The Boychiks in Company C: Color Guard for a Regiment of Immigrants

Suspicion and resentment of immigrants was a source of social and political controversy in 19th Century America, much as it remains today: loyalties suspect, patriotism doubted, with immigrants routinely presumed guilty until proved innocent. [This story appeared in slightly different form at Forward(dot)com.]

Officers of the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Likely, Col. Salomon and Col. Hecker seated third and second from the right, respectively. (Photographer unknown)

In 1848, an unsuccessful rebellion sought to unify the German states. In 1861, rebellion sought to split apart the United States. Suspicion and resentment of immigrants, including but not limited to the influx of German-speaking “Forty-eighters,” or refugees from among the defeated rebels for a united and democratic Germanic republic, was a source of social and political controversy in 19th Century America, much as it remains today: loyalties suspect, patriotism doubted, with immigrants routinely presumed guilty until proved innocent.

Local communities in both the North and South mobilized efforts to organize and equip the armies of the Civil War. In August, 1862, the Jewish community of Chicago met in a series of meetings at the Concordia Club to organize a Jewish company for a new Illinois regiment to be comprised of German and Scandinavian immigrants under the command of Colonel Frederick Hecker.