Native American Artifact Essay

Artifacts can tell stories. Unlike history recorded or told by human, artifacts are capable of revealing the most objective and neutral version of the stories. Behind the sword belonged to Thomas’ Legion, there is a history of Native American, especially the position of eastern band of Cherokee, during the Civil War period.
The sword is a Model 1840 Cavalry Saber (M1840) in dark color, which used to owned by Colonel Love in Thomas’ Legion. This artifact is 44 inch long with a weight of 2.5 pounds. It has a 35 inch long and flat-back blade. M1840 is the first calvary saber adopted by the U.S. Army, and were largely used during the U.S.-Mexican War by U.S. Calvary. Later, M1840 was used by both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee are Cherokees who stays in West North Carolina, Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia,and Northeast Alabama. The eastern band has withdrawn from the nation when Cherokee Nation calls to exchange more eastern land for territory in West. William Holland Thomas, a legislator of Jackson County, North Carolina, helped more than 600 Cherokee get their North Carolina citizenship, which made them an exception from the Indian Removal. In return of this exception, the eastern band showed their trust to William Thomas, they chose him to be their
Although this is no specific number of casualties for Native Americans. According to Fox’s Confederate list of Total Civil War dead by Category and Causes, in Confederate Army, there were 677 nonwhite soldier killed, 330 died of wounded, and 541 died of disease. All of these casualties are men of North Carolina, and obviously that North Carolina has the largest amount of casualties in both white soldiers and nonwhite soldiers. Native American’s participant in the War is one of the reason that the number of nonwhite soldier casualty is large in North