Born in the tribal town of Tuckabatchee, Alabama, in the late 1700s, Upper Creek leader Opothleyahola showed leadership as a youth and was later cited by three presidents for his enduring struggle to win freedom for his people. Forced from Alabama and Georgia after the sale of Creek land by Lower Creeks, he led his people to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears. He firmly refused alliance with the Confederacy at the approach of the Civil War and, encouraged by Union officials, led thousands of dissidents and their families toward free-state Kansas. These Union loyalists included Seminole, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Uchee, Quapaw, Keechi, Shawnee, and Delaware people, along with hundreds of Blacks, some of whom had been their slaves. They twice repulsed attacks by pro-Confederate Indians and whites, but after defeat in a third attack at Chustenahal (Bird's Creek), he and his followers fled north into Kansas in the bitter cold of December 1861, leaving a trail of blood on ice without adequate clothing, shelter, food, or livestock. The winter was so severe that 10 percent of the refugees died within three months. Survivors continued into the Verdigris and Fall River valleys, where help was promised at Fort Row in Wilson County, while others were directed to Fort Belmont in Woodson County. Disease claimed many. When word reached Wm. Coffin, superintendent of Southern Indians, he sent help to move more refugees to LeRoy in Coffey County, where they camped along the Neosho River from LeRoy to Neosho Falls. At LeRoy, 1,000 braves, including a significant number of Blacks, were inducted into the Union Army as the 1st Indian Home Guard Regiment and marched four abreast to Humboldt's Camp Hunter in Allen County in the spring of 1862. White officers strongly opposed their service, and some of the Blacks acted as interpreters to aid dialogue. After failing to provide troop supplies humanely, Col. Weer was court-martialed in the field. Under new leadership, the regiment fought border battles to the south, and Coffin was told that Indian troops had done more service, with less thanks, than any part of the army. Opothleyahola died a hero in 1863 and was buried with honors beside his daughter in Woodson County.