Laurence M. Hauptman. _Between Two Fires: American Indians
in the Civil War_. New York: The Free Press, 1995. xv +
304 pp. Illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, and
index. $25.00.
Reviewed by David H. Eyman, Skidmore College for H-Civwar
<deyman@skidmore.edu>
The last chapter of Hauptman's book opens with a description
of a scene from the 1976 motion picture, "The Outlaw Josey
Wales," in which Chief Dan George, playing the part of a Cherokee
Indian named Lone Watie, explains what it meant to be a
"civilized"
Indian. Every time he appealed to the government for relief from
problems visited on him as an Indian, he was told to "endeavor to
persevere." When he eventually grew tired of hearing that, he
joined up with the Confederacy. Hauptman goes on to suggest that
Native Americans from a variety of tribes joined in a fight that
was not really theirs for many reasons. Indian participation in
the American Civil War, on both sides, was more extensive than
most people realize, involving some 20,000 American Indians.
Laurence Hauptman, a professor of history at the State
University of New York at New Paltz and the author of a
number of works on American Indians, has provided an
interesting examination of Indians who participated in the
Civil War. By following the service of selected tribes and
individuals, he recounts a number of stories, ranging from
such relatively well-known personalities as Stand Watie--
the principal chief of the southern-allied branch of the
Cherokee Nation and brigadier general of the Confederate
States of America--and Ely Samuel Parker--a Seneca and
reigning chief of the Six Nations and a colonel on General
Ulysses S. Grant's staff--to lesser-known Native Americans
who served both sides in the conflict. Although the
narrative encompasses the actions of the units in which the
individuals were served, Hauptman has attempted to use
first-person accounts wherever possible, which makes this
volume less a sweeping picture of the Civil War than a
series of personalized stories.
_Between Two Fires_ is divided into three main parts:
"The Trans-Mississippi West," "The South," and "The North."
After an opening chapter which sets the scene by describing
the life of American Indians in the years immediately
preceding the war, the reader is treated to a contrasting
picture of allegiances in the Trans-Mississippi West. The
Delaware, looking for promises of a new home, signed up
with the Union. The Cherokee, engaged in a bitter internal
struggle between Stand Watie and principal chief John Ross,
split, with a pro-Southern faction under Watie joining the
Confederate cause.
The second portion of the book, labelled simply "The
South," recounts three rather diverse sets of experiences.
The pro-Union Pamunkey of Virginia and Lumbee of North
Carolina served respectively as river pilots for George B.
McClellan's Army of the Potomac in 1862 during the Peninsula
campaign and as guerrillas in the swamp country of North
Carolina in 1865 during William T. Sherman's Carolina
campaign. The Catawba of South Carolina served the
Confederacy loyally, both as catchers of runaway slaves and
as volunteers for the Army of Northern Virginia. The
Eastern Band of Cherokee, under the leadership of William
Holland Thomas, a white man who was adopted by the Cherokee
as a child, served the Confederacy as rangers to guard
mountain passes and generally hindering Union operations in
the Smokies.
The last part of _Between Two Fires_ concentrates on
American Indians from the Northern States who joined the
Union Cause. The Ottawa and Ojibwa, from Michigan, hoping
to renegotiate treaties with Washington, offered their
service as sharpshooters for the Union. The Pequot and
Mohegan Indians of Connecticut volunteered to serve the
Union for economic rather than idealist reasons. The
Tonawanda Band of Seneca assisted the Union because they
saw the Federal government as a necessary ally against
efforts to remove them from their hands in western New York.
_Between Two Fires_ is well researched, with extensive
notes and an impressive bibliography, which includes a wide
assortment of manuscript sources. The book has an
excellent index. While there are some quite interesting
illustrations, I believe the volume would have benefited
from additional maps beyond those used in the end papers,
which show Indian Land Cessions from 1850 to 1859. But
that is a small complaint about an otherwise well-written
work.
In his prologue, Hauptman states, "The goal of this
book then is to recover a hidden chapter in the history of
the Civil War, in all its variety, with all its heroism and
all its ugliness." He has succeeded admirably. _Between
Two Fires_ is a welcome addition to the literature of the
American Civil War as well as to the literature of the
American Indian.
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