Oklahoma Journeys
Week of June 21, 2008
Stand Watie Surrenders – June 23rd, 1865
This week on Oklahoma Journeys, giving up the fight. The U.S. Civil War from 1861-1865 greatly affected large portions of our country including Indian Territory. Not many people know, however, that Indian Territory not only experienced the war but was also the site for the surrender of the last Confederate general. That’s the story this week on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
The Civil War was a trying time for the entire United States and the residents of Indian Territory found the situation especially daunting. American Indians in the Indian Territory were forced to contend not only with the splitting apart of the United States but with divisions within their own nation tribes as well. During the Civil War most of the tribes located within what is now Oklahoma had both northern and southern factions. Battling each other, as well as forces from outside the state, Indian Territory residents were caught up in a tangled crossfire of violence and destruction.
One of the better-known leaders of the Native American forces during the war was Stand Watie. A member of the Cherokee tribe, Watie signed up with the Confederate forces in the spring of 1861. Wooed by attractive offers from the Confederacy and holding a general dislike for the United States Government, the job of convincing Watie to join the Confederate cause was not difficult. Commissioned a Colonel in the Confederate Army, Waite began raising forces later known as the Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, to assist in protecting Indian Territory from federal invasion.
The Cherokee Mounted Volunteers participated in numerous actions within Indian Territory as well as one of the largest battles of the western theater of the war, the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas. From the time after the battle of Pea Ridge through to the end of the war Federal troops controlled much of the west, limiting the movement of Confederate troops in the area. For the latter part of the war Watie and his troops were involved in mainly small-scale guerilla war-type actions. Still the crafty Waite, now promoted to General, proved more than once to be a thorn in the side of the Union. The actions by Watie and his men tied up northern troops, delayed supply shipments, and otherwise hindered the northern cause.
By late 1864, however, it was clear that the southern cause was floundering. The mounting costs of the war both in dollars and lives lost took its toll in and April of 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. Other Generals followed in Lee’s wake surrendering their forces to the government. It was in this week of 1865 on June the 23rd that Stand Watie met with Union officers near Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation of the Indian Territory to surrender. Unknown to Watie at the time was the fact that he was indeed the last Confederate General of the Civil War to surrender.
The research library of the Oklahoma History Center contains thousands of documents related to Watie and to the war in the Indian Territory and are open to the public six days a week. In addition, the military gallery includes a large exhibit on the Civil War in the Indian Territory as well as a number of artifacts from Stand Watie on display. The Oklahoma History Center is located on NE 23rd street just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to the collection, preservation and sharing of our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.