The Civil War created a rip in our national fabric and re-wove it with historic change. It resonates to this day, and continues to influence and define how we, as Americans, view ourselves. It is arguably the most traumatic, transformative and talked about event in U.S. History. Despite all the research, all the interest, and all the experts, the American Civil War still has some secrets to reveal. This series will explore a Civil War that wasn’t taught in school...
Every nationality and creed played his or her
part. Multitudes of German and Irish immigrants fought in units based
on ethnic identity, the most famous being the 69th New York
Regiment, composed almost entirely of Irishmen.
A Scottish regiment, the 79th New York Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, wore tartan trousers and kilts. Another New York regiment, The Garibaldi Guard, was a "motley collection of Algerian Zouaves, Cossacks, Sepoys, Croats, “beer-guzzling” Bavarians, English army deserters, Eskimos and Swiss...all led by a Hungarian posing as an Italian" according to General McClellan. He was joking, but this regiment did include a wide variety of Germans, Hungarians, Spanish, Swiss, Italians and Frenchmen. Orders had to be issued and given in six languages, creating a linguistic nightmare for the regiment's officers. The Union was not alone. A plethora of ethnicities were fighting for the Confederacy was well. Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, a recent arrival from Ireland, is considered to be one of the Confederacy’s best military leaders. Cleburne should also be credited with supporting the idea of enlisting of Blacks into the Confederate Army, at a time when the government of the Confederacy showed little interest. Approval eventually came on March 18, 1865, just weeks before the end of the War and the death knell of the Confederacy.
A Scottish regiment, the 79th New York Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, wore tartan trousers and kilts. Another New York regiment, The Garibaldi Guard, was a "motley collection of Algerian Zouaves, Cossacks, Sepoys, Croats, “beer-guzzling” Bavarians, English army deserters, Eskimos and Swiss...all led by a Hungarian posing as an Italian" according to General McClellan. He was joking, but this regiment did include a wide variety of Germans, Hungarians, Spanish, Swiss, Italians and Frenchmen. Orders had to be issued and given in six languages, creating a linguistic nightmare for the regiment's officers. The Union was not alone. A plethora of ethnicities were fighting for the Confederacy was well. Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, a recent arrival from Ireland, is considered to be one of the Confederacy’s best military leaders. Cleburne should also be credited with supporting the idea of enlisting of Blacks into the Confederate Army, at a time when the government of the Confederacy showed little interest. Approval eventually came on March 18, 1865, just weeks before the end of the War and the death knell of the Confederacy.
186,000 Black men fought for Union, prompting Frederick Douglas to say “on the battlefield (Blacks were)
mingling their blood with that of White men in one common effort to save the
country”. What's not as well known is
the role Blacks fighting for the Confederacy played. Free Blacks in the American South fully participated in the
institution of slavery, as slave owners, from the Colonial Period to the end of
the Civil War. The Federal Census of
1830 concluded that free Blacks in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia held over 10,000 slaves.
In every State where slavery existed, Blacks owned Blacks. When the Emancipation
Proclamation took effect in January of 1863, 91 free Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina, owned 268 slaves. In 1865, 75 of these slave owners had to be ordered by a victorious Federal Government to free slaves they continued to hold in bondage. Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 Black men served the
Confederate States under arms. In the United States, Black soldiers were segregated from their White counterparts. In the South, Blacks served right alongside White soldiers and sailors, and the Confederate Government authorized equal pay for Blacks serving, whereas the U.S. Government did not provide monetary equality for
Blacks in the U.S. Army or Navy. There were Black sharpshooters in the Confederate Army (soldiers who use a special
long range rifle), Black Confederate sailors who served on some of the South’s
most famous ironclads, and Black Confederate military hospital workers. Some
Whites were not accommodating and accepting of these Black men who shouldered
muskets for the South’s independence. At
the very end of the War, a newly formed regiment of Confederate
Black soldiers, with "resplendent" uniforms, marched through Richmond,
only to be splattered with mud by "contemptuous White urchins". Anti-black sentiment was not exclusive to the Confederacy. Animosity
towards the first military draft in U.S. history, led to racially charged riots
in the most unexpected of places. New York City exploded in mid-July, 1863. A majority of the instigators and
participants in the Draft Riots were Irish immigrants and Americans of Irish decent. Acts of violence were directed towards Blacks, who were scapegoats, seen by the White community as causing the War in which their sons, brothers and fathers were dying. Rioting destroyed a black orphanage, Blacks
were assaulted and killed on the streets, and many Black residences were destroyed, all under a rally cry of “Vengeance on
every nigger in New York”. It was
finally quelled when an army regiment, fresh from the Battle of Gettysburg a week prior, was rushed in to restore order. In the
end, 105 people had been killed with numerous Blacks being counted in the total.
It has been estimated that 9,900 Hispanics fought on
both sides of the conflict, from Virginia to California, roughly half coming from the New Mexico
Territory. In early 1862, an army of Confederates invaded the New Mexico Territory
(which comprised modern day New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Nevada). The ultimate goal was the conquest
and subjugation of California, making the Confederacy a nation that stretched
from sea to shining sea. Sparsely garrisoned by federal troops, the
Territory's only hope of stopping the Confederate tide was in raising
volunteers from the local populace, which by and large, was pro-Union. This led to a number of
exclusively Hispanic infantry and cavalry units. These regiments were composed almost solely
of Mexican-Americans, who only spoke Spanish.
Early battles in New Mexico were unfavorable to these volunteer regiments, but regardless the defeats, the Hispanic soldiers went on to play a
major role in throwing back the Confederate invasion, driving it back
into Texas. Had it not been for these Hispanic Americans joining up to fight for the Union, the Confederacy
might have taken California, with all its gold, and all that access to the
Pacific.
Perhaps one of the strangest incidents involving Hispanics and the American Civil War, is the case of Andres Pico and the
Native California Volunteer Cavalry.
Andres Pico was the brother of the last Mexican governor of
California, Pio Pico. In California during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, Andres Pico led local volunteer cavalry to victory against U.S. forces at the Battle
of San Pasqual on Dec. 6, 1846. Though small in scale and remote, this battle has been characterized as one of the U.S. military's worst defeats. Pico seemed the least likely candidate to raise a
force of volunteer cavalry for the United States Army, but in 1863 he did just that. His Native California Cavalry Regiment never got the chance to go east and fight (most California volunteers never got farther
than New Mexico), but it did garrison and guard local camps and forts within the Golden State.
A Confederate cavalry unit composed of and led by Mexican-Americans, has the distinction of fighting and winning the last land battle of the Civil War. The Battle of Pamlito
Ranch took place on May 13th 1865, sixteen
miles east of Brownsville Texas. Santos Benavides and his regiment of Confederate volunteer cavalry, routed a force
of federal troops sent to secure the area.
Ironically, the majority of Union infantry in this battle were Black. It was soon
learned the War had essentially been over for a month, the battle merely snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
American Indians also served both the Union, and the Confederacy. The Delaware and the Pamunkey, threw their lot in with the North, while the Cherokee Indians (who were split between opposing sides) fought for their chosen cause, be it Union or Confederate, to the very end. Confederate General Stand Watie, the only Native American general officer on either side, was one of the last Confederate generals to surrender...almost three months after Lee at Appomattox, on June 23rd, 1865.
American Indians also served both the Union, and the Confederacy. The Delaware and the Pamunkey, threw their lot in with the North, while the Cherokee Indians (who were split between opposing sides) fought for their chosen cause, be it Union or Confederate, to the very end. Confederate General Stand Watie, the only Native American general officer on either side, was one of the last Confederate generals to surrender...almost three months after Lee at Appomattox, on June 23rd, 1865.
Immigrants from Asia played a role as well. Numbering less than 100, they served honorably in either the Union Army or Navy. A few even received promotions, a real accomplishment in a bigoted era. The Confederates also had a few fighting on their side as well. Eng and Chang Bunker, conjoined twins born in Siam in 1811, came to America to make their fortunes in the sideshow oddity business. They were very successful, and became wealthy plantation and slave owners in North Carolina. Before the Civil War, they even had a partnership with P. T. Barnum, making tours right up to 1860. Even though these two men were joined permanently, they married separate Anglo wives, and adopted the Surname "Bunker". Both had a son fighting for the Confederacy (one natural the other a stepson) and were vehement supporters of their adopted country, the Confederate States of America.