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Essay Archive - The Civil War
The Civil War
For minorities, as for other Americans, the Civil War was an
opportunity to prove their valor and loyalty. Among the first mustered
into the Union Army were a De Kalb regiment of German American clerks, the
Garibakdi Guards made up of Italian Americans, a "Polish Legion," and
hundreds of Irish American youths form Boston and New York. But in Ohio
and Washington, D.C., African American volunteers were turned away from
recruiting stations and told, "This is a white man's war." Some citizens
questioned the loyalty of immigrants who lived in crowded city tenements
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