Trivia 1-8-19 Who Am I?

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Thomas Sylvanus. He was unique among Indiana County's Civil War veterans because he was the only one among their ranks who was Chinese. I think his determination to serve and his ability to hide his limited vision make his story very remarkable.

"In spite of being almost blind and having been discharged with a disability, Sylvanus reenlisted twice. He served with the 51st Regiment, cleaning up after the battle of Gettysburg, then enlisted in the 42nd New York Infantry as a paid substitute for George Dearborn, who was buying his way out of the draft. In both cases, Sylvanus managed to hide the fact that his vision was so limited."

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Thomas Sylvanus, aka Ching Lee, aka Ah Ye Way
He was a Chinese born 1845 in Hong Kong and would become the only Chinese civil war soldier to receive a US war pension for disability. His funeral in 1892 was reported in the New York Times in an article, headlined "Our Chinese soldier is buried" that compliments him for his bravery.
https://sites.google.com/site/accsacw/Home/sylvanus
 
Ah Yee Way. He enlisted under the name Thomas Sylvanus. Only sixteen at the outbreak of war, Thomas ran north, joined the Freedom Army, and was blinded in the first major campaign. He failed to fully recover his sight and, deemed incapable of performing the duties of a soldier, was discharged. Yet he reenlisted twice, saved his regiment's colors during the bloodbath of Spotsylvania, was lamed at Cold Harbor, and survived 9 months imprisonment in the dreaded Andersonville stockade. His health broken, but his spirit intact, he battled for survival and justice for his family and himself until his death in 1891. He was, as the New York Times noted, "singular." He was the only Chinese-American Civil War soldier to receive a disability pension. When he died in the 1890s, he merited a New York Times obit — in a nation still filled with obsessive hatred for Asian-Americans.
All of the above is "remarkable". But I'll go with the bolded sentence above.
source-http://meloukhia.net/2017/02/the_secret_history_of_chinese-american_civil_war_soldiers/
 
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