Stand Waite, last major Confederate field commander to surrender to the Union

An undated photo of Stand Watie, the only Native American general in the Civil War and the last Confederate leader to surrender to the Union.

Stand Watie became the last major Confederate field commander to surrender to the Union, on June 23, 1865, which took place at Doaksville, in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.

Watie, a Cherokee, was the only Native American on either side in the Civil War who attained the rank of brigadier general.

Stand Watie’s surrender came 75 days after Robert E. Lee’s to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, 66 days after Joe Johnston’s to William Tecumseh Sherman, at Bentonville, North Carolina, and 21 days after Trans-Mississippi Department head Edmund Kirby Smith’s to E. R. S. Canby at Galveston, Texas.

Himself a slave-owner of African-American plantation slaves, Watie was a diehard Lost Cause southerner. Stand Waite, last major Confederate field commander to surrender to the Union »»