Immigration and the War

[CanadianCanuck]

I'm curious about how the war effected immigration to the Union and what effect immigrants played on the war, outside of being enrolled.

I know there's a lot of popular history about the draft and especially the New York riot in 1863, but what role in things like industry and settling the plains during the war?

 

[chellers]

@Pat Young is the forum host of "Immigrants During the Civil War."

There you will find a wealth of information: http://civilwartalk.com/forums/immigrants-during-the-civil-war.180/.

 

[hrobalabama]

I read somewhere that every port in the North had an enlistment table as the immigrants came ashore.

 

[Pat Young]

I have written a fairly extensive series of 170 srticles on immigrants and the war which you can find here:

http://www.longislandwins.com/columns/detail/the_immigrants_civil_war_table_of_contents

 

[Pat Young]

I'm curious about how the war effected immigration to the Union and what effect immigrants played on the war, outside of being enrolled.

I know there's a lot of popular history about the draft and especially the New York riot in 1863, but what role in things like industry and settling the plains during the war?

Immigration declined quite a bit in 1861. Who immigrates to a country in the middle of a Civil War. Wise immigration policies by Lincoln revived immigration just a year after the war started. Lincoln also succeeded in mobilizing nearly half a million immigrants for the Union armies.

 

[CanadianCanuck]

Immigration declined quite a bit in 1861. Who immigrates to a country in the middle of a Civil War. Wise immigration policies by Lincoln revived immigration just a year after the war started. Lincoln also succeeded in mobilizing nearly half a million immigrants for the Union armies.

Interesting. I'm curious, are there any hard (or even soft) numbers for how many people immigrated to America during the Civil War?