Northerners who travelled South to enlist in the Confederacy?

UncleBourbon

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Sep 4, 2019
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Massachusetts
I've been wondering if there are any examples of this for a while.
I learned of two individuals from my State who at the very least opposed the Union's role in the war verbally; Lysander Spooner, an abolitionist who compared the Union's effort to stop Southern secession to a master's effort to stop the freeing of his slaves, and Ambrose L. Kimball, an Essex County journalist who openly voiced that he felt the Lincoln administration's policies and efforts were contradictory to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, which resulting in him getting tarred, feathered and essentially chased to Iowa.
These two made me wonder if any Northerners, particularly from New England, opposed the Union with arms rather than rhetoric and attempted to or succeeding in enlisting in the Confederacy.

I'm aware of at least John Clifford Pemberton from Pennsylvania doing as such, however he was a General and I'm more interested in lower ranks, particularly those who would enlist as Privates.
Northerners who were caught attempting to join or aid the Confederacy would also be of interest.
 
Johnson was accused of trying to misappropriate government property during the Mexican War and allowed to resign. A 2008 article in the Murphreesboro Post stated "He was then transferred to Gen. Winfield Scotts army for the Vera Cruz campaign. Instead of being given a combat role, Johnson was appointed acting assistant commissary. At this point in his career, Johnson made a serious mistake in judgment and approached his commanding officer in New Orleans with a scheme to make money by misappropriating government property. That officer turned him in. A government inquiry followed and the decision was appealed to then President James K. Polk. Johnson was allowed to resign his commission in October 1847 without prosecution."

https://www.murfreesboropost.com/co...cle_5e1cb433-0b2d-502d-a8c9-5f864f61d1c6.html
Thank you. It sounds as though he was a major ringleader, or at least desired the benefits by leading an illegal enterprise. He might not have had an opportunity to enlist at the beginning of the war on the Union side. That clearly is a good reason if he wanted to fight, to head south.
Lubliner.
 
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He might not have had an opportunity to enlist at the beginning of the war on the Union side. That clearly is a good reason if he wanted to fight, to head south.

What kind of logic is that? He wanted to fight and since he couldn't fight for the Union he would fight for the Confederacy?

After his resignation, Bushrod taught one year at the Western Military Institute then at the University of Nashville until the war started. He was a Colonel in the Kentucky and Tennessee State Militias.

During his US Army service (1840-1847) he was posted in Florida, Missouri, Kansas (Fort Leavenworth), Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico.

Other than his Quaker upbringing, he seems a pretty typical case of someone who spent so much of their adult life in the South that they adopted it as their home. There may have been some resentment of his dismissal and/or added loyalty because KY and TN gave him a second chance, but that doesn't seem like the primary cause.
 
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William Clark Quantrill Was born in Canal Dover, Ohio and in 1857, at the age of 19, went with others of his community to settle in Kansas. In his early letters to his mother back in Ohio he appeared to show an abolitionist view of the events taking place around him, going so far as claiming his support for future Senator Jim Lane. But by the 1860's his views had changed. The life of a Kansas farmer didn't appeal to him and he tried several occupations, some legal, some not. One of the jobs he took was as a teamster carrying freight from Kansas to Utah where he came in contact and was befriended by fellow teamsters from Missouri. It was around this time that his views changed and he become pro-southern in his political outlook.
As the war broke out he was helping a Missouri farmer move his family to Texas. He returned to Western Missouri and joined a small group of Missourians who were acting as local protectors in opposition to Kansas Jayhawkers who were raiding into Missouri. He quickly became the leader of the group, and the rest is, as they say, history.
 
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William Clark Quantrill Was born in Canal Dover, Ohio and in 1857, at the age of 19, went with others of his community to settle in Kansas. In his early letters to his mother back in Ohio he appeared to show an abolitionist view of the events taking place around him, going so far as claiming his support for future Senator Jim Lane. But by the 1860's his views had changed. The life of a Kansas farmer didn't appeal to him and he tried several occupations, some legal, some not. One of the jobs he took was as a teamster carrying freight from Kansas to Utah where he came in contact and was befriended by fellow teamsters from Missouri. It was around this time that his views changed and he become pro-southern in his political outlook.

That's quite a pivot in only 4 years.
 
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@Joshism the logic I had been thinking was the U. S. Military might not have vouchsafed his return to a command after his dismissal during the Polk administration. Do you think if he had wanted to enlist under Lyon in Missouri, he could have? Kentucky was in neutral limbo at the time.
Lubliner.
 
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There were definitely Northeners in the enlisted ranks of the Confederate Army. There is a biography of one called"Yankee Rebel" who was from Ohio.
How many we don't know. We don't have a comprehensive study such has "Lincoln's Loyalists Union soldiers from the Confederacy" Richard Current North East University Press. Per Current 104k Southern white men from the eleven Confederate States joined the Union Army plus well over 150k black men.
@CSA Today cited a book that stated that 2k men from Pennsylvania joined the Confederate Army . @CMWinkler cited a source that stated that 4k men from Indiana joined the Confederate Army. There was at least one company from Southern Illinois that joined the Confederate Army.
Still nothing close to the 104k white men from the Confederacy that more then offset what ever amount of Northern men that joined the Confederate Army.
Leftyhunter

I have to back that I also read that there were several hundred or thousand Pennsylvanians who joined the Confederate military.

The book I got this from, which may be the one CSA Today uses, is called Pennsylvania's Civil War.

I haven't actually read the book yet, but from the information on the cover, or from a review, I can't remember which, it is mentioned that this amount of Pennsylvanians did in effect abandon their home state to fight for the cause of the Confederacy.

I read somewhere that a Pennsylvanian in the ranks of one of the armies was from Culp's Hill at Gettysburg; he may have even been a Culp, from what I remember. But I can not recall if he was Union or Confederate. I believe he was probably a Confederate, which is why I bring it up.
 
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I have to back that I also read that there were several hundred or thousand Pennsylvanians who joined the Confederate military.

The book I got this from, which may be the one CSA Today uses, is called Pennsylvania's Civil War.

I haven't actually read the book yet, but from the information on the cover, or from a review, I can't remember which, it is mentioned that this amount of Pennsylvanians did in effect abandon their home state to fight for the cause of the Confederacy.

I read somewhere that a Pennsylvanian in the ranks of one of the armies was from Culp's Hill at Gettysburg; he may have even been a Culp, from what I remember. But I can not recall if he was Union or Confederate. I believe he was probably a Confederate, which is why I bring it up.
About 4 years before the war, 17year old J Wesley Culp moved from Gettysburg to Shepardstown VA becuase he worked for a saddlemaker than moved there. While living there he joined the local militia company. When the war came he joined the VA regiment formed from the area. In 1861 was he a Pennsylvanian or a Virginian?
 
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I have to back that I also read that there were several hundred or thousand Pennsylvanians who joined the Confederate military.

The book I got this from, which may be the one CSA Today uses, is called Pennsylvania's Civil War.

I haven't actually read the book yet, but from the information on the cover, or from a review, I can't remember which, it is mentioned that this amount of Pennsylvanians did in effect abandon their home state to fight for the cause of the Confederacy.

I read somewhere that a Pennsylvanian in the ranks of one of the armies was from Culp's Hill at Gettysburg; he may have even been a Culp, from what I remember. But I can not recall if he was Union or Confederate. I believe he was probably a Confederate, which is why I bring it up.
Even if a few thousand Pennsylvanians voluntered for the Confedrate Army it's still doubtful that altogether there were even ten thousand Northerners enlisted in the Confedrate Army vs 104k white Southeners per " Lincoln's Loyalists Union soldiers from the Confedracy" and well over 159k Southeners of color who enlisted in the Union Army.
Leftyhunter
 
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About 4 years before the war, 17year old J Wesley Culp moved from Gettysburg to Shepardstown VA becuase he worked for a saddlemaker than moved there. While living there he joined the local militia company. When the war came he joined the VA regiment formed from the area. In 1861 was he a Pennsylvanian or a Virginian?

In 1861 I presume he was legally a Virginian, if he was granted citizenship by the state.

I consider him a Pennsylvanian in spirt, since he was presumably born and raised here, and left for Virginia shortly before the war.

Shepardstown, the culture of it, is pretty similar to Gettysburg as well. That whole southern stretch of PA, and what is now West Virginia, and western Maryland, and that northern section of Virginia, are all pretty similar. Today at least.

But thank you for that info; I believed he was a Cult and fought for the Confederacy, but I did not recall it exactly.
 
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Even if a few thousand Pennsylvanians voluntered for the Confedrate Army it's still doubtful that altogether there were even ten thousand Northerners enlisted in the Confedrate Army vs 104k white Southeners per " Lincoln's Loyalists Union soldiers from the Confedracy" and well over 159k Southeners of color who enlisted in the Union Army.
Leftyhunter

I'm not competing; I'm just stating my state's history as I know it.

Without reading more on the numbers who "switched sides," as it may have been considered, I can't really opine further.

As I understand it, a lot of Confederate records were destroyed at the end of the war, so maybe we will never know how many Confederate soldiers were Northerners before the war.
 
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I have to back that I also read that there were several hundred or thousand Pennsylvanians who joined the Confederate military.

The book I got this from, which may be the one CSA Today uses, is called Pennsylvania's Civil War.

I haven't actually read the book yet, but from the information on the cover, or from a review, I can't remember which, it is mentioned that this amount of Pennsylvanians did in effect abandon their home state to fight for the cause of the Confederacy.

I read somewhere that a Pennsylvanian in the ranks of one of the armies was from Culp's Hill at Gettysburg; he may have even been a Culp, from what I remember. But I can not recall if he was Union or Confederate. I believe he was probably a Confederate, which is why I bring it up.
Even if a few thousand Pennsylvanians voluntered for the Confedrate Army it's still doubtful that altogether there were even ten thousand Northerners enlisted in the Confedrate Army vs 104k white Southeners per " Lincoln's Loyalists Union soldiers from the Confedracy" and well over 159k Southeners of color who enlisted in the Union Army.
I'm not competing; I'm just stating my state's history as I know it.

Without reading more on the numbers who "switched sides," as it may have been considered, I can't really opine further.

As I understand it, a lot of Confederate records were destroyed at the end of the war, so maybe we will never know how many Confederate soldiers were Northerners before the war.
We can't know the exact number of Northerners who enlisted in the Confedrate Army but we know it was miniscule compared to the amount of Southeners who joined the Union Army. Even if records were burned there would be tens of thousands of state pension funds for Confedrate veterans from Northerners who fought in the Confedrate Army plus much more references to them in the various Confedrate autobiographies.
Leftyhunter
 
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Old thread but, in doing work on a local man, I found another Mainer in the Confederate army. He didn't go to the south in order to join up but happened to be there when the war broke out:

Oliver Crosby Gray, a captain (or colonel) in the Arkansas 3rd cavalry. He had been born in Jefferson, ME (a tiny town in Lincoln County) and was an 1855 graduate of Colby College (Waterville, ME). He survived the war and remained in Arkansas, dying there in 1905.
 
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Old thread but, in doing work on a local man, I found another Mainer in the Confederate army. He didn't go to the south in order to join up but happened to be there when the war broke out:
There were a lot of those - especially in coastal cities like New Orleans and Mobile.
 
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I believe he was a school teacher who had moved to Arkansas around 1859 for a job
He was. His whole family emigrated from Maine to Minnesota and he went on to Princeton, Arkansas. After the war he was president of St. John's College and a professor of math & civil engineering. At the time of his death (or shortly before), he was superintendent of the Arkansas School for the Blind in Fayetteville.
 
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3 examples:

Jeremiah Allen Fuss was born in Pennsylvania in 1814. He married in Berkely County, Virginia in 1839. He served as Mayor of Harper's Ferry for a time, and became the Richmond Master Armory builder, and was sent to Macon Georgia in 1862. (Page 26).

(Pages 24-25) Arnold Howard was born in Connecticut in 1831. He was the only "Albert Howard" living in Richmond in 1860 (census). He forged iron butt plates at the Richmond Armory.

(Pages 19-20) Salmon Adams was born in Springfield Massachusetts in 1819. He had been employed as an arms inspector at the Springfield Armory, and had southern sympathies. He went south and was hired as a Master Armorer for the State of Virginia, and then was the arms inspector for the Richmond Arsenal from 1861 to the end of the war.

Lubliner.
 
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Jeremiah Allen Fuss was born in Pennsylvania in 1814. He married in Berkely County, Virginia in 1839. He served as Mayor of Harper's Ferry for a time, and became the Richmond Master Armory builder, and was sent to Macon Georgia in 1862. (Page 26).

Berkekey is the next county over from Harpers Ferry, both now part of West Virginia but really should have remained part of Virginia due to their Shendoah Valley connections. So he spent nearly his entire adult life in the South and married into a Southern family.
 
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What would be really instructive is to distinguish those northerners who actually resided in free states in 1860-61, and went South to join the Confederacy.

Men of northern birth who had gone to the South prewar, and set down roots there (by marriage or otherwise), identifying with their adopted communities, were, if only "new-made" southerners, not really still northerners.
 
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What would be really instructive is to distinguish those northerners who actually resided in free states in 1860-61, and went South to join the Confederacy.

Men of northern birth who had gone to the South prewar, and set down roots there (by marriage or otherwise), identifying with their adopted communities, were, if only "new-made" southerners, not really still northerners.
There were some men gathered in California that when caught by the Federals, claimed to be headed to mine in Mexico. It was purported that they were on their way to Texas.
Lubliner.
 
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