Cherokee Women In Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907

5. Reconstruction

The Civil War / 99 Fig. 17. Sarah C. Watie. Phillips Collection, no. 1453. (Courtesy Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries) caracter. I am also most ashamed of my tribe. [I]t has got to be such a common talk that they all follow the army and that for bad purposes. I have long since lost all interest in my people. I sometimes feel that I will never be with them any more and it does not make any ods whether or not. I could not do them any good. I want to see the end of this war and then I will be willing to give up the ghost. [Y] ou will think that I got in the dumps befor I got done [with] my letter, well I do get that way when I think what they are and what they might be.68 Mrs. William P. Ross, who was homeless after enemies burned the family property in 1863, also wondered about the future of the Nation: "Where we will find another home I cannot say, but I still intend to go back to the Nation, but whether there will be peace, safety and pleasure living there for a long time to come is doubtful. At best things will be changed. Many of our friends have been scattered abroad upon the world. Others dead, yet others are estranged one from the other."69 Watie's men had allegedly "robbed Mrs. Gunter's House when she was dying:'70 100 / Chapter 4 Fig. 18. Rose Cottage, home of Chief John Ross at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation. Burned by Gen. Stand Watie, October 28, 1862. J. W. Morris Collection, no. 36. (Courtesy of Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries) Hannah Hicks, Mary Stapler Ross, and Sarah Watie all shared a deep religious faith that helped them endure their suffering during the Civil War. They also shared fears about the future of the Cherokee Nation. Hicks longed for the war to end as she wrote, "Oh that this dreadful War may very soon be ended. That friends may dwell together in peace once more, and the Sabbath be again devoted to the Lord, to whom it belongs. We wait the time longingly." On her twenty-ninth birthday (January 29, 1863) Hannah wrote, "We have come to such times as I never thought to see-and no prospect for a living ahead. But I must try to trust myself and my children in the hands of Him who has preserved us hitherto."?l Cherokee women of all ages expressed a deepening sense of despair. Upon hearing of the destruction of their home, Ross wrote to her husband on December 3, 1863: Thy very welcome letter was received this morn, containing the sad intelligence extracted from John Jones's letter about the desolation & distress in our Cherokee home.... I also note thee telling what a gloom was The Civil War / 101 cast over our household by the sad news [of Andrew Nave's death]. O! may the hand of an Almighty Father & Ruler punish the guilty for their horrible wickedness.... [A]ll are moving about our duties with saddened hearts, but we are thankful when we think my loved Husband that thee is spared to us, & not permitted to fall into the hands of those wicked men.72 Ross expressed her sadness over the loss of Rose Cottage in a letter to her husband on December 4,1863: "Home, my dear Husband we have no home there now, one we cherished so long & took so much trouble to beautify is now in ashes, all is ruin around. I do not think it safe for our loved ones to remain their any 10nger."73 Like Watie, Ross experienced intense periods of loneliness. She wrote on March 19, 1864: "My beloved Husband, I take my seat this Eve at the Table where my dear Husband has been so often seated writing for the last week, now I am all alone & and my loved one is again far away & I am left to fill the void created by thy absence & although but a few hours have passed away I am sad & lonely so I feel like having a silent talk with thee:' By spring 1865, Ross was in poor health, and she died on July 20, 1865, shortly after the end of the Civil War.74 Young Cherokee women also suffered as the Civil War seemingly robbed them of a...