Portuguese soldiers

[Dullknife]

Were their any units that were made up largely of men having Portuguese ancestry; north or south?

---John

 

[major bill]

Although Portugese have been in the US from colonial times, I am not sure of the numbers. It would appear that Massachusetts had some Portugese at the time of the Civil War. Perhaps that state might be the place to look for a Portugese unit. Many US ships probably took on Portugese from the Azores as crew members so any large port might well have some Portuguese imagrants. CivilWarTalk Forum does have an immigrant forum, I am not sure if there has been a thread on Civil War era Portuguese imagrants.

 

[The Ninth Ohio]

There are claims that there were enough for a Portuguese company in the 39th New York, but the descriptive lists at the National Archives tell a bit of a different story.