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Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army
Offers an engaging account of the experiences of Jewish soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War
What was it like to be a Jew in Lincoln’s armies? The Union army was as diverse as the embattled nation it sought to preserve, a unique mixture of ethnicities, religions, and identities. Almost one Union soldier in four was born abroad, and natives and newcomers fought side-by-side, sometimes uneasily. Yet though scholars have parsed the trials and triumphs of Irish, Germans, African Americans, and others in the Union ranks, they have remained largely silent on the everyday experiences of the largest non-Christian minority to have served.
In ways visible and invisible to their fellow recruits and conscripts, the experience of Jews was distinct from that of other soldiers who served in Lincoln’s armies. Adam D. Mendelsohn draws for the first time upon the vast database of verified listings of Jewish soldiers serving in the Civil War collected by The Shapell Roster, as well as letters, diaries, and newspapers, to examine the collective experience of Jewish soldiers and to recover their voices and stories. The volume examines when and why they decided to enlist, explores their encounters with fellow soldiers, and describes their efforts to create community within the ranks. This monumental undertaking rewrites much of what we think we know about Jewish soldiers during the Civil War.
What was it like to be a Jew in Lincoln’s armies? The Union army was as diverse as the embattled nation it sought to preserve, a unique mixture of ethnicities, religions, and identities. Almost one Union soldier in four was born abroad, and natives and newcomers fought side-by-side, sometimes uneasily. Yet though scholars have parsed the trials and triumphs of Irish, Germans, African Americans, and others in the Union ranks, they have remained largely silent on the everyday experiences of the largest non-Christian minority to have served.
In ways visible and invisible to their fellow recruits and conscripts, the experience of Jews was distinct from that of other soldiers who served in Lincoln’s armies. Adam D. Mendelsohn draws for the first time upon the vast database of verified listings of Jewish soldiers serving in the Civil War collected by The Shapell Roster, as well as letters, diaries, and newspapers, to examine the collective experience of Jewish soldiers and to recover their voices and stories. The volume examines when and why they decided to enlist, explores their encounters with fellow soldiers, and describes their efforts to create community within the ranks. This monumental undertaking rewrites much of what we think we know about Jewish soldiers during the Civil War.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published November 15, 2022
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December 13, 2022
This ARC was provided by NetGalley and NYU Press in exchange for an honest review.
After discovering that Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. Mendelsohn was available, I had to read this book. When I first received the copy and inspected it, I knew that with fifty pages of chapter endnotes (plus his position as Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town) that Mendelsohn’s research would be impeccable. Later, I would find out that my presumption was correct.
Although I’m not a military historian, I absolutely love history. I was impressed not only by the author’s research and fluid, easy-to-read writing, but also by the massive support he received from the Shapell Manuscript Collection Foundation. In particular, the Director of The Shapell Roster of Jewish Service in the American Civil War, Adrienne DeArmas, wrote the forward to this book. The author wrote this book after working with the Shapell Manuscript Collection Foundation. The Foundation and Mendelsohn worked (and continue to work) to reconstruct the names of all Jewish Civil War veterans.
In addition to his introductory chapter, the author arranged the manuscript using six (6) chapters and provided a total of six (6) appendixes. Interspersed throughout each chapter were photographs of people, letters, and other archival material which not only provided additional information, but also gave readers’ eyes a break from the pages. The appendixes were particularly useful as they contained information regarding the origins of the Shapell Roster, the methodology used to construct it, a listing of all Jewish Medal of Honor recipients, and even statistical data, among other items.
The usefulness of these appendixes can’t be overemphasized. Earlier in the year, I read Appelbaum’s Habsburg Sons: Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Army, 1788-1918 (2021). And while I enjoyed the book and learned from it, that author didn’t include any appendixes, which, unfortunately, limits the book to readers whose primary interest is in only history. Mendelsohn’s book, on the other hand, will likely appeal to people who, while interested in history, are also interested in family genealogy.
In both the Statistics appendix and the Hebrew Union Veterans Association appendix, the author lists names, ranks, regiment names, and some biographical information for veterans, ensuring that this book can easily command a space in any genealogist’s personal library or, indeed, on any library shelf.
Spurred on by an 1895 publication that listed the names of Jewish veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War, the author walks us through the whys and hows of Jewish enlistment in the war. During the Civil War, at least one in four enlisted men were immigrants. And like other immigrants who were exposed to discrimination, native and immigrant Jews also experience the prevailing racism. However, because antisemitism traveled (and continues to travel) across borders, many immigrants themselves were virulently antisemitic. Through Mendelsohn’s research, I learned that more than 10% of Jewish enlisted men changed their names outright using aliases or used an Americanized version of the same in order to combat nativism.
However, the most startling fact that I learned from this book was about General Grant’s General Order No. 11 that was instituted in 1862. General Order No. 11 expelled Jews from the military department under his control. This was no small matter, as Grant had several states under his jurisdiction. But Mendelsohn states that,
“…Their European experiences…provided Jews with better practice at living with prejudice than the Germans and the Irish had…” (Pg. 105)
Mendelsohn shows readers how Jewish collective memory suppressed Jewish Civil War achievements for almost thirty (30) years after the war ended. He also explained how this suppression was linked not to any feelings of lack of pride in the Jewish soldiers, but instead focused on healing fractured relationships among Union and Confederate Jewry. In addition, Mendelsohn revealed that by ‘sweeping the war under the rug’, the Jewish community hoped to avoid further antisemitic outbursts from the public, with the author calling the persistent antisemitism of the era an, “…unstable grenade…”
The one part of the book, however, that I really appreciated were the chapters where Mendelsohn focused on the human aspects of the war. At the time, there were numerous German-only and Irish-only regiments in the Union Army. However, with a smaller population, many Jewish recruits either chose to serve either alongside their relatives or by enlisting as ‘lone soldiers’ in a local company. As a result, it wasn’t unusual for there to be only a single Jew in an entire regiment. The result of this isolation being loneliness and the potential for antisemitic bullying, which often occurred.
Mendelsohn did not paint an ‘everything is rosy’ portrait. He objectively discussed the subject from a neutral standpoint, even pointing out the less-than-illustrious personages of the time. The author dispelled myth and corrected the inaccuracies of the 1895 publication to show that Jewish soldiers were,
“…mortal men in momentous times, grappling with the complexities of being Jews in the Union army…” (Pg. 224).
This was an excellent book. If you know someone who’s interested in Civil War history, history in general, or in the contribution of Jews to American history, then this would be a perfect gift.
After discovering that Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. Mendelsohn was available, I had to read this book. When I first received the copy and inspected it, I knew that with fifty pages of chapter endnotes (plus his position as Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town) that Mendelsohn’s research would be impeccable. Later, I would find out that my presumption was correct.
Although I’m not a military historian, I absolutely love history. I was impressed not only by the author’s research and fluid, easy-to-read writing, but also by the massive support he received from the Shapell Manuscript Collection Foundation. In particular, the Director of The Shapell Roster of Jewish Service in the American Civil War, Adrienne DeArmas, wrote the forward to this book. The author wrote this book after working with the Shapell Manuscript Collection Foundation. The Foundation and Mendelsohn worked (and continue to work) to reconstruct the names of all Jewish Civil War veterans.
In addition to his introductory chapter, the author arranged the manuscript using six (6) chapters and provided a total of six (6) appendixes. Interspersed throughout each chapter were photographs of people, letters, and other archival material which not only provided additional information, but also gave readers’ eyes a break from the pages. The appendixes were particularly useful as they contained information regarding the origins of the Shapell Roster, the methodology used to construct it, a listing of all Jewish Medal of Honor recipients, and even statistical data, among other items.
The usefulness of these appendixes can’t be overemphasized. Earlier in the year, I read Appelbaum’s Habsburg Sons: Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Army, 1788-1918 (2021). And while I enjoyed the book and learned from it, that author didn’t include any appendixes, which, unfortunately, limits the book to readers whose primary interest is in only history. Mendelsohn’s book, on the other hand, will likely appeal to people who, while interested in history, are also interested in family genealogy.
In both the Statistics appendix and the Hebrew Union Veterans Association appendix, the author lists names, ranks, regiment names, and some biographical information for veterans, ensuring that this book can easily command a space in any genealogist’s personal library or, indeed, on any library shelf.
Spurred on by an 1895 publication that listed the names of Jewish veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War, the author walks us through the whys and hows of Jewish enlistment in the war. During the Civil War, at least one in four enlisted men were immigrants. And like other immigrants who were exposed to discrimination, native and immigrant Jews also experience the prevailing racism. However, because antisemitism traveled (and continues to travel) across borders, many immigrants themselves were virulently antisemitic. Through Mendelsohn’s research, I learned that more than 10% of Jewish enlisted men changed their names outright using aliases or used an Americanized version of the same in order to combat nativism.
However, the most startling fact that I learned from this book was about General Grant’s General Order No. 11 that was instituted in 1862. General Order No. 11 expelled Jews from the military department under his control. This was no small matter, as Grant had several states under his jurisdiction. But Mendelsohn states that,
“…Their European experiences…provided Jews with better practice at living with prejudice than the Germans and the Irish had…” (Pg. 105)
Mendelsohn shows readers how Jewish collective memory suppressed Jewish Civil War achievements for almost thirty (30) years after the war ended. He also explained how this suppression was linked not to any feelings of lack of pride in the Jewish soldiers, but instead focused on healing fractured relationships among Union and Confederate Jewry. In addition, Mendelsohn revealed that by ‘sweeping the war under the rug’, the Jewish community hoped to avoid further antisemitic outbursts from the public, with the author calling the persistent antisemitism of the era an, “…unstable grenade…”
The one part of the book, however, that I really appreciated were the chapters where Mendelsohn focused on the human aspects of the war. At the time, there were numerous German-only and Irish-only regiments in the Union Army. However, with a smaller population, many Jewish recruits either chose to serve either alongside their relatives or by enlisting as ‘lone soldiers’ in a local company. As a result, it wasn’t unusual for there to be only a single Jew in an entire regiment. The result of this isolation being loneliness and the potential for antisemitic bullying, which often occurred.
Mendelsohn did not paint an ‘everything is rosy’ portrait. He objectively discussed the subject from a neutral standpoint, even pointing out the less-than-illustrious personages of the time. The author dispelled myth and corrected the inaccuracies of the 1895 publication to show that Jewish soldiers were,
“…mortal men in momentous times, grappling with the complexities of being Jews in the Union army…” (Pg. 224).
This was an excellent book. If you know someone who’s interested in Civil War history, history in general, or in the contribution of Jews to American history, then this would be a perfect gift.
January 30, 2024
3.5/5
This is a very unusual book to have made its way into my radar. It's one of the more serious works of academic nonfiction, and yet the local county library system has at least three copies, which is how I got my hands on it so soon after publication. It's dense with statistics and borderline redundant argumentation, but also has a generous amount of pages where one or two elementary school-esquely designed infographics take center stage amongst a gratuitous amount of empty space. And there are the tens, if not 50+, pages of endnotes, intimidating until you hit upon the one that contains, of all things, an authorially proclaimed exclamation point! As such, it's just as well that this book was written on such a highly specific subject, as those who are interested in such things as Jewish Union soldiers are that much less likely to give up on a book because one or another assumptions of how a book should be written weren't quite fulfilled. For me, the beginning and middle slogged more than I would've liked, but the ending pulled the entire endeavor back on the right track (aka pushing past the antisemitic haze and discovering the all too human in the face of all too overwhelming forces) and enough for me to give credit where credit is due. For this sort of work is vital in the age that bemoans misinformation and yet wants to sacrifice the golden calf for AI, and if you're wondering wherein hope for humanity lies, it's in the effort that seeks neither to castigate nor to absolve, but to dive into the complexity and wrest all that is reasonable, logical, and compassionate, and this book is that in spades (if every so often a tad heavy on the noncontextualized statistic).
This is a very unusual book to have made its way into my radar. It's one of the more serious works of academic nonfiction, and yet the local county library system has at least three copies, which is how I got my hands on it so soon after publication. It's dense with statistics and borderline redundant argumentation, but also has a generous amount of pages where one or two elementary school-esquely designed infographics take center stage amongst a gratuitous amount of empty space. And there are the tens, if not 50+, pages of endnotes, intimidating until you hit upon the one that contains, of all things, an authorially proclaimed exclamation point! As such, it's just as well that this book was written on such a highly specific subject, as those who are interested in such things as Jewish Union soldiers are that much less likely to give up on a book because one or another assumptions of how a book should be written weren't quite fulfilled. For me, the beginning and middle slogged more than I would've liked, but the ending pulled the entire endeavor back on the right track (aka pushing past the antisemitic haze and discovering the all too human in the face of all too overwhelming forces) and enough for me to give credit where credit is due. For this sort of work is vital in the age that bemoans misinformation and yet wants to sacrifice the golden calf for AI, and if you're wondering wherein hope for humanity lies, it's in the effort that seeks neither to castigate nor to absolve, but to dive into the complexity and wrest all that is reasonable, logical, and compassionate, and this book is that in spades (if every so often a tad heavy on the noncontextualized statistic).
February 26, 2023
Author Adam Mendelsohn has invested a lot of time and effort in researching Jewish soldiers in the American Civil War and presenting his findings for a general audience in this book. I borrowed it from my public library because I was interested in what light he might shed upon the several Jewish soldiers that had been identified as serving in the 28th Massachusetts Volunteers of the Union Army's Irish Brigade. (In fact, he seems to suggest that they may not have been Jewish since the earliest compilation apparently just collected names that seemed Jewish from unit rosters, so more research is in order.) This is an interesting and little discussed aspect of the Civil War and of American popular culture of the period - but I confess I did not enjoy reading this book. I finally concluded that this was because in organizing his material for a general non-academic audience, the author and publishers inserted two or three page long inserts at various points presenting a sidebar item with illustrations focused on individuals or elaborating in more detail on selected aspects of the subject - the result was that my reading of the main text was repeatedly interrupted by these diversions. It made for me a rather bumpy ride through the material. Your mileage may vary.
December 20, 2022
Adam D. Mendelsohn's Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army is an excellent addition to the discourse of Jewish American's contributions to the nation. Based on extensive research and the materials in the Shapell Civil War Database, Mendelsohn details Jewish enlistees "experience in the Union army from mustering in, to life in camp and in the field, reenlistment, demobilization and return home, as well as how they... recalled the conflict after 1865." (Pg 17).
While prior publications, particularly Simon Wolf's The American Jew As Patriot, Soldier and Citizen have been focused on the question of how many Jews served, Mendelsohn is instead focused on the individual experience. This is due to the evidence available, that lacking any Jewish majority units, there was no "one" Jewish experience of serving in the Union Army, instead each enlistee's service was their own, some maintained their faith, while others sought to minimize, change their names, or simple blend in with their units. Of particular interest was the discussion of food ways, balancing the Kosher laws against the pork heavy supply chain.
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War is divided into 6 chapters, with 6 appendices. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of military service. From first joining the army, through training, combat or other service, concluding with the legacy and memory of the war. Throughout this textual narrative, there is extensive quoting from primary sources and inset pages including reproductions of letters, photos and other artifacts. We frequently read the words of the soldiers, their family's or their communities. One especially entertaining entry details a Passover seder, but Mendelsohn is thorough also detailing the antisemitism in American society, as demonstrated in the description or language used for those supplying the Union army. The appendices detail the creation and methodological underpinning of the Shapell roster as well as lists of veterans and numerical statistics such as country of birth for enlistees.
A definite must read for those exploring Jewish American history, but will appeal to readers of minority studies, the Civil War or history.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
While prior publications, particularly Simon Wolf's The American Jew As Patriot, Soldier and Citizen have been focused on the question of how many Jews served, Mendelsohn is instead focused on the individual experience. This is due to the evidence available, that lacking any Jewish majority units, there was no "one" Jewish experience of serving in the Union Army, instead each enlistee's service was their own, some maintained their faith, while others sought to minimize, change their names, or simple blend in with their units. Of particular interest was the discussion of food ways, balancing the Kosher laws against the pork heavy supply chain.
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War is divided into 6 chapters, with 6 appendices. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of military service. From first joining the army, through training, combat or other service, concluding with the legacy and memory of the war. Throughout this textual narrative, there is extensive quoting from primary sources and inset pages including reproductions of letters, photos and other artifacts. We frequently read the words of the soldiers, their family's or their communities. One especially entertaining entry details a Passover seder, but Mendelsohn is thorough also detailing the antisemitism in American society, as demonstrated in the description or language used for those supplying the Union army. The appendices detail the creation and methodological underpinning of the Shapell roster as well as lists of veterans and numerical statistics such as country of birth for enlistees.
A definite must read for those exploring Jewish American history, but will appeal to readers of minority studies, the Civil War or history.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
December 13, 2022
Interspersed with historical documents and artifacts, Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War discussed the lives of Jewish men in the Union army, and how their wartime experiences differed from their Christian counterparts. The book did a great job putting the information into context and explaining the antisemitism in the army at the time, and in America as a whole, and how experiences in the Civil War led to higher occurrences of anti-Semitic feeling in the years after the war. Definitely a interesting read.
May 30, 2023
Starts out kind of slow, but gets better. Ended up really enjoying this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews