Immigrants Who Fought for the Union

They came to America with little more than hope. New faces. New languages.

New dreams. And when this nation tore itself apart… they chose to fight for it.

These were the immigrant soldiers of the Civil War — men who crossed oceans… and then

crossed battlefields. In the 1860s, America was a nation of newcomers. Irish escaping famine.

Germans fleeing failed revolutions. Men searching not just for work — but for dignity.

When war came, more than one-quarter of the Union Army was foreign-born. They weren’t drafted

by history. They volunteered for it. The Irish Brigade charged into hell

at Antietam and Fredericksburg. Many had already survived hunger, exile,