Invisible Southerners: Ethnicity in the Civil War

by Anne J. Bailey, Alan Downs (Foreword)

Most Southerners who fought in the Civil War were native born, white, and Confederate. However, thousands with other ethnic backgrounds also took a stand--and not always for the South. Invisible Southerners recounts the wartime experiences of the region's German Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans. As Anne J. Bailey looks at how such outsiders responded to demands on their loyalties, she recaptures the atmosphere of suspicion and prosecession, proslavery sentiment in which they strove to understand, and be understood by, their neighbors.

Divisions within groups complicated circumstances even after members had cast their lot with the Union or Confederacy. Europe's slavery-free legacy swayed many German Americans against the South. Even so, one pro-Union German soldier could still look askance at another, because he was perhaps from a different province in the Old Country or of a different religious sect. Creeks and Cherokees faced wartime questions made thornier by tribal rifts based on wealth, racial mixture, and bitter memories of their forced transport to the Indian Territory decades earlier. The decision was easiest for former slaves, says Bailey, but the consequences more dire. They joined the Union Army in search of freedom and a new life--often to be persecuted by Yankee soldiers and, if captured, punished severely by Rebels.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is actually the transcription of a lecture given at Georgia Southern University, with additional material added to the text. The author takes a look at three ethnic groups seldom discussed in the Civil War era: Germans, Native Americans, and African Americans. The author makes the case that although these groups fully participated in the war, the have gotten short shrift when it comes to the historical record. My ancestors were German, so the book had particular interest for me. And, it was a short book. Always makes it easier to breeze through them.