Indian Home Guard
The Indian Home Guard were volunteer infantry regiments recruited from the Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory to support the Union during the American Civil War. The list of Confederate units of Indian Territory is shown separately.
The leaders of all of the Five Civilized Tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War. Many of the tribal members, however, did not support the Confederacy, and, not being organized, were driven from Indian Territory with a large loss of life. Most fled to Kansas and Missouri. Many of the "Loyal" Indians volunteered for Union duty in order to get control back from the Confederate generals. The Indian Home Guard regiments fought mostly in Indian Territory and Arkansas. It was mainly due to these Loyal Indians that the Five Civilized Tribes were able to retain any of their lands following the end of the Civil War.
Indian Home Guard Regiments[]
1st Regiment, Indian Home Guard[]
- Organized at Le Roy, Kansas, May 22, 1862.
2nd Regiment, Indian Home Guard[]
- Organized on Big Creek and at Five-Mile Creek, Kansas, June 22 to July 18, 1862. "Concurrently with the 1st Regiment of Indian Home Guards in May 1862, this regiment, commanded by Colonel John Ritchie, consisted of one company each of Delaware, Kickapoo, Quapaw, Seneca, and Shawnee, two companies of Osage, and two of Cherokee. It took longer to organize, due to the political disagreements of the various government agents involved in the negotiations. They were attached to the first Indian Expedition given the task of clearing the territory north of the Arkansas River of Confederates. Lack of support from higher command, as well as in-fighting" among the colonels, caused the expedition to be withdrawn."[1]
3rd Regiment, Indian Home Guard[]
The Third Regiment was formed at Tahlequah and Park Hill in July 1862. It was commanded by Colonel William A. Phillips. Many of its troops had previously fought for the Confederate Army, particularly the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles that had been commanded by Colonel John Drew.[2]
4th Regiment, Indian Home Guard[]
Organization commenced but not completed. Men transferred to other organizations.
See also[]
- Indian Territory in the American Civil War
- Indian cavalry
- Indian Scouts
- Choctaw in the American Civil War
- Cherokee in the American Civil War
Notes[]
- ^ Text of interpretive sign on Trail #1 (Federal Units) at Honey Springs Battlefield Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Franzmann, Tom. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
References[]
- Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian in the Civil War 1862–1865. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8032-5919-0.
- Connole, Joseph.The Civil War and the Subversion of American Indian Sovereignty". Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017 ISBN 1476670730
- Lause, Mark A.Race and Radicalism in the Union Army". Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.}}
- Britton, Wiley. The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil War. Kansas City: Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., 1922. at the Internet Archive
- Warde, Mary Jane. 'Now the Wolf Has Come': The Civilian Civil War in the Indian Territory. The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol 71 (Spring 1993).
External links[]
- Irregular forces of the American Civil War
- Arkansas in the American Civil War
- Kansas in the American Civil War
- History of the Cherokee
- Indian Territory in the American Civil War
- Native Americans in the American Civil War
- 1862 establishments in the United States
- Units and formations of the Union Army from Indian Territory