Galvanized Yankees was a term from the American Civil War used to refer to former Confederate prisoners of war who had sworn allegiance to the Union and joined the Union Army. Approximately 6,000 former Confederate soldiers enlisted, serving in six regiments of "U.S. Volunteers" between January 1864 and November 1866. However at least 250 "galvanized Yankees" began service as Union soldiers, were captured and enlisted as part of a regiment in the Confederate Army, and then surrendered to Union forces in December 1864. These soldiers were imprisoned by the United States as deserters, but were saved from prosecution by being enlisted in the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers.[1]
A lesser number of former Union prisoners of war enlisted in Confederate service in late 1864 and early 1865, most of them recent German or Irish immigrants who had been drafted into Union regiments. The term "galvanized Yankees" appears to have applied to both former Confederates serving in the U.S. Army, and to former Union soldiers enlisting in the Confederate States Army.
Due to doubts about their ultimate loyalty, "galvanized Yankees" in federal service were generally assigned to garrison forts far from the Civil War battlefields or in action against American Indians in the west.
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The National Park Service, in a bulletin published in 1992 for visitors to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, gives as the origin of the term "Galvanized Yankee" as:
The term "galvanized" is most commonly associated with metal when it is coated with zinc to protect it from corrosion. In the process the surface color of the metal is altered, but underneath the coating the steel is unchanged. During the Civil War, in both Northern and Southern prison camps, soldiers sometimes decided to "galvanize," or change sides, to save themselves from the horrors of prison life. Like the metal, these galvanized soldiers in many cases were still "Good old Rebels," or "Billy Yanks," underneath their adopted uniforms.[1]
The 1st U.S.V.I. was organized at Point Lookout prison camp, Maryland, between January 21 and April 22, 1864. It moved to Norfolk, Virginia, for provost duty there and at Portsmouth, Virginia, District of Eastern Virginia, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, until August, 1864. It was then ordered to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then to St. Louis, Missouri, arriving there August 22. Six Companies moved from St. Louis to Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, arriving there October 17 for garrison duty; and to Fort Berthold and Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, until October 1865, when it returned to St. Louis and mustered out November 27, 1865. Four companies remained in Wisconsin until September 1864, then ordered to the District of Minnesota until May 1866, mustering out May 21.
Authorized at Rock Island prisoner camp, Illinois, October, 1864, the 2nd U.S.V.I. was not organized until February 1865. It was ordered to the Department of the Missouri and sent by rail to Fort Leavenworth, where it was assigned to duty in the District of Upper Arkansas along the Santa Fe Trail from the Little Arkansas River to Fort Dodge, Kansas, and along the Cimarron Crossing to New Mexico. From Fort Leavenworth the unit marched to Fort Riley, and stationed companies there, Salem, Fort Ellsworth (Kansas), Fort Larned, Fort Zarah and Fort Scott, Kansas. Members of the 2nd U.S.V.I. were involved in the establishment of Fort Dodge in the summer of 1865. Their duties involved scouting, wagon train escort duty and operating against Indians until November 1865. Members of the regiment were present as guards at the signing of the Little Arkansas Treaty. The regiment mustered out at Fort Leavenworth November 7, 1865.
The 3rd U.S.V.I. was organized at the Rock Island prisoner camp in October 1864 and ordered to the Department of the Missouri, arriving at Fort Kearney, Nebraska, April 9, 1865, where it was assigned to duty in the District of Nebraska and Colorado. Companies A and B were stationed at Fort Kearney; C and D at Cottonwood, Colorado; E and F at Fort Rankin; and G and H at Julesburg, Colorado, protecting overland mail routes from Indian attacks. Elements skirmished with Indians at Elm Creek, Nebraska on May 20, 1865. The regiment mustered out November 29, 1865.
The 4th U.S.V.I. was organized at the Point Lookout prisoner camp on October 31, 1864, serving at Portsmouth, Virginia, District of Eastern Virginia, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and in District of the Northwest, Department of the Missouri, until July 1866, where it mustered out July 2.
The 5th U.S.V.I. was organized at the Alton and Camp Douglas prisoner camps in Illinois from March to May 1865, then ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on May 3, 1865. It was assigned duty in the District of Upper Arkansas from the Little Arkansas River to Fort Dodge and along the Cimarron Crossing; and duty in the Districts of Nebraska and Colorado, and Plains and Utah until November 1866, mustering out November 13.
The 6th U.S.V.I. was organized at prisoner camps at Camp Chase, Ohio; Camp Morton, Indiana; and Camp Douglas, Illinois, on April 2, 1865. It was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in May 1865, arriving May 11; then to Fort Kearney, Nebraska, May 14; and to Julesburg, Colorado. It performed duty in the District of the Plains and Utah until November 1866, mustering out on November 3.
Confederate recruitment of Union prisoners of war began in October 1864 and continued to the end of the war. At least four Confederate units were recruited, including three units of Regulars in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States[2]:
In October 1864 John G. O'Neill, colonel of the 10th Tennessee Regiment,[n 4] was assigned to recruit Union prisoners to replenish the depleted ranks of the regiment. O'Neill, recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Resaca, appears to have delegated part of the task to a former officer of his company, Michael Burke. In October and November 1864 O'Neill and Burke enlisted more than 250 soldiers of a number of Union regiments from among prisoners held at Andersonville and Millen, Georgia. The recruits were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, and were not issued arms or ammunition until the night before their first engagement.[3]
Although held under strict camp guard, they were sent to Mobile, Alabama while the remainder of the 10th Tennessee advanced to the Battle of Franklin. Organized as "Burke's Battalion" of the 10th Tennessee, they were made part of ad hoc force assembled by Col. William W. Wier and sent by train towards Tupelo, Mississippi to repel a raid along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by two brigades of Union cavalry under the command of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Grierson. The Union cavalry force had already captured a substantial number of Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's dismounted cavalry encamped at Verona on Christmas Day. The 10th Tennessee and 17th Arkansas were sent with a battery of artillery aboard the first train to block the tracks at Egypt Station, a mile west of Aberdeen, Mississippi.[3]
On the evening of December 27, 1864, six members of Burke's Battalion deserted and made their way into the Union lines, where they reported the presence of the former prisoners and the likelihood that they would not resist any Union attack. The next morning Grierson's 1st Brigade advanced and came under fire from Confederate skirmishers. The 2nd New Jersey Cavalry responded with a charge in which it lost 74 casualties and 80 horses, but captured more than 500 prisoners, among whom were 253 former Union soldiers now in the 10th Tennessee.[3]
Grierson's prisoners were shipped by steamer to the Union prison camp at Alton, Illinois, where the claims of the "galvanized Yankees" desiring restoration to their units were investigated. The commanding general of the Department of Missouri, Major General Grenville Dodge, recommended on March 5, 1865 that all the former Union soldiers as well as a number of Confederate troops be enlisted in the U.S. Volunteers for service in the West. The recommendation was resisted by the Judge Advocate General's Office in Washington, D.C., which advocated that no clemency be granted and that the former Union soldiers be tried for desertion, citing disputed testimony over the degree of their participation in the battle at Egypt Station. Dodge's recommendation was apparently accepted, however, as the prisoners were permitted to enlist in the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers.[3]
O'Neill returned to Andersonville and recruited 150 more prisoners for the 10th Tennessee in January 1865, and approximately 165 more in March.