Cherokee Battalion, Thomas' Legion of Indians and Highlanders

Thomas' Legion
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Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas
Causes and Motives: American Civil War
Organization of Union and Confederate Armies: Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery
American Civil War: The Soldier's Life
American Civil War Battles and Battlefields
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African Americans and the American Civil War
North Carolina in the American Civil War
Civil War Battles Fought in North Carolina
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NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY
North Carolina Coast: American Civil War
Western North Carolina and the American Civil War
Western North Carolina Regiments and Battalions
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Cherokee Indians: American Civil War
HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS
History of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Nation
Cherokee Indian Heritage, History, Culture, Customs, Ceremonies, and Religion
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Researching your Cherokee Heritage
Recommended American Indian History
Thomas' Legion Photographs - Pictures
Thomas' Legion Papers, Diaries, & Memoirs
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Author's Recommendation

The Cherokee Battalion: 400 Cherokees 
 
Prior to Chief Yonaguska's death, he commanded the Eastern Cherokees to obey their new Chief, William H. Thomas. Subsequently, the Cherokees' loyalty was steadfast with Thomas. Not combat, but mumps, measles and, after the war, smallpox were responsible for killing hundreds of Cherokees (letter written by Thomas concerning smallpox). Also during the war, the Cherokees were even promised their liberty and five thousand dollars in gold if they would bring in the scalp of Chief Thomas. (Also see: The Cherokee Battalion: Skirmishes and Battles, William Holland Thomas's 20 Cherokee Bodyguard or "Life Guard", Cherokee Indians: Weapons and Warfare, and Cherokee Loyalty: Confederate, Union, or Neutral?) 
 
"Before Yonaguska died he assembled his people and publicly willed the chieftainship to his clerk, friend and adopted son, W. H. Thomas, who he commended as worthy of respect and whom he adjured them to obey as they had obeyed him.  He was going to the home provided for him by the [G]reat [S]pirit; he would always keep watch over his people and would be grieved to see any of them disobey the new chief he had chosen to rule over them." 1883, Ziegler
According to Neely, North Carolina's Eastern Band of Cherokees, p. 162, "Some Cherokees desired neutrality while as many as 30 joined the Union Army." Oral history states that many of the disloyal Cherokees were later murdered by their relatives because they had betrayed Thomas. The Cherokees that had joined the Union Army not only fought against their brothers, but after the War were credited for returning to Western North Carolina with the dreaded smallpox. However, captured Confederate Cherokees were held in Federal prisoner of war camps and after the War, the paroled Cherokees, immediately returned to Western North Carolina and, most likely, also with smallpox. Smallpox is considered biological warfare and is currently deemed a "Weapon of Mass Destruction or WMD". 
Jeff Davis initially stated that the Cherokees should be used to defend the "coast and swamps of North Carolina" (O.R., Series 1, 51, II, p. 304: September 19, 1861), however, this was contrary to Thomas's American Civil War Strategy. Fortunately, with Chief Thomas’s persuasion, the Cherokees were not assigned to the Old North State Coastal Region’s swamps. The Coastal Region was the first of the state's three regions to capitulate, which allowed longer imprisonment for the captured Confederates and, hence, greater exposure to the numerous diseases at the POW Camps. However, the greatest threat to the Cherokees would have been the immediate exposure to the disease infested swamps.
On September 15, 1861, two Cherokee companies (200 warriors) loyally answered the call to arms. These 200 Indians were originally known as the "Junaluska Zouaves" (in honor of Chief Junaluska) and Thomas also referred to them as the North Carolina Cherokee Battalion (O.R., Series 1, 51, II, p. 304 and O.R., 1, 49, pt. II, p. 754). By the end of the war, muster records reflect almost every able-bodied Cherokee (400 Cherokees comprising 4 companies) from Western North Carolina entered into Confederate military service. Their loyalty was to Chief Thomas and then to the Confederacy, and, in O.R., Series 1, 53, p. 314, Thomas stated that the Cherokees didn't own any slaves, so slavery wasn't a motive.

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Highly Recommended Reading: Storm in the Mountains (Thomas' Legion: The Sixty-ninth North Carolina Regiment). Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains, spent 10 years conducting extensive Thomas Legion's research. In addition, Mr. Crow was granted access to rare manuscripts and privately held diaries, which adds great depth to this rarely discussed Civil War legion. It also contains rosters which is an added bonus for researchers and genealogists. Mr. Crow, furthermore, left no stone unturned while examining the many facets of the Thomas Legion. Crow's research is conveyed on a level that scores with Civil War students and scholars alike.

Additional Sources: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865; National Park Service: American Civil War; National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Weymouth T. Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; Christopher M. Watford, The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865. Volume 2: The Mountains; William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War.

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