You wrote;
"I think Watie is fascinating -- not as a military commander but as a leader."

I could not agree more. Initially, I had pretty high opinion of his military abilities because of the Cottrell, Cunningham, and Knight books. Plus he did get promoted to Brigadier General. I did kind of wonder why he seemed to get ambushed a lot and was absent at some of the critical battles such as Honey Springs. He was often scouting and screening when his presence may have been important at key battles. I think the OR paints a mixed and more realistic picture of him. He was really a political leader and only an amateur military man. I'm sure he had to attend to Cherokee political business much of the time while he was in the saddle. Wearing two hats could not have been easy. He did get better as the war drug on. The JR Williams and 2nd Cabin Creek were successes but I agree with you that his outstanding achievement was keeping a Confederate presence in the Cherokee Nation against some pretty long odds. (BTW that 2nd Cabin Creek Video is top-notch) That he was also very brave goes without saying. A couple of interesting quotes about him are very revealing, to me anyway.

William Steele who was a very harsh critic of the Indian soldiers had this to say. Please note the second paragraph.

3 Ii R—VOL XXII, PT I (P32)

"An experience of twelve months in the command of the Indian country has convinced me that, with a few exceptions, the Indians are wholly unreliable as troops of the line. The officers, as a general rule, are ignorant, void of moral tone of character, and indisposed to enforce discipline among their men. Their allegiance to the Government seems to be regarded more in the light of a voluntary contribution on their part, susceptible of being withheld at their option, than the performance of an obligatory duty. In order to acquire the reputation derived from success, in the administration of the affairs of the Territory (according to the somewhat doubtful standard, success) it is necessary to pander to the opinions and sentiments of Indianized white men, and through such to coax and demagoguize with the Indians, rather than attempt the enforcement of discipline among the troops and system in the various departments. The ignorance of the main body of the Indians naturally subjects them to the influence for good or evil of a class of whites and educated half-breeds, who, living among them and having a knowledge of their language, feelings, prejudices, &c., find no difficulty in molding the masses to their generally interested views. I became satisfied that with those exercising the chief influence among the Indians there was a settled design to subordinate white officers and white troops to Indian officers and Indian troops.

In suggesting these views, I would take occasion to state that there are serving in the Indian country a few striking exceptions. Among these I may mention Col. Stand Watie, whom I found to be a gallant and daring officer, but, as was the case in all other instances among the Indian troops, without the slightest discipline in his regiment."

Wiley Britton wrote this long sentence in his "Union Indian Brigade" book. (pp. 204-5)

"Colonel Watie, commanding the regiment of Cherokees in the Confederate service, had been able to keep his men together, and small parties of them at several times crossed to the north side of the Arkansas River and made some disturbance, and as he was an enterprising Indian officer, it was anticipated that he would display some activity when the Union Indians occupied their country to the Arkansas River..."

If his critics and enemies wrote words like gallant, daring, and enterprising to describe his character, he must have been doing something right.

Manny