History Continued - Page 3
Three
detachments of Cherokees, totaling about 2,800 persons, traveled by river to
Indian Territory. The first of these groups left on June 6 by steamboat and
barge from Ross's Landing on the Tennessee River (present-day Chattanooga). They
followed the Tennessee as it wound across northern Alabama, including a short
railroad detour around the shoals between Decatur and Tuscumbia Landing. The
route then headed north through central Tennessee and Kentucky to the Ohio
River. The Ohio took them to the Mississippi River, which they followed to the
mouth of the Arkansas River. The Arkansas led northwest to Indian Territory, and
they arrived aboard a steamboat at the mouth of Salisaw Creek near Fort Coffee
on June 19, 1838. The other two groups suffered more because of a severe drought
and disease (especially among the children), and they did not arrive in Indian
Territory until the end of the summer.
The
rest of the Principal People traveled to Indian Territory overland on existing
roads. They were organized into detachments ranging in size from 700 to 1,600,
with each detachment headed by a conductor and an assistant conductor appointed
by John Ross. The Cherokees who had signed the treaty of New Echota were moved
in a separate detachment conducted by John Bell and administered by US. Army Lt.
Edward Deas. A physician, and perhaps a clergyman, usually accompanied each
detachment. Supplies of flour and corn, and occasionally salt pork, coffee, and
sugar, were obtained in advance, but were generally of poor quality. Drought and
the number of people being moved reduced forage for draft animals, which often
were used to haul possessions, while the people routinely walked.
The most commonly used
overland route followed a northern alignment, while other detachments (notably
those led by John Being and John Bell) followed more southern routes, and some
followed slight variations. The northern route started at, Tennessee, and
crossed central Tennessee, southwestern Kentucky, and southern Illinois. After
crossing the Mississippi River north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, these
detachments trekked across southern Missouri and the northwest corner of
Arkansas.
Road conditions,
illness, and the distress of winter, particularly in southern Illinois while
detachments waited to cross the ice-choked Mississippi, made death a daily
occurrence. Mortality rates for the entire removal and its aftermath were
substantial, totaling approximately 8,000.
"I
saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at
the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an
October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and
forty-five wagons and started toward the west....On the morning of November the
17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with freezing temperatures
and from that day until we reached the end of the fateful journey on March the
26th 1839, the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles
was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without
fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of
pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold and exposure..."
Private
John G. Burnett
Captain Abraham McClellan's Company,
2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry
Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39
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