The Civil War inside the Civil War
I mentioned the Battle of Honey Springs in the last post in connection with an African-American Union infantry unit that formed and fought in the Civil War before the more famous unit depicted in the movie Glory. In addition, we learned that Native American troops fought on both sides during the war. I don't remember hearing about these units before in my social studies curricula, though I have seen representations of Native Americans being used as Union scouts in movies and TV shows. This is hardly surprising, given my memory these days, but I suspect that were I to go back to my school-days history books, I wouldn't find much. This is, again, not particularly surprising as these texts had a lot to cover and tended to hit the highlights. I shall refrain from suggesting any others reasons for any lack of information in my schooling. In the early days of the war, the union pulled a large part of its troops in the west to aid in the efforts to the east and south. Because more ...