Scattered Graves

Although depicted on a U.S. postage stamp and post card, Confederate Brigadier General and Cherokee Chief Stand Watie is virtually unknown to readers. The only Indian to be promoted to general on either side of the civil war, Watie was also the last Confederate general to surrender to Union forces. This book traces his skirmishes and battles--some victories, some defeats--during that terrible war. Pea Ridge was the largest battle west of the Mississippi where Watie led his Cherokee Mounted Rifles regiment. Later, Watie became the first cavalry commander to capture a Union ship, the J.R. Williams, underway in the Arkansas River. After his surrender to a Union commissioner, Watie--a man called by events and his Cherokee people to uncommon valor and leadership--continued to represent and inspire his people during the bitter period of reconstruction in the Indian Territory which eventually became the state of Oklahoma.