Muslims in Early American Wars....

I think there must be a true dislike of Muslim's on this board. Only 85 people have viewed this thread and usually by now a thread as at least 100 plus views...I admit there not much history and nothing earth shuddering about Muslims in the civil war....but there a little.
Because you feel there haven't been enough views of your post.. that means we're religious bigots (?)...
(dumb)
 
Of the 10 Muslim last names I am curious to what units they were in. It mentioned Captain Osman. I am curious about his biography. What was it like to be Muslim during this period? Maybe I am missing the search parameters as I read about Moslem I found a lot on gum arabic but no one speaking arabic. Maybe there are more accounts of Muslim names that are Americanized like Hi Jolly or Hajji. My families original name was Kalbach Americanized it became Colbaugh and many variations Calbaugh, Coolbaugh, etc etc.
 
I knew had had seen some information on this subject , but could not remember where. I want to take everyone for do such good work on research. 5fish I found your information particularly interesting.
 
I'm curious. I thought that one had to actually practice Islam to be considered a Muslim. Simply having an Arabic sounding name would not necessarily qualify would it? Additionally, there are a number of Christians in the region whose name sounds Arabic.

This is certainly a subject that warrants some real academic study.
 
I'm curious. I thought that one had to actually practice Islam to be considered a Muslim. Simply having an Arabic sounding name would not necessarily qualify would it? Additionally, there are a number of Christians in the region whose name sounds Arabic.

This is certainly a subject that warrants some real academic study.
To what end?
 
I'm curious. I thought that one had to actually practice Islam to be considered a Muslim. Simply having an Arabic sounding name would not necessarily qualify would it? Additionally, there are a number of Christians in the region whose name sounds Arabic.

This is certainly a subject that warrants some real academic study.

That's why I qualified my response. You could be an Ethiopian Coptic Christian, or someone who had become a convert.

And yes, there are some interesting names floating around in all cultures. Take Taliaferro...pronounced Tolliver. Sounds Spanish...isn't.
 
There was a post here, not so long ago, about a Jewish reenactor who wanted to create an appropriate, historically correct, tallis - prayer shawl. I found that extremely interesting, knowing the problem Union Army (U.S. Army) Jewish soldiers had in getting a rabbi as a chaplain.

That was me (project still ongoing, BTW- I think the best thing is to buy a traditional, woolen tallis without an atara, or the neckpiece, and handsew one on as appropriate). I'm biased, obviously, but I find the role that Jews played in the war really interesting and often overlooked in reenactor circles, where I sometimes feel like the assumption is that outside of the Irish Brigade, everyone was either a Baptist, a Presbyterian or, for our German friends, maybe a Lutheran. I'm particularly fascinated by the Jews that fought for the Confederacy, if only because of the seeming contradiction of sitting at a Seder thanking God for bringing us out of slavery in Egypt one day, then going off to fight for the right to hold slaves the next. I think that dichotomy is a really powerful illustration of just how little the Civil War was about slavery for many people, but social and cultural identity, instead. It's also interesting to consider how entrenched these Confederate Jews must have been in their communities to be so ready to pick up arms on behalf of the Confederacy when you look at the comparatively small number of Jews (certainly observant ones) down south today, not to mention some of the nastier incidents with the KKK around the turn of the century (the Leo Frank case in particular comes to mind).

To get back to the original topic of this thread, I think it's an interesting one. I don't think that the lack of page views is indicative of religious bigotry at all, but one or two of the responses have troubled me a bit. Personally, I think it's really laudable for anyone to look for ways of identifying with the men and women who lived during the Civil War, not least because that's how a lot of us really make history real for ourselves. I'm happy to read about anyone who lived during the war, of course, but there's an added interest when it comes to Jewish participants, because I can relate to them on an additional level that's harder for me to reach when I'm reading about, say, a Baptist. I know what they're talking about when they talk about going into Charleston to find matzo for Passover, and I can relate to the difficulties of trying to keep some semblance of kosher in an environment totally unsuited to it because I've been there and lived that. It adds a different perspective that's important, I think, just like the stories of those Chinese-Americans who fought in the war, or women who served as soldiers or, in this case, Muslims who fought. And you know, if we're really all about honoring those who fought, as we so often say we are, then we should be happy that these stories are being told.

And without getting political, isn't it just as important for a Muslim-American kid to be able to identify, as an American, with his or her own history as it is for any other American? I think it would be great to be able to say to a Muslim kid visiting a living history, for instance, "Hey, you know, there were some people just like you who fought in this war," and be able to give a concrete example. That's how you draw people in and engage them in history. That's how you keep history relevant and encourage a new generation of reenactors. That doesn't mean that you pretend there were thousands and thousands of Muslims serving when there obviously weren't, but that's different than saying, "You know, there were people like you who had a stake in this."

I recently got back from two years serving at a consulate in China. One of my colleagues was a reenactor, and he did a number of Civil War-related presentations for our Public Affairs Section. Now, you can get up and give facts and figures and an overview of the war, which he did, and that's great, but he did another presentation that focused on one of those Chinese soldiers who served at Gettysburg and happened to be from the area of China in which our Consulate was based. It was extremely well-received, and it was a fantastic way to make the conflict relevant to a group of people for whom it would have had relatively little meaning otherwise. That's a big deal, especially in a place like China, where it's very homogenous, and people tend to be focused much more on their own culture and history than in what's going on in the rest of the world.
 
To give us a greater understanding of ethnic involvement in the war. Maybe it's just me, but I found Robert Rosen's The Jewish Confederates very interesting.

I actually have that book sitting on my shelf as I type this- I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it yet, but I grabbed it when I was at a used book store in NYC (the Strand, in case anyone else is in that neck of the woods- their Civil War section is pretty extensive, as is their selection of period books).
 
Diplogeek....wonderful post. I think you said it very well. We want to know this information. And IMO, the life of every person affected by the war is important if you study history.
 
Very interesting post. As Nate says, it is important to learn about all who served in the War, no mater what culture or nationality they from.

Edit: Name changed to protect the not so innocent. NB1
 
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The Confederate Veterans magazine list all new members to the SCV and about ten years ago there was a new member with a very Islamic sounding name. I don’t remember his name and I don’t know if he was a Copt or a convert to another Christian denomination, but I do know it was a name commonly associated with the Muslim faith.
Deo Vindice
 
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when you look at the comparatively small number of Jews (certainly observant ones) down south today,
Diplogeek, hey brother...
are you sure there are fewer % of Jews in the South than other regions of the country (?) You got some reference for that, because I feel like there are probably more Jews in the South, than Southwest or Midwest.. and Florida probably has one of the highest (state-wide %) Jewish populations in the country, no (?) I'm kinda curious now ~
 
Yes Islamic names do not mean the people were in fact Muslims. However the reverse could be true. A fairly well known photograph of Felix Baldberry of the 11th Michiagn shows that he was a Filipino. I an not certain, but Felix Baldberry does not look like a Philippian name to me.
 
Diplogeek, hey brother...
are you sure there are fewer % of Jews in the South than other regions of the country (?) You got some reference for that, because I feel like there are probably more Jews in the South, than Southwest or Midwest.. and Florida probably has one of the highest (state-wide %) Jewish populations in the country, no (?) I'm kinda curious now ~

To be fair, I wasn't really counting Florida, mostly because I don't think people would generally consider the areas of Florida where there are large Jewish congregations to be the "real South." Chicago is a big Jewish hub and has a large community, and Arizona has a population of about 106,000 Jews (I would suspect mostly retirees to the sunbelt, but I could be wrong). Virginia has a large Jewish population (about 95,000), but again, I think most of us are concentrated in the greater D.C. area up north than in the more southern areas of the state. I'm getting my numbers here, BTW, which seems as reliable a source as any (and it also compares the Jewish population of each state in 1899 with its population in 2002, which is interesting- some southern states actually gained, which I wouldn't necessarily have expected).

I probably should have clarified by saying the "Deep South," because you're right, if you count Florida and even Northern Virginia, that skews the numbers quite a bit. I don't know many southerners that would say that the Arlington/Alexandria/Fairfax area or Miami qualify as "the South," though.
 
A Chinese guy who was at Gettysburg? Does someone have the reference?

There were actually three of them that I know of, maybe more. Just doing a cursory internet search, here is an article from 1863 about one of them. Here is a more comprehensive listing of Chinese who served in the war generally. In the case of the first, Joseph Pierce, "Kwangtung" province refers to modern-day Guangdong Province (广东省), and Canton is now known as Guangzhou (广州). There were also a handful of Chinese sailors in the Union Navy. There's also this very interesting article from the South China Morning Post.
 
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