Watie, Stand

Watie, Stand

(wät`ē), 1806–71, Native American leader and Confederate general, b. near Rome, Ga., as Degataga Oowatie. Of mixed white and Cherokee descent, he favored moving in the face of white encroachment on Cherokee lands, and signed the Treaty of New Echota (1835), which called for exchanging Cherokee land in Georgia and Alabama for acreage in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The move was opposed, however, by the majority of Cherokees, led by John RossRoss, John,
whose name in Cherokee is Kooweskoowe
, 1790–1866, Native American chief, b. near Lookout Mt., Tenn., of Scottish and Cherokee parents. He was educated at Kingston, Tenn., and in the War of 1812 served under Andrew Jackson against the Creeks.
..... Click the link for more information. , and after the forced removal of the tribe in 1838 a prolonged feud between the factions erupted. Watie supported the South in the Civil War, became (1861) a Confederate colonel, and raised a Cherokee regiment. His forces operated mainly in the Indian Territory, securing it for the South and harassing Union forces. A brigadier general from mid-1864, he was the last Confederate general to surrender (June 23, 1865).

Watie, Stand

(1806–71) Cherokee leader, Confederate soldier; born near the site of Rome, Ga. (brother of Elias Boudinot). He published a Cherokee newspaper with his brother, and when they and two others signed the treaty in which southeastern Cherokees agreed to resettle west of the Mississippi, Watie alone escaped killing by angry tribesmen. Siding with the Confederacy, he was appointed colonel of the Cherokee Mounted Rifles and fought in many engagements including Wilson's Creek (1861) and Pea Ridge (1862); later he served as a raider and light cavalry commander. When most of his people decided to support the Union in 1863, he led those Cherokee who stayed with the Confederacy and was among the last Confederate officers to surrender. He spent his final years as a planter and tobacco processor.