AUGUST 10:

August 10, 1861:  Stand Watie's Cherokee troops fight on the Confederate side at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, in southern Missouri. The southerners are victorious. However, the participation of the Cherokees on the side of the south leads to further tensions among the Cherokees who wish to remain neutral. According to some sources, the first Cherokee to die in the Civil War falls during this battle.

Peter Martin (Oronhyatekha, or Burning Cloud) 1841-1924 MD, born on the Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario; died in Savannah, Georgia Mar 3, 1907. Martin paid for his early medical training in the US, but he received support from the Prince of Wales and others to go to Oxford, and then received his medical degree from the University of Toronto, the first native Canadian to earn a degree from a Canadian university. He practiced in Ontario, and in 1881 became Chief Ranger (head) of the Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal association that provided its brothers with insurance. In 26 years, he helped the IOF grow to 250,000 members, with a fund of over $11 million.

August 10, 1815:  On this day died the half-brother of Cornplanter - Skaniadariio (Handsome Lake), born near Ganawagus, NY, sometime around 1735. He fought in many battles during the French and Indian Wars, and during the American Revolution.  Later he would battle alcoholism.  One day a vision led him to give up drinking and to promote traditional Indian ways among his people.  He became a Chief among the Seneca based upon his wise council.  He once spoke before President Jefferson on behalf of his people.  His teachings have been handed down among the Iroquois.

1757 Fort William Henry New York Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm 1712-1759 fails to prevent massacre of the departing English men, women and children by his Indian allies; only 400 of the 2,200 English make it half way to Fort Lydius (Fort Edward), where they are met by an escort of 500 men, sent out for their protection; during the siege some of the Indians contracted smallpox and brought this back to their villages that winter. The resulting epidemic during the winter of 1757-58 took most of the Great Lakes tribes out of the war.

1703 Maine Abenakis Indians raid English settlements in Maine; during Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) 1702-1713.

August 10, 1680:  The Pueblo Rebellion takes place in New Mexico under the leadership of a Tewa named Popé. Popé has arranged for an attack on as many of the Spanish missions as possible to all take place on the same day. Some sources say this happens on August 11th.
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From
http://www.katy.isd.tenet.edu/bjh/Civil_War/dfendley/BRYCEL%5CWILCREEK.HTM
 

On August 10, 1861, general Nathaniel Lyon's confederate troops met face to face with  Ben McCulloch's union troops. The battle Of Wilson's Creek was one of the first major battles west of the Mississippi.

The confederate troops under Lyon were outnumbered more than 2-1. The battlefield was not very big and the troops knew that they were most  likely going to be fighting in hand to hand combat. Lyon's plan was to attack in the early morning hoping to take the union by surprise, taking away their advantage in men. There were many  shrubs and bushes where they were going to fight . It was so dense that the two armies could not see each other even though they were only 25 feet away. The confederates would attack, withdraw for a couple of minutes and then attack again. Dead bodies covered everywhere because the battlefield was not very big and it was such a condensed space. Both armies fought until they could not fight any more. The union side had lost all leaders going all they way down to a major. Both sides were so exhausted from the fight that they were  glad when the two armies disengaged.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek was fought to decide the future of the state of Missouri. Although the confederates were tagged with the victory, the union troops had forced them all the way back into the hinterlands of Missouri. The union army kept the confederates off balance and were able to set up their position wherever they wanted. The battle had many casualties: 1,317 for the federal troops and 1,336 for the confederates. This was truly one of the bloodiest battles fought early in the war.
 

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>From http://users.rcn.com/wovoka/Pmchap3-03.htm
 

On August 10, 1861, the first military engagement in Indian Territory occurred at Wilson's Creek in Southwestern Missouri. Stand Watie's Confederate Cherokee regiment fought with great vigor, and the Union forces took a terrible beating. Watie's troops became an esteemed force in the Confederate Army.71 The tide of feeling was being swept toward the Confederacy. The situation of those loyal to the Government seemed quite desperate:

I sometimes hear rejoicing on the part of the Northern people, that these tribes are seceding, because they say that such violation of their treaties will lose them their lands, whose beauty & fertility have long been admired by western farmers. I have been twelve years among these tribes & I know the full bloods to be loyal to the Gov't. That Gov't. is bound by treaties to protect these nations, to keep up Forts for that purpose. The Agents are either resigned or working under "confederate" commissions. The Indians are told that the old Gov't. is bankrupt, that it must die, that England and France will help the south, that they are southern Indians & own slaves, & have interests only with & in the south, that the war is waged by the North for the sole purpose of killing slavery, & stealing the Indians' land etc. etc. What have the Indians with which to disprove this? The "Confederate" Gov't. is represented there by an army and Commissioners, but the United States have not been heard from for six months. Every battle is believed to be against the old Gov't. & those who control the news know what shape it should go to have influence... The agents who hold Commissions from Mr. Lincoln & go to Montgomery to have Jeff. Davis endorse them, show a faith in the issue, that is not lost upon the Indians. 72
 

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From http://www.nativepubs.com/nativepubs/Apps/bios/0262WatieStand.asp?pic=none
 

Stand Watie 1806-1871 Also Known As: Degataga; Takertawker; "Standing Together"; "Stand Firm"
 

Stand Watie was born in the old Cherokee Nation (now Georgia) and became politically active as a young man, serving as clerk of the National Supreme Court in 1829. As a relative of Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot, he became a prime mover in the "Treaty Party," which favored relocation of the Cherokee people to the West under a treaty with the U.S. government. In contrast, the elected Cherokee government, headed by John Ross, held out hope that they could retain their ancestral lands. Although they had no authority to do so, Watie and others signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which ceded tribal lands to the U.S. government and resulted in the tragic deaths of thousands of Cherokees during relocation along the Trail of Tears. Once the relocation was completed in 1839, the Treaty Party leaders were assassinated in a single day, with the sole exception of Stand Watie, who was forewarned. He remained politically active and became a superb commander of Indian forces during the American Civil War. Often called "the last Confederate general to surrender," Watie later led a delegation of Southern Cherokees who attempted to have the U.S. government split the Cherokee Nation in two in an effort to solve the Cherokees' internal political battles. This effort failed, and Watie lived only a few years more.

... Watie was born on December 12, 1906, near present-day Rome, Georgia, in the old Cherokee Nation. His father was David Oowatie, the younger brother of Major Ridge, a noted Cherokee leader. His mother was a half- Cherokee, half-Scot woman of the Deer Clan named Susannah Catherine Reese. Watie attended the Moravian Mission schools at either Spring Place or Brainerd or both. At school, he learned to speak English and took the English equivalent of his name, "Standing Together," and shortened the last name of Oowatie, so that he was thereafter known as "Stand Watie." Watie's brother Elias Boudinot and his cousin John Ridge had been sent to a related school in Cornwall, Connecticut, but Watie was educated only in the Cherokee Nation.

... At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Watie had organized a troop of both Cherokees and whites for the purpose of protecting Indian Territory from federal forces stationed at Humboldt, Kansas. Captain Watie also guarded the Cherokee Nation from the Osages, nearly all Unionists, and ancient enemies of the Cherokees as well. Watie became a colonel in May 1861, when he came under the command of General McCulloch of Texas, who commanded the military district of the Indian Territory. Watie's two regiments were called "The Cherokee Mounted Rifles."