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Italian Americans in the American Civil War are theItalian people and people of Italian descent, living in the United States, who served and fought in theAmerican Civil War, mostly on the side of theUnion. A contingent of soldiers from the formerKingdom of the Two Sicilies fought on theConfederate side, with most of these having been former prisoners of war who had fought againstGiuseppe Garibaldi during hisinvasion of the Two Sicilies. Between 5,000 and 10,000Italian Americans fought in the civil war.[1][dead link][citation needed]
Shortly after the onset of war, several hundred officers and soldiers in the Italian army went to the American legation at Turin and volunteered to fight in the Union army. Because of financial constraints, the U.S. army accepted only some of these volunteers."[2]
Most of the Italian-Americans who joined theUnion Army were recruited fromNew York City. Many Italians of note were interested in the war and joined the army, reaching positions of authority. Brigadier GeneralEdward Ferrero was the original commander of the51st New York Regiment.[3] He commanded both brigades and divisions in theeastern andwestern theaters of war and later commanded a division of theUnited States Colored Troops. Colonel Enrico Fardella, of the same and later of the85th New York regiment, was made abrevet brigadier general when the war ended.
Francis B. Spinola recruited fourregiments in New York, was soon appointed Brigadier General by PresidentAbraham Lincoln and given command of theSpinola Brigade. Later he commanded another unit, the famedExcelsior Brigade.
ColonelLuigi Palma di Cesnola, a former Italian and British soldier and veteran of theCrimean War, commanded the 4th New York Cavalry and would rise to become one of the highest ranking Italian officer in the federal army.[4] He established a military school in New York City where many young Italians were trained and later served in the Union army. Di Cesnola received theMedal of Honor for his actions during theBattle of Aldie.[5]
Two more famous examples were Francesco Casale and Luigi Tinelli, who were instrumental in the formation of the39th New York Infantry Regiment. According to one evaluation of theOfficial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, there were over 200 Italians who served as officers in the U.S. army.[6]
At least 260 Italian Americans fought as sailors in the Union Navy.[7]
At the outbreak of the American Civil War,Giuseppe Garibaldi was a very popular figure. The39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of whose 350 members were Italian, was nicknamedGaribaldi Guard in his honor. The unit wore red shirts andbersaglieri plumes. They carried with them both a Union Flag as well as anItalian flag with the wordsDio e popolo, meaning "God and people."[10] In 1861 Garibaldi himself volunteered his services to PresidentAbraham Lincoln. Garibaldi was offered a Major General's commission in the U.S. Army through the letter from Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward toH. S. Sanford, the U.S. Minister atBrussels, July 17, 1861.[11] On September 18, 1861, Sanford sent the following reply to Seward:
"He [Garibaldi] said that the only way in which he could render service, as he ardently desired to do, to the cause of the United States, was as Commander-in-chief of its forces, that he would only go as such, and with the additional contingent power—to be governed by events—of declaring the abolition of slavery; that he would be of little use without the first, and without the second it would appear like a civil war in which the world at large could have little interest or sympathy."[12]
According to Italian historian Petacco, "Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis."[13] Although the aging Garibaldi respectfully declined Lincoln's offer,Washington D.C. recruited many of Garibaldi's former officers.[14] On August 6, 1863, after theEmancipation Proclamation had been issued, Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln: "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure."[15]
About a thousand Italians, emigrants or descendants of emigrants, or with Italian names, enlisted in the armed forces of the Confederacy.
The military units of the South with the largest number of Italians came from Louisiana, the Confederate state with the largest presence of Italian immigrants. New Orleans, which was then the most populous city in the Confederate States, had a very high percentage of foreigners, and when the secession began, practically every ethnic group formed its own units.
The Italians already present in Louisiana attempted to form a battalion, called the "Garibaldi Legion" or, alternatively, "Garibaldi Guards": about 170 Italians volunteered.
On February 21, 1861, the "first company of the Garibaldi Guards" or simply "Garibaldi Guards" was prepared and fully equipped. On March 19, 1861, the “Garibaldi Guards” paraded through the streets of New Orleans, in uniforms that recalled the Garibaldi volunteers of Italy, red jacket and tricolor cockade.
The officers, all Italian, were: Captain Gaudenzio Marzoni (or Manzoni, both surnames predominantly Lombard), later made major and replaced by the aforementioned Captain Giuseppe (or Joseph), Santini (originally from Corsica), Second Lieutenant Ulisse Marinoni (from Brescia, political exile after the riots of 1848, in America since 1850) and Second Lieutenant Ernesto Baselli (surname predominantly Lombard).
Not having reached the number of men necessary to form an autonomous unit, the "first Garibaldi Guards company" was incorporated into the regiment of the "Cazadores Españoles-Spanish Hunters", of which it became Company F; Finally, after New Orleans fell to the Union, the Garibaldi Guards disbanded in early May 1862. Many other Italian names are found in the lists of other Confederate units. These were immigrants who had already resided in the Southern States. About a thousand Italians, emigrants or descendants of emigrants, or with Italian names, enlisted in the armed forces of the Confederacy.
The military units of the South with the largest number of Italians came from Louisiana, the Confederate state with the largest presence of Italian immigrants. New Orleans, which was then the most populous city in the Confederate States, had a very high percentage of foreigners, and when the secession began, practically every ethnic group formed its own units.
The Italians already present in Louisiana attempted to form a battalion, called the "Garibaldi Legion" or, alternatively, "Garibaldi Guards": about 170 Italians volunteered.[16]There also were Italian companies within regiments fromLouisiana,Virginia,Tennessee andAlabama; as well as parts of a company fromSouth Carolina.
Among theConfederate officer corps, GeneralWilliam B. Taliaferro had some Italian ancestry as a son of theTaliaferrofirst family of Virginia, descended fromItalians in England in the 1500s who settled theColony of Virginia in the 1600s.[17][18] GeneralP. G. T. Beauregard, aLouisiana Creole, had Italian ancestry via his mother Hélène Judith de Reggio, who hailed from a prominent first family ofSt. Bernard Parish,Louisiana established in 1747 by her grandfatherFrancesco Maria de Reggio, an Italiannobleman of theHouse of Este.[19][20]
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