Israelites in Blue and Gray: Unchronicled Tales from Two Cities

In Israelites in Blue and Gray, Lawrence M. Ginsburg erodes a void in the ranks of ethnically-affiliated units engaged in the Civil War. Since little has been written about Jewish sponsored groupings in particular, the profiles, which are the subject of this study, focus upon a couple of unchronicled exceptions from divergent sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Although the personnel of both included a distinct nucleus of Jewish men, neither was exclusively so composed. The Northern unit (Company A of the 149th Infantry Regiment) was raised, outfitted and significantly manned by the Jewish populace of Syracuse. A Southern counterpart–the Macon German Artillery–owed its origins to a more hybrid set of communal circumstances. Professional historians have tended to ‘overlook’ their existence with any degree of detail.