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PrintThe Civil War Remembered
These historic sites and exhibits pay tribute to the role of Native Americans in our nation’s costliest war.
Andersonville National Historic Site
The only national park to serve as a memorial to all Americans ever held as prisoners of war, Andersonville National Historic Site preserves the site of Camp Sumter, one of the largest Confederate military prisons. During the 14 months it operated, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined here, and nearly 13,000 died from disease, malnutrition, and exposure to the elements. The park’s three main features include the historic prison site, the National Prisoner of War Museum, and the Andersonville National Cemetery. Attend the Living History Weekend March 10 – 11 to experience the lives of soldiers and civilians near the end of the war.
Andersonville, Georgia, 229.924.0343, www.nps.gov/ande
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean, in the courthouse town of Appomattox. Visitors can tour the house, visit the town’s other historic buildings, and see the spot where Confederate soldiers laid down their arms. Attend the Living History Encampment Weekend in April to witness the Stacking of Arms ceremony.
Appomattox, Virginia, 434.352.8987, www.nps.gov/apco
Honey Springs Battlefield
Fought on a rainy Friday in July 1863, the Battle of Honey Springs was the largest of more than 100 documented hostile encounters in Indian Territory during the Civil War. Approximately 9,000 men fought in the engagement between the 1st Division, Army of the Frontier, commanded by Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, and the Confederate Indian Brigade led by Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper. Cherokee and Creek regiments fought on both sides, while the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers fought as the first black regiment in the Union army. The 1,100-acre site has six walking trails with 55 interpretive signs.
Checotah, Oklahoma, 918.473.5572, www.okhistory.org
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
On the morning of November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado volunteers led by the “Fighting Parson,” Col. John Chivington, attacked a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, mostly unarmed women and children, leaving 160 or more dead and many more raped and wounded. The Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run is held here every year on Thanksgiving Day to honor those lost.
Kiowa County, Colorado, 719.729.3003, www.nps.gov/sand
Ploughshares into Swords
When the Civil War broke out, Chippewa Indian and Methodist minister George Copway offered to muster a Native American regiment from the Great Lakes states, writing the War Department that young Indian men would be “inured to hardship, fleet as deers [sic], shrewd and cautious.” But the Michigan legislature rejected the offer — that is until they began to fail to fill War Department quotas. By 1863, Indian recruits were being organ-ized into Company K, 1st Michigan Sharpshooters, and trained at Fort Wayne in Detroit. In recognition of the Wolverine State’s participation in the war, the Michigan Historical Museum has created Plowshares into Swords, a special exhibit on display through February 5 exploring how the war changed Michiganians’ lives.
Lansing, Michigan, 517.373.3559, www.michigan.gov/museum
