Henry Morton Stanley of "Dr. Livingstone I presume" fame was one of the more infamous English immigrants to participate in the war. Here is the Wiki entry on him:
"In 1859, at age 18, he made his passage to the United States in search of a new life. He disembarked at
New Orleans and, according to his own declarations, became friendly with a wealthy trader named Henry Hope Stanley, by accident: he saw Stanley sitting on a chair outside his store and asked him if he had any job opening for a person such as himself. He did so in the British style: "Do you want a boy, sir?" As it happened, the childless man had indeed been wishing he had a boy of his own, and the inquiry led not only to a job, but to a close relationship.
[6] The youth ended up taking Stanley's name. Later, he would write that his adoptive parent had died only two years after their meeting, but in fact the elder Stanley did not die until much later, in 1878.
[7] In any case, young Stanley assumed a local accent and began to deny being a foreigner.
Stanley participated reluctantly
[8] in the
American Civil War, first joining the
Confederate Army and fighting in the
Battle of Shiloh in 1862.
[9] After being taken prisoner he was recruited at
Camp Douglas, Illinois, by its commander, Col.
James A. Mulligan, as a "
Galvanized Yankee" and joined the
Union Army on 4 June 1862, but was discharged 18 days later due to severe illness.
[10] Recovering, he served on several merchant ships before joining the
Navy in July 1864. On board the
Minnesota he became a record keeper, which led to freelance journalism. Stanley and a junior colleague jumped ship on 10 February 1865 in New Hampshire, in search of greater adventures.
[11] Stanley thus became possibly the only man to serve in the Confederate Army, the Union Army, and the Union Navy."
Bringing the