half of whom, under conduct of
Colonel Stringfield, attended the Confederate reunion at Louisville,
Kentucky, in 1900, where they attracted much attention. 1
In 1863, by resolution of February lii, the Confederate House of
Representatives called for information as to the number and condition
of the Fast Cherokee, and their pending relations with the Federal
government at the beginning of the war, with a view to continuing
these relations under Confederate auspices. In response to this
inquiry a report was submitted by the Confederate commissioner of
Indian affairs, S. S. Scott, based on information furnished by Colonel
Thomas and Captain James W. Terrell, their former disbursing agent,
showing that interest upon the " removal and subsistence fund " estab-
i Personal Information from Colonel W. H. Thomas, LieutenanW3olonel W. W. Stringfield Captain
James W. Terrell, Chief N. J. Smith (first sergeantand carried to Knoxville, where, having become
dissatisfied with their experience in the Confederate service, they
were easily persuaded to go over to the Union side. Through
the influence of their principal man. Digane'skl, several other- were
induced to desert to the Union army, making about thirty in all. As a
part of the Third North Carolina Mounted Volunteer Infantry, they
served with the Union forces in the same region until the (dose of the
war. when they returned to their homes to find their tribesmen so
bitterly incensed against them that for some time their lives were in
danger. Eight of these are -till alive in 1900. 2
One of these Union Cherokee had brought back with him the small-
1 Thomas-Terrell manuscript East Cherokee roll, with accompanying letters, 1864 (Bur.Am.Eth.
archives I.
'Personal information from Colonel VV H.Thomas, Captain