Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. Mendelsohn (review)

Reviewed by: Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. Mendelsohn Josh Waddell (bio) Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army. By Adam D. Mendelsohn. (New York: New York University Press, 2022. Pp. 336. Cloth, 35. 00. ) The record of Jewish soldiers in the Civil War has been the cause of considerable historical controversy. The dispute dates to 1895 with the publication of Simon Wolf 's The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen. At the time, a growing anti-Semitic movement questioned the loyalty of Jewish Americans and pointed to their lackluster participation in the Union army as proof of their preference for moneyed interests over patriotic service. Wolf 's book responded to these arguments by meticulously researching Jewish soldiers and their contributions to the Civil War. While Wolf laudably defended Jews against anti-Semitic attacks, scholars have since found that he misidentified many soldiers as Jewish. Since Wolf 's book, the Shapell Manuscript Foundation has worked to create a full roster of Jewish Americans who served in the Civil War. The foundation's impressive research serves as the basis of Mendelsohn's book, in which the author seeks to correct the controversy by providing a clear account of the motivations and experiences of Jewish soldiers in the Union army. In his first two chapters, Mendelsohn addresses questions regarding the extent of Jewish enlistment in the Union army. He found that Jewish soldiers enlisted at lower rates than most other American groups, such as Irish and German immigrants. According to Mendelsohn, various social and economic factors unique to Jewish Americans influenced enlistment rates more than a lack of patriotic sentiment. For instance, Jewish religious organizations placed less peer pressure on Jewish men to enlist. Unlike northern Christian ministers, who alleged that the war with the South constituted a holy war, Jewish rabbis neglected discussions of the Civil War for fear of being portrayed as a "political rabbi. " Economics could also explain low enlistment rates. Many Jews in the antebellum North held positions as merchants or owned their own businesses. The professional careers of these men could collapse from a prolonged absence in the armed services. By contrast, those who held wage-based professions, Jewish or not, enlisted at higher rates, as they could see a boon to their economic standing through military service. Mendelsohn's next three chapters focus on the experiences of Jewish soldiers in the army. He argues that Jews had a distinct experience from that of other American ethnic minorities owing to their inability to create their own units. Unlike Irish and German immigrants, who created regiments where they could embrace aspects of their unique ethnic and religious heritage, Jewish soldiers had to compromise on these issues. The End Page 385 United States' overwhelming adherence to Christianity led to religious discrimination in the army. Jewish soldiers could not celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, and rabbis could not serve as regimental or hospital chaplains until Lincoln eased the rules in 1862. While some Jewish soldiers resented their marginalization, many succeeded in fitting in with army life. Mendelsohn found some instances of bullying, but he concludes that, for many Jewish soldiers, "being Jewish made little practical difference to their relationship with their peers" (128). While Jews succeeded in integrating themselves on an interpersonal level, that did not spare them from all discrimination. Famously, Union generals, such as Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Butler, administered orders that discriminated against Jews under their command. Grant's General Orders No. 11, which expelled all Jews living in areas under his control, sparked harsh condemnations from the Jewish press and a decline in support for the war on the home front. Mendelsohn's last chapter turns to Jewish remembrance of the Civil War. He suggests that wartime anti-Semitism led many Jews to disregard the Civil War as a landmark moment in their history. While other groups created veterans organizations and held memorials for ethnic units, the Jewish community engaged in a collective forgetting of the Civil War. Unlike other historians, who contend that wartime service led to greater integration of ethnic minorities, Mendelsohn argues that rising anti- Semitism in the United States during and after. . .