German Irish African and Native are all American

Myths, Memories and Realities of the War Between the States

Dr. Mary Ellen Rowe and Dr. Larry Olpin

German, Irish, African and Native are all American

For minorities, as for other Americans, the Civil War was an opportunity to prove their valor and loyalty. Among the first mustered into the Union army were a De Kalb regiment of German American Clerks, the Garibaldi Guards made up of Italian Americans, a Polish Legion, and hundreds of Irish American youths from Boston and New York.

Many people firmly believed, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that immigrants instinctively supported the union, and given the chance, deserted the South and sought their compatriots in Northern regiments (Burton 201).

More than 400,000 European immigrants fought for the Union, including more than 170,000 Germans and more than 150,000 Irish. Many saw their services as a proud sacrifice. William Burton writes in his book Melting Pot Soldiers about John Cochrane, the colonel of a regiment who was of Irish decent. Cochrane recalled

the “native” soldiers in the Union forces as typically a conscript rather than a volunteer, lacking in zeal and fire. Immigrant soldiers, in Co

. . .
A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy. They were dependant peoples as a result of American wars of conquest, treaties, or economic, political, social, and religious changes introduced by the “Long Knives. A great many of these same immigrants were men who fought and died in the American Civil War. Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War. When in all actuality that large majority is truly made up of smaller minority groups. To be sure, all historians are to some extent mythmakers. It has been shown over and over in many books how men joined, no matter what ethnic background, and then deserted because of fear. “State Security Planners” she argued, treated recent immigrants as though they were outside the nation-state political system in the early part of the war, as they did the blacks” (Burton 212). The myth that this was only a white mans war is portrayed in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem When Dey ‘Listed Colored Soldiers “An’ he couldn’t baih to lingah w’en he had a chanst to fight. Now is not the time for argument about true motivations but a time to learn myth from reality. Each group is bound by ideals, beliefs and dreams that are actually more of their own driving force than the group itself.

Common topics in this essay:
Michael Howard, John Cochrane, Mark Twain, North South, Boston York, Civil War, Germany Irish, Security Planners, African American, Warrior Confederacy, civil war, indians civil, indians civil war, north south, melting pot soldiers, immigrants fought, pot soldiers, chief gw, creek warrior, melting pot, warrior confederacy, creek warrior confederacy, fires american indians, jones 93, white mans war,

Approximate Word count = 1315
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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