Source Information

JewishGen
Lynn Berkowitz, comp. U.S., Civil War Jewish-American Veterans, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
Original data: Simon Wolf. The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen. Philadelphia:: The Levytype Company, 1895. This data is provided in partnership with JewishGen.org.

About U.S., Civil War Jewish-American Veterans, 1861-1865

This database is taken from an 1895 directory published by Simon Wolf, entitled The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen.

Simon Wolf (1836-1923), in response to rising anti-Semitism in the United States and Europe, and particularly to the Dreyfus case, wished to refute aspersions on the patriotism of Jewish-Americans.

The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen is an index, by state, of Jewish veterans of both the Union and Confederate armies, and includes each man's name, rank, regiment, branch of service (infantry, cavalry, artillery), status (if wounded, captured or killed) and some brief biographical information if the veteran had been commended for bravery or other meritorious conduct.

This database is not intended to be a full or comprehensive listing of all Jewish soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Independent research has come up with about 100 names not in Simon Wolf's original list, and it is estimated there were about 10,000 Jewish-American servicemen on both sides of the Civil War. The current database contains over 7,250 records.

For more information about this database, please visit the JewishGen website: Jewish-American U.S. Civil War Veterans