72 | NOVEMBER 23 • 2023 
J
N

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

M

ore books have been written 
about the Civil War than any 
other topic in American history. 
It is the subject of an estimated 100,000 
volumes. Biographies and other treatments 
of Abraham Lincoln alone account for 
about 15,000 books. So, why should we 
welcome another work on the 
Civil War? Hasn’t the subject 
already been exhausted with 
tomes about battles, gener-
als, soldiers, the home front 
and battlefield technology, 
or about the politics and 
foreign relations of the era? 
In addition, there are numer-
ous detailed accounts of the 
minutia that Civil War buffs adore: tracts 
about belt buckles, uniforms, firearms, 
swords and the like. The list is expansive, to 
say the least. 
Only a handful of these books, however, 
focus upon Jewish soldiers, whether from 
the Union or Confederate armies. This gap 
in the literature of the Civil War left many 
questions regarding life for Jewish sol-
diers with overwhelmingly Protestant and 
Catholic comrades-in-arms and within an 
Army campaign that did not stop to con-
sider holidays, let alone Jewish holidays and 
Shabbat. But now, we have some answers 
regarding the lives of Jewish soldiers.
The recently published Jewish Soldiers in 
the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. 
Mendelsohn (New York University Press: 
New York, 2022), is an outstanding addition 
to the literature of Jews in the Civil War. 
Mendelson, associate professor of historical 
studies at the University of Cape Town, 
South Africa, is no stranger to the study 

of American Jewish history. 
He is co-editor of the journal, 
American Jewish History, and 
has published many contribu-
tions related to Jewish history, 
including Jews and the Civil 
War: A Reader with Jonathan D. 
Sarna, a prominent American 
historian (2010).
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil 
War may be Mendelsohn’s mas-
terpiece on Jewish soldiers in 
the War Between the States, or 
perhaps, one might say “to date” 
— the author is still writing. But 
this finely detailed, handsomely 
illustrated work will be a hard 
history to beat.
The narrative has two under-
lying general theses. On one 
hand, Jewish soldiers were just 
like other soldiers, regardless of 
ethnicity, race or creed. On the 
other hand, however, they faced 
historic antisemitism or just a 
plain lack of understanding and 
tolerance for the Jewish religion.
Jewish soldiers were like 
their Protestant and Catholic 
comrades in many ways. Most 
of them fought bravely; some 
did not. All of them dealt with 
the same conditions facing 
any Union soldier: poor quality, decidedly 
non-kosher food, often in short supply; 
rampant disease while in encampments 
with poor sanitary conditions; the horrors 
of surgery and recovery if wounded in 
action; and, of course, the sheer terror of 
battle (or as Civil War soldiers called it, 

“Seeing the Elephant”) in a war fought with 
modern weapons but outdated 19th-centu-
ry Napoleonic tactics. The loss of life was 
immense: more soldiers killed-in-action 
than all American wars combined until the 
Vietnam War in the 20th century. That sol-
diers from both sides were willing to charge 
into a mass of rifle and cannon fire is still 

Answers regarding the lives of Jewish soldiers on the ground.

Jewish Soldiers in the Civil 
War: The Union Army

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

