DK - The American Civil War

German-born Northerners questioned

their participation in the war and began

to turn inward, toward themselves and

their ethnic communities, for sympathy

and support. The supply of recruits for

the German regiments also

dried up, although most

German units fought on

much as before through the

end of the war, commanded

by German officers but

diluted by non-German

IMMIGRANTS IN THE RANKS

The nation’s various ethnic communities

retained their distinctive identities

and political interests, even as they

participated fully in war service.

NEW YORK CITY DRAFT RIOTS

In late July 1863, the Union’s largest city

erupted in violence as primarily Irish-American

citizens, angered at the new draft laws, went

on a rampage of burning, larceny, and lynching

that was only quelled by the arrival of Federal

troops fresh from Gettysburg 202–203 ❯❯.

FRÉMONT MOVEMENT

Displeased with Lincoln’s handling of the war,

Midwestern German-American radicals

sponsored John C. Frémont as an alternative

to Lincoln for the Republican presidential

nomination in 1864. Their attempt to unseat

Lincoln failed 236–37 ❯❯.

and disenchantment with the Union war
effort. The Irish Brigade had shrunk to
a shell of its former self. Recruitment
dropped off due to Irish dissatisfaction
with Emancipation, state draft laws,
economic hardship at home, and a
perception that they had been used as
cannon fodder in previous battles.

Mixed reactions
German-Americans felt the sting of a
resurgent nativism after the Battle of
Chancellorsville, in which the Northern
public placed most of the blame for the
Union defeat on the shoulders of the
German Eleventh Corps (the successor
organization to Blenker’s Division).
Outraged at what they perceived as
unfair aspersions and ugly lampooning,

draftees. For the ethnic communities

of the North, nothing was the same

after the summer of 1863.

In the end, 25 percent of all Union

soldiers were born overseas, most of

them in Germany or Ireland. Most of

these men served in nonethnic

regiments, bolstering the strength of

these units as the war dragged on.

Without them, the North would have

been hard-pressed to secure victory.

Irish regimental flag

The Union’s Irish Brigade was composed initially of New

York regiments, later joined by units from Pennsylvania

and Massachusetts, including the 28th Massachusetts,

a Boston regiment, whose flag is shown here.

Sunday Mass

Irish-Americans welcomed Catholic

chaplains in their units. Here Father

Thomas Mooney says Mass for the

69th New York Regiment, with Colonel

Michael Corcoran standing on his right.

AFTER