Author: William Tang
Translator: Rosie P. Zhou
ABSTRACT
Few people knew that the Chinese had served in the American Civil War. We would like to honor the Chinese people who fought for freedom for their host, in this new country, the United States of America. Dr. Thomas P. Lowry did research on Chinese fighting the Civil War in the Army, and met Edward S. Milligan doing research on Chinese fighting the Civil War in the Navy, in the National Archives. They joined forces, and in April 1999, printed their joined written article in North and South Magazine. In the present article “Chinese Servicemen in the American Civil War” by William Tang, the author narrates the achievements of Lowry and Milligan’s research and gives brief accounts of 37 Chinese servicemen’s lives.
~~~~
In November 1860, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), a lawyer who opposed slavery, was nominated as the Republican candidate and subsequently elected to be the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln’s election meant that the rule of slave owners in the South was seriously threatened, and the federal government’s power would fall into the hands of Northern business owners and agricultural capitalists. However, Southern slave owners were unwilling to withdraw from the political arena. They decided to use the vague definition of the Union in the 1787 Constitution to create divisions and break away from the federal government.
On December 20, the Southern state of South Carolina was the first state to declare its independence from the Union. The following year, slave states such as Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama also seceded from the Union. On February 4, 1861, these states held a congress in Montgomery, Alabama, where they established the Confederate States of America government, enacted a separate constitution, and elected Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) as the first and only president of the Confederacy of America.
On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy declared war and attacked Fort Sumter, which was still loyal to the federal government, outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The attack on Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the Civil War.
The American Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861, and ended on May 13, 1865, lasting four years and one month. Approximately 620,000 soldiers were killed in battles, accounting for about 2% of the U.S. population at the time. Out of all wars in American history, it had the largest casualty ratio.
In May 1999, the Washington Post published a report by Linda Wheeler describing that two American historians, Thomas Lowry (1922-) and Edward Milligan (1922) -), had discovered a little-known historical fact found from the national archives. That is, more than 50 Chinese men participated in the Civil War. They fought bloody battles in foreign battlefields where the sounds of cannons shook the earth, and even died fighting. With the exception of a few, none of these Chinese soldiers were American citizens, and their Chinese names are unknown.
Mike Musik, an American Civil War military record archives scholar, said that their research is of great significance. “Many people will be surprised that the Chinese once participated in the Civil War,” he said. “This country is more nuanced than we thought.”
Lowery believes that despite the number of Chinese soldiers who served was low, it was still higher than that of other minorities, according to the proportion of Chinese in the United States at that time. He called for a monument to be built to commemorate the brave, loyal, and dedicated Chinese soldiers.
According to information provided by the National Park Service (NPS), among the Chinese soldiers who participated in the Civil War, 74 were born in China. Some fought for the Union Army, and some fought for the Confederate Army. Among them, 31 were in the army and 43 were in the navy. There were two born in the United States, the Bunker brothers. In addition, some Chinese soldiers were born in other countries or regions. The NPS announcement explained that some English and ambiguous names, as well as documents about the soldiers being hard to obtain, caused difficulties in verifying and confirming their race and origin.
Based on some of the Chinese military personnel I have found from limited information, I have listed their Americanized English names with numbers in front of them and attached Chinese translations to introduce their lives. Some are detailed and some are very simple. For first names beginning with Ah, Ah may be followed by first name or last name.
1. Edward Day Cohota
Cohota was from Shanghai, China. On December 27, 1845, the American steamer Kajota departed from Shanghai and sailed back to Massachusetts. Two days later, Captain Day found two Chinese boys half-starved on the deck. The older one, about 6 years old, died on the way due to ineffective rescue. Another boy, four or five years old, was the one named Edward Day (Day, the name of the captain) and Cohota (Name of the ship). Edward was taken to Massachusetts. Later on, he not only participated in the Civil War, but continued to be a true soldier after the war. He served in the U.S. military for more than two decades. His citizenship was repeatedly denied, but he always voted as a Republican.
Edward Day Cohota (Picture from http://zhenzhucity.com)
He died in Pierre, South Dakota, on November 18, 1935, at the age of 92.
2. Thomas Sylvanus
Thomas Sylvanus, whose Chinese name was Ching Lee, was born in Hong Kong on July 4, 1845, and died in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1891. While he was still alive, he received government pensions and war disability grants.
Sylvanus joined the Federal Army on August 30, 1861, at the age of 16. He was delisted a year later because of his injuries and reduced vision, but was removed in July 1863. He joined the army again on July 11, 1863. He was wounded while fighting in Pennsylvania and was captured in the Battle of Virginia. After the war, he was released and became fully blind. Sylvanus obtained citizenship and received a civil war pension in 1880. He used that money to open a laundry shop.
3. Antonio Dardelle
Dardelle was born in the Guangdong Province of China in January 1844. He joined the Federal Army on August 23, 1862 and was incorporated into the Connecticut Corps. He was in the 27th Regiment A Company.
Antonio Dardell fought for the Southern Army in the famous Gettysburg. (Ibid.)
According to information on January 23, 1863, Antonio Dardelle was in a hospital in Rhode Island, where his injuries were treated. He was naturalized on October 22, 1880. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, on January 18, 1933.
4. John Tomney
Tomney was a Cantonese soldier in the D Company, 70th Regiment, New York Corps. He was promoted to a corporal sergeant. He participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellesville, and Gettysburg. During the battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, both of his arms and both of his legs were bombed. After an extremely painful 3 months and 17 days, he died heroically on October 19 due to excessive bleeding. Reports and publications call him “a brave and kind soldier.”
5. John Earl
Earl was born on August 16, 1836 in California. His father was born in China and his mother was born in Mexico. He joined the Federal Navy. He died on February 23, 1921 in San Francisco, California.
6. William H. Kwan
Kwan joined the Southern Army and served as a soldier of the Light Artillery 12th Regiment of Virginia.
7. Kwong Lee
Lee was born in China in about 1839. He joined the Union Navy in 1862, and began by carrying mail for the army on a gunboat on the Mississippi River. Although he was not an American citizen, he was shot 5 times on the battlefield in order to defend the United States. The holes made by the 5 bullets consisted of one in the head, one in the chest, one in the left leg, one in the right foot, and one in the hip. In 1874, Kwong Lee was naturalized.
8. L. Kubser (Ling Kubser)
Kubser was born in China in about 1843. He joined the Union Army and was assigned to the F Company of the 64th New York Infantry Regiment. He died in Hampton, Virginia on January 23, 1905.
9. Hong Neok Woo
Hong Neok Woo (Wu Hongnuo) was born on August 7, 1834, in China. He was naturalized on September 22, 1860. On June 29, 1863, he voluntarily signed up for the Union Army. He was formally enlisted in the army on July 1, and was incorporated into the first company of the Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment as a soldier.
Hong Neok Woo (ibid.)
He was from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and obtained citizenship before joining the federal army. He was one of the few Chinese citizens in the United States who obtained citizenship at the time. He died on August 18, 1919 in Shanghai, China.
10. A. Moor
Moor was born in China. On January 9, 1865, at the age of 23, he joined the United States Army in Rhode Island and was incorporated into the United States Colored Troops for one year.
11. John/William Hang
John/William Hang’s Chinese name was Tong Kee Hang (Han Dongqi, transliteration), and for a while his name was William Han. Han was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China on July 17, 1841. Another source shows that he was born in Guangzhou. Around 1857, he came to the United States on the ship “Fearless”. His previous occupation was a chef. On July 24, 1863, when he was 22 years old, he enrolled in the U.S. Navy Ground Service for two years.
John/William Hang, Tong Kee Hang (ibid.)
On September 30, 1867, Han retired from the Navy in Boston, Massachusetts, and then returned to New York. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1870. He married Jenny Bush in the 1870s. Jenny died in 1878. Han married again to McGee Duffy. In 1887, his second wife also died.
Han was one of the most civically-conscious people among the early Chinese in the United States.
On February 13, 1911, New York’s “Saratoga” published a report entitled “Chinese Veterans Want to Vote.” It detailed how John Hang owned a cigarette shop at 500 North Pearl Street and wrote a letter to Secretary of State Philander C. Knox asking for his citizenship paper. When he was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1867, he was granted citizenship, but in 1908 he was revoked by a U.S. District Court judge. Before that, he had been voting in New York.
On December 3, 1923, Han died in Staten Island, New York.
12. C. K. Marshall (Charles K. Marshall)
Marshall was born in China in about 1847. He married in the U.S. in 1871. Later, he returned to China to teach and preach at Suzhou University in Suzhou, Jiangsu. He died in 1903.
13. Joseph Pierce
Pierce was born on May 10, 1842 in Guangzhou, China. His Chinese name cannot be verified. In 1852, when Joseph was 10 years old, he was sold to American Captain Amos Parker by his father for $6. Pike took him to Connecticut and gave him the surname of Franklin Pierce, who was running for president. In fact, Joseph Pierce was a slave.
Joseph Pierce (ibid.)
On July 26, 1862, amidst the second year of the American Civil War, 20-year-old Pierce registered in New Britain and enlisted in the F Company of the 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment.
On September 17, 1862, in the first Battle of Antietam in Maryland, Joseph fell from the defense and was seriously injured. He stayed in Alexandria Hospital in northern Virginia for more than a month.
He participated in the Battle of Gettysburg and was promoted to corporal, the highest rank of Chinese soldiers in the Civil War.
He retired from the army on May 31, 1865, and became naturalized on March 27, 1866.
He died in Meriden, Connecticut on January 3, 1916.
14. Christopher Wren Bunker
Bunker was born in 1843 (another source says that he was born on April 8, 1845). He joined the Southern Army in 1863 and was incorporated into the 1st Company of the 37th Battalion in Virginia. He died in 1932.
15. Stephen Decatur Bunker
Bunker was born in 1846. In 1864, he joined the army in Virginia at the age of 18 and was incorporated into the 37th Battalion.
On January 13, 1887, Stephen married Susan A. Nicols.
He died on March 25, 1920, at the age of 73.
16. Chon Ah Pon
Pon was born in the late 1820s and died on July 1, 1888.
On the 4th of July in 1888, the New York Times published a report: A Chinese veteran has passed away. Chon Ah Pon, an American Civil War veteran from Shanghai, was carried out of his dirty home on Water Street at 2 pm yesterday (July 3) and buried.
Ah Pon came to the United States in 1833, and after saving enough money, he started his own business. Later, he joined a regiment in New York and fought for three years. Even later, he lost all his savings in the gambling.
17. Tannroi Acoa
Acoa was born in Guangzhou, China. He enlisted in New Orleans on August 14, 1862. He was 23 years old and served for three years. Occupation before enlistment: chef.
After enlisting in the U.S. Navy, he served on the USS Pinola as an officer’s cook. The Pinola took part in the battle to conquer New Orleans in the Civil War.
18. Pedro Acow
Acow was born in Guangzhou, China in 1834. He enlisted in the Louisiana 2nd Infantry Regiment in New Orleans on September 30, 1862, at the age of 28. He abandoned the army in Algiers (an old city in New Orleans) on April 4, 1863.
19. John Afoo
Afoo was born in China around 1822. His previous occupation was a chef. He enlisted in New York on March 3, 1862, and served in the ground service of the United States Navy for 3 years.
20. John Ahoy
Ahoy enlisted to join the U.S. Navy on March 3, 1862. He served as a cook on the USS Wyandank warship from 1864 to 1865.
21. Ah Chee
Chee enlisted in the army on Mare Island, California, on March 8, 1865, at the age of 21. He provided room service for an officer on the USS Comanche. Residence: California. Service period: 1 year.
22. John Ah Ling
Ling was born in China around 1830. He registered in the army in 1862 and served on the USS Vermont. He was admitted to the Naval Hospital on April 28 due to rheumatism.
23. John Ahusoo
Ahusoo was born in China around 1831. Previous occupation: seaman. On March 27, 1865, at the age of 34, he was enlisted in the New York 134th Infantry Regiment; in June of the same year, he was transferred to the 102nd Infantry Regiment. He retired in Alexandria, Virginia on July 21, 1865.
24. Thomas Ahoy
Ahoy was born in Macau in about 1836. Previous occupation: chef. On November 9, 1860, at the age of 24, he was enlisted in Philadelphia for a three-year long period of naval ground service.
25. Ah Poa
Poa was born in China. Occupation: Waiter. On March 8, 1865, he was enlisted on the Isle of Mull, California, and served on the USS Comanche.
26. Ah Sin
Sin was born in China. He enlisted in San Francisco on February 10, 1863, and served on the USS Narragansett.
27. Ah Soo
Soo was born in China. He registered in New Orleans on July 9, 1863, and served on the USS Monongahela for 3 years.
28. John Ahsoo
Ahsoo was born in China around 1841. Previous occupation: seaman. In 1863, he was enlisted in the army in Jamaica, New York, and belonged to the Sufoco County Detachment. He served in the New York 133rd Corps and on October 3, 1864, transferred to the New York 90th Infantry Regiment on June 2, 1865.
29. John Afoo
In August 1862, at the age of 44, Afoo joined the Federal Navy and served on the Harvest Moon as a new sailor.
30. John Afoo
In March 1863, at the age of 44, Afoo joined the Federal Navy and served on the Wyandotte as a ship cook.
31. John Afoo
In March 1863, at the age of 44, Afoo joined the Federal Navy and served on the Wyandank as a ship cook.
32. Ahoo
Ahoo joined the Federal Navy at the age of 21 and served on the Wyoming as a new sailor.
33. John Ahoy
In March 1862, at the age of 28, Ahoy joined the Federal Navy and served on the Harvest Moon as a new sailor.
34. John Ahoy
In March 1862, at the age of 28, Ahoy joined the Federal Navy and served on the Pinola as an officer’s cook.
35. John Aie
In May 1864, at the age of 22, Aie joined the Federal Navy and served on the Tallapoosa as an officer’s cook.
36. John Akomb
Akomb served as a food steward on the gunboat USS Massachusetts and on the expedition of the Red River.
37. John Akee
In May 1862, at the age of 20, he joined the Federal Navy and served on the Tallapoosa as a new sailor.
The bumpy fate of every Chinese soldier in the American Civil War brought them to the United States, where they lived and died to fight for the interests of a guest country. They never thought they were participating in a war that determined the destiny of American history. Their fame will forever be engraved in American history and will be commemorated by people for generations.
References:
1. “The Blue, The Gray and the Chinese”
2. U. S. Department of Defense, “Chinese Soldiers Fought in U. S. Civil War”
3. Official National Park Service Handbook: “Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War”
4. Association to Commemorate the Chinese Serving in American Civil War
5. “Chinese Yankee” by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
6. Dai Wei: “Archives of Chinese Soldiers in the Civil War”
Pingback: Promoting National Museum of AAPI – 美华史记