Laurence M. Hauptmans Between Two Fires American Indians...

The American Civil War tore apart many American lives. These people lost loved ones, had to endure the pains of those who lost limbs, and deal with emotional needs. However American lives were not the only ones that suffered and fought the war. American Indians served for both the North and the South during the Civil War. There reasons was to what they could gain from the side the chose, pride for the land they lived in, and to Indians did not have much going for them at the time. From generals to privets they stood there ground and fought with pride. Laurence M. Hauptman tells their story in his book Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War Indians have fought in every war from the Battle of Oriskany in 1777 to the Gulf†¦show more content†¦Watie and his followers continued to fight for the South. The focus is turned to the Pamunkey of Virginia and the Lumbee of North Carolina. These tribes did not like the white supremacist attitude and served for the benefit of the North. The Pamunkey worked as river boat pilots for General McClellans Army during the Peninsula campaign in 1862. The Lumbees were fighting the Confederate Home Guard during Shermans Carolina campaign. Both Pamunkey and the Lumbee thought themselves as avengers to people of color. In Mr. Hauptman book he writes of how important the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Catawba of South Carolina were to the Confederacy. The Cherokee had over four hundred men led by William Holland Thomas, a white man who had been adopted by the Cherokee when he was a child. With Thomass leadership they prevented Union attacks along Confederate communication and rail links. They also intimated Union supporters in east Tennessee and western North Carolina. The Cherokees did so well that they were allowed to keep some land in western North Carolina along the Tennessee border. The Catawba were dependent on whites and became the first to join the South as infantrymen. They also worked to capture runaway slaves trying to make their way North. The Indians in the Northeast join the North mostly because of dependency on the white man and out of a since of loyalty they served as union sharpshooters most of