This diary of a Confederate soldier was owned first by George C. Falconer, a member of Colonel J. J. Clarkson’s Confederate Missouri Cavalry, then captured by Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Ellithorpe, 1st Union Indian Home Guards (Creek, Cherokee, Seminole), also called the 1st Union Indian Regiment. Falconer made entries in the diary from June 18 to 28, 1862; Ellithorpe captured the diary at the Battle of Locust Grove on July 3, 1862, and made entries until March 17, 1863. Ellithorpe starts his first entry this way:
“The tables turned-We will open the journal on the other side of the question.
E. C. Ellithorpe, Major 1st Indian Regiment”
The 1st Union Indian Home Guards was organized on May 22, 1862, at Leroy, Kansas; Indian regiments were volunteer infantry regiments recruited from the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole) and others. The tribes were considered “civilized” by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many white customs and generally lived peacefully with the settlers.
Some Creeks and Seminoles supported the Union; the Choctaw and Chickasaw mainly supported the Confederates, and the Cherokee were divided but strongly supported the Confederacy.
The diary gives insight into the corruption within the Department of Kansas on the western frontier and in the Indian Territory during the years 1862-1863. It also describes the battles of Cane Hill and Prairie Grove, along with minor actions against Southern Indians fighting under the command of Stand Waite.
