"When General Lee entered the room at the Appomattox Courthouse, where the terms of surrender were to be signed, he was startled by the presence of a Native American, Ely S. Parker, who was General Grant's military secretary and the man who would transcribe the historic document. Parker was almost certainly the most prominent Iroquois to serve with the Union Army, but in fact there were hundreds more who were directly involved in the Civil War itself and thousands back home who were adversely affected by its course. This is their story. Despite the perennial interest in the American Civil War, historians have not examined sufficiently how Native American communities were affected by this watershed event in U.S. history. This ground-breaking book by one of the foremost Iroquois historians significantly adds to our understanding of this subject by providing the first intimate look at the Iroquois' involvement in the American Civil War and its devastating impact on Iroquois communities"--Jacket.