This is from Chapter 4 Return of the Native in "The Keetoowah Society and the Avocation of Religious Nationalism in the Cherokee Nation, 1855-1867" by Patrick Minges (Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York:
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In a letter to John Ross in early January, Keetoowah Huckleberry Downing mentioned that “Chilly and D.N. McIntosh propose to surrender, & to come into the Union army, with two regiments of Creeks.” [166] Colonel Phillips, commander of the Third Indian Home Guard, informed Chilly McIntosh to be patient and to manifest no affection for the North for to do so would be premature and foolhardy. He told McIntosh to bide his time until he could send a brigade of Federal troops into Indian Territory to cover the surrender and retreat of further Creek forces. [167] At this point, even some of Stand Watie's troops were deserting to the North. [168]
Footnotes:
[166] Huckleberry Downing et. al. to John Ross, January 8, 1863, in Papers of Chief John Ross, 528. It must be remembered that Chilly McIntosh had been converted by Evan Jones and his native ministers through the Cherokee Baptist Missionary Society's outreach to the Creek Nation prior to the Civil War. Both Chilly and D.N. McIntosh were affiliated with the Ebenezer Baptist Church and were to become Baptist ministers after the war. There must have been more than a few African Americans among the Creek soldiers.
[167] Abel, The Indian as Participant in the Civil War, 254.
[168] Franks, 135.