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Show MOONBY] CHEROKEE IN UNION ARMY 171 lished in 1848 had been paid annually up to and including the year 1859, at the rate of $ 3.20 per capita, or an aggregate, exclusive of disbursing agent's commission, of $ 4,838.40 annually, based upon the original Mullay enumeration of 1,517. Upon receipt of this report it was enacted by the Confederate congress that the sum of $ 19,352.36 be paid the East Cherokee to cover the interest period of four years from May 23, 1860, to May 23,1864. In this connection the Confederate commissioner suggested that the payment be made in provisions, of which the Indians were then greatly in need, and which, if the payment were made in cash, they would be unable to purchase, on account of the general scarcity. He adds that, according to his information, almost every Cherokee capable of bearing arms was then in the Confederate service. The roll furnished by Captain Terrell is the original Mullay roll corrected to May, 1860, no reference being made to the later Mullay enumeration ( 2,133), already alluded to. There is no record to show that the payment thus authorized was made, and as the Confederate government wasvthen in hard straits it is probable that nothing further was done in the matter. In submitting his statement of previous payments, Colonel Thomas, their former agent, adds: As the North Carolina Cherokees have, like their brethren west, taken up arms against the Lincoln government, it is not probable that any further advances of interest will be made by that government to any portion of the Cherokee tribe. I also enclose a copy of the act of July 29,1848, so far as relates to the North Carolina Cherokees, and a printed explanation of their rights, prepared by me in 1851, and submitted to the attorney- general, and his opinion thereon, which may not be altogether uninteresting to those who feel an interest in knowing something of the history of the Cherokee tribe of Indians, whose destiny is so closely identified with that of the Southern Confederacy. 1 In a skirmish near Bryson City ( then Charleston), Swain county, North Carolina, about a year after enlistment, a small party of Cherokee- perhaps a dozen in number- was captured by a detachment of Union troops and 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, Dig& ne'skl, several others 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 close 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 still alive in 1900.8 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). ^ Personal information from Colonel W. H. Thomas, Captain J. W. Terrell, Chief N. J. Smith, and others; see also Carrington, Eastern Band of Cherokees, Extra Bulletin of Eleventh Census p. 21.1892. ^ |