Cover with manuscript address by Colonel Adair to General Waite. N.p., 1864. Docketed by John C. Wheeler to verso and Lt. McLendon under flap. 4 13/16 x 2 7/8 in.

Brig. Gen. Stand Watie (ᏕᎦᏙᎦ, Degadoga, 1806-1871) was a prominent Cherokee politician who served as the 2nd Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1862-1866) and commanded Native American troops, mostly Cherokee, Muskogee, and Seminole, in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the Civil War. He is widely recognized as the only Native American Confederate general. Notably, he was also the last Confederate Army general to surrender. 

At the start of the Civil War, Principal Cherokee Chief John Ross allied with the Confederacy. Watie organized a regiment of mounted infantry and was commissioned as the colonel of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles in October. The regiment skirmished with Federal troops as well as factions of pro-Union Native Americans. During the Battle of Pea Ridge, Watie's troops captured Union artillery positions and covered the retreat of Confederate forces 

By the summer of 1862, Chief Ross reversed his support of the Confederacy and fled to Federal Territory. The Confederate minority elected Stand Watie to replace him. Watie continued to command the First Indian Brigade, which was composed of two regiments of Mounted Rifles and three battalions of Cherokee, Seminole, and Osage Infantry in the Army of the Trans-Mississippi.  Watie was promoted to Brigadier-General on 10 May 1864, the only Native American to reach this rank in the Confederate Army. 

As Confederate hopes for ultimate victory faded, so did the enthusiasm from Native American troops, with most Cherokee openly supporting the Union. Watie was placed in command of the Indian division of Indian Territory in February 1865; however, the Territory was largely abandoned by the Confederates at this point. Finally, Waite signed a cease-fire agreement with Union representatives on 23 June 1865 at Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation, marking the final surrender of the war. 

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