Europeans in the Civil War

[FSPowers]

A little project that I'm working on. I welcome any contributions.

• 39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment: commanded by a Hungarian colonel, assisted by an Italian lieutenant colonel. Ranks consisted of British, Swiss, Bavarians, Cossacks, Sepoys, and Algerians from the French Foreign Legion. A German was the regimental surgeon. They were known as the Garibaldi Guards.
• The Comte de Paris and the Duc de Chartres were aides on Union General George McClellan’s staff.
• Baron von Vegesach, of Sweden led the 20th New York in a charge at Antietam.
• Prince Salm-Salm was among 57 titled Germans who served the Union.
• Thomas Meagher was an Irish revolutionary who was condemned to death for inciting rebellion against the UK. He was exiled to Tasmania where he escaped and went to America in 1853. In the Civil War, he led Irish immigrants in what became known as the Irish Brigade
• A Major Warrington was on General McClellan’s staff and disappeared in 1862. He was believed to be an illegitimate son of King George IV.
• Major Heros von Borcke of Prussia served as an aide to Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart. Victor von Scheliha was an aide to Confederate General Simon Buckner.
• Baron William Henry von Eberstein (German) was a sergeant in the 7th North Carolina.
• The UK’s St George Grenfel fought in Turkey, India, Morocco, and South America before joining the staff of Confederate General John Morgan.
• A German named Marcus Blum was on the staff of Confederate General Joseph Kershaw.
• Frenchman Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac was commissioned a Confederate Major General and sent to Texas. His troops could not pronounce his name, calling him “Polecat”. His response was to lead his troops in a search for polecats (skunks).
• Confederate Irishman Joseph Finnegan was in command of victorious Southern forces at Olustree, FL in 1864.
• Peter Alexander Selkirk McGlashan, a Scot, received a brigadier’s commission in one of the last acts by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
• The 1st Louisiana had 37 nationalities represented.
• A Confederate European Brigade, consisting of 2500 French, 400 Germans, 500 Italians, 800 Spaniards, and a grouping of Dutch, Scandinavians, Belgians, British, and Austrians, performed police duties in New Orleans prior to Union occupation.
• The Honorable Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden, a son of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, captained a blockade runner.
• An Admiral Hewitt of the UK Royal Navy captained another blockade runner and was involved in trying to get Rebel spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow ashore at Wilmington, North Carolina, when she drowned.
• Union Brigadier General John Basil Turchin, a brigade commander under Don Carlos Buell, was originally Ivan Vasilovitch Turchinoff of Russia.
• Union General Alexander Schimmelfenning was knocked out during Day One of the Battle of Gettysburg and found himself in a pigsty in the middle of town, where he hid until the battles conclusion.
• Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was inspired to invent the airship by observing Thaddeus Lowes balloons.
• Some of the crews of both Union and Confederate warships were from Europe.
• John ********, a Swedish immigrant, designed and built the USS Monitor.

More to come.

[FSPowers]

I did not see the thread "A Galaxy of Nations" before I started this thread.

[FSPowers]

Bumping this for our European members

[Nytram01]

I know of two Europeans who had an important or at least a somewhat important role in the American Civil War.

The first is the Irish born Confederate General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, the Stonewall of the West who served in the Armies of Mississippi and Tennessee.

The second is the English Doctor David Herbert Llewellyn of the CSS Alabama who was awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor for his actions when the ship was sinking. During the battle in which the CSS Alabama was to sink he remained at his post, tending to the wounded until the order to abandon ship was given. He then helped the wounded to the Alabama's two functioning lifeboats and prevented the wounded men from being left behind. He was left aboard the Alabama as it sank because he refused to put the wounded in the lifeboats at risk of drowing if his extra weight overloaded the boat. He couldn't swim and went down with the ship.

[RLQ1]

There is Private George Disney, an Englishman who served in the 4th Ky Infantry, CSA and was shot and killed while on picket duty at Buzzard's Roost, near Dalton, GA. His grave can still be reached by walking a US Forest Service trail.

[Borderruffian]

Siegal , Osterhuas and Asboth were German and Hungarian respectivly and Commanded Formations in Curtis's Army of the Southwest. That Army also had a fairly large contingent of "Dutch" aka German troops recruited in Missouri, Iowa and Illinios.

[ole]

It is not hard to reason why the recenent influx of Germans fought for the Union. But there were a goodly many that fought for the Confederacy. Any answers?

How about the Irish?

The aides and attaches and attached observers do not constitute "fighting for," at least, not so far as I'm concerned. The predominance of Federal Irish can be simplistically explained by "that is where they landed." The Dutch are another matter. The massive antebellum influx of that group went heavily to Texas and Missouri, yet they are largely considered to be Unionists. Why?

ole

[Borderruffian]

I don't really have a concrete answer. I do know however a great many of the Germans in Union Service were also veterans of the revolutions in Germany and were great proponents of democracy and the theory of Union.

[factasy.com]

Originally Posted by FSPowers

A little project that I'm working on. I welcome any contributions.

• John ********, a Swedish immigrant, designed and built the USS Monitor.

More to come.

Hi FSPowers
John second name is ********.
He was born in Filipstad and have his grave here,i live 4 miles from filipstad.
Ann

[matthew mckeon]

Englishman Henry Morton Stanley, of "Dr. Livingtone, I persume?" fame served in the Confederate army, for a short time anyway.