Big Blue Owl wrote:Unfortunately, if you stand in the middle of a civil war, you open yourself up to this kind of horribleness.
I wonder what would have become of other cultures/countries if they tried to take sides in our own Civil War, standing on our land with weapons. Ya know, the bloodiest war in the history of the world?
Oh, you mean the "War Between the States"....
Read:
European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers. Over
6,000 Germans in New York immediately responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers. Another
4,000 Germans in Pennsylvania also joined. The French community were keen to show its support of the Union. The Lafayette Guards, an entirely French company, was led by Colonel Regis de Trobriand.
The 55th New York Volunteers was also mainly composed of Frenchmen.
It is estimated that over
400,000 immigrants served with the Union Army. This included
216,000 Germans and 170,000 Irish soldiers. There were several important German born military leaders such as August Willich, Carl Schurz, Alexander Schimmelfennig, Peter Osterhaus, Franz Sigel and Max Weber.
One Irish immigrant,
Thomas Meagher, became a highly successful commander in the war. Another important military figure was the
Norwegian soldier, Hans Christian Heg, who was mainly
responsible for establishing the Fifteenth Wisconsin Volunteers (also known as the Scandinavian Regiment).
An estimated
4,000 Swedes fought in the Union Army. Hans Mattson had a successful career as a colonel in the Union Army and later became Secretary of State for Minnesota (1870-1872).
At Chickamauga 63% of the Scandinavian Regiment were killed, wounded or captured. This included Colonel Hans Christian Heg, the highest ranking officer in Wisconsin to die in the war. Heavy losses were also experienced by the Scandinavian Regiment at Pickett's Mill (27th May, 1864).
The Confederate Army had few foreign-born soldiers. There main support came from
Irish immigrants and an estimated 40,000 joined the forces fighting the Union Army. The Irish tended to support the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. This led to the Irish taking part in draft riots in Boston and New York City during the summer of 1863.
The Irish had little sympathy for slaves as they feared that if they were given their freedom they would move north and threaten the jobs being done by Irish immigrants. One leading Irish-American politician, John Mitchel, wrote in his newspaper, The Citizen in 1856: "He would be a bad Irishman who voted for principles which jeopardized the present freedom of a nation of white men, for the vague forlorn hope of elevating blacks to a level for which it is at least problematical whether God and nature ever intended them."
Don't start none...won't be none.