Payson Wolfe — whose name means “I leave this thing behind” — as a young man.
Wolfe, with an unidentified boy, in Cross Village, where he would live until his death, in 1900, at age 68.
Love & War
The story of Native American Patriot and Civil War Sharpshooter Payson Wolfe By Mark Smith “Attached to Colonel DeLand’s First Michigan Sharpshooters was a company of civilized Indians who won fame at Spottsylvania. On that bloody 9th of May, 1864, the Federal line, advancing with a cheer, met the charging enemy in a dense thicket of pines, and in the handto-hand struggle that followed, the Union forces were slowly forced back. The First Michigan Sharpshooters was doing its best to hold the ground. Every now and then the Confederates would fight their way up to the battery and lay hold of the cannon to turn them upon the Union forces. But to touch one of those guns meant instant death at the hands of the sharpshooters. In this desperate encounter, the little band of Indians was commanded by Lieutenant Graveraet ... Under a perfect storm of lead their number seemed to melt away, but there was no sign of faltering. Sheltering behind trees, they poured volley after volley at the zealous foe, and above the din of battle their war-whoop rang out with every volley. At dusk the ammunition gave out, but with the others the Indians ran forward at the shout of “Give them steel boys!” from the twice wounded but still plucky Colonel Deland.” — firsthand account of part of the fierce Battle of Spotslyvania, in Virginia, May 1964. The “little band of civilized Indians” who fought so bravely and fearlessly in Spotslyvania — and so many other battles during America’s Civil War — was Company K, made up mainly of Odawa,
Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Native Americans who enlisted in 1863. It is, perhaps, a little-known fact that more than 26,000 Native Americans fought in the American Civil War, on both sides. Those who fought with the Confederate Army might have seen their participation as a chance to seek revenge on a federal government that had not honored its treaties; those who fought for the Union had other reasons for joining.
Native Americans to take part. Recruiting drives were held here in the county, and bonuses of $50 were offered by the State of Michigan for those who enlisted. Once enlisted, soldiers received $25 more and, once mustered, $75.00 from the federal government. Wages were $13 per month, so there were certainly solid economic reasons to enlist. However, it is fair to say that the motivations of the Native American
Fighting in a land that was once theirs, alongside men who once were their enemies, was a way to gain respect and perhaps strengthen the Indians’ claims to preserving their remaining land and culture. Payson Wolfe, of Northport, Michigan, was one of the Native American soldiers of Company K. On August 1, 1863, he and Charles Allen left on the propeller ship Tonawanda to join the First Michigan Sharpshooters, a volunteer regiment that was the largest unit of American Indians serving with the Union armies east of the Mississippi River. Pre-War Rewind Prior to 1863, Native Americans were not encouraged to enlist, but as the war wore on, and more and more white men died, the Union began recruiting more
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recruits were not necessarily the same as the motivations of the whites. Fighting in a land that was once theirs, alongside men who once were their enemies, was a way to gain respect and perhaps strengthen the Indians’ claims to preserving their remaining land and culture. The appeals of a good wage, a square meal and money left over to send home were important, too. But there was another motivation for Native American men like Allen and Wolfe to join the fray: their strong anti-slavery sentiments. It’s clear from letters Charles Allen sent home that he, like Wolfe, was a practicing Christian. It is also clear
that both Allen and Wolfe had heard the abolitionist sentiment woven into the fabric of many of the sermons of Wolfe’s father-in-law, Reverend George N. Smith. In fact, Smith made sure to provide Bibles in English and Ojibwe to the local soldiers going off to war; as reported by Colonel R.T. Bennett, one of Smith’s gifted Bibles was found in Virginia, following the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness: “We fought a regiment of Indians. As we drove them back, one Indian took refuge behind a tree. We saw him and supposed he would surrender,” recalled Thomas J. Watkins of the Fourteenth North Carolina Infantry. “As we moved on, he shot our color bearer. Many turned and fired, riddling him with bullets. The Indians fought bravely in the wood. When driven into the open they did not again fire on us, but ran like deer. We captured not one of them.” The Confederates failed to capture any of the retreating Indian Union soldiers after the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia, but Colonel R.T. Bennett recounted: “Among the captures [objects] were copies of the Bible in the Ojibwa language.” Devastating Warriors Sharpshooters like Wolfe were highly trained and effective warriors who could turn the tide of battle. They had exceptional skills yet still suffered from discrimination. According to Dr. Clarissa W. Confer, “Fellow soldiers often made uncomplimentary remarks, generally sticking to well-worn stereotypes of ‘desperate’ or drunken men. Yet the Indian sharpshooters proved themselves time and time again in the
