Another communication which is at hand, originally made to one of our Jewish weeklies, may also be quoted as affording an effective side light on our present subject:

"From the beginning of the late war until its close I was connected with the War and Navy Departments of the Confederate States as a contractor for side arms and accoutrements. In this capacity I became acquainted with the organization and direction of the Army and Navy and also became well acquainted with the governing officials of the State, War and Navy Departments.

"Shortly before the Fall Festivals of our Jewish observance in 1864 I came to Richmond, Va., and as usual, met my late old friend, the Rev. Mr. Michelbacher. After receiving an assurance of my readiness to aid him in the purpose which he outlined to me, he detailed his request as follows:

"'There are right around here and in our other armies many Jewish soldiers who would like to keep Rosh Hashanah but especially Yom Kippur according to our law and ritual. I am trying to get a furlough for these soldiers over these Holy Days, but do not know how to go about it. Here is a petition to the Secretary of War; you know him well; will you present it or will you go with me to introduce me? or will you get Mr. Benjamin to recommend it?' I informed Mr. Michelbacher that as far as Mr. Benjamin was concerned it did not come within the scope of his special office; that if his recommendation was needed I could pledge it, and that the whole matter was for Mr. Seddon to decide. Next morning Mr. Michelbacher and myself went to Mr. Seddon, who received us, as he did all his petitioners, with kindness. He read the petition quietly and talked the matter over with us for some time, even at more length than the pressing duties upon him seemed to warrant. After mature deliberation he spoke about as follows: 'Well, gentlemen, as far as I am concerned I will give my consent, but must refer the matter to the Adjutant and Inspector-General. Whatever he does, I will sanction.' He thereupon wrote his endorsement on the petition and Mr. Michelbacher and I took it up to General Cooper, who, like Mr. Seddon, received us kindly, and with great interest discussed the proposition with us. He would gladly, he said, grant the furloughs, but, 'gentlemen,' he added, 'look, we have here a roster of all our soldiers and we know, as far as possible from their names, how many of them belong to your religious denomination, and astonishing it is that we count about 10,000 to 12,000 Jews who are serving in our Army. Now should I grant the furloughs you request, you will readily see, that for the time being, it would perhaps disintegrate certain commands in the field and might work to a bad effect; besides, the commanders of the different army corps should certainly be consulted. On the whole it would be impracticable, as you, Goldsmith (turning to me) will readily acknowledge. In fact,' he pleasantly added, 'you will admit that if your forefathers had fought Titus on the Sabbath day, during the siege of Jerusalem they most certainly would have beaten him. You see, therefore, I cannot conscientiously grant your request.' So it ended, but we had the satisfaction of having learned that out of the small number of Jews then living in the South, it was believed that over 10,000 were serving in the Confederate Army. Those who would not serve left the country. For many of these latter I myself procured passports and permits, deeming it better that they should leave quietly and unmolested than that they should be forced into the ranks where they would have made unwilling defenders of the country.

"I am still a living witness and can, from my own memory, give you many names of gallant Jewish soldiers of the Confederate army. I had ample opportunity to see and to know. Many a wounded Jew have I met in the hospitals of Richmond and administered to his wants, and many a Jewish soldier have I seen walking on his crutch or having his arm in a sling, travelling to and from his command during the war. And I know further that it was simply a sense of loyalty to their homes and their neighbors that prompted them to fight for the South. If not, they could readily have left this country at any time as well as I myself could have done, had I so chosen. But love for our adopted country kept us here and we offered all we had in its behalf.

M. Goldsmith."

The closing paragraph of Mr. Goldsmith's letter is truly expressive of Jewish sentiment. It emphasizes the fact that the Jew, while retaining his racial and religious distinctiveness, identifies himself with the people among whom he dwells, if he is not deliberately excluded from the possibility of doing so. Were further evidence of this required beyond the records of earlier times, a convincing proof can be found in the presence of large numbers of Jews in both the Union and Confederate armies throughout the Civil War.

It should not be overlooked that the profession of arms for its own sake is not distinctively a Jewish trait; the business of war having always been taken up as the means to an end rather than the end itself. This phase of the Jewish character finds a significant expression in the large proportion of Jewish combatants in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. In both cases the issue was one in which they felt a deep and abiding interest, and they manifested their earnestness in the most positive manner by taking an active and determined part in the decision of the issue. That interest was far from being prevalent during the War of 1812 and the subsequent war with Mexico. The former lacked the support of a large fraction of the people, being held by the Federal party of that time to be a heedless and needless undertaking, which in many respects it was, and the latter, the Mexican War, was regarded by the anti-slavery Whigs as tending to aggrandize the slave power by an extension of its territory. Both these wars were party measures, and in both a decidedly smaller proportion of Jewish combatants took part than would otherwise have been the case. Where home, or liberty or law is at stake the Jewish people have never been chary of the uttermost sacrifice, and the muster rolls of the armies in the great war between the States afford the fullest evidence of their ample share in its burdens and its sufferings.

FOOTNOTE:

[25] The numerous communications from correspondents in various parts of the country, which are being received while this volume is in course of completion by the printer, renders it altogether probable that the author's hope will be realized. The information conveyed by these correspondents, frequently too late for incorporation in the present work, will be collated with the view to its eventual publication, and all who feel an interest in our present subject, and who can contribute such data as will further the correction of these records, are earnestly requested to communicate their information to the author.

MEDALS OF HONOR.

(From a paper read by the present author before the American Jewish Historical Society, Washington, D. C., December 26, 1894.)