The Indian Territory in the Civil War Message Board

Re: 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles

Steve,
The best published history of the Watie's 1st Cher Mtd Vols (aka 2nd Cher Mtd Rifles aka Watie's Regt aka 1st Cher Mtd Rifles etc) in Knight's "Red Fox".

I checked the rosters of the 1st (Watie's) and 2nd (Adair's) Cher Mtd Vols and didn't find a Matthews (or Mathews) in either. How did you determine he was in Watie's Regt?

Can you tell me more about the Cherokee Outlet Company, formed in the Osage Nation (at Chetopa, KS.) on June 4, 1861? Was this the company of John Matthews Sr.? Is there a roster of this company? What happened to it after John Matthews Sr. was killed?

I'd like to learn more about John Matthews Sr.. I think there was a court's martial or hearing regarding the pursuit and killing of Matthews. I assume he lived on Osage land in southern Kansas and think somewhere I saw the statement he was a trader with the Osage. One account says his company was made up of "half breed Cherokees". Below is what little I have on him.

Ken

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About the 20th of September, I left Fort Scott with 200 of the 6th Kansas, in pursuit of the guerrilla band under the lead of the notorious Matthews, who had been the terror of southern Kansas, and who but a short time prior, had sacked and burned the town of Humboldt, and then fallen back to their haunts in the Cherokee country. After hard marching for three consecutive nights, lying in covert during the daytime, we surprised their camp at daylight, and succeeded in killing their leader (Matthews) and two others, and dispersing and breaking up the band.

General Blunt's Account of his Civil War Experiences
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Humboldt, Kansas was twice sacked by Confederate irregulars in late 1861. The first incident occurred in September when Capt. John Matthews “a the head of a band of half breed Cherokees” pillaged the town. [Annie Heloise Abel, The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865, (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1992] Pages 53-54; footnote, Wattles to Dole, September 25, 1861]

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