Chinese Soldiers in the Civil War
The North found it easier to recruit idealists than the slave-holding South. Especially German idealists. After the failed 1848 Revolution, thousands of young Germans fled to America. When the Civil War erupted, many rushed to fight the forces of slavery and aristocracy that reminded them of those they had fled. As one German enlistee wrote home, the war was about: “freedom or slavery, and you can well imagine, dear mother, I support the cause of freedom with all my might“. A German mother described why her seventeen-year-old son fought for the Union: “I am from Germany where my brothers all fought against the Government and tried to make us free, but were unsuccessful … We foreigners know the preciousness of that great, noble gift a great deal better than you, because you never were in slavery, but we are born in it“.
Most foreign volunteers were European. However, there were enlistees from elsewhere. For example, at least 50 Chinese fought in the conflict, mostly for the Union. There were probably many more, not found in the archives because of the era’s racial classification. The 1860 census had only three racial categories: white, black, or mulatto. Many Chinese were defined as white in enlistment rolls, but nonetheless endured mistreatment because of racial prejudice. They soldiered on. Their numbers included John Tomney, who joined a New York regiment and was killed in action at the Battle of Gettysburg. William Ah Hang, one of the first Asian-American to join the US Navy, enlisted in 1863. There was also Joseph Pierce, who became the highest-ranked Chinese-American in the Union Army when he was promoted to corporal.
