As many as 7000 Jews fought for the Union in the Civil War, and it is known for a certainty that at least four of them were Colonels. Two of them, Edward Selig Salomon and Frederick Knefler , survived the war
The case of Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel, was a particularly dramatic, and tragic one.
Born in Germany, Spiegel immigrated to the United States at age 19 after the failed liberal revolution of 1848. He settled in Ohio, built a life as a merchant, married, and started a family. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Union Army and quickly earned a reputation as a brave and respected officer. By 1864, he commanded the 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
A rare firsthand letter recounts the deadly Confederate ambush that claimed Spiegel’s life during the Red River Campaign in Louisiana.
On May 3, 1864, Confederate forces attacked the Union transport City Belle along the Red River at Snaggy Point. The assault came suddenly, without warning. Half of Spiegel’s regiment was killed, wounded, or captured.
Writing weeks later to his father, Corporal Andrew Crawford described the chaos:
i came here yesterday from red river we was sent up there on the 1st of this month but the first day we was in red river the boat was captured by the rebs and killed and wounded and took prisoners one half of our regt. the col was killed i was on the upper deck of the boat and the balls came into us like hail but I got off unhurt I staid all night in the woods and all next day but the 56th Ohio came down the river and i got on the boat with them and they was fired into and killed a good many men and they had to get off their own boat and we marched down the river some distance and there we took the gunboat and came here and I lost everything I had only what I had on at the time…
Crawford survived by fleeing into the woods before eventually rejoining Union forces. Spiegel, however, was mortally wounded during the fighting and died the following day.
He was 34 years old and reputedly, due to be commissioned a Brigadier General.
Though his Jewish identity drew little attention within the broader Union Army, the American Jewish community remembered Spiegel as a source of pride, a Jewish immigrant who rose to become one of the Union’s highest-ranking Jewish officers.
Spiegel’s younger brother Joseph, wounded in the same attack, survived the war and later founded the Spiegel Catalog company.
Learn more about this item on the the Shapell Manuscript Foundation website, here.
