Northerners who travelled South to enlist in the Confederacy?

UncleBourbon

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Massachusetts
I've been wondering if there are any examples of this for a while.
I learned of two individuals from my State who at the very least opposed the Union's role in the war verbally; Lysander Spooner, an abolitionist who compared the Union's effort to stop Southern secession to a master's effort to stop the freeing of his slaves, and Ambrose L. Kimball, an Essex County journalist who openly voiced that he felt the Lincoln administration's policies and efforts were contradictory to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, which resulting in him getting tarred, feathered and essentially chased to Iowa.
These two made me wonder if any Northerners, particularly from New England, opposed the Union with arms rather than rhetoric and attempted to or succeeding in enlisting in the Confederacy.

I'm aware of at least John Clifford Pemberton from Pennsylvania doing as such, however he was a General and I'm more interested in lower ranks, particularly those who would enlist as Privates.
Northerners who were caught attempting to join or aid the Confederacy would also be of interest.
 
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The previous governor of Maine claimed that some 7600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy. A representative of the Maine Historical Society commented, "There's no way to say he's right or wrong, but it's not a number I'd go with." Maine State Archivist David Cheever said that approximately 30 people are confirmed to have gone from Maine to the Confederacy, including students who left Bowdoin College in Brunswick and Colby College in Waterville to fight (but they could have been from other parts of the country).

The Bangor Daily News adds Zebulon York (Avon, Maine) and Josiah Gorges (Augusta, Maine).
 
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Most folks interested in the Civil War are aware of the Confederate POW's who "swallowed the dog" i.e. signing the pledge & then enlisting into the Union Army. They were sent to the west. What is not as well known is that Yankees galvanized, as well. They were assigned as guards, mostly in South Carolina. The exact number escapes me at the moment, but whenever the galvanized Yankees came into contact with Sherman's forces in 1865 they instantly changed sides again. To a man, they had swallowed the dog because it was the only alternative they saw for starving to death in a Confederate POW camp. As I recall, they didn't suffer any legal repercussions, perhaps it was too near the end of the war for anyone to bother with.
 
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What is not as well known is that Yankees galvanized, as well.


200px-ZYork.jpg


Brigadier-General Zebulon York



Brigadier-General Zebulon York accompanied the Fourteenth
Louisiana to Virginia in 1861 as its lieutenant-colonel. In the
early spring of 1862 the Fourteenth Louisiana was on the
peninsula in the division of Gen. James Longstreet. On the 5th
of May, as the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston retired toward
Richmond his rear guard had a very sharp conflict with
McClellan's advance at Williamsburg, with the result both sides
claimed a victory.

General Longstreet in his report thus speaks: "Lieut.-Col.
Zebulon York discharged his difficult duties with marked skill
and fearlessness." During the Seven Days he had become colonel
of the Fourteenth Louisiana and led the regiment through that
fiery ordeal. After the campaigns of Second Manassas, Maryland
and Fredericksburg Colonel York was ordered to report to Gen.
Richard Taylor in Louisiana to organize and drill conscripts
designed for the Louisiana brigades in the army of Northern
Virginia.

After he had completed this mission Colonel York returned to the
army of Northern Virginia, and appears again upon its muster-roll
at the head of his regiment during the Gettysburg campaign. On
May 31, 1864, while the Overland campaign was in progress,
Colonel York was commissioned brigadier-general with temporary
rank, and he was assigned to the command of all the Louisiana
troops in the army of Northern Virginia.

These troops included the heroic remnants of the brigades of Hays
and Stafford, one of whom had been killed in battle, and the
other severely wounded. When Early's corps was sent to
Lynchburg, York's brigade was part of his force. Early was at
first very successful, driving Hunter beyond the mountains,
marching triumphantly down the valley, clearing it of Federal
troops, then crossing the Potomac, defeating Wallace at the
Monocacy and advancing to the very suburbs of Washington, giving
the people of the North the greatest scare that they had
experienced during the whole war.

At the battle of Winchester, fought on the 19th of September,
1864, General York was severely wounded, losing an arm, and was
thus incapacitated for further service in the field during the
campaign of 1864.

Source: Confederate Military History, vol. XII, p. 320​


Prisoners (from Salisbury prison) briefly fought against Stoneman in North Carolina in April 1865 at "Grant's Creek". A reenactment group out of Kentucky I believe, (The Breckenridge Grays) had a good deal of info on the Confederates "Foreign Battalion" but it appears their website has expired.



War of the Rebellion: Serial 129 Page 0821 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Richmond, Va., November 10, 1864.

Major GARNETT ANDREWS,

Asst. Adjt. Gen., General Garnder's Headquarters:

MAJOR: In reply to your application I am instructed by the Honorable Secretary of War to say that your original authority "to enlist a battalion of infantry from among the foreigners now prisoners of war at Millen, Andersonville, and other points in Georgia" is enlarged to the extent that you are now authorized to effect such enlistments among the same class of prisoners confined in any of the military prisons under the control of Brigadier-General Gardner.

War of the Rebellion: Serial 121 Page 0253 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION, AND CONFEDERATE.

War of the Rebellion: Serial 121 Page 0254 PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE, ETC.

Except of a report of Major John Henry Gee, Commandant of the Confederate prison at Salisbury NC

Recruited for First Foreign Battalion..................... 653

Recruited for Major Andrew's battalion.................... 677

Recruited for General York's battalion.................... 407

Total recruited........................................... 1,737

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JNO H. GEE,
Major, Commanding Prison at Salisbury, NC.

 
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Brigadier-General Zebulon York
I've done some quick research on General York because of his inclusion in an article in Bangor Daily News. He attended Kents Hill (in Maine) but took an undergraduate degree in Kentucky and a law degree in Louisiana. He appears on the 1850 Census in Louisiana but my guess is that he left Maine in the 1830's. I was sorry to read (in your linked article) that he was known for his profanity--surely that was something he picked up after leaving Maine 🙂. He seems to be not so much "galvanized" as deeply commited.
 
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One of the men of the Confederate "Foreign Legion" made up of Union POWs. Lewis was a 26-year-old German immigrant/scholar. He enlisted 7/24/1864 into Company G 35th MA Infantry. Promoted to Corporal 9/21/1864. He was captured 9/30/1864 at Popular Springs Church, Virginia. Mustered into Confederate service at Florence, SC. 10/27/1864. After liberation, he was transferred out of the 35th MA into the 29th MA on 6/9/1865. He mustered out on 8/5/1865.


lewis leo.jpg
 
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Many Northeners opposed the ACW. Some Northern men fled to Canada just as their great grand sons would do a hundred years later. There were Confederate impressment gangs in Missouri. If a young man was cought his fate depended on the luck of the draw.
Leftyhunter

I am by no means a expert on the WBTS, nor Missouri. However, I do not recall reading about Confederate "impressment" gangs in Missouri. Very interesting and I will look in to these "gangs".

I have read that Brig Gen Schofield with the aid of Missouri's Yankee provisional Governor, would form the Enrolled Missouri Militia(EMM) in July of 1862, residents were required to enroll in the militia. It also required registration of all who had previously taken up arms against the United States, and for them to surrender their weapons. The disloyal and Confederate sympathizers would not be required to enroll in the militia, but would have to declare their sympathies, which many were unwilling to do and instead enrolled. This would fall under impressment in my opinion.
 
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I am by no means a expert on the WBTS, nor Missouri. However, I do not recall reading about Confederate "impressment" gangs in Missouri. Very interesting and I will look in to these "gangs".

I have read that Brig Gen Schofield with the aid of Missouri's Yankee provisional Governor, would form the Enrolled Missouri Militia(EMM) in July of 1862, residents were required to enroll in the militia. It also required registration of all who had previously taken up arms against the United States, and for them to surrender their weapons. The disloyal and Confederate sympathizers would not be required to enroll in the militia, but would have to declare their sympathies, which many were unwilling to do and instead enrolled. This would fall under impressment in my opinion.
I've never heard of this either. Confederate recruiters found general success in most Counties, including those under strong Union control. Members of the Missouri State Guard, the original State militia later recruited into service with the Confederacy were all volunteers. OTOH, Union military leaders and the Federally appointed State officials running the State government forced many military age men to serve in one or more of the locally organized militia units. Many of the men pressed into Union service had already served in the MSG and had returned home when Price took the MSG south into Arkansas.
 
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Perhaps there is a definitional answer. For centuries, press gangs were used by the British Navy to impress sailors or any able-bodied man they could get their hands on. It was impressment of American sailors by British press gangs & at sea that was a major cause of the War of 1812. At the time of the Civil War, the term 'press gang' or 'impressment gang' would have referred to a conscription officer doing his duty. The term 'press gang', which had a pejorative meaning, is commonly found in letters & journals during the Civil War even though there actually were no 'press gangs' in the nautical sense.
 
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I've never heard of this either. Confederate recruiters found general success in most Counties, including those under strong Union control. Members of the Missouri State Guard, the original State militia later recruited into service with the Confederacy were all volunteers. OTOH, Union military leaders and the Federally appointed State officials running the State government forced many military age men to serve in one or more of the locally organized militia units. Many of the men pressed into Union service had already served in the MSG and had returned home when Price took the MSG south into Arkansas.
Also @moreb ( I will try to get more quotes but here is one)
Actually you have several times over the years.
Here is one quote but there are more from the same book.
"Confederate recruiters , Particularly Col. Phelan... continued to bring Southern men into their camps willing or not."
"Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, 1862" Bruce Nichols McFarland P.72.
Leftyhunter
 
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Perhaps there is a definitional answer. For centuries, press gangs were used by the British Navy to impress sailors or any able-bodied man they could get their hands on. It was impressment of American sailors by British press gangs & at sea that was a major cause of the War of 1812. At the time of the Civil War, the term 'press gang' or 'impressment gang' would have referred to a conscription officer doing his duty. The term 'press gang', which had a pejorative meaning, is commonly found in letters & journals during the Civil War even though there actually were no 'press gangs' in the n lautical sense.
Actually the Confederate Press Gangs in Missouri would threaten conscripts with death if they did not accompany them into Confederate held Arkansas. In other states Confederate conscription officers would track down"mossbacks" (conscription evaders) with dogs. I can get you quotes from the ORs on that.
Leftyhunter
 
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@Lusty Murfax , @moreb @Rhea Cole
" Sadly many men found. themselves in guerrilla bands through desperation or the reality of having no real choice in the matter. In Southeast Missouri guerrilla chief's like the Reverend Tim Reees conscripted local able-bodied men into Partisan Service under actual threat of death"
" Guerrilla Warfare in Missouri, 1862" Bruce Nichols McFarland P.43.
Leftyhunter
 
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I am by no means a expert on the WBTS, nor Missouri. However, I do not recall reading about Confederate "impressment" gangs in Missouri. Very interesting and I will look in to these "gangs".

I have read that Brig Gen Schofield with the aid of Missouri's Yankee provisional Governor, would form the Enrolled Missouri Militia(EMM) in July of 1862, residents were required to enroll in the militia. It also required registration of all who had previously taken up arms against the United States, and for them to surrender their weapons. The disloyal and Confederate sympathizers would not be required to enroll in the militia, but would have to declare their sympathies, which many were unwilling to do and instead enrolled. This would fall under impressment in my opinion.
To be fair the Confederacy used conscription and if the conscription evaders ran off then their woman folk would be tortured to find them plus tracked down by dogs. I can link you to sources if you like.
Not sure about the accuracy of the term war between "the War between the States "as men from various stages joined either side and Confederate defection in to the Union Army was common .
What do we make of the 150k plus men of the USCT
who were from Southern states but joined the Union Army? What Do we make of the 104k white men who were from the eleven Confederate States that joined the Union Army not including Unionist home guards and guerrillas? See "Lincoln's Loyalists Union Soldiers from the Confederacy" Richard Current North East University Press.
Leftyhunter
 
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I've been wondering if there are any examples of this for a while.
I learned of two individuals from my State who at the very least opposed the Union's role in the war verbally; Lysander Spooner, an abolitionist who compared the Union's effort to stop Southern secession to a master's effort to stop the freeing of his slaves, and Ambrose L. Kimball, an Essex County journalist who openly voiced that he felt the Lincoln administration's policies and efforts were contradictory to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, which resulting in him getting tarred, feathered and essentially chased to Iowa.
These two made me wonder if any Northerners, particularly from New England, opposed the Union with arms rather than rhetoric and attempted to or succeeding in enlisting in the Confederacy.

I'm aware of at least John Clifford Pemberton from Pennsylvania doing as such, however he was a General and I'm more interested in lower ranks, particularly those who would enlist as Privates.
Northerners who were caught attempting to join or aid the Confederacy would also be of interest.
I've been wondering if there are any examples of this for a while.
I learned of two individuals from my State who at the very least opposed the Union's role in the war verbally; Lysander Spooner, an abolitionist who compared the Union's effort to stop Southern secession to a master's effort to stop the freeing of his slaves, and Ambrose L. Kimball, an Essex County journalist who openly voiced that he felt the Lincoln administration's policies and efforts were contradictory to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, which resulting in him getting tarred, feathered and essentially chased to Iowa.
These two made me wonder if any Northerners, particularly from New England, opposed the Union with arms rather than rhetoric and attempted to or succeeding in enlisting in the Confederacy.

I'm aware of at least John Clifford Pemberton from Pennsylvania doing as such, however he was a General and I'm more interested in lower ranks, particularly those who would enlist as Privates.
Northerners who were caught attempting to join or aid the Confederacy would also be of interest.
One of the responsive posts mentions 4 Gettysburg men who returned for the Battle of Gettysburg as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. Actually there were at least 5. Three of them were the Hoffman brothers: Robert (2nd Virginia Inf.), Frank (Co. B, 38th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery) and Wesley (7th Virginia Cav.). Another was the relatively famous Wesley Culp, the only K.I.A. casualty of the 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg, who by the way did not die on his uncle’s farm as is widely reported. And there was also Henry Wentz a sergeant in Taylor’s Virginia Battery, who would be engaged on the second day of Gettysburg firing artillery rounds across land that he owned and in the general direction of his Father’s house along Emmitsburg Road near the Peach Orchard. All five men had moved to Virginia before the outbreak of the war, albeit to towns that eventually became part of West Virginia.

I give credit to and recommend the book "Gettysburg Rebels" by Tom McMillan (Regnery History, 2017).
 
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@Rhea Cole ,
P.111 to 115 of Nichols book goes into detail about Confederate Recruiters in Missouri. Many certainly voluntary joined but Confederate policy was not forgiving to those who didn't join. In Missouri as Nichol's points out both sides used conscription and many young men just left Missouri to avoid military service on either side.
Leftyhunter
 
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Here is an example:
One Alexander F Dix, was born and raised in Niagara County, New York, and attended college in Albany. He married in Buffalo to a girl also native to the area. He apparently had no belief in the Northern Cause and left New York in 1861 and went to Alabama with his wife.There, he enlisted in Hilliards 1st Infantry Battalion. He also served in the 23rd Alabama Sharpshooters Battalion, and lived in Alabama the rest of his life.

Another Niagara County native moved to Texas and fought in the confederate army there, but I cannot recall his name at the present.

 
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To be fair the Confederacy used conscription and if the conscription evaders ran off then their woman folk would be tortured to find them plus tracked down by dogs. I can link you to sources if you like.
Not sure about the accuracy of the term war between "the War between the States "as men from various stages joined either side and Confederate defection in to the Union Army was common .
What do we make of the 150k plus men of the USCT
who were from Southern states but joined the Union Army? What Do we make of the 104k white men who were from the eleven Confederate States that joined the Union Army not including Unionist home guards and guerrillas? See "Lincoln's Loyalists Union Soldiers from the Confederacy" Richard Current North East University Press.
Leftyhunter

Thank you for clarifying your original post. I was under the impression there were "Gangs". As I said I had never heard of any "Gangs".
moreb
 
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Thank you for clarifying your original post. I was under the impression there were "Gangs". As I said I had never heard of any "Gangs".
moreb
You are more than welcome. My intro to philosophy teacher began the first class by saying that before you can have an intelligent discussion you have to agree on the meaning of the words you are going to use. I have one of my granddaughters read things I write about the Civil War because she doesn't know the arcane military vocabulary & 19th Century usages that baffle a modern reader or audience. In this case, Napoleonic naval history is one of my interests & press gangs are a constant topic.
 
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