Italian Americans in the Civil War

Italian Americans in the Civil War are the people of Italian descent, living in the United States, who served and fought in the American Civil War on both the Union and Confederate sides.

Most of the Italians who joined the Union Army were recruited from New York City. The Garibaldi Guard was the name of the 39th New York Infantry. Between 5,000 and 10,000 Italians fought in the Civil War for both the Union and the Confederacy. Four were Union generals, including General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who was wounded, and who received the Medal of Honor and was later the first director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Generals
Italians of note who were interested in the war, and joined, and who had positions of authority, were Francesco Casale, who led the formation of an Italian Legion, and later was also involved in the forming of the Italian Garibaldi Guard; Luigi Tinelli, an international politician and industrialist, had experience as a militia commander; Francesco Spinola recruited four regiments in New York, and was soon appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to be their general. Also, Enrico Fardella and Eduardo Ferrero, of the 51st New York Regiment, were generals in the Civil War.

General Ferrero of the 51st New York Regiment, was among the first Union officers to command black troops.

Colonel Luigi Palma di Cesnola (July 29, 1832 – November 20, 1904), an Italian-American soldier and amateur archaeologist, commander of the 4th NY Cavalry, was born in Rivarolo Canavese, near Turin. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War. It was awarded in 1897.

A veteran of the Crimean War, di Cesnola established a military academy in New York City, where many young Italians were trained and later served in the Union army.

Giuseppe Garibaldi
At the outbreak of the American Civil War (in 1861), Giuseppe Garibaldi volunteered his services to President Abraham Lincoln. Garibaldi was offered a Major General's commission in the U. S. Army through the letter from Secretary of State William H. Seward to H. S. Sanford, the U. S. Minister at Brussels, July 17, 1861. On September 18, 1861, Sanford sent the following reply to Seward:

According to Italian historian Petacco, "Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis." Although the aging Garibaldi respectfully declined Lincoln's offer, Washington D.C. recruited many of Garibaldi's former officers. On August 6, 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln: "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure."