Chinese soldiers in the Civil War

I always thought that Joseph Pierce's story was interesting.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about him, I'm attaching a research file I compiled on him a few years ago. Irving Moy wrote a monograph about Pierce, some of which is included in the file.
 

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See also, Gettysburg Magazine, issue 49: John Tomney of the 70th New York was witty and well liked by his fellow soldiers. Taken prisoner in 1862, his bemused captor, Gen. John Magruder, tried to get him to switch sides. Tomney had his price, although it was steep; he agreed to become a Confederate if promoted to General. Needless to say, that did not happen. Returning on parole, Tomney cared for sick and wounded comrades while waiting to rejoin his unit. ... The Asia Pacific region also contributed a handful of Civil War soldiers who were born in New Zealand and Australia.
 

The United States Army tells us on its Internet page concerning Asians and our Civil War, that thousands of Asian people immigrated to America from 1800 - 1850 and continued to do so after these dates. Not all of the Chinese soldiers of the Civil War are listed on their site. After examining the literature on this topic, Dave DeForest (referenced below) found 58 Chinese in the war, often on navy vessels. He may not have considered those having Hispanic surnames, however, as discussed below.
Interestingly, some Chinese were "Shanghaied" into the Confederate Army in New Orleans when they disembarked ships coming into port. They thought they were being invited to games and fun; and, they were not alone - other ethnic groups were mustered into the Confederate forces this way (Davis, 1960). This seems to have been usual for the 14th Louisiana Infantry, tricking Chinese and Filipino men into service. Because many of the Filipino men had Hispanic surnames, many are lost to history as having been Asian servicemen. In fact, many of them had lived in Mexico.
The most well known Chinese in the Civil War armies and navies are in the following list, many because photos exist of them.
  • Corporal John Tommy (or Tomney in some sources) - Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg - Union Army - Killed in battle; both arms and legs blown off by cannon fire July 12, 1863 and lived another 3.5 months, until October 19. Reports and journals speak of him as a good soldier, brave and firendly.
  • Christopher Wren Bunker, son of Chang Bunker (famous Siamese twin with P.T. Barnum) - Battles in PA and WV - Confederate Cavalry - Captured and later released
  • Stephen Decatur Bunker, son of Eng Bunker (the other Siamese twin) - Battles in WV and VA - Confederate Cavalry - Wounded, captured, and later released.
  • Antonio Dardell - Taken from China by an American sea captain, probably purchased or found orphaned - Union Army, 27th Connecticut Infantry - Survived the war and worked as a tinsmith until 1912.
  • Corporal Joseph Pierce - Survived Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and other actions - Union Army, the 14th Connecticut Infantry. After being sold as a child to an American sea captain, he always wore his Manchu Dynasty que (pigtail), even in the army.
  • Edward Day Cohota was given his surname by the sea captain of the ship of the same name, Cohota. Edward was about 5 years old when he was found stowed away or abandoned on the captain's boat in the company of an older Chinese boy that died. Cohota later served the Union Army in the Civil War, continued a military career for another 20 years, met and guarded Sitting Bull, but could not gain US Citizenship because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (law until 1943) that banned it. Apparently, Edward still voted in several elections, although he was not a citizen.
  • Ching Lee (b. July 4, 1845; d. 1891). Renamed Thomas Sylvanus after he was passed around among American families and kept by a doctor's sister. Thomas joined the Union Army at age 16 and was discharged after a year with poor site, but enlisted again within another year. Reports and retirement documentation indicate that he was highly decorated in his army service. Wounded after battles in Pennsylvania and Virginia and captured, he was released after the war, blind. He was allowed to become a US Citizen, however, and received a Civil War pension in1880 - he started a laundry with it.
  • The author Burke Davis has found the following Filipinos in the Civil War: Caystana Baltazar, Antonio Ducastin, Manual Santos, and Leon Zapanta. There are many others we do not know and may never find.
http://pattyinglishms.hubpages.com/...Soldiers-Who-Fought-In-the-American-Civil-War
https://sites.google.com/site/accsacw/


Gettysburg after battle report:

Report of Maj. William H. Hugo, Seventieth New York Infantry.
Hdqrs. First Regt., Excelsior Brigade,
Camp near Rappahannock Station, Va., August 14, 1863.
Maj.: In accordance with orders received yesterday, I have the
honor herewith to forward the following report of the operations of
this command since leaving Falmouth:

On June 11, received orders to be in readiness to move at a moment's
notice.

About 5 p. m. of the same day, the wagon train moved, but the
regiment with the rest of the brigade did not leave until the following
morning, on account of a detail from the brigade being on picket.
Commenced moving at 9 a. m., and marched to Hartwood Church,
where we arrived at 5 p. m., and bivouacked for the night.

On the morning of the 13th, we took up our line of march at 4.30
a. m., and marched to Rappahannock Station, where we joined the
division, and bivouacked for the night.

At 2 a. m. of the 14th, received orders to go on picket at Kelly's
Ford, to which point we were marched, and where we remained
until 7 p. m., when we received orders to withdraw the pickets and
rejoin our division at Rappahannock Station. After rejoining the
division, continued to march during the night, arriving at Catlett's
Station at 7 a. m. of the 15th, where we halted until 1 p. m., when
we again resumed the march, and arrived at Manassas Junction at
11 p. m., where we bivouacked for the night, remaining in this position
until the morning of the 17th.

At 9.30 a. m. of the 17th, we again resumed our march, and
marched to Centreville, where we remained until the 19th.

On the afternoon of the 19th, marched to Gum Springs, where we
remained for six days, performing in that space of time one tour of
picket duty.

Left Gum Springs on the morning of the 25th, at 9.30 a. m.;
crossed the Potomac into Maryland at Edwards Ferry about 2 p. m.,
and continued marching, following the tow-path of the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal, to the mouth of the Monocacy, where we bivouacked
for the night.

On the 26th, marched to Point of Rocks, where we bivouacked for
the night.

On the 27th, crossed Catoctin Mountains, and passed through Jefferson,
bivouacking a short distance from Middletown.

On the 28th, we resumed our march, passing through Middletown
and Frederick City, and bivouacking near Walkersville.

On the 29th, marched to Taneytown, having passed through Woodsborough,
Ladiesburg, Middleburg, and Taneytown.

On the afternoon of the 30th, marched about 6 miles beyond Taneytown,
where the regiment was detailed for picket duty.

On the morning of July 1, the pickets were withdrawn, and we resumed
the march at 7.30 o'clock, arriving near Gettysburg at 12 m.,
having passed through Emmitsburg.

At 8 a. m. of the 2d, the regiment was formed in line of battle, and
remained in this position until 1 p. m., when orders were received to
advance, halting in rear of the First Brigade and acting as its support.
We lay in this position under a heavy fire of artillery until 4
o'clock. At this time we engaged the enemy, and held our ground
against a superior force until dark, when we were relieved by the
Second Corps.

Our loss in this engagement was quite severe, losing in all 112--7
officers wounded, 21 men killed, 80 wounded, and 4 missing.


At daylight on the morning of the 3d, the regiment was formed in
line of battle, supporting the Fifth Corps. We lay in this position
until 3 p. m., when we were ordered to the right, to support a battery
of the Second Corps. In supporting this battery, we were exposed to
a heavy artillery fire, losing 3 men. At dark we were relieved and
marched to the left, where we bivouacked for the night. No movement
was made on the 4th, 5th, and 6th.

On the 5th and 6th, parties were sent out to bury the dead.

On the morning of the 7th, started in pursuit of the enemy, passing
through Emmitsburg, and bivouacking near Mechanicstown.

On the 8th, marched to near Frederick City.

On the 9th, passed through Middletown, and bivouacked in the
mountains.

On the 10th, resumed the march, and, crossing Antietam Creek, we
bivouacked for the night at 7 o'clock, but receiving orders to move
at 11 p. m., we again resumed the march, and continued marching
until 3 a. m. on the following morning, when we halted at 6 a. m.

July 11, resumed the march, and, halting about 6 p. m., we bivouacked
for the night.

On the morning of the 12th, we took our position in rear of the
Twelfth Corps, where we remained for the night.

On the 13th, marched to near Williamsport, where we remained
until the 15th.

On the 15th, we again resumed the march, and, passing through
Fair Play and Sharpsburg, we halted for the night.

July 16, we marched about 16 miles, and bivouacked near Knoxville.

About 5 p. m. of the 17th, we again took up our line of march, and,
crossing the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers at Harper's Ferry, we
bivouacked for the night about 5 miles from the river.

July 18, marched to Hillsborough, where we bivouacked.

July 19, resumed our march at 7 a. m., and marched to Wood
Grove, when we received orders to go on picket.

July 20, the pickets were withdrawn, and we marched to Upperville,
where we bivouacked for the night.

We lay in this position until the afternoon of the 22d, when we
resumed our march, and marched to Piedmont.

At 4 a. m. of the 23d, we again took up our line of march, and came
upon the enemy at Manassas Gap, when the brigade was ordered to
charge, which it did in splendid style, driving the enemy before it.

In this engagement, which was of short duration, the regiment sustained
a loss of 33--1 officer killed, Capt. Price; 1 wounded, Maj.
Mahen; 10 men killed, and 21 wounded.

After the enemy was driven from his position, the regiment was deployed
as skirmishers for the purpose of finding his whereabouts.
After advancing about 3 miles, and finding no enemy, the regiment
returned to the brigade, when the regiment with the rest of the brigade
advanced as far as Front Royal. Here, finding the enemy had
gone, we were marched back, a distance of about 5 miles, and bivouacked
for the night.

On the 25th, we resumed our march, passing through Salem, and
bivouacking about 5 miles beyond the town.

On the 26th, marched 2 miles beyond Warrenton, where we bivouacked
for the night.

On August 1, we left camp near Warrenton about 7 o'clock in the
morning, and marched to our present position near Rappahannock
Station the same day. Since then the regiment has been inactive,
excepting that it has performed two tours of picket duty.

Col. Farnum commanded the regiment from the time we left
Falmouth until July 27, when he was detached on duty at New York.
From that time until yesterday, when I assumed command, Capt.
Gruett commanded the regiment. This should excuse me from making
as minute a report as otherwise I should have done.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. H. HUGO,
Maj. Comdg. First Regt.

Maj. J. P. Finkelmeier,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen., Excelsior Brigade.

Source: Official Records: Series I. Vol. 27. Part I. Reports. Serial No. 43

**********************************************************************************
 

The United States Army tells us on its Internet page concerning Asians and our Civil War, that thousands of Asian people immigrated to America from 1800 - 1850 and continued to do so after these dates. Not all of the Chinese soldiers of the Civil War are listed on their site. After examining the literature on this topic, Dave DeForest (referenced below) found 58 Chinese in the war, often on navy vessels. He may not have considered those having Hispanic surnames, however, as discussed below.
Interestingly, some Chinese were "Shanghaied" into the Confederate Army in New Orleans when they disembarked ships coming into port. They thought they were being invited to games and fun; and, they were not alone - other ethnic groups were mustered into the Confederate forces this way (Davis, 1960). This seems to have been usual for the 14th Louisiana Infantry, tricking Chinese and Filipino men into service. Because many of the Filipino men had Hispanic surnames, many are lost to history as having been Asian servicemen. In fact, many of them had lived in Mexico.
The most well known Chinese in the Civil War armies and navies are in the following list, many because photos exist of them.
  • Corporal John Tommy (or Tomney in some sources) - Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg - Union Army - Killed in battle; both arms and legs blown off by cannon fire July 12, 1863 and lived another 3.5 months, until October 19. Reports and journals speak of him as a good soldier, brave and firendly.
  • Christopher Wren Bunker, son of Chang Bunker (famous Siamese twin with P.T. Barnum) - Battles in PA and WV - Confederate Cavalry - Captured and later released
  • Stephen Decatur Bunker, son of Eng Bunker (the other Siamese twin) - Battles in WV and VA - Confederate Cavalry - Wounded, captured, and later released.
  • Antonio Dardell - Taken from China by an American sea captain, probably purchased or found orphaned - Union Army, 27th Connecticut Infantry - Survived the war and worked as a tinsmith until 1912.
  • Corporal Joseph Pierce - Survived Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and other actions - Union Army, the 14th Connecticut Infantry. After being sold as a child to an American sea captain, he always wore his Manchu Dynasty que (pigtail), even in the army.
  • Edward Day Cohota was given his surname by the sea captain of the ship of the same name, Cohota. Edward was about 5 years old when he was found stowed away or abandoned on the captain's boat in the company of an older Chinese boy that died. Cohota later served the Union Army in the Civil War, continued a military career for another 20 years, met and guarded Sitting Bull, but could not gain US Citizenship because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (law until 1943) that banned it. Apparently, Edward still voted in several elections, although he was not a citizen.
  • Ching Lee (b. July 4, 1845; d. 1891). Renamed Thomas Sylvanus after he was passed around among American families and kept by a doctor's sister. Thomas joined the Union Army at age 16 and was discharged after a year with poor site, but enlisted again within another year. Reports and retirement documentation indicate that he was highly decorated in his army service. Wounded after battles in Pennsylvania and Virginia and captured, he was released after the war, blind. He was allowed to become a US Citizen, however, and received a Civil War pension in1880 - he started a laundry with it.
  • The author Burke Davis has found the following Filipinos in the Civil War: Caystana Baltazar, Antonio Ducastin, Manual Santos, and Leon Zapanta. There are many others we do not know and may never /

Many Asian immigrants were in California, far from the battlefields. Furthermore, California was a hotbed on anti-Asian racism. The state opposed the 14 th Amendment that penalized states for denying the vote to males of all races born in the USA. California waited nearly a century before ratifying the amendment in 1959.
 
http://werehistory.org/veterans-to-remember/


Veterans to Remember: Chinese Americans in the Civil War
November 7, 2014By Ben Railton
Corporal_Joseph_Pierce-2-e1415374753886.jpg?zoom=1.jpg
Corporal Joseph Pierce.


At least 58 Chinese Americans fought in the Civil War, constituting a largely forgotten community of soldiers and veterans. By the 1850s, Chinese Americans—who had begun arriving to the continent’s western territories in the 1780s, long before they were part of the United States—had also begun to arrive and form communities on the East Coast. They came in a variety of ways: as visitors orstudents accompanying returning missionaries; as merchants or businessmen pursuing new opportunities; asperformers or artists finding new venues; even as slaves in the era’s so-called “coolie trade.” By the war’s outset, there were hundreds of recorded such East Coast Chinese Americans (and likely many more not recorded), and many chose to enlist.

In her newest book, Chinese Yankee: A True Story from the U.S. Civil War – which will be published on Veteran’s Day, no less – historian and novelist Ruthanne Lum McCunnchronicles the story of one such forgotten veteran, Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way). As McCunn details, Sylvanus was born in Hong Kong, brought to the U.S. as an orphan and enslaved in Baltimore in the mid-1850s, and escaped to join the Union Army at the outset of the Civil War. Despite being partially blinded in his first battle, he went on to reenlist twice, rescue his regimental colors at Spotsylvania, and survive 9 months imprisonment at Andersonville, among many other striking wartime and post-war experiences that contributed to what his 1891New York Times obituary called a “singular career.”

Yet if those and other accumulated events made Sylvanus’ life singular, his Civil War service was not. Most Chinese American soldiers, like Sylvanus, fought for the Union, and some received similar contemporary notoriety and acclaim: Corporal Joseph Pierce’s contributions to the Union victory at Gettysburg were honored with a picture at the Gettysburg Museum; Edward Day Cohota continued to serve in the army for more than twenty years after the war’s end. There were also at least two very prominent Chinese American soldiers in the Confederate Army: Christopher and Stephen Bunker, sons of the famous touring Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker (who were by the 1860s retired from their performing days and operating a successful slave plantation in North Carolina).

The story of the Bunkers, fathers and sons, illustrates the individuality and complexity of each Chinese American Civil War soldier’s story, and particularly of the motivations behind their enlistments. Geography and cultural identification were clearly prominent factors. Yung Wing, the future diplomat who attended Monson Academy in Massachusetts, graduated from Yale in 1854 as the first Chinese American college graduate, and would later found the Hartford (CT) Chinese Educational Mission in order to give other young Chinese men the opportunity to receive what he called those “New England influences,” volunteered for the Union Army in 1864. The eldest sons of the Bunker twins, who in the 1830s ended their North American touring with P.T. Barnum and settled in Wilkes County, North Carolina, where they lived, farmed, and created large families over the next forty years (between them the two men had 21 children by their deaths in 1874), enlisted in the Confederate army.

Personal experiences also shaped the soldier’s choices, however. Edward Day Cohota came to the United States as an impoverished stowaway aboard the merchant vessel of Captain Silas Day; when Day and his ship Cohota left Shanghai on December 27th, 1845, they did so carrying a starving four year old Chinese boy who did not know his own name, and upon discovering the stowaway Day named him Edward and took him back to his Gloucester (Massachusetts) home, where he raised him. Edward later added Cohota to his name and took December 27th as his birthday, in honor of that ship and origin point; when he joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry in 1864, it could be said that he was doing so to fight for other children born,as Frederick Douglass traced so powerfully, without legal names and birthdays. And as a slave himself, Thomas Sylvanus knew that experience even more intimately and closely; Maryland may have been a border state, but Sylvanus’s identity tied him to the Union cause.

Thanks to scholars like McCunn and the kinds of digital resources linked here, we now know far more about these Chinese American soldiers than was the case even a few decades ago. For this Veteran’s Day, there are few stories and histories more worth our collective memories.
 
http://www.mccunn.com/CY.html



Chinese Yankee
A True Story from the U.S. Civil War

"SINGULAR" New York Times June 21, 1891

Chinese-Yankee-sm.jpg


Enlarge Photo

Chinese Yankee by Ruthanne Lum McCunn tells the true story of Hong Kong born Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way), an orphan brought to America for schooling in the mid-1850s, but enslaved in Baltimore. 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."

"[Chinese Yankee] is an extraordinary story that still resonates 150 years later. With her empathy for the central character and her engaging and accessible prose, McCunn is ideally qualified to tell the tale."
Stuart Heaver, Hong Kong South China Morning Post,
November 1, 2014.
"Ruthanne Lum McCunn tells the truly remarkable story of Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way) with both a historian's skill at providing details and contexts and a novelist's talents for story and suspense. She engages her audience, draws them in...."
Ben Railton, American Studier,
April 16, 2015.
Advance Praise
"A true Civil War story that brings to life a uniquely American hero, CHINESE YANKEE gives the reader history that speaks to the heart with the aches of struggle, the challenges of identity, and the search for love against all odds."
Gus Lee, China Boy; Courage: The Backbone of Leadership; and With Schwarzkopf.
"Riveting. Couldn't put it down! Couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It's one thing to see a faded black and white picture, quite another to read it in living color, flesh and bone, joy and sorrow."
Carol Shively, editor, Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War
"Uncovering remarkable documentary evidence, Ruthanne Lum McCunn skillfully details the life of Union soldier Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way). A fascinating read that helps us better understand American society during this critical period in our history. Read it."
Franklin Odo, Project Director for Theme Study on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, NPS



51QkZItShyL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
After the suppression of international slave trade from Africa Cuba and Peru started to import Asian indentured servants. The usually indentured time was 5 to 8 years. Over half the Asians died during that 5 to 8 years. The length of indentured serve could be extended without the indentured servants permission. Asians were brought to the United States, but not in huge numbers. Plantain owners were interested in this new form of labor, abolitionists view it as a type of slavery. the "coolie traffic" in the United States ended in 1862. Over half of the Chinese who served in the American armed forces served in the Navy. This was not unusual for example 3/4 of the Hawaiians who served were in the Navy. Also 54 out of the 56 Philippians who served were in the Navy.
 
Chinese Yankee by Ruthanne Lum McCunn tells the true story of Hong Kong born Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way), an orphan brought to America for schooling in the mid-1850s, but enslaved in Baltimore. 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."

So this is still not clear to me. The author is described as a novelist. Is this book a fictional novel or an accurate historical account??
 
This is a very interesting story. I have heard of it before. It is still a very good story. Thanks for posting it. It is amazing what can be uncovered about the war.
 
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