Stand Watie

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Stand Watie (12 December 1806 - 9 September 1871) was born at Oothcaloga in the Cherokee Nation, Georgia (near present day Rome, Georgia). His Cherokee name was De-ga-ta-ga, or "he stands." He also was known as Isaac S. Watie. He attended Moravian Mission School at Springplace, Georgia, and served as a clerk of the Cherokee Supreme Court and Speaker of the Cherokee National Council prior to removal.

At the outbreak of the War, Watie quickly joined the Southern cause. He was commissioned a colonel on 12 July 1861, and raised a regiment of Cherokees for service with the Confederate army. Later, when Chief John Ross signed an alliance with the South, Watie's men were organized as the Cherokee Regiment of Mounted Rifles. After Ross fled Indian Territory, Watie was elected principal chief of the Confederate Cherokees in August of 1862.

Watie planned the successful raid into northern Indian Territory. He had to wait for nine months before his plan was approved by the Confederate high command. When offered overall command of the expedition, he graciously turned command over to Brigadier General Richard M. Gano since Gano's commission predated Watie's by one month. Watie remained in command of the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole cavalry totaling 800 men who fought alongside their Texas brothers-in-arms.

Watie was the only Native American on either side to rise to a brigadier general's rank during the war. On 25 June 1865, two months after Robert E. Lee's surrender, he officially surrendered his command of the First Indian Brigade, C.S.A to federal authorities at Doaksville near Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nation.