Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War - A Book Review

Greetings all!

Those of you who tend to pay attention know that I teach at a Modern Orthodox Jewish High School. Soooooo, for my year-long class on the Civil War and Reconstruction I thought the kids would enjoy learning about Jews in the Civil War. Years ago, before I did the research that would provide the foundation for this unit, I didn’t know all that much about the Jewish experience in 19th-century America beyond the basics. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 Jews in the United States in 1860, most of them were recent immigrants from countries such as Germany, Hungary, and Poland, and of these, about 8,000-10,000 would serve in the military, both in Union and Confederate armies. So, I surveyed the literature, chose some solid reading material, and last year I introduced the inaugural section on Jews in the Civil War. My students found that though a relatively small number of Jews actively participated in the war when compared to the three million or so who would eventually serve between 1861 and 1865, their experiences are fascinating, varied, sometimes informed by their Jewish identities and sometimes not. Like with any group of people, it seems that there is a lot of diversity within the group, all of which makes for stimulating conversation. My students loved it.

Any casual observer will also note that I am a historiography guy, so that is our entry point: an examination of the evolving nature of writing about Jews in the Civil War. Early historians of the American Jew, writing in the late-19th century and noting their contributions to the nation, offered a response to antisemitic accusations that Jews were insular and indifferent to the American experiment. Not so said certain scholars! In fact, the argument suggests, when duty called, Jews stepped up in fine style, fighting “shoulder to shoulder” with their Christian compatriots. Even Confederate Jews got a nod for supporting a cause they believed right, what one might call a virtue. Examining this literature one can see plainly that American Jews served their respective causes honorably. Fair enough, but this particular body of literature is more hagiography than history. Simon Wolf, for example, emphasized unflinching patriotism in his 1895 publication, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen:

Where home, or liberty or law is at stake the Jewish people have never been chary of the uttermost sacrifice, and the muster rolls of the armies in the great war between the States afford the fullest evidence of their ample share in its burdens and its sufferings. (105)

By midcentury, historian Bertram Korn had provided a valuable corrective. In his most salient contribution to the topic, American Jewry and the Civil War, first published in 1951, Korn underscored variance and nuance and took on subjects such as antisemitism (what previous scholars had said was negligible in the ranks) and Jews’ connections to the institution of slavery. Most importantly, Korn’s work opened the doors for a far more complex history of Jews during this period. Historians Jonathan Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn sort all of this out neatly in the introductory essays of their edited volume, Jews and the Civil War, which also includes a wide range of more recent scholarship on the subject. I assign this book to my students, and they have near unanimously embraced the volume with positive reviews.

Adam Mendelsohn’s most recent publication, Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army (New York University Press, 2022), the first of a two-volume series, explores the experiences of Jewish Soldiers in the ranks of the armies of the Union (the Rebel companion, as I understand, is currently in the works). Drawing heavily on the Shapell Manuscript Foundation and their database of Jewish soldiers, Mendlesohn’s objective is to trace both the individual and collective experiences of Jews who served. As Jews were scattered across both armies (as opposed to being organized in units), much of what they did to this point has remained “invisible.” Mendelsohn seeks to correct that. As such, by my estimation he should count this publication as a success. He also addresses events with which many lay-readers have some knowledge. To his credit, Mendelsohn reexamines the familiar stories and reveals complexities in terms of motivation, worldview, and any other number of variables that tend to contribute to the human experience. In addition, he explores the more unfamiliar group dynamic, especially that of Jewish immigrants, adding further diversity to the Jewish population, who brought with them “energy to competing efforts to adapt Judaism and Jewish life to the American environment.” And, in a rather fascinating look at this in action, he notes how “the political orientation of natives and newcomers alike was more often shaped by the places where they settled than by any common Jewish values of shared sensibilities.” (15-16)

Readers will engage all sorts of particular stories, tracing the experiences of individuals or highlighting significant themes, often set aside with accompanying illustrations. I found especially illuminating the tragic tale of the execution of several Union soldiers for desertion, including the Hungarian Jew George Kuhne. This execution, attended by a Methodist Minister, Catholic Priest, and Jewish Rabbi, was an event which holds the dubious distinction of being among the first (if not the first) government sanctioned interfaith service. Such a service should be of great interest to those who understand restrictive 19th-century requirements for U.S. Army chaplaincies and the complications of introducing a non-Christian faith into the mix.

Finally, this volume includes handy appendices helping to correct discrepancies in previous attempts to identify Jewish soldiers. I love this sort of thing…really, I do. Nothing makes me happier than poring over data - especially that of the Shapell Roster, which is at once extraordinarily revealing and detailed.

My intrepid students and I will be getting to the section, now in its second incarnation, in a couple of weeks. So I am looking forward to assigning selections from this book alongside some of the older materials. This new addition to the literature will most certainly help me explain historians in action: the “process” as it were. Here I see the potential for a great lesson in thinking historically…showing the evolutionary practice of creating historical scholarship. My students tend to eat this stuff up so I am really excited about our upcoming class discussions…and I am equally enthusiastic to see how things develop when Mendlesohn finishes the Confederate volume. I wonder indeed what distinctions he might find. Until then…

With compliments,

Keith