Native Americans in The American Civil War

Native Americans in the American Civil War composed various Native American bands, tribes, and nations. Native Americans served in both the Union and Confederate military during the American Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, for example, the minority party of the Cherokees gave its allegiance to the Confederacy, while originally the majority party went for the North. Native Americans fought knowing they might jeopardize their freedom, unique cultures, and ancestral lands if they ended up on the losing side of the Civil War. 28,693 Native Americans served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, participating in battles such as Pea Ridge, Second Manassas, Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in Federal assaults on Petersburg. A few Native American tribes, such as the Creek and the Choctaw, were slaveholders and found a political and economic commonality with the Confederacy. The Choctaw owned nearly 6000 slaves.

Read more about Native Americans In The American Civil War:  Overview of The War, Problems in The Midwest and West, Native Americans in The Confederate Army, Tribes Involved in Battles, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words civil war, native, americans, american, civil and/or war:

    “We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
    —Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    “The air of one’s native country is the most healthy air.”
    —Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)

    “If Americans could understand what a painful, searing experience it is when Negro children first begin to realize that the mere color of their skin is to be the source of a lifelong discrimination, it might do more to end our cruelty toward the Negro than all the preaching on justice and equality.”
    —Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)

    “Anger becomes limiting, restricting. You can’t see through it. While anger is there, look at that, too. But after a while, you have to look at something else.”
    —Thylias Moss, African American poet. As quoted in the Wall Street Journal (May 12, 1994)

    “Just what is the civil law? What neither influence can affect, nor power break, nor money corrupt: were it to be suppressed or even merely ignored or inadequately observed, no one would feel safe about anything, whether his own possessions, the inheritance he expects from his father, or the bequests he makes to his children.”
    —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)

    “All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”
    —Tony Benn (b. 1925)