3. One-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American
During the Civil War, after Abraham Lincoln freed most of the African American slaves, a lot of them wanted to join the Union Army, which was a multicultural and multinational force ready to fight for their country. There were 10% German and 7% Irish soldiers in this army.
Other soldiers were English, Polish, French, Scottish, and Italian, and the interesting fact is that one of four regiments was made up of foreigners. Some academics argue that when African Americans were allowed to enlist in the Union Army in 1863, this influx of soldiers may have changed the course of the conflict.
What do you think about this subject? Tell us in the comment section.
40 Responses
Interesting
According to the book Humankind, many Union soldiers at Gettysburg did not fire their rifles. It was safer to keep reloading them than to stick their head up to take a shot.
However, parts of that battle were total carnage.
And other battles were not? Antietam made Gettysburg look like a skirmish.
That is more also towards the Cold Harbor battle. The men were in the trenches and figured out ways to have their names attached to their bodies (sewed or other forms of identification) a form of dog tags. Gettysburg was a different battle and covered a lot of terrain. Especially if you are retreating through town and being where you need to be in the hours to come.
Right you are, but about all soldiers north and south, in many other wars as well. In the chapter, “Colonel Marshall and the Soldiers who wouldn’t shoot,” Rutger Bergman wrote about statistics from WWII and,
“ When historians later began interviewing veterans of the Second World War, they found that more than half had never killed anybody, and most casualties were the work of a small minority of soldiers. In the US Air Force, less than 1 per cent of fighter pilots were responsible for almost 40 per cent of the planes brought down. Most pilots, one historian noted, ‘never shot anyone down or even tried to’.
Prompted by these findings, scholars began revisiting assumptions about other wars as well. Such as the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg at the height of the American Civil War. Inspection of the 27,574 muskets recovered afterwards from the battlefield revealed that a staggering 90 per cent were still loaded. This made no sense at all. On average, a rifleman spent 95 per cent of the time loading his gun and 5 per cent firing it. Since priming a musket for use required a whole series of steps (tear open the cartridge with your teeth, pour gunpowder down the barrel, insert the ball, ram it in, put the percussion cap in place, cock back the hammer and pull the trigger), it was strange, to say the[…]
So what were they doing? Only much later did historians figure it out: loading a gun is the perfect excuse not to shoot it. And if it happened to be loaded already, well, you just loaded it again. And again.”
Excerpt From
Humankind
Rutger Bregman, Erica Moore & Elizabeth Manton
https://books.apple.com/us/book/humankind/id1478682514
This material may be protected by copyright.”
This makes no sense. How could Abraham Lincoln free slaves when slavery was in the South and the South had succeeded from the Union? Lincoln had no authority to free Southern slaves and they were free already in the North. Stop trying to make out Lincoln was some great emancipator. He was not anti-slavery.
Totally incorrect the entire reason Lincoln and the north took up arms was to defend the constitution of the United States . By seceding the southern states had violated the constitution and thus the unites states was compelled to put down the rebellion creating a civil war which was based on the differences in each economy and its repetitive dynamics which of course the largest dynamic was the agrarian based southern economy which depended upon slave labor to keep its main export of cotton going Lincoln took a huge chance by writing the emancipation proclamation to outlaw slavery he took the chance of polarizing his own party
Lincoln’s primary interest was reunification… much like Putin with Ukraine, to give a modern-day example. Yes, blacks were free in MOST of the North. Their economy had not evolved to dependency on slave labor, and the South’s never should have been allowed to– but that was the US! They cared more about cheap materials to feed their mills that human rights, as long as it suited their purposes. Lincoln should have let the South go, and I believe that at this point all the states would be reunified, and slavery long gone WITHOUT the Civil War. Plus… maybe this is just a fantasy, but having seen firsthand the resentment and hatred and LACK OF A PLAN– well, I believe had slavery been abolished with a workable plan in place, the descendants of enslaved African workers might have been able to either assimilate OR thrive separately in America, whichever worked better for them, without the decades of abuse and suppression that followed the War. Secession was fed by the US’s (the North’s) aggressive acts early on– several states voted AGAINST it the first time… but changed their minds when they saw this. Virginia is a good example. MANY Southerners opposed leaving the Union. Had Lincoln been the leader we now pretend he was, much of the loss and conflict could have been avoided. But lets face it: no one in power REALLY had the best interests of the Black population at heart. 🙁 I think that’s something we can agree on. Some PEOPLE did– just not those with the power.
I enjoy history and would like more knowledge about African Americans contributions to building America by way of inventions and their resistance to those who enslaved them. Thank you.
Wonderfully informative and interesting article.
Interesting. Some of these I knew. The problems the cotton blockade created in Manchaster was new.
“For a Common Cause” by Charles Adams is an interesting read. A different perspective. Not for those who are not interested in digesting new or little known perspective.
Slavery was not the reason for the civil war, it was about state versus federal rights. The south felt that the Federal government was getting too big and ignored states and because the more populous states were in the North the Souths needs were not getting addressed. It wasn’t until 2 years after the war started that President Lincoln brought the issue of slavery into the mix through the Emancipation proclamation. He did that because the Europeans had just recently denounced slavery and were supporting the south. This turned the Europeans away from the south and allowed the north to gain control of the battlefields.
Put down those Texas textbooks. There were many issues that created the Civil War but slavery was the underlying, main issue. The South’s economy was an agrarian society and depended on slave labor. The only states rights involved were the rights to own another human being.
LOL, yes, the South’s economy depended on whatever it took to feed the North’s economy. And the North was happy to turn a blind eye to how it was done for DECADES, until they saw their source of goods slipping away, potentially feeding European markets instead of their own. NOW slavery can be an issue, LOL!! Because it isn’t helping the North. Too bad their human compassion didn’t extend to the indigenous people who were brutally “relocated” in order for British/European settlers to bring enslaved Africans in to grow whatever the North wanted, on a massive scale. Did I miss something? Was slavery a SECRET for all those years?? Was it not in Northern history books?
This idea that slavery was not a root cause of the Civil War is a red herring that was made up after the formation of the confederate states. Read the Lincoln Douglas debates or the various “Declarations of Causes of the Succeeding States.” These all are founded upon slavery. Having the dispute on goals, the legal argument became “do states have the right to succeed?,” that is what brought the argument of “states rights” up during and after the war.
https://acwm.org/blog/myths-misunderstandings-what-caused-civil-war/
Explore This Topic More:
“Primary Source: The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States” (Civil War Trust)
“Primary Sources: The Secession Commissioners” (Causes of the Civil War)
“Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War” (by Charles Dew)
“What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on Southern History” (by Edward L. Ayers)
I disagree. Call it states rights if you will. But the right the confederacy was fighting for was the right to keep slaves for free labor to increase their income. This was also true of the southern “Christians” as well even though they knew or should have know this was wrong.
Without slavery there would not have been a war.
You are exactly right!
If the 15th amendment gave everyone the right to vote, what was the purpose of the 19th, passed 54 years after the civil war, and ratified in 1920- which actually did give women the right to vote?
Blame the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the amendment. The 15th amendment is much like the voting rights act of 1965 yet it has never been enforced. In 1832 the Supreme Court found the Indian Removal act unconstitutional yet because it was popular no one in the government would enforce the decision. Same with voting rights.
Very interesting facts, i did not Know
200,000 African Americans enlisted and fought with the Union Army. Of course they made a difference in the outcome of the war.
Very interesting, I have a lot of books on the Civil War and wars the USA have been in
Interesting facts
I enjoy your work and as a degreed American & World History guy I find your work accurate and well presented. Being a Southerner (Tennessee born and raised) and a substitute teacher in Vermont I corrected many a history lesson plan related to the Civil War and slavery. It’s so sad how our secondary school curriculums related to History and the Humanities have been corrupted by voices like Howard Zinn and CRT. I miss Shelby Foote
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I enjoy your work and as a degreed American & World History guy I find your work accurate and well presented. Being a Southerner (Tennessee born and raised) and a substitute teacher in Vermont I corrected many a history lesson plan related to the Civil War and slavery. It’s so sad how our secondary school curriculums related to History and the Humanities have been corrupted by voices like Howard Zinn and CRT. I miss Shelby Foote.
I am sure there were lot of reasons for this war, it has been pushed to make it all to with slavery which I believe not to be true. All wars have many reasons and it depends who and what side you are talking too. We all know about the leaders, and we have let people erase some of the best because they were on the wrong side. I think removing and destroying history is unexcuseable. People use the thinking some are affended by them, we are all affended by something, but just being unpopular to some is no excuse to change history. Do not try to make hero’s out of everyone.
Try reading the source documents written at the time which stated that the confederate states were founded to preserve slavery:
The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States” (Civil War Trust)
“Primary Sources: The Secession Commissioners” (Causes of the Civil War)
“Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War” (by Charles Dew)
“What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on Southern History” (by Edward L. Ayers)
Great article! I had heard some of it, before, though.
Very interesting !
Interesting. Knew some, didn’t know others. Good read.
Our Congress people today need to read this and review our history. Especially about where we sll came from throughout the world, equal protection and the right fo vote. Certain ones come to mind more than others but all need a refresher.
I am very interested in the history of the civil war. It is a shame Civil War Monuments were destroyed or moved!!
Don’t think of it as a mockery. Just proves that always thanking people is the right thing to do.
I didnt knwo that Sonewall Jackson was a Hypochondriac. Did one of his own men kill him by misake?
Great synopsis of some very interesting facts that are not widely known. Thank you for enlightening us.
Very believeable. And interesting to read about.
Thanks so much for these very Indepth facts about The Civil War. I personally learned an expanded information I was unaware of.
I’m surprised that there is no constitutional amendment providing for how any state can leave the United States or stating secession can’t be done.
You should send this part of the article to the part of The Republican Party that are trying to take voting rights and other freedoms away from people. ( Especially Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump).