Clement Neeley Vann, lieutenant colonel, 1st Regiment Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, 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 men 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 Indian brigade.

Colonel Vann helped lead the successful Confederate attack on a large Federal supply train at Cabin Creek on September 19, 1864, one of the largest actions of the war in the Indian Territory and an important victory for Native American soldiers. The Federals lost $1.5 million in guns and other supplies in the action, and the victory was a great boost in morale 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 sent to Washington, D. C.

Carte-de-Visite by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31444