Gallery: Cabin Creek & Operations in Indian Territory
Clement Vann
Clement Neeley Vann, lieutenant colonel, 1st Regiment Cherokee Mounted Rifles, served under the command of General Stand Watie.
Vann was 24 years old when he enlisted as a private at Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation; his regiment was mustered into Confederate service on November 5, 1861. He participated in a number of engagements, including the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas in March 1862. Vann and his raiders conducted repeated guerrilla attacks in the vicinity of Fort Smith, Arkansas. By September 1864, he was a lieutenant colonel commanding 200 veterans in General Stand Watie’s 800-man Cherokee brigade.
Colonel Vann helped lead the successful Confederate attack on a large Federal supply train at Cabin Creek, which was one of the larger actions of the war in the Indian Territory, and an important victory for the American Indian soldiers. The Federals lost 1.5 million dollars in guns and other supplies and the loss was a great morale-booster for Trans-Mississippi Confederates.
After the war Vann resumed a position of influence in Cherokee Indian affairs. He was clerk of the Cherokee Council in 1869, and in 1870 was one of the five Cherokee delegates to Washington, D. C.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31444
