The American Civil War (April 1861-May 1865) was fought by over three million soldiers.. At the time, the U.S. boasted a population of 27 million, eighteen million in the north and nine million in the south.
The Confederate States of America, consisted of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861. The root of the conflict was a disagreement about the institution of slavery. On February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States of America by the members of the Confederate constitutional convention. After four years of bloody conflict, the Union defeated the Confederate States and the states that had rebelled were readmitted to the United States, with the institution of slavery having been abolished nation-wide.
Jews played a disproportionate role in the American Civil War. The Jews constituted a very small percentage of the American population at the time; they numbered 150,000 out of a population of 27 million — only half a percent.
Ten thousand Jewish soldiers, most of whom were immigrants, enlisted; seven thousand joined the Union while three thousand fought on the Confederate side.
Many of the Jews who were part of the Union had immigrated from Germany and lived in the north in states such as New York and Pennsylvania; they numbered 125,000. Sephardi Jews who had historically been in the south, primarily in Charleston, South Carolina and Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom had immigrated from Prussia joined the Confederate side, which Jewish population was 25,000.
Jewish families and friends were split apart because of the sides they took. Sad, disconcerted and bewildered, fathers and sons, as well as brothers and cousins were pitted against each other. The guilt many Jews felt at having to shoot their own coreligionists was worse than being killed. A number of these Jews were observant.
It was reported in the Jewish Messenger, a N.Y. Jewish newspaper, that at the battle of Waterloo which marked the end of the Napoleonic wars a half century earlier in Europe, a very religious soldier would cry out Shma Yisrael each time he fired his gun. When asked why he was saying it so often, he replied that in case he was shooting a Jew, he would never forgive himself if the latter left this world without having these words recited on his behalf. This sentiment was duplicated during the Civil War.
We would like to share with you anecdotes and tidbits about Jews during the Civil War.
Pesach Celebrations During the Civil War
A fascinating letter written by an Orthodox Jewish confederate soldier is found in the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati Ohio. In the letter, dated April 24, 1864, which was Chol Hamoed Pesach, Isaac J. Levy of the 46th Virginia Infantry writes from a camp in Adams Run, South Carolina to his sister Leonora about how he and his brother Ezekiel were celebrating Pesach.
He writes that the previous letter he sent them, was by mistake written (which is forbidden) on the first day of Yom Tov. He apologizes that he did not realize it was Yom Tov already– he thought it only began the following day. He was shocked when he learned of his error. He includes several Hebrew words in his letter.
He relates that his brother purchased Matzos and: “We are observing the festival in a truly Orthodox style. ….we had a fine vegetable soup. It was made of a bunch of vegetables which Zeke brought from Charleston …containing new onions, parsley, carrots turnips… and also a pound and a half of fresh kosher beef…”
Four months later, on August 21, 1864, Isaac J. Levy was killed in the trenches at Petersburg. Isaac is buried in the Hebrew cemetery in Shockoe Hill in Richmond, in the Levy family plot.
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In 1862, the Jewish Messenger published an account by J. A. Joel of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment of a seder celebrated by Union soldiers in Fayette, West Virginia. Joel and 20 other Jewish soldiers were granted leave to observe Pesach. Interestingly, this soldier from the north also included Hebrew words in his account.
“….. Our next business was to find some suitable person to proceed to Cincinnati, Ohio, to buy us מצות [Matzos] Our sutler being a co-religionist and going home to that city, readily undertook to send them. We were anxiously awaiting to receive our matzos and about the middle of the morning of ערב פסח [Eve of Passover] a supply train arrived in camp, and to our delight brought seven barrels of Matzos. On opening them, we were surprised and pleased to find that our thoughtful sutler had enclosed two Haggadahs and prayer-books.
“…….We obtained two kegs of cider, a lamb, several chickens and some eggs. Horseradish or parsley we could not obtain, but in lieu we found a weed, whose bitterness, I apprehend, exceeded anything our forefathers ‘enjoyed’.”
Since they were not able to acquire the ingredients for Charoses – they decided to place a brick on the table, not to eat but to look at in order to be reminded of the hard labor our ancestors performed in Egypt.
A few months after the aforementioned Seder celebration, in September 1862, Joel was wounded during the battle of South Mountain in Maryland. After the war, he moved to New York, where he worked as a flag merchant and edited the veterans’ newspaper the Grand Army Gazette. He died in 1906.
We have depicted Jews of both the Confederacy and the Union celebrating Pesach. But what about the two together?
Historian Bertram Korn, who also served as the former editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent describes the situation of Union soldiers who, unable to form their own sedorim, were forced to celebrate with local Jews. He cites the story of a soldier, Myer Levy of Philadelphia, who was in a Virginia town one Pesach during the war when he saw a young boy sitting on his front steps eating a piece of Matzah.
Levy asked the boy for a piece; the child fled indoors, shouting at the top of his lungs, ‘Mother, there’s a damn Yankee Jew outside!’
The boy’s mother invited Levy to their seder.
Washington D.C. is Bombarded by Jews
In 1862, the influx of Jewish newcomers to Washington D.C. was considerable.
A correspondent for the Jewish Messenger dated Jan. 24, 1862 reports the following:
The number of Israelites quartered in Washington and its vicinity (exclusive of those in the Army) cannot fall short of two thousand.
As evidence of their presence, there are at least half a dozen kosher restaurants, all of which appear to flourish to the satisfaction of their proprietors. At one of them in particular, about dinner hour, there were forty guests seated at the same time, and, on their departure, an equal number ready to take their places. ..
A Soldier Observes Yom Kippur
The following was published in the Jewish Messenger under the title “Sketches from the Seat of War,” by an anonymous Jewish soldier.
“It is quite common for Jewish soldiers belonging to the same company, to meet together for worship on Sabbath, in some secluded spot, and I know a young soldier, who was on Yom Kippur morning, ordered to take part in a skirmish, near Harper’s Ferry, which he had to go through, without having tasted food. As soon as the enemy retreated, he retired to the woods, where he remained until sunset, reading his prayers and reciting Shma Yisroel.
“….A few months since, some Jewish soldiers suggested the idea of organizing all the Jewish soldiers in the army, into distinct regiments, with Hebrew banners, etc., so that both our food and religious services may be more consonant with our habits and ideas, and we may have the pleasure of associating with our own brethren. I was further informed that such was actually the custom among the Dutch Jews when they entered on active duty, and many curious stories were told of the orders being given in Hebrew, of prayers before the battle, and of Tephillin in the knapsacks.
“ The suggestion of my friends to form themselves into separate regiments was, however, disapproved of….. which was altogether unnecessary, as it is at present impracticable, and we are quite satisfied to fight with our Christian comrades for one cause, one country, and THE UNION.”
The Journey of a Silver Ethrog Box
A silver Ethrog box disappeared sometime after February 17, 1865, when Union forces occupied Columbia, South Carolina. The silver Ethrog box had been the property of Charleston’s historic synagogue Kahal Kadosh Beth Elokim, and had been sent for safekeeping to the state capital, along with the Shul’s Sefer Torah, Menorah, and other valuables.
Because of the chaos that ensued, when much property went up in smoke, or was carried off as spoils of war, no one knew for almost a century, where the Ethrog box had vanished to.
In the early 1960s the silver Ethrog box resurfaced in an antiques store in Connecticut where it was sold to Samuel and Esther Schwartz, collectors from Paterson, New Jersey.
In 1964, the Schwartzes visited Charleston to attend a meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society. There Jack Patla, a silver expert, antique dealer and guardian of the Beth Elokim archives, identified the Ethrog box from a photograph—as a result of the inscription on it. Twenty-two years later, in 1986, the couple gave the Ethrog box back to the congregation, where it sits on permanent display in the synagogue museum; visitors marvel at its travels and near-miraculous return.
Request to Observe the Sabbath
A letter written by a Jew by the name of Bernard Behrend from Sullivan County N.Y addressed to President Abraham Lincoln on December 4, 1862 was published in the Occident Jewish monthly.
The father who came from Germany is requesting that since Lincoln recommended that the officers and men of the army shall observe the Sabbath of the Christians and do no work on Sunday.. that his son be permitted to observe Saturday as the Jewish holy Sabbath.
He writes:
“I gave my consent to my son, who was yet a minor, that he should enlist in the United States army; I thought it was his duty, and I gave him my advice to fulfill his duty as a good citizen, and he has done so. At the same time, I taught him also to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, when it would not hinder him from fulfilling his duty in the army. Now I do not want that he shall be dragged ….to the church to observe the Sunday as a Sabbath. Your Excellency will observe in this my writing that I am not very well versed in the English language, and if there should be found a word which is not right, pardon it…. I love my country, the Constitution, and the Union, and I try to be always a loyal citizen.”
This son, Adajah Behrend enlisted with the regular army in 1861 and was promoted to hospital steward. He was wounded at James River in 1862. After recovering, Behrend rejoined his unit and continued to serve through the rest of the war. Eventually he became known as a legendary physician of Washington D.C.
Rabbis’ Views on Slavery
Paradoxically, an orthodox Rabbi from New York who belonged to the Union which opposed slavery delivered a sermon which became widely reprinted that condoned slavery.
Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall of Manhattan’s Congregation B’nai Jeshurun was a dramatic orator and writer who had the distinction of being the first Jewish clergyman to deliver an opening prayer for a session of the United States Congress (February 1, 1860).
On January 4, 1861, which President Buchanan had declared as a national day of fasting and prayers for the preservation of the Union, Rabbi Morris Raphall delivered a sermon which was published in the New York Herald, “A Bible View of Slavery” in which he claimed that both G-d and the Bible endorsed slavery. He stated:
“…..slaveholding is not only recognized-and sanctioned as an integral part of the social structure when it is commanded that the Sabbath of the L-rd is to bring rest to, ‘thy male slave and thy female slave’. (Exod. 20:15). But the property in slaves is put under the same protection as any other species of lawful property when it is said “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house or his field, or his male slave or his female slave, or his ox or his ass or aught that belongs to thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:14).
In the North, many were disappointed with his words; Southerners viewed it with satisfaction.
“Slavery has existed since the earliest time,” the rabbi wrote. “Slave holding is no sin,” he declared, since “slave property is expressly mentioned in the Ten Commandments.”
Another Orthodox rabbi who defended slavery was Rabbi Bernard Illowy (1812-1871) who came from a family of great Talmidei Chachomim. He came from Kolin, Bohemia, and had been a student of the Chasam Sofer in Pressburg. He attended the rabbinical seminary in Padua, Italy, and received a Ph.D. at the University of Budapest. He immigrated to the United States, where he was a staunch defender of Orthodoxy and polemicist against Reform Judaism.
He served as the rabbi of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and spoke at its Lloyd Street Synagogue criticizing the abolitionist movement: He cited from the Torah that slavery was tolerated by such figures as Abraham, Moses, and Ezra.
As a result of Rabbi Illowy’s talk which became popular among Jewish secessionists, he was invited to become the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Chased in New Orleans, where he served until 1865.
General Grant’s Expulsion of Jews
Rescinded Three Days Later
In 1861, an anti-Semitic letter which appeared in a Louisville, Kentucky journal as well as in a local bulletin denounced the Jews of Paducah for their alleged role in illegal cotton trading and their being “habitual smugglers.”
On December 17. 1862, in order to curtail “the illicit traffic of cotton,” General Ulysses S. Grant issued General order 11 expelling all Jews “as a class” from the states of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all areas under his command.
Grant was infuriated by cotton smuggling that damaged the Union’s ability to squeeze the South economically. In his eyes, the perpetrators were all Jews. Although Jewish people were active as peddlers, merchants and traders, and some undoubtedly made money speculating on cotton, they did not make up the bulk of the black marketeers.
Even though none of the Jewish residents in Paducah, Kentucky were involved in cotton speculation, they had twenty-four hours to leave.
A Jewish Paducah merchant by the name of Cesar Kaskel upon leaving Pachuca immediately telegraphed President Abraham Lincoln in a desperate attempt to spread the word about Grant’s actions. He then went to Washington to protest the order in person.
President Lincoln was so shocked by the order that he asked his staff for confirmation. Once they confirmed that it was real, he had Grant revoke it after being instructed to by General in Chief Henry Halleck.
Grant revoked the order three days after it was issued.
Professor Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University who has published more than thirty books on American Jewish history has devoted his book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” to this topic.
He writes of Grant’s regret and his apologizing for it publicly. He states that during the latter’s eight years of his presidency, eager to prove that he was not prejudiced, Grant appointed more Jews to public office than had any of his predecessors. Sarna states that paradoxically, Ulysses S. Grant’s order expelling the Jews set the stage for their empowerment.
President Grant was the first U.S. president to attend synagogue services and was proud of the fact that on his deathbed Jews visited him and prayed on his behalf.
Jewish Physicians in the Civil War
David Camden de Leon (1816-1872) was born in Camden, South Carolina to Sephardic parents. His father, Mordecai Hendricks de Leon, was a physician and three-term mayor of Columbia, South Carolina and his mother, Rebecca nee Lopez was born in Charleston.
David de Leon graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a medical degree and became an assistant surgeon in 1836. He became known as “the fighting doctor” for his heroics during the Mexican American War in the Battle of Chapultepec. On two occasions he led a cavalry charge after the commanding officer had been killed or wounded. For his distinguished services and for his gallantry in action he twice received gratitude from Congress.
As with many officers from Southern states in the U.S. Army, he was opposed to secession and was torn when time came to choose a side at the beginning of the Civil War. Dr. de Leon resigned his commission in early 1861 and was appointed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to the role of Chief Surgeon of the Army of the Confederate States of America. From March 1861 until August 1862, he held the post as the South’s surgeon general. After the war, he moved to New Mexico and died in 1872.
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Pinhos Yonatan Horwitz (1822 – 1904) was a great grandson through his mother (Devorah nee Andrew) of Haym Salomon, the financier of the American revolution. He was born in Baltimore where he was educated and then attended medical school at the University of Maryland. Horwitz enlisted as an Assistant Surgeon in the US Navy in 1847 and served continuously until his retirement in 1884.
After the Mexican-American War, when he was placed in charge of a naval hospital in Tobasco, Mexico, he worked on several different ships where he practiced medicine on many stations of the Service. When he returned to the US he was appointed as Assistant to the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in 1859. He served in that capacity in Washington, DC, throughout the Civil War.
Horwitz was a leading expert in the treatment of gunshot wounds and was appointed by President Lincoln on April 19, 1861 as Surgeon and Lieutenant Commander
At the outset of the Civil War, the Union medical corps consisted of 83 surgeons and assistant surgeons, of whom most had never treated a gunshot wound. Horowitz composed an early wartime treatise on gunshot wounds, in which he describes in detail the variety of wounds, and their treatment. It was completed in January 1862.
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Dr. Morris Asch (1833-1902) was the second son of Joseph and Clarah Ulman Asch. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1855 as a medical doctor. Soon after graduation he was appointed medical assistant to Dr. Samuel Grossman, a prominent surgeon.
When the fighting began in 1861, Dr. Asch was appointed as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army. A few months later, he went on active duty and in 1862 was appointed surgeon-in-chief for the artillery reserves in the Union Army of the Potomac. He participated in many important battles during the Civil War including Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Altogether, he tended to wounded soldiers during sixteen battles.
Right before the war concluded in 1865, Asch attained the rank of major and continued serving in the army even after the conclusion of hostilities. While on General Phillip Sheridan’s staff, he came down with yellow fever. Once he recovered, Asch rejoined the army. He held positions as the medical inspector of the army and medical director for the 24th Army.
Dr. Asch retired in 1873 and became a renowned expert in the field of laryngology.
The Chaplaincy
Michael M. (Meir) Allen, born in Philadelphia in 1830, is the first known Jew to have served as a chaplain in the United States Army.
In one of his sermons, he states that he knows many of the soldiers who immigrated recently were not conversant in the English language. He informed them that he would be glad during their leisure hours in camp, to teach them the language.
Unfortunately, In September 1861 he, was forced to give up his position as chaplain of the 65th Regiment of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry because a law passed at the time, stated only a Christian could serve as an army chaplain.
The American Jewish community worked with the press to change this discriminatory law. On December 4, 1861, the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, the only Jewish national organization at the time, contacted, Arnold Fischel a Dutch historian who had been given the title, “lecturer” at the Synagogue Shearith Israel of New York and served as an assistant to the Chazzan.
The Board of Delegates of American Israelites persuaded Arnold Fischel to come to Washington to meet with government officials and to lobby to have the law changed. They obtained for him an audience with President Lincoln to discuss the issue.
The meeting was a success, and Rabbi Fischel reported that Lincoln “fully admitted the justice of my remarks, and agreed that something ought to be done….”
On July 17, 1862, Congress adopted Lincoln’s proposed amendments to the chaplaincy law to allow “the appointment of brigade chaplains of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religions.”
Following the successful completion of the lobbying task of Arnold Fischel, the board of delegates appointed Rabbi Fischel to serve as a chaplain in the Potomac region in exchange for a $20/week expense stipend.
Ironically after having achieved the amendment to the chaplaincy law, Rabbi Fischel himself was turned down by the surgeon general to be appointed as an official hospital chaplain because, allegedly there were not enough Jewish soldiers in the Washington area who needed him. This was untrue because many soldiers had not identified themselves as Jewish and this was before the use of dog tags. Neverthless as mentioned earlier he was appointed by the Jewish community. Historian Bertram Korn states that the Jewish soldiers in hospitals were extremely grateful for his visits. He would pray at their bedsides with them and assure them that they would be buried in Jewish cemeteries.
Since he had been appointed by the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites and not the U.S. governemnt, Rabbi Fischel did not serve as chaplain for long. The Board of Delegates was unable to continue contributing to his expenses, which amounted to more than twice his stipend. Rabbi Fischel returned to Holland where he remained till his passing in 1864.
The U.S. Army’s first Jewish chaplain to be officially appointed by the government was nicknamed the “sweet singer of Israel.” Rabbi Jacob Frankel(1808-1887) was a very popular rabbi and cantor of Philadelphia’s (Reform) Congregation Rodeph Shalom. A native of Bavaria, Frankel came from a musical family and was already an accomplished cantor when he acceded to the Philadelphia post.
Jewish Generals During the Civil War
Gen. Frederick Salomon was one of four brothers who immigrated from Germany and distinguished themselves during the Civil War (Edward, Frederick, Charles, and Herman). He was colonel of the 9th Wisconsin Infantry during its first year and then commanded a brigade in the Southwest for the remainder of the war.
Frederick Salomon came to the United States in 1848, and settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin where he used his knowledge of engineering and surveying to establish himself in business. Twelve years later, he relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Salomon volunteered for service.
He first joined the 5th Missouri Infantry as a captain and was then recalled to Wisconsin to help form the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, a regiment composed mainly of German immigrants. Because of his experience, Salomon was appointed its colonel.
After training in Milwaukee, his regiment was sent to the Southwest in January 1862 where they conducted raids on Confederate bands in Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
On July 12, 1862, Frederick Salomon was promoted to brigadier general in the U.S. Army while the command of the 9th Infantry passed to his younger brother, Charles Eberhardt Salomon In the battle of Helena, Arkansas, in the summer of 1863 he was brevetted brigadier general after the war.
Frederick Salomon designed defenses that enabled his Union forces of 4,000 men to turn back 10,000 Confederates.
Frederick’s older brother Edward Salomon became the Governor of Wisconsin when his predecessor, Louis Harvey fell off a boat and drowned in the Tennessee River while delivering medical supplies to Wisconsin troops.
Herman Salomon, Frederick’s youngest brother was a sergeant in the 1st Missouri Engineers and was also brevetted brigadier general.
In 1927 the citizens of Manitowoc erected a monument on the lawn of the Manitowoc County Courthouse in honor of the four Salomon brothers for their service in the Civil War. The 27 ton granite monument was officially dedicated on Sunday, October 23, 1927.
Governor Fred R. Zimmerman attended the dedication and closed with saying “The four Salomon brothers deserve to have their names enrolled on the same page of the Book of Fame whereupon are inscribed those of Steuben, Herkimer, Muchlenberg, Schurz, and Sigel. This memorial should become a shrine where patriotic Americans, particularly those of German ancestry, may come for inspiration in future years, and renew their devotion to the high ideals of liberty and unselfish public service which are the glory of our country, and the best guarantee of its place of honor among the nations of the world.”
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Leopold Blumenberg was born in Brandenburg in Prussia, the 21st child of Abraham and Sophia Blumenberg. After having encountered anti-Semitism in the Prussian army, he decided to immigrate to the United States in 1854. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Blumenberg joined the Union cause and organized the 5th Maryland Regiment, in which he was commissioned captain of Company C. He quickly rose to the rank of major and in March of1862 became part of the Army of the Potomac. He fought in General McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign, and from there joined the Washington garrison.
In September Blumenberg received orders to march to Sharpsburg, Maryland, where the Union Army was making its stand against the Army of Northern Virginia. Here, in the Battle of Antietam, Blumenberg successfully lead the recapturing of Bloody Lane from the Confederates, becoming so wounded in the action that he became crippled for life. President Lincoln awarded him with an appointment as Provost Marshal of the Third Maryland District in 1863. Later President Andrew Johnson commissioned him with the honorary title, Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers.
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Born and raised in Philadelphia, Uriah P. Levy (1792-1862) was the first Jewish Commodore (General in today’s terms) in the U.S. Navy and a major philanthropist to Jewish causes in America. As an elderly man, he briefly served in the Union Navy during the very first months of the conflict before being retired.
Levy played a key role in helping to repeal the flogging of sailors, making the U.S. Navy the first military organization in the world to abolish physical punishment. He was appointed by President Lincoln to the Court-Martial Board in Washington.
Levy greatly admired President Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights which safeguarded religious liberties for all Americans. In 1832, he commissioned a statue of Jefferson which is displayed in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. today.
Because of Uriah Levy’s belief that the “homes of great men should be preserved as monuments to their glory,” in 1834 he purchased Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home near Charlottesville, Virginia, which he repaired, restored and preserved for future generations. He bequeathed it to the U.S. government after his death. This project constituted the first act of historical preservation in the United States
He is commemorated by the Uriah P. Levy Jewish Chapel at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia and the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish chapel at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The destroyer escort, the USS Levy, which hosted the Japanese surrender ceremony during the Second World War was named in his honor.
Levy is buried at Beth Olom Cemetery in Queens, New York.
Alfred Mordecai was raised by Orthodox parents in Warrenton, North Carolina. His father, Jacob, a successful merchant was a Talmid Chochom. Young Alfred received his Jewish education at home, where he learned Hebrew language and Jewish subjects. Alfred was particularly brilliant at mathematics and, at age 15, entered the United States Military Academy at West Point.
As the only Jew then at West Point, Alfred found it difficult to observe his Judaism. With the other cadets, Alfred was forced to attend Presbyterian chapel each Sunday. Kosher food was unavailable. Despite the stresses, Mordecai graduated in 1823, at age 19, at the top of the class. He continued at West Point as an instructor. He then supervised construction of fortifications along the Atlantic Coast and was eventually stationed in Washington, D.C., as assistant to the Army Chief of Engineers.
In 1836, Mordecai was appointed commander of the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia. That year, he married Sarah Ann Hays, a niece of Rebecca Gratz, the philanthropist and educator.
Mordecai rose to the rank of major and, during the Mexican War, assumed command of the army’s most significant arsenal, in Washington, DC. Mordecai became an assistant to the Secretary of War and to the Chief of Ordnance, wrote an outstanding Digest of Military Laws and served on the Board of Visitors to West Point.
As a member of the Ordnance Board he developed all new weapons, ammunition and ordnance equipment for the Army. Mordecai instituted scientific testing of munitions and new weapons systems.
In 1841, he authored the first-ever ordnance manual for the US military that standardized the manufacture of weapons with interchangeable parts, a step in the evolution of American mass manufacturing. Alfred Mordecai also “performed important experiments with artillery and gunpowder, the results of . . . which were published in 1845 . . . and later translated into French and German. The year 1857 marked the peak of Mordecai’s career. He traveled to Europe to observe the use of weaponry in the Crimean War. His report, written on his return, is considered a classic of American military science.
In April, 1861, when South Carolina troops fired on the Federal military garrison at Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor the Civil War erupted. By then Mordecai had spent his career –his entire adult life –in the United States Army. In 1861, his son Alfred, Jr., graduated from West Point and accepted a commission in the Army.
However, all of Mordecai’s siblings lived in the South and sided with the Confederacy. He refused to fight against them, or even help to make arms to be used against them. He sought a U.S. Army post in California, away from battle but since his request was denied, Alfred had no choice but to resign his commission. The Confederacy offered him a post, but he declined. He watched the war from the sidelines, teaching mathematics at a private school.
Mordecai refused to return to the military after the war and worked as an engineer for the Imperial Mexican Railroad. In 1866, he moved to Philadelphia, where he lived for another 20 years as treasurer and secretary for a canal company until his passing in 1887.
The little remembered Alfred Mordecai laid the groundwork for the United States military’s current sophisticated weaponry: laser guided “smart” bombs, shoulder-launched nuclear weapons and bullets that penetrate tank armor. American ordnance is the envy of the world and a source of its military hegemony which fortifies America’s current world leadership.
Was Lincoln Jewish?
There has been speculation that the sixteenth president who was assassinated on Pesach was descended from Jews and physically resembled them.
President Lincoln did not have a formal religious affiliation. He was not raised in a church nor did he ever belong to one.
Lincoln was often questioned about his religious beliefs. He would always respond that his theology was summed up in the twentieth chapter of Exodus – the Ten Commandments.
He was very well versed in the Torah, which he quoted constantly, rarely quoting from the “New Testament.”
Abraham and Mary Lincoln who were ardent theatre-goers. particularly enjoyed plays with Jewish themes. In the years before Lincoln’s assassination they watched twice, a play, “Gamea, or the Jewish Mother,” by Victor Séjour that was inspired by the abduction of the Jewish child Edgardo Mortara by the papal police in 1858. They also watched “Leah, the Forsaken” about a Jewish woman, a victim of prejudice and persecution.
According to his wife, Lincoln said on the last day of his life that he planned to visit Palestine after his second term in office would end.
Lincoln’s ancestors lived in the town of Lincoln, in eastern England, which had a Jewish community established there in 1159 C.E.. During the riots of the Crusades, the Sheriff of Lincoln saved the Jews by providing them with official protection. Rabbi Joseph of Lincoln was a prominent Talmid Chochom; Aaron of Lincoln was a well knownJewish financier whose operations extended all over the country and Rabbi Berachiah of Lincoln was a Tosafist.
In 1255, Lincoln’s Jews were accused of ritual murder, when a Christian child, known as Little Saint Hugh, died a mysterious death. Without evidence, the Jews of Lincoln were accused of murder by Bishop Lexington and 18 Jewish people in Lincoln were then executed at the Tower of London.
The Jewish people in Lincoln and the rest of England were subsequently expelled from England in 1290 C.E.; they were only readmitted into the country in 1655 by Oliver Cromwell.
It is not inconceivable that some Jews remained in England by hiding their identities similar to the way the Marranos did in Spain.
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on Chol HaMoed, the fifth day of Pesach in 1865, Jewish communities all over were devastated. Many Jewish congregations held special services and prayers for their beloved president.
Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, a Reform rabbi , began his eulogy with the words… “Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
English Mishpacha, March 29, 2024