Many immigrants came to America during a time between their birth and the beginning of the Civil War. Many of these enlisted in Virginia regiments in early 1861. The number who enlisted is amazing because after a year's service, many were discharged due to the fact that they were considered non-residents of the Confederacy. The information in this publication, while scarce in many cases, is based on their service records. A number of these foreign born Confederates were born in Ireland who believed if they stayed in Ireland faced more poverty, disease, starvation and English oppression. Also, the humble potato, mainstay of the Irish diet, grown even in poor ground, fell victim to a potato blight in 1845 overtaking the fields of Ireland, causing continued crop failures until 1852, and forcing many Irish to immigrate. It also should be noted that, in some cases, it appears the soldiers names have been anglicized in their service records. Finally, those who use a sound index when searching other records, should search for variants of surnames. A fine example of this is the Zirkle name. It can be found in the records as Cirkle, Zircle, Zirkel, Zercle, Zerkle, Zerkel and Circle.
The records in this publication may be incomplete in some cases. It is not the intention of the author to purposefully omit any man who served in the Confederacy. It, however, is the authors belief that most of the men have been included in this publication.
Thomas W. Spratt
2011, 8" x 10", paper, xiv+ 299 pp.
107-VFBC
