Civil War History - General DiscussionFor Discussions on Civil War Era Personalities, Politics, Issues, Campaigns, Battles, and more. Serious Civil War Discussions Only Please! All other posts will be deleted.
Loretta Janet Velasquez, a Cuban-born woman, enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1860, masquerading as a man, without her soldier husband's knowledge. She fought at Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, and Fort Donelson, but was detected while in New Orleans and discharged. Undeterred, she re-enlisted and fought at Shiloh until unmasked once more. She then took duty as a spy, working in both male and female guise. Her husband died during the war and she married three more times, widowed in each instance. She later traveled throughout the West settling in Austin, Nevada.
David G. Farragut was the most famous Union Hispanic. When he was nine years old he was appointed as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. At 13 he served aboard the USS Essex during the War of 1812. In 1862, he successfully commanded Union forces and captured the city of New Orleans. In the Battle of Port Hudson (135 miles north of New Orleans) Farragut's tactics for attacking forts gained accolades. After orchestrating the capture of Mobile, Alabama, Farragut was commissioned Admiral of the Navy on July 26, 1866. He then took command of the European Squadron and while in the Mediterranean, he visited the birthplace of his father in Ciudadela, Minorca, where he received a hero's welcome.
Patrick Power was a native of Ireland and was born about 1836. He was mustered into military service at Wheeling, Virginia, on September 1, 1862 and served in Company B, 15th West Virginia Infantry Regiment. Promoted from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant on October 27, 1863, and to Lieutenant on January 18, 1865, Power was mustered out of service at Richmond, Virginia, on June 14, 1865. His company commander in the 15th WV Infantry, Captain Michael Egan later wrote an account of his Civil War service which was published under the title "The Flying, Gray-Haired Yank", and in it he describes Power as "brave and reliable" and also as being "portly". Egan states that the nerve displayed by Power on several occasions was later to assist in securing Power's promotion. Power was never married and arrived in Australia sometime after the war, and was occupied as a miner in the Nundle region of New South Wales, close to the city of Tamworth. He died on March 23, 1886 and is buried at the Nundle Cemetery.
Theodore Laurent Hazelman was born on August 14, l840 in Luxembourg. As a mariner aboard the merchant coaling vessel 'John Carver' in 1861 he was taken prisoner by the Confederate naval brig 'Jeff Davis' at Key West, FL. Taken to St. Augustine, he was compelled to join the Confederate Army, on October 5, 1861 as a private in Company F, 8th Florida Infantry but deserted on June 30, 1862.
On August 14, 1863, he enlisted in the US Navy as a Seaman at New York with service aboard the vessels 'North Carolina' and 'Fort Jackson'. He was discharged from the naval service on November 3, l863, and this short service later affected his pension application. He arrived in Melbourne about July l864 and farmed in the Kyabram district of Victoria. He died on June 21, 1934.
“One Swiss volunteer, Emil Frey, recorded that he had been ‘inspired by the idea…of fighting for the preservation of the Union. The dismemberment of the Union would seriously injure the cause of liberty in the world.’ Nearly a quarter century later, this Civil War veteran would serve a term as president of the Swiss union. Frey was born in Arlesheim in 1838, attended the University of Jena until a dueling incident required his departure, and arrived in America just before the Civil War. By 1862 he was commander of a company of Swiss sharpshooters in the 82nd Illinois; they fought with distinction at Chancellorsville, and Frey was promoted to major. He was captured by the Confederates at Gettysburg and nearly starved during eighteen months in the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, but was exchanged in January 1865. After the war, he returned to Switzerland, edited a Basel newspaper, served for a decade in the lower house of the Swiss legislature, and was then the first Swiss ambassador to the United States. His later career included election to the Swiss Senate , a term as president of Switzerland in 1894, and many years as the director of the International Telegraph Union in Bern until his death in 1922, at the age of eighty-four.”
Mahin, The Blessed Place Of Freedom: Europeans In Civil War America, pp.47-48.]
Patrick Cleburne was one of the best generals in the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, dying leading his troops in the disaster at Franklin, Tennessee. From the website of the Patrick Cleburne Society:
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne was born in Ovens, County Cork, Ireland on March 16, 1828. The second son of Dr. Joseph Cleburne, the only physician in the locale, Patrick grew up in comfortable, middle class surroundings and privilege. However life was not without its tragedy. His mother died when he was eighteen months old, and by the time the boy reached age fifteen, his father had also died. He pursued the family tradition of studying medicine, but failed the entrance exam to Trinity College in February 1846. Pride and his sense of honor led him to enlist in the 41st Regiment of Foot of the British Army to escape his failure. Three and one half years later, he bought his discharge and came to America with two brothers and an older sister. He settled in Helena, Arkansas, in 1850, first as a druggist until he became a naturalized citizen. In 1856 he began the practice of law, and was senior partner with Cleburne, Scaife and Mangum by 1860.
Cleburne joined the Yell Rifles of Phillips as a private, and was soon elected Captain of the company. From this position he rose swiftly in rank, through the early months of the war and became Colonel of the 1st Arkansas. When Gen. William J. Hardee was put in command of Confederate troops in Arkansas, he quickly recognized the gem he had in an officer, and secured Cleburne’s promotion to Brigadier General on March 4, 1862.
Shiloh, the Kentucky Campaign and Murfreesboro were ahead for Patrick Cleburne. He was severely wounded in the mouth at Richmond, Ky. on August 30. Returning to duty in time to participate in the Battle of Perryville on October 8, he proved his capability in a charge on the field that led to Confederate victory. After the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee December 31and January 1, 1863, Cleburne was promoted to Major General.
Through the campaigns of 1863, Cleburne became more outspoken along with his superior and mentor William J. Hardee on the incompetence of Gen. Braxton Bragg. After the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign, Cleburne achieved lasting military fame for his defense of Tunnel Hill on Missionary Ridge in Tennessee and at the Battle of Ringgold Gap in North Georgia. His brilliant tactical command in the use of his small force, and strategic utilization of terrain remain among the most compelling in military history to study.
Always pensive and observant, he realized the deplorable state of morale in the army, and the straitened conditions of the Confederacy in general were working against the goal of independence. He had a solution which he earnestly believed would turn the tide in favor of the South, both militarily and politically, and on January 3, 1864, he met with Gen. Joseph Johnston and other high command personalities in Dalton, Georgia to read his proposal on emancipating the slaves and enlisting them in the Confederate army. His concept was shocking to some, endorsed by others, but ultimately rejected by President Jefferson Davis at the urging of his military advisor in Richmond, Braxton Bragg.
Patrick Cleburne accepted his superiors’ suggestions to suppress his proposal on enlisting slaves, and accompanied his friend William J. Hardee as best man to Hardee’s wedding in Demopolis, Alabama. Cleburne met Susan Tarleton, the 24-year-old daughter of a Mobile, Alabama planter, and was love struck. He proposed to her before his ten-day furlough was up, and she agreed to become engaged to him. The spring of 1864 began military operations, which culminated in the Atlanta Campaign. Patrick Cleburne fought valiantly at every battle, from the opening shots at Rocky Face Gap until the end at Jonesboro in August. He received no other promotions, though vacancies occurred for corps commander. He was distressed when Hood replaced Joe Johnston as commander-in-chief of the Army of Tennessee, and marched his division north with the army in the Tennessee Campaign. In a desperate assault on Union breastworks at Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864, Patrick Cleburne was killed in action beside his men. He was buried at St. John’s Church near Mount Pleasant, Tennessee. In April 1870, his remains were disinterred and brought back to Helena, Arkansas, where he was reburied in an impressive ceremony in Evergreen Confederate Cemetery. His fiancée Susan Tarleton, married a classmate of her brother’s, but died of a swelling of the brain on June 30, 1868."
The Society is devoted to preserving his memory and some of the locations he fought. For example, the spot he was killed in Franklin is now a Burger King or MacDonalds. Sad.
Charles Stohlbrand, born in 1821 near Kristianstad, Sweden, was an officer in the Swedish army and served in the Danish-Prussian War before emigrating to America. He commanded artillery units at Vicksburg and Chattanooga and was chief of artillery of the XV Corps in the Atlanta campaign. Although captured in May 1864, he escaped from Andersonville in time to participate in Sherman's march to the sea and the campaign in the Carolinas. In February 1865, Stohlbrand was appointed a brigadier general.
Ernst Mattias Peter von Vegesack was born in 1820 in Gottland, Sweden, was a captain in the Swedish army by 1857, and served in the Danish army during the war in Schleswig-Holstein. His two years with the Union army included periods as a staff officer for Brigadier General John Wool, Brigadier General Joseph Mansfield, and Major General George B. McClellan. He was colonel of the 20th New York; a brigade commander at the second Bull Run; again commander of the 20th New York at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville; and adjutant to General George G. Meade at Gettysburg. Von Vegesack returned to his former command in Sweden in August 1863.
[Mahin, The Blessed Place Of Freedom: Europeans In Civil War America, pp.239-240.]
Union soldiers of Chinese heritage fought in Gettysburg. Private Joseph L. Pierce, age 21 when enlisted, height 5 feet 5 inches, with dark hair and black eyes, was born in the city of Canton, Kwangtung Province, China. His occupation was a farmer. He enlisted for 3 years of military service, in the 14th Connecticut regiment (infantry) in New Britain, Connecticut on July 26, 1861. He was promoted to Corporal in November 1, 1863. The regimental historian Stewart stated that during Pickett's charge, Pierce appeared "pig-tail and all, the only Chinese in the Army of the Potomac." The statement was a little exaggerated, for certainly there were more than one Chinese in the Army of the Potomac. All male Chinese wore this kind of pigtail hairstyle, in the Manchu Dynasty, in the 19th century. The muster roll record showed that Pierce stayed in the Convalescent Camp in Virginia in January 1863. Record showed he received payment from the Army on March 1, 1864. Pierce apparently served as a cook in the Army and survived the war.
Corporal John Tommy in Company D, 70th New York regiment (New York at Gettysburg, vol. I, p. 219), was a native of China. John Tommy lost both arms and both legs on July 2, 1863, at the battle of Gettsburg and died of his wounds in October 19, 1863. He suffered 3 months and 17 days in agony. Report showed that he was a good and brave soldier.
Antonio Dardell was taken at a very early age from China and raised by a sea captain. His pension record showed that he enlisted as a private in October 22, 1862 and joined Company A, 27th Connecticut Infantry, fighting in the Civil War, and was honorably discharged at New Haven, Connecticut on August 25, 1863. Dardell was 5 feet 9 inches tall, with dark complexion, black hair and black eyes. His occupation was a tinner (tinsmith). He lived in Clinton and later moved to New Haven in 1869. He got his pension at age 68, on May 23, 1912.
Among the best examples of Finnish military involvement is found among the Union Forces, where Otto Mauno Geers served as a sailor and eventual quartermaster in the Navy (See Photo). Born in the parish of Eura, Findland, he immigrated to the United States in 1860 and settled in Boston. The following year he joined the Union Navy. Geers served in the Navy consecutively for 21 years.
Geers participated in a number of battles, and according to Ilmonen, the most memorable fight was the Battle of New Orleans. In this battle, Geers’ ship was sunk, and a large number of the crew drowned. As the ship was sinking, Geers jumped into the Mississippi River at the same time as the main mast was shot down by the Confederates. With the mast, the U.S. flag fell into the river. Geers grabbed the flag and swam to shore saving himself and the flag, which he kept as a treasured keepsake.
Geers was wounded twice during the Civil War, the second time having received a bullet through the leg. Around 1880, Geers retired from the navy, receiving a government pension along with many medals of recognition. Geers was married to a non-Finn, did not have children, and died in 1916 at his farm near Boston, Massachusetts.
Among the Finns in the Confederate Forces, one sailor was discovered as being part of the 60-man crew of the renown Confederate Cruiser Alabama. This sailor was named "Jackalanwiski" whose name is most likely spelled incorrectly. According to an autobiography written by an English sailor on board the ship Alabama, "Jackalanwiski" was such a difficult name to pronounce that the crew called this Finn by the name "Jack-o-lantern" (Haywood, 1886:36).
Haywood tells how the crew began to have re-occurring dreams which were interpreted as events that were to happen in the future. The Finnish "Jack-o-lantern" was a translator of dreams, and using a "dreambook" and speaking with "mysterious gutturals" (possibly in the Finnish language which does sound strange to foreigners!), attempted to embellish the situation and interpret the dreams. While the crew of the Alabama wanted to hear an interpretation of their dreams, an older bible-preaching member of the crew declared the event as being blasphemous and of the devil. This older sailor urged the crew to throw the devilish Finn overboard into the sea. Apparently the crew was afraid to do so.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Linear Mode
