Baptists and the American Civil War: June 23, 1865

Civil War States MapIn the Treaty of Doaksville in Indian Territory, Confederate Native Americans surrender this day.

As stated in the treaty, the Choctaw Nation, allies with the Confederacy during the war, “do agree at once to return to their respective homes and there remain at peace with United States, and offer
no indignities, whatever, against the whites or Indians of the various tribes who have been friendly to or engaged in the service of the United States during the war.”

In a surrender ceremony, Brigadier General Stand Watie of the Confederate States of America  hands his sword to United States Lieutenant Colonel Asa Matthews at Doaksville Lodge No. 52 in the Choctaw Nation.

Ebenezer Lee Compere (1833-1895), Alabama native and Baptist minister, was chaplain in Watie’s brigade during the war. Compere settles in Arkansas following the war, continuing his ministry as a missionary among Native Americans.

Sources: Patrick Minges, The Keetoowah Society and the Avocation of Religious Nationalism in the Cherokee Nation, 1855-1867, Chapter Five (link); Treaty of Doaksville (link); Samuel Boykin, A History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, Vol. 1, 1881, pp. 134-135; Ebenezer Lee Compere Papers, Southern Baptist Historical and Library Archives (link)