The Georgia in the Civil War Message Board - Archive

Cherokee Indian Regiments

What regiments from Georgia had a predominant number of Cherokee troops or is there such a record?

My great grandfather Pvt. William E. Gilmer was a drummer boy in the Col. Brumby's 14th Georgia Infantry and enlisted in Jasper County. His mother (my g.g.grandmother) was Helen Dodson (1810-1890) and was a full-blood Cherokee. She was among the Cherokees who were called the Black Dutch Cherokees who escaped the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

In the early 1850s, my g.grandfather's uncle, Alexander Gilmer, built a keelboat for use on the Chattahoochie River and it promptly sank. In 1858, Alex Gilmer moved to Orange Texas and became a ship builder and blockade runner during the war. He piloted a Confederate gunboat in the Battle of Sabine Pass.