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Although many Indian nations fought in the Civil War, general
history often underrepresents the role of Native Americans in the
conflict. Indian nations did, in fact, suffer a higher percentage
of casualties than any Union or Confederate state, and the war
almost destroyed the Cherokee Nation. In The Confederate Cherokees,
W. Craig Gaines provides an absorbing account of the Cherokees'
involvement in the early years of the Civil War, focusing in
particular on the actions of one group, John Drew's Regiment of
Mounted Rifles. By the time the Civil War began, internal political
dissension tore at the solidarity of the Cherokee tribe and a
simmering thirty-year-old blood feud threatened to drive an even
deeper divide. Entry into the war on the Confederate side
intensified these intratribal tensions and ultimately two distinct
factions emerged. One faction, loyal to Chief John Ross and led by
John Drew- Ross's nephew by marriage- formed a regiment. Another
unit rallied around Ross's rival, Stand Watie. The Watie regiment
was largely pro-Confederate, whereas many of Drew's soldiers,
though fighting for the Confederate cause, secretly allied with a
pro-Union, antislavery society known as the Keetoowahs. They had
little sympathy for the southern whites, who had driven them from
their ancestral homelands in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina,
Kentucky, and Tennessee. Drew's regiment nonetheless earned a
degree of infamy during the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, for
scalping Union soldiers. Gaines unfolds the history of Drew's
regiment amid a larger narrative of military events within the
Indian Territory. United action, as he shows, proved almost
impossible because of continuing factionalism within the tribes and
the desertion of many Native Americans to the Union forces. Indeed,
Drew's regiment, effectively disbanded by mid-1862, bears the
distinction of being the only Confederate regiment to lose almost
its entire membership through desertion to the Union ranks.
Although many Indian nations fought in the Civil War, historians
have given little attention to the role Native Americans played in
the conflict. Indian nations did, in fact, suffer a higher
percentage of casualties than any Union or Confederate state, and
the war almost destroyed the Cherokee Nation. In The Confederate
Cherokees, W. Craig Gaines provides an absorbing account of the
Cherokees' involvement in the early years of the Civil War,
focusing in particular on the actions of one group, John Drew's
Regiment of Mounted Rifles.
As the war began, The Cherokees were torn by internal political
dissension and a simmering thirty-year-old blood feud. Entry into
the war on the Confederate side did little to resolve these
intratribal tensions. One faction, loyal to Chief John Ross, formed
a regiment led by John Drew, Ross's nephew by marriage. Another
regiment was formed by Ross's rival, Stand Watie. The Watie
regiment was largely por-Confederate, whereas many of Drew's
soldiers, though fighting for the Confederate cause, were secretly
members of a pro-Union, antislavery society known as the
Keetoowahs. They had little sympathy for the southern whites, who
had driven them from their ancestral homelands in Alabama, Georgia,
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Drew's regiment
nonetheless earned a degree of infamy during the Battle of Pea
Ridge, in Arkansas, for scalping Union soldiers.
Gaines writes not only about the actions of Drew's regiment but
about military events in the Indian Territory in general. United
action was almost impossible because of continuing factionalism
within the tribes and the desertion of many Indians to the Union
forces. Desertion was so high that Drew's regiment was effectively
disbanded by mid-1862, and the soldiers did not complete their
one-year enlistment. Drew's regiment bears the distinction of being
the only Confederate regiment to lose almost its entire membership
through desertion to the Union ranks.
Gaines's solidly researched, ground-breaking history of this
ill-fated band of Cherokees will be of interest to Civil War buffs
and students of Native American history alike.
On the evening of February 2, 1864, Confederate Commander John
Taylor Wood led 250 sailors in two launches and twelve boats to
capture the USS Underwriter, a side-wheel steam gunboat anchored on
the Neuse River near New Bern, North Carolina. During the ensuing
fifteen-minute battle, nine Union crewmen lost their lives, twenty
were wounded, and twenty-six fell into enemy hands. Six
Confederates were captured and several wounded as they stripped the
vessel, set it ablaze, and blew it up while under fire from
Union-held Fort Anderson. The thrilling story of USS Underwriter is
one of many involving the numerous shipwrecks that occupy the
waters of Civil War history. Many years in the making, W. Craig
Gaines's Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks is the definitive
account of more than 2,000 of these American Civil War--period
sunken ships. From Alabama's USS Althea, a Union steam tug lost
while removing a Confederate torpedo in the Blakely River, to
Wisconsin's Berlin City, a Union side-wheel steamer stranded in
Oshkosh, Gaines provides detailed information about each vessel,
including its final location, type, dimensions, tonnage, crew size,
armament, origin, registry (Union, Confederate, United States, or
other country), casualties, circumstances of loss, salvage
operations, and the sources of his findings. Organized
alphabetically by geographical location (state, country, or body of
water), the book also includes a number of maps providing the
approximate locations of many of the wrecks -- ranging from the
Americas to Europe, the Arctic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Also
noted are more than forty shipwrecks whose locations are in
question.
Since the 1960s, the underwater access afforded by SCUBA gear
has allowed divers, historians, treasure hunters, and
archaeologists to discover and explore many of the American Civil
War-related shipwrecks. In a remarkable feat of historical
detective work, Gaines scoured countless sources -- from government
and official records to sports diver and treasure-hunting magazines
-- and cross-indexes his compilation by each vessel's various names
and nicknames throughout its career.
An essential reference work for Civil War scholars and buffs,
archaeologists, divers, and aficionados of naval history,
Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks revives and preserves for
posterity the little-known stories of these intriguing historical
artifacts.
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