For America’s 150,000 Jews in a general population of 31,000,000 during the Civil War, it was a time of both self-examination and political devotion.Since most Jews lived in the North, the estimates of 7,000 soldiers in the Union Army and 3,000 in the Confederate Army seem plausible.
When the war broke out, for example, and Richmond, Virginia, became the capital of the Confederate States of America, 102 Jews from that city joined the ranks of the South, a proportion greater than the Jewish population of the city would suggest.
Two main legacies for Jews remained from the war itself: First, president Abraham Lincoln, for the first time in the nation’s history, authorized the establishment of a Jewish military chaplaincy.And second, the high point of antisemitism during the war occurred with the issuance by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant of an order expelling Jews from the southern military district that he supervised, an edict that Lincoln rescinded.
Though threats in the current American national debate about monument integrity have thus far not been voiced about destroying the Soldiers’ Section of Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery, it is instructive to examine the burial account of Capt. Madison Marcus, one of the Jewish dead interred there.This burial ground is believed to be the only Jewish military cemetery in the world outside of the State of Israel.
An iron fence with rifles as posts and crossed swords and sabers as railings surround an area of five rows that each hold six fallen Jewish Confederate soldiers.A headstone proclaims, “To the Glory of God and in Memory of the Hebrew Confederate Soldiers Resting in this Hallowed Spot,” and lists the soldiers’ names.
On October 22, 1864, Richmond’s Daily Dispatch newspaper printed Marcus’s obituary on its front page.In it he was described as being “in command of the heroic defenders” of Fort Gilmer “when it was attacked by a force of negroes and whites... he instructed his men to reserve their fire until the enemy was almost upon them, at which time he gave the order, and a more terrible fire from cannon and ringing rifles never greeted any foe.”
The newspaper notes that Marcus “was a young man, between 25 and 30.He was an Israelite; and although a number of his people who were in the army were granted leave of absence to attend upon the ceremonies of the ‘Fast of Atonement,’ which is a season of release from all labor, the Feast of Tabernacles closely following, yet he asked no leave, considering that in performing his duty to his country, he worshiped his God in an acceptable manner.”
The funeral services, the report concludes, were performed by the Rev. Max Michelbacher of Richmond’s Beth Ahavah Congregation.The Jewish American History Foundation contains copies of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s responses to various requests made by Rev. Michelbacher on behalf of Jewish soldiers.
Despite their heroic service, several military cemeteries including the one in Fredericksburg, Virginia, refused to permit Jewish soldiers to be buried with their comrades.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at CUNY, and author of Strangers and Natives, a Newspaper Narrative of Early Jewish America, 1734-1869.