然而,如果这些和其他积累的事件使西尔韦纳斯的生活变得奇异,那么他的内战服务就不是。大多数华裔美国士兵,如希尔瓦纳斯,为联盟而战,有些人也得到了同样的当代声誉和赞誉:下士约瑟夫皮尔斯为葛底斯堡联盟的胜利做出的贡献在葛底斯堡博物馆获得了一张照片。战争结束后,Edward Day Cohota继续在军队服役二十多年。在联邦军中至少还有两位非常杰出的华裔美国士兵:克里斯托弗和斯蒂芬邦克,着名的巡回演员连体双胞胎Chang和Eng Bunker的儿子们(他们在1860年代从他们的表演日退休并在一个成功的奴隶种植园中经营北卡罗来纳)。
然而,个人经历也塑造了士兵的选择。爱德华·科乔(Edward Day Cohota)作为一名贫穷的偷渡者来到美国,船上是塞拉斯上尉船长的商船。当Day和他的船Cohota于1845年12月27日离开上海时,他们带着一个饥肠辘辘的四岁中国男孩,他不知道自己的名字,发现偷渡日将他命名为爱德华并将他带回他的格洛斯特(马萨诸塞州的家,他在那里抚养他。爱德华后来加入了他的名字Cohota,并将12月27日作为他的生日,以纪念那艘船和原点;当他于1864年加入第23届马萨诸塞州步兵队时,可以说他正在为其他出生的孩子而战,因为弗雷德里克·道格拉斯如此有力地追踪,没有合法的名字和生日。而作为奴隶本人,托马斯西尔瓦纳斯更亲密和密切地知道这种经历;马里兰州可能是一个边境州,但希尔瓦纳斯的身份将他与联盟的事业联系在一起。
Charles Chon, a Chinese National, was a private in Company K, 24th Texas Dismounted Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A. He was killed at the Battle of Franklin, TN, on Nov. 30, 1864, and is buried on the battlefield at the McGavock Confederate Cemetery. Another Asian-Confederate was William Henry Kwan of Co. B, 15th (or 12th) Virginia Battalion of Light Artillery. Kwan is a Cantonese (Chinese) name. The Military Image magazine showed his picture in their 1993 issue, where he appears to be of mixed Asian and Caucasian parentage. Another verified Asian Confederate is John Fouenty, a native of China, who was a cigar-maker in Savannah, GA, when the war broke out. He served in the Confederate army for a year, then was released because he was under age. Private Fouenty later returned to his native China. Research by Chinese-American researcher Shaie Mei Deng Temple of New Orleans, LA, reveals at least eighteen Asian-Confederates in various LA units, with names like Chou, Coo, Ding, Fai, Foo, Gong, Hai, Ho, Joung, Lin, Lee, Lou, Pang, Poo, Ting, and Wong.
Perhaps the most famous Asian-Confederate soldiers were the two sons of famed P.T. Barnum Circus world-renowned Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. (The Thai twins took the name "Bunker" to Americanize themselves.) Chang & Eng, joined at the chest from birth, were devoted Confederates, tobacco growers, and slave-owners, living as farmers in North Carolina after they retired from the circus. In 1865, Gen. Sherman tried to conscript (draft) a most unwilling Eng for the Union Army, but could not, since Chang had not likewise been conscripted! If Sherman had known more about their family, he wouldn't have bothered to even try to draft a Bunker, so fierce was the family's devotion to the Confederacy. The twins had married the Yates sisters and had several children, rotating between each others' houses every few days. During the war, the Bunkers strongly supported the South, providing food, clothing, and nursing to Confederate troops. Chang's son, Christopher, served in Co. I, 37th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry. He was wounded and captured at Moorefield, WV, and spent several months in a Yankee POW Camp before being exchanged. He had to eat rats to keep from starving in the Yankee POW Camp. Stephen Bunker, son of Eng Bunker, joined the same cavalry unit. He was wounded at Winchester, VA, and again before war's end. He and his brother both became farmers after the war.
Pvt. Charley Pang, Co. G. 1st La Infantry En. Federal Rolls of Prisoners of war. Captured near Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 20, 1863. Forward to Military prison, Louisville, Ky., from Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 30, 1863. Transferred to Camp Douglas, Chicago,Ill. in the city, about a mile south of the modern South Side Chinatown, Oct. 2 1863. Note: Co. G was named Orleans Light Guards Company.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2001 – In the 1860s, if you wanted to send someone "to the ends of the Earth" you sent them to China.
Those were the days of sailing ships augmented by steam power and China was as remote from the Eastern United States as it was possible to be. Still, Chinese Americans found their way to the East Coast, and researchers claim that as many as 50 Chinese fought as soldiers during the American Civil War.
The number does not include the Chinese who served in the U.S. Navy during the war. The soldiers fought on both sides, researchers claim.
The first Chinese on record arrived in what became the United States in 1815. A Chinese ship's cook settled in Monterey, Calif., then a Spanish province.
The mariners of the Eastern seaboard traded with China. American ships vied with European traders to bring back the riches of the Orient. That was how a Chinese child ended up in Massachusetts.
In 1845, Sargent S. Day, captain of the square-rigged merchant ship Cohota, left Shanghai, China, bound for Massachusetts. Two days from port, he discovered two little half-starved Chinese boys on board. The older boy died, but Day "adopted" the younger boy and named him Edward Day Cohota.
Edward sailed the world with Captain and Mrs. Day until the captain retired to Gloucester, Mass. in 1857. He attended school and the other Day children treated him as a brother.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Cohota joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. He fought in the Battle of Drury's Bluff near Richmond, Va., on May 16, 1864, and came out of the battle with "seven bullet holes thru" clothes. None touched his flesh."
At the Battle of Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864, a Confederate Minie ball parted Cohota's hair permanently, but he was not otherwise hurt. He stayed with the Army of the Potomac through the end of the war.
After the war, Cohota rejoined the Army and was stationed at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. He married and had six children. He served in the Army for 30 years. All that time, he thought he was a U.S. citizen and believed his Civil War service qualified him for the right. But he didn't take out his second set of naturalization papers until after the Senate passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. He was not a citizen and could not become one.
Cohota died at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Veterans in Hot Springs, S.D., in 1935.
Another Chinese soldier of the Union participated in the most famous battle of the Civil War -- the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, Pa.
Pvt. Joseph L. Pierce was age 21 when he enlisted in the 14th Connecticut Infantry in August 1862. It's unclear how Pierce ended up in the United States. One story has it that his father sold him to Connecticut ship Captain Amos Peck for $6. Another story was that his brother sold him for $60. Still another was that Peck picked up the lad, who was adrift in the South China Sea. Peck, a lifelong bachelor, turned the 10-year-old he called "Joe" over to his mother in Connecticut.
Young Joe went to school with the Pecks and formally became Joseph Pierce in 1853. He picked up the last name from President Franklin Pierce.
At the time of his enlistment Pierce was a farmer in New Britain, Conn. He listed his height at 5 feet 5 inches, dark complexion with dark hair and black eyes. His birthplace was Canton in Kwangtung Province, China.
His regiment participated in the Battle of Antietam, Md. Sept. 17, 1862.
He suffered some sickness during his time around Washington and was in the hospital for a time. He was assigned to the Quartermaster Department for a bit and rejoined the 14th in time for the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. in May 1863.
The 14th had a distinguished role in the Gettysburg campaign. "It fought on the north part of Cemetery Ridge on July 2 and was one of the units that helped repel Pickett's Charge," said Gettysburg Historian John Heiser. "The 14th was primarily responsible for turning back Brig. Gen. James Pettigrew's North Carolina division." Today, you can see the 14th Memorial to the north of the grove of trees marking the High-water Mark of the Confederacy.
The 14th's regimental history says that during Pickett's charge, Pierce appeared "pig-tail and all, the only Chinese in the Army of the Potomac." But he wasn't.
Cpl. John Tommy, of Company D, 70th New York Infantry, fought with III Corps on July 2. Tommy also was Chinese and from Canton. "We don't know how he ended up in the United States," Heiser said. "He lost both arms and legs during the fighting around the Peach Orchard. He died in the hospital on Oct. 19, 1863."
A third Chinese soldier, Antonio Dardell, fought with Union troops at Gettysburg. "He was taken as a child from China by a sea captain," Heiser said. "He enlisted Oct. 22, 1862, in Company A, 27th Connecticut Infantry. He was from Clinton, Conn. The unit fought at the wheat field." Little else is known of Dardell except he was a tinsmith in civilian life and applied for a pension from the government in 1912.
Historians say there may be more Chinese soldiers. It is tough to pick them out because they often took American names. Another member of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, John Lee, may have been Chinese. Of course, he may have been no more Chinese than the Confederate commander at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee.