Jewish Contributions in the America Civil War

This paper will examine the involvement of Jewish people during the American Civil War. The first part of the paper will examine the participation of Jews in the North and will discuss such issues as the appointment of Jewish chaplains and the creation of all-Jewish units. The second part of the paper will look at the experiences of Jewish soldiers in the Confederate Army. The last part of the paper will compare Jewish participation in the war to that of German and Irish Catholics, who comprised the bulk of recent immigrants to the United States.

The American Civil War occurred soon after the huge immigration waves of German and Irish during the middle of the Nineteenth Century, but before the large waves of Eastern and Southern Europeans during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Consequently, there were relatively few foreign-born troops serving in either the Union or Confederate armies. Moreover, later studies showed that immigrants were even underrepresented in the Union army, despite the fact that most immigrants during the Nineteenth Century settled in Northern and Eastern cities. Statistics show that while 30% of all military-age males in the Union were born outside the United States, only 25% of the Union Army and Navy were foreign-born.

On the other hand, most of this under-representation was among the Irish and German Catholic populations in the United States. Most of the other ethnic groups, in

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de, based upon similar events in other Civil War battles. First, the battle-tested 6th New Hampshire, a veteran outfit with a reputation for steadiness and courage under fire, was probably serving as a backstop for the Union retreat from the Widow Tapp Farm. The advancing Confederates, shouting the Rebel Yell as they went, were steadily pushing back elements of Wadsworth's Division until they reached the 6th NH's lines. The Confederates then would have opened up a heavy fire against the Union troops. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pearson, the commanding officer of the 6th New Hampshire, probably assigned Sergeant-Major Cohn to collect and organize whomever he could from those fleeing the battlefield to shore up his lines. This meant Cohn had to cajole and coerce panic-stricken soldiers from other units who didn't recognize his authority to stand and fight with the 6th New Hampshire while under heavy fire from the Confederate forces. Somehow, Sergeant-Major Cohen accomplished his task, helping to form the fleeing troops into a defensive line that brought Longstreet's counteroffensive to a standstill. Abraham Cohn soon received a commission as an officer and served with the 6th New Hampshire until mustered out on July 17, 1865 as
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Approximate Word count = 4967
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)