That is great info. So many linkages. I was thinking about BigB the other day when my kids went to Great Wolf Lodge in TC. Great Wolf translates to MisheMaingan. I believe he comes down from Maingan, great family history. All those folks are also part of the history of Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters. I am working with a historian who is putting together a history of Company K, the only Indian regiment. There are so many stories there. The historian is particularly interested in Payson Wolfe.

I am really interested in Antoine Scott, who might have been also named Wiiyaabimind. He is the one who died before being nominated for the Medal of Honor. There is a story about him repeatedly dancing on the embankments of The Crater to draw Confederate fire and give the trapped Union troops time to scramble out of there. He was not hit, and of course that leads to the story of the big medicine protecting him from bullets. He survived the war and died near Muskegon in his 40s. So many stories of those heroic men.

One Union soldier told about being assigned to cross a cornfield to reconnoiter the Confederate line, but there was a sniper who kept him from making the attempt. He was joined by someone from Company K, who showed him how to "make himself corn" by fastening cornstalks all over his clothes. Then the man showed him how to get across that cornfield, which they did without alerting the sniper. They were able to return after dark and the soldier gave his report.

Another story. The oldest Indian recruit was the best shot. There was a Confederate sniper harassing the encampment. The captain asked this elder man to see what he could do. The man agreed, and disappeared for much of the day. In the late afternoon, there was a shot, and a man fell from a distant tree. The sniper was no more. In the morning, the sharpshooter reported to the captain, "Got him."