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Civil War

 

Letters Home From The Brothertown "Boys"

The Brothertown Indians are unique from many other tribes in that they are an amalgamated group. They are made up of remnants of the coastal tribes who made the first contact with the whites.
These letters tell the story of all those young men who left the small Indian community at Brothertown, Wisconsin, to fight in the war of the rebellion. These men heard the call of Lincoln for volunteers to put down the rebellion and preserve the constitution and the Union. Stories told by the “Brothertown boys” in their letters sent home by the soldiers away from their tribal community for the first time in their lives. The loyalty of the Brothertown people has never been questioned, from the first introduction to the colonists, to the present. Although of a peaceful nature, these Christian Indians, were ever ready to fight on the side of the Colonies and states. The rolls of all the later Colonial wars contain the names of soldiers from whom they can prove a lineal descent. Their great-grandfathers fought in the Revolution, and so many of them perished that it was the death blow to their ancient tribal strength. In the war of 1812 their grandsires were engaged, and they themselves, out of their diminished numbers, from the little village of Brothertown and its immediate vicinity, 140 men were mustered in before the end of the war.

 

Indian Melodies
Originally Published by Thomas Commuck in 1845
Thomas Commuck was a Narragansett Indian
“As the tunes in this book are the work of an Indian, it has been thought proper by the author to have it all of a piece. The tunes therefore will be found to assume the names of noted Indian chiefs, Indian females, Indian names of places, & c. This has been done merely as a tribute of respect to the memory of some tribes that are now nearly if not quite extinct; also as a mark of courtesy to some tribes with whom the author is acquainted. “
-1845 Thomas Commuck