Immigrants Rush To Join the Union Army—Why?

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For a full list of articles in The Immigrants’ Civil War, click here.

If you have been reading The Immigrants’ Civil War, you know that one-in-four soldiers fighting for the Union was foreign born. Immigrants rushed into the ranks of the new army every bit as fast as the native born in the weeks after Fort Sumter was attacked. Many immigrants who just weeks before had been complaining about discrimination in America volunteered to protect a government they had voted against.

The question that should be obvious, but is not often asked, is why would any immigrant join an army during a civil war?

The normal thing for foreigners to do when a civil war breaks out is to flee the country.

Think of events in Libya in the spring of 2011. As rebel forces traded fire with Gaddafi loyalists, British, American, Italian, and Egyptian workers in Libya fled. The same scene has been repeated when civil wars have wracked the Balkans, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Yet, tens of thousands of immigrants joined the Union army in 1861 and over the course of the war roughly half-a-million foreign born would serve.

Every immigrant who joined the Union Army in 1861 and 1862 was a volunteer. Most had only come to the United States within the last decade. Many were not even citizens yet when they joined. Some were buried on the battlefield before they took the oath of citizenship.

What were their motives for joining?

This installment of The Immigrants’ Civil War looks at the reasons men gave for enlisting during the first months of the war. This was at a time when patriotic fervor was at its highest, there was a confidence that the war would be short, and knowledge of the gory cost of battle was non-existent. I will devote future articles to the men who joined the army later in the war.

But before beginning to look at the many motives that may have led a foreign-born man to abandon the safety of civilian life, I wanted to point to a reason given by native born and immigrant alike for enlisting. Abraham Lincoln called America “the last best hope of earth” for democracy, and saw the war as the only way to preserve that hope. Many young soldiers, immigrant and native born alike, said the same in their letters home.

The Civil War came just a little more than a decade after the defeat of the democratic revolutions of 1848 in Europe. So-called government of the people, always under attack worldwide, appeared to be at its lowest point since 1776. Many immigrants, fleeing despotism in their homelands, believed that the Southern attack on the Union threatened to extinguish the flame of democracy worldwide.

One extraordinary letter that many soldiers would have agreed with was written by a member of the Irish Brigade. Peter Welsh wrote it not when he enlisted, but after the famous brigade was nearly destroyed at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Welsh’s wife, who never supported his decision to enlist, wrote to him asking why an immigrant would want to get involved in a war between different groups of fanatical native-born Americans.

To read the rest of this post on Long Island Wins, click here.
 
I must admit to not having very much knowledge of the northern immigrant and his reason(s) for enlisting in the union army. The movie "Gangs of New York" is probably all the information I've ever been exposed to and as with all Hollywood historical fiction, I take it with a grain of salt.

I do know that the Confederate army was full of immigants. We had our own Irish brigade (actually more than one). Every state in the Confederacy had a hodgepodge of people that had been born elsewhere. My own great-grandfather that served in the Confederate army was from Cuba.

Why they fought (both sides) I would guess would be for the reasons spelled out in the letter you posted. I think a man's sense of honour was more important than it seems to be today.
 
My foreign roots immigrated to the United States well after the American Civil War. One relative though, we're not privy to that line as he died before anybody had a real chance to find out his roots but, like to think he was here longest. But, too much assumption exists.

What my foreign born relatives have told down the line generational stories, that the reason why so many of their neighbors (German and Irish respectively) wanted to come to the United States -- was for a few reasons. They were, economics, politics, religion, improving their condition.

When they came, they felt they were better off in a new land, rather than sticking it out in their native land.

What was unique about the United States, verses their native land--it was more "republic" than monarchy. Here, everybody had a chance to improve their lives. They also identified as being American as soon as their toe touched American soil. My German relatives made absolutely clear that German won't be spoken but American English. If they already knew German (older kids), it would only be used on their property but--a toe off the family farm or other relative's property--English only. And, I suppose this is why my parents (born in the early 1920's) are so furious at the new immigrants for insisting America conforms to their language, e.g. Hispanics, etc.; for America to tolerate illegal immigrants when the system, though labor intensive to become a 'citizen,' it is citizenship won by honor not by occupation.

Mainly, the stories handed down each generation -- that the United States of America, though flawed is more blessed than American's appreciate until they live elsewhere and under different systems of government--not as a tourist but as a citizen. It is a "living" country--not an 'existing' country. By European standards the U.S.A. is young.

One relative who was German was awaiting his citizenship. He was drafted in Germany to fight in WWI and as a citizen of Germany he honored that commitment, he hated to go back once he tasted freedoms and the uniqueness of the U.S. But, once he was accepted as citizen to the U.S.A., he resigned from the German military, borrowed civilian clothes and went immediately to the Embassy of the U.S.A., and swore his heart and soul to the U.S.A..... You are correct Robtweb1 people had a much different sense of what honor was all about. This same relative, then went back the the U.S., joined the U.S. Army as a "doughboy" and fought against the very army he had been in by obligation not by choice.

I would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet, speak and get into the mind of this particular relative. I can't. However, worthy of great admiration for the honor above self mentality. Even the "Greatest Generation" seems to be the last of those who didn't have to toss "honor" about in words and or chest thumps--they didn't need to speak of honor--they lived in honor by their deeds.

Just some personal observations, comments and opinions.

M. E. Wolf
 
In its broadest terms, the reason, was the same as why the wave immigration was a flood(relatively speaking) in the North and a trickle in the South i.e., because of the south's unique 'peculiar institution' there was less opportunity to a better life for oneself and family by just hard work and thrift.
 
Excellent letter. Thanks for sharing it. Kinda makes me think we could use another "Related Links" thread here, this one with links to letters from CW soldiers.
 
Very good and informative posts. As mentioned there was a huge wave of immigration, especially from Germany, after the failed revolutions of 1848. I live not far from Cincinnati. Lots of them settled in Cincinnati and to this day there is still a German flavor to the culture there. They also opened a LOT of breweries. Millions! Made it the beer capital of the mid-west in the 19th century. Sausage capital also. Lotta hogs in Ohio. With the Ohio River and the terrain around Cincinnati it reminded a lot of them who were from the Rhineland of home. Still a section of Cincinnati called "Over the Rhine" but it is a poverty stricken area today. Lots settled in Columbus also. Neat "German Village" there.
 
While there were only a few hundred Asians living in the South at the time of the War for Southern Independence, records exist for several of these men becoming Confederate soldiers. Charles Chon, a Chinese National, was a private in Company K, 24th Texas Dismounted Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A. He was killed at the Battle of Franklin, TN, on Nov. 30, 1864, and is buried on the battlefield at the McGavock Confederate Cemetery. Another Asian-Confederate was William Henry Kwan of Co. B, 15th (or 12th) Virginia Battalion of Light Artillery. Kwan is a Cantonese (Chinese) name. The Military Image magazine showed his picture in their 1993 issue, where he appears to be of mixed Asian and Caucasian parentage. Another verified Asian Confederate is John Fouenty, a native of China, who was a cigar-maker in Savannah, GA, when the war broke out. He served in the Confederate army for a year, then was released because he was under age. Private Fouenty later returned to his native China. Research by Chinese-American researcher Shaie Mei Deng Temple of New Orleans, LA, reveals at least eighteen Asian-Confederates in various LA units, with names like Chou, Coo, Ding, Fai, Foo, Gong, Hai, Ho, Joung, Lin, Lee, Lou, Pang, Poo, Ting, and Wong. Perhaps the most famous Asian-Confederate soldiers were the two sons of famed P.T. Barnum Circus world-renowned Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. (The Thai twins took the name "Bunker" to Americanize themselves.) Chang & Eng, joined at the chest from birth, were devoted Confederates, tobacco growers, and slave-owners, living as farmers in North Carolina after they retired from the circus. In 1865, Gen. Sherman tried to conscript (draft) a most unwilling Eng for the Union Army, but could not, since Chang had not likewise been conscripted! If Sherman had known more about their family, he wouldn't have bothered to even try to draft a Bunker, so fierce was the family's devotion to the Confederacy. The twins had married the Yates sisters and had several children, rotating between each others' houses every few days. During the war, the Bunkers strongly supported the South, providing food, clothing, and nursing to Confederate troops. Chang's son, Christopher, served in Co. I, 37th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry. He was wounded and captured at Moorefield, WV, and spent several months in a Yankee POW Camp before being exchanged. He had to eat rats to keep from starving in the Yankee POW Camp. Stephen Bunker, son of Eng Bunker, joined the same cavalry unit. He was wounded at Winchester, VA, and again before war's end. He and his brother both became farmers after the war. Specific research into Asian-Confederates is only now in its infancy. Many more Asian-Confederates are expected to come to light as this research progresses.

http://www.thesouthernamerican.org/DIVERSITY_IN_THE_CONFEDERATE_ARMED_FORCES.htm
 
In Europe class was everything, it was difficult to better ones life, from that assigned you by the class you were born into(through no fault of your own) Talent, drive, ambition etc. would take you far within the limits assigned by your class, but no further.
Most emigrants felt they had a stake in the future of the Country; as it prospered, they could prosper to their best ability, no matter their 'station' in life they had been born into.(the squirearchical society developed in the south, held less appeal to poorer, less advantaged immigrant, than the more entrpreneurial North)
 
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