Melting Pot Soldiers: The Union's Ethnic Regiments

By William L. Burton and William L. Burton

Melting Pot Soldiers is the story of the way immigrants responded to the drama of the Civil War. When the war began in 1861, there were, in most states in the North (primarily from Western Europe),... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813811155
• ISBN13: 9780813811154
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Iowa State University Press
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Good Introduction to Ethnic Regiments and Experiences in the Civil War

Many people assume that the tale of immigrants to this country are often harassed and discriminated against solely by "Native" Americans until they assimilate, hence the "melting pot" analogy. William L. Burton sets out to debunk such a black and white approach to the immigrant population of the United States during the Civil War period. He does so within a framework of the Union ethnic regiments raised during the war. The author points out that much of the discrimination of certain ethnic groups was by other ethnic groups, rather than by native-born Americans. The story of these ethnic regiments was also largely a story of political and religious scheming, personal advancement, and to further the reputation one's own ethnic group as patriotic and loyal Americans. As the war progressed, many ethnic regiments lost their ethnic identities as conscription and lack of ethnic volunteers caused these regiments to become more and more like any other Union regiment. The experiences of the two main ethnic groups, the Germans an the Irish, are compared and contrasted throughout the book, with other groups such as the Scandinavians, the English, the Scotch, the Italians, the French, and others are handled as well. Burton believes that the political parties of Civil War America embraced rather than discriminated against ethnics. The Know-Nothings and other anti-foreign and anti-immigrant groups were dying out by the time the Civil War started in 1861. In addition, political parties were happy to have famous foreigners such as the German Carl Schurz and the Irishmen Michael Corcoran and James Mulligan. These men tried to align their countrymen with whatever political party they were affiliated with. The Irish tended to be overwhelmingly Catholic and loyal to the Democratic Party. Germans, on the other hand, tended to vote along the same lines as native Americans, with no one religion or political party holding sway. In many cases, fights over ethnicity were not between ethnics and natives, but rather between two different ethnic groups, says the author. Each group basked in the glow of battlefield victories by their units, while also sharing in the shame of any defeat. The raising of ethnic regiments differed in some cases, but in many ways the characteristics were the same. Many ethnic regiments started the war with a strong ethnic identity. Others, however, had difficulty fulfilling their quotas when an ethnic group did not have a large representation in a given state. The 79th New york Highlanders, ostensibly a Scotch regiment, was from the start made up of people of many different ethnicities. Other regiments, like the 32nd Indiana (German),8th New York (German), and 69th New York (Irish), were almost exclusively composed of one ethnic group at the beginning of the war. One pattern seemed to hold true throughout the war, according to Burton. As disease and bullets took their toll and ethnic heroes were disgraced or disillusioned, the pool of ethnic manp

The Union Army's Universal Soldiers

This is a very good and highly readable overview of the various "ethnic" regiments that made up the Union forces during the Civil War. From funny to heartbreaking to admirable, the stunning variety of soldiers that entered the Union armies is fascinating. Some regiments were specifically formed to take in ethinc soldiers of a certain nationality but when few recruits of that group joined they took in all comers. The ethinic makeup of the Union forces was often times as colorfull as their wide variety of uniforms.