to stay clear of engagement in the war and were happy to keep it that way. They showed no intention of making enemies of Watie and his Cherokee volunteers. Chapey a ne Chis wrote,
"The Officers told them that they would give them all these goods and guns if they would make war on the South. He told them to kill all the men and boys and take the women and children prisoners and drive off all the cattle and horses and when they returned from their expedition they must give up the white women and girls but the Indian women should be theirs also. All the mules and horses, the cattle they would buy from them.
When the White Captain was done speaking, the Commanche Chief spoke. He told them he had friends and brothers in the South and he would not make war on them. He said that he had made a Treaty with Pike and he held out one hand to the North and one to the South. He would not strike either unless he was struck first. The white Captain then told him if he would not help to fight the south he should not have the guns. The Commanche chief then said that he would do without the guns that he still had his bow and arrows and with them he could kill buffalo and live on the prairie."
The Commanche Chief explained the results of the meeting.
"The Council broke up; few goods and no guns were given to them; afterwards they refused to let the Indians trade with their sutlers.
This soon resulted in a fight. Since then several battles have been fought. They were anxious to see you all and expressed disappointment at your not coming to see them."
Watie replied to Micco upon receiving the letters.
"Friend, In reply I can assure you that it is a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to me, to hear of the friendly disposition, manifested by our red Brothers of the prairie and hope soon to see that perfect understanding and good will established among all the red brethren of the South West."
Watie also expressed in his letter the desire "to adopt a plan, for a united and more efficient and vigorous prosecution of the War, in which we are engaged, a unity of action, that when we strike it may be felt until we shall obtain peace, on terms which we can with honor, accept."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I slept and dreamed
that life was beauty,
but woke and found
that life was duty"
Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 14 - Peace
North East Texas, June, 1865
Cornelius Boudinot wrote to Stand Watie and the remaining troops of the Cherokee Volunteers on May 11, 1865 as the war was coming to it's fateful conclusion. He was dispatched as delegate, as he had been many times, to meet with the Confederacy leadership in Shreveport, Louisiana.
"Dear Uncle,
The surrender of Lee and Johnson virtually puts an end to the war on the other side of the river. The people from Virginia to the Miss. river are willing to try the experiment of absolute submission and return to the old Union. Gen Smith in my opinion will hold on if possible a month or two yet, until the hopelessness of further resistance is apparent to the world, before he will yield the contest. From all that I learn his army will fall to pieces. The war will close in some shape by the 1st day of August, unless the old story of foreign intervention should be verified. Our policy should be to remain still and watch the current of events.
Aff'ly Yr. Nephew, Cornelius"
For the next month, the refugee families waited for word of their men and war's end. War's end, something they dared not allow themselves to dream of.
"Aunt Sally! Men coming! Looks like federals!" Twelve year old Minnie Bell yelled from outside the ramshackle cabin that the women and children of several Southern Cherokee refugee families inhabited.
Sally was out the door faster than a bullet could go through the rifle she was holding, seeming to forget how ill she was. Many of the women and children in the Bell Family contracted Tuberculosis or Malaria during refugee existence in Texas. TB became epidemic and passed through generations in Indian Territory, Texas and Arkansas after the war. The malady prompted the construction of one of the first regional clinics, the Arkansas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium near Dardanelle, Arkansas shortly after the turn of the century.
Sally, her sisters, her two daughters as well as Carrie and at least two of her children suffered from 'consumption', as it was called in those days. The four girl cousins, all about the same age died within the following twenty years. Though not controlled by any military power, the Civil War waged its own form of biologic terror that lasted through generations.
Sally had no time for her own illness and she knew the Pins wouldn't be satisfied to just claim their victory and let it stop. She feared the conflict within the Cherokee Nation would never end no matter how many times Grant and Lincoln said the war was over.
"Get the children and go inside, Minnie." Sally was stone cold serious. She stepped up onto a mound of grass behind a wagon for a better look and a steady rifle rest. As she was getting a line of sight on the intruders, a deep voice rang out from one of the men as they halted their horses.
"Everyone else has had a shot at me! You might as well too, Sister!"
Sally dropped the gun to the ground and ran to her beloved brother Jim Bell with her arms open and squealing like a school girl. Bell, still dressed partly in the blue of enemy uniforms they had confiscated from the supply train months before at Cabin Creek, would not have time for joyous reunions.
"I'm so glad you're here. Carrie is terribly sick, Jim."
Lewis, who had returned with Jim, took the reins of Jim's horse and motioned for him to go and then stood stunned with the news. Jim could only hang his head and shake it no, no, not now, as he walked cautiously toward the shack.
Sally went on. "I got here as soon as I could, just a few days ago. It was long before either of us could speak and she said, 'You have come at last.' I told her 'Yes'. That was all I could say. With most of the grown Negroes gone, it was just too much for her. She hasn't had any strength since the baby was born. She's got a mind if she can just go home, we can get sarsaparilla and wild grass in Indian Territory that we need to cure us all."
"Father! Father! Lewis!!" The three Bell sisters and brother Josey, along with Daisy and the other former slaves ran from the house to the men that meant most to them in this world. The children hadn't seen them in many weeks as the conflict and terror of the Civil War in Indian Territory finally came to a close.
Bell could hardly distinguish the difference in the emotions boiling inside him. Was it the joy in his children's faces or a tragic irony he felt most as he moved alone through the door to his failing wife.
He exited later with more determination than when he entered. Still he was consumed with the thought that the last day of this war and finally coming home to his family would be the worst day of it all. "Children, everybody, gather your things. Tomorrow, we prepare to go home."
Sally couldn't have agreed more. "I don't believe I could live one year longer if I knew that we could not be settled...I am so perfectly sick of the world!" proclaimed Sally, who couldn't get out of the refugee camps of Texas soon enough. "I never knew so much of this world as I do since I came to this country. I used to think that everyone had some sort of a soul, but one half of them has only gizzards, and some only craws!"
"Jim?" Sally looked worried. "Where is my husband and my son? Why aren't they with you?"
"They're fine, Sister. They'll be along soon enough. General Watie commissioned me and Colonel Adair to meet with General Francis Herron and Brigadier-General Veatch in Shreveport to negotiate terms of surrender for the Confederate Cherokee. We prepared papers and agreement to cease hostilities. They and the others have probably signed by now. We agree only on our terms of no retaliation to us by the Federals and not relinquishing any of our lands except to provide for the Negroes. We've been reassured they will sign."
He explained more of the meeting. "We begged for arrangements to be made for the Confederacy to feed all these indigent refugees. We told him the refugees are in a state of the greatest destitution and desperate from impending starvation. I think Veatch was impressed by our presentation, though he has no authority himself to appropriate funds for such a purpose, he sent our request to his superior with the recommendation that it would probably be cheaper to feed the refugees than to punish them for raiding and stealing."
Jim dug into a pocket. "This is a note Stand sent for you." Sally read out loud.
"My Dear Sally,
We leave this morning. Intend to go as far as Jarrett's. Have agreed upon the cessation of hostilities with the commanders. They will leave tomorrow. Gen. Smith had surrendered the whole department on the 26th day of May. The grand council will convene 1st day of Sep when a commander from Washington is expected to arrive. I will return home soon as our council is over at Nail's mill.
Your Husband, Stand"
She looked at Jim soberly. "Are we in any position to make demands? What makes us think the Union will abide by your agreement now when they never have done so before?"
Sally was asking questions Jim had no answers for. He had finally run short on a supply of his faith to reassure her. He could only think of taking his family home. The others had never heard a quiver or doubt in Jim Bells voice before.
"And so, we've come to this. Who knew five years ago, when we thought we had to fight to have peace and our land, and to provide for our families freedom and our future......that it was then the best it was ever going to be? You know what the worst thing in this world is, Sally? It's not war.......It's facing there's nothing on this earth you can do to keep the ones you love safe."
On June 23, 1865, Brigadier General Stand Watie and the remnants of the Cherokee Mounted Rifle formally ceased hostilities at Doaksville at Fort Towson near The Red River in the Choctaw Nation. Nearly sixty years old, he was the last general to lay down arms in the Civil War, two months after Lee surrendered to Grant.
General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca tribe,
drew up the articles of surrender which General Robert E. Lee
signed at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
Gen. Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's
military secretary was an educated attorney who was once
rejected for Union military service because of his race.
At the meeting, Gen. Lee was at first taken aback
at the presence of an Indian being in such a position.
After he got to know Parker,
Lee is said to have remarked to him,
"I am glad to see one real American here."
Parker replied, "We are all Americans."
drew up the articles of surrender which General Robert E. Lee
signed at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
Gen. Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's
military secretary was an educated attorney who was once
rejected for Union military service because of his race.
At the meeting, Gen. Lee was at first taken aback
at the presence of an Indian being in such a position.
After he got to know Parker,
Lee is said to have remarked to him,
"I am glad to see one real American here."
Parker replied, "We are all Americans."
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