Galvanized Yankees – Meet the Confederate POWs who joined the Union Army

The Battle of Platte Bridge of 1865 saw a U.S. Army regiment made up of Confederate POWs fight off a vastly superior force of native warriors.
The Battle of Platte Bridge of 1865 saw a U.S. Army regiment made up of Confederate POWs fight off a vastly superior force of native warriors.

“This was no ordinary U.S. Army outfit. Raised the previous winter in Rock Island, Illinois, the 3rd USVI was made up entirely of veterans of the Confederate States Army.”

IT WAS JULY 26, 1865 when a force of 3,000 Sioux and Cheyenne descended onto the U.S. Army outpost at Platte Bridge in Wyoming. All that stood between the raiders and the vital 1,000-foot long river crossing that connected the territories of Oregon and Montana was a detachment of 120 lightly armed troops. Among them was a contingent from the 3rd United States Volunteer Infantry (USVI).

At first glance, the men from the regiment were indistinguishable from their fellow bluecoats. Yet this was no ordinary U.S. Army outfit. Raised the previous winter in Rock Island, Illinois, the 3rd USVI was made up entirely of veterans of the Confederate States Army.

Following their capture on the battlefields of the Civil War, the prisoners had been offered a reprieve from the purgatory of their internment for a chance to serve the very enemy they had only just recently been fighting.

When the native warriors struck the remote outpost, the men of 3rd, along with troopers from the 11th Ohio Cavalry (another unit made up of Confederate POWs), sallied forth to engage the attackers.

Heavily outnumbered, the defenders withdrew to the relative safety of the bridge and continued the fight from there. By the end of the day, more than 39 of the bluecoats were casualties; 60 native warriors lay dead. It was the 3rd’s first taste of combat as a unit. And according to all accounts, the one-time rebels had acquitted themselves well.

Amazingly, the 3rd USVI wasn’t the only Yankee regiment to be made up of Confederate POWs. The Union had raised five others between 1864 and 1865 enlisting at total of 5,600 Southerners. Another 800 rebel prisoners were absorbed into various state regiments from Northern prison camps. Most of these units were ordered to perform rear echelon duties or to serve on the distant western frontier.

Amazingly, a handful of turncoats did eventually fight against their Confederate brethren. Considered traitors by their Southern comrades, these reluctant Union-men became known as “white-washed rebels” or even “galvanized Yankees” — a reference to the process in which steel is surface-treated to prevent corrosion. And theirs is one of the more curious stories of the American Civil War.

Thousands of Rebel POWs were recruited into the Union army after surrendering. (Image source: WikiCommons)
Thousands of Rebel POWs were recruited into the Union army after surrendering. (Image source: WikiCommons)

Some in the North tried to enlist Confederate prisoners almost from the war’s outset. As early as 1862, the commander of an Illinois regiment lobbied rebels held at Camp Douglas near Chicago to renounce their allegiance to the Confederacy and join his outfit. About 200 agreed before top Union commanders ordered a halt to the practice. Despite this, a number of ethnic regiments quietly drew replacements from the ranks Confederate prisoners, although their recruiting targeted only recent immigrants from those regiments’ respective ‘old countries’.

Yet by the beginning of 1864, with the war dragging on, manpower reserves dwindling and native uprisings breaking out all along the frontier, the War Department in Washington found itself compelled to offer bluecoats and muskets to rebel detainees.

At first, these recruitment offers came entirely from the U.S. Navy. Few volunteered. But in January 1864, prisoners held at the overcrowded holding camp at Point Lookout, Maryland were invited to join the Federal army, under the proviso that they wouldn’t be required to fight their former comrades. Hundreds accepted the offer. Together, they formed 1st United States Volunteer Infantry.

Initially, the men of the 1st USVI were assigned to provost or military police duties in Virginia and North Carolina before being transferred to the Dakota Territory. After spending a harsh winter on the prairries, in July of 1865, the 1st USVI repelled an attack on Fort Rice by Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux led by Sitting Bull himself. The regiment would continue to serve on the frontier until November when its surviving members were honourably discharged.

The War Department soon raised five other ‘galvanized’ regiments, which garrisoned forts in Arkansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Montana, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, Utah and Colorado between 1864 and 1866.

A number of Northern states even raised galvanized infantry units as well, along with cavalry and even artillery. After suffering grievous casualties early in the war, the 1st Connecticut Cavalry drew replacements from Confederate prisoners being held in Delaware, which it scattered throughout its companies, as did the 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery and the 4th Delaware Infantry.

While the vast majority of Confederate recruits were eventually sent to the frontier far away from the battlefields of the Civil War, at least one unit was sent into combat against rebel forces. More than 450 Southerners captured at Gettysburg agreed to join the 3rd Maryland Cavalry regiment in early 1864. The unit was folded into the U.S. Army’s Eighth Corp and sent to Louisiana where it would eventually take part in the Red River campaign and the Union assault on Fort Morgan and the capture of Mobile, Alabama.

While some galvanized units served with distinction, the program was only moderately successful. Some units suffered high desertion rates. In the case of the 4th USVI, more than a tenth of its recruits slipped away from the regiment before it even arrived at its first frontier outpost.

Despite the mixed results of the scheme, the Confederates also attempted to draw volunteers from its own prisoner of war camps.

All told, the Confederacy recruited more than 1,600 mostly foreign-born Yankee POWs in the final six months of the war. Four provisional army units including: Brooks Battalion of Foreigners, the Confederate 1st Foreign Legion (aka Tucker’s Confederate Regiment), and the 2nd Foreign Legion (aka 8th Confederate Battalion). The state of Tennessee replaced losses in at least one of its regiments from the ranks of Yankee prisoners too. The 10th Tennessee Irish Volunteers drew mostly from recent Irish immigrants who had been captured in Union uniform.

Unlike the galvanized Yankees who served almost entirely in the far-flung corners of the continent, the Confederates threw their POW recruits right into action against their former comrades.

In most cases, the volunteers had accepted Southern recruitment offers mostly to escape the squalid living conditions in rebel-run POW camps. Once on the battlefield, many deserted, surrendered and in some cases mutinied.

Once in federal custody, a number of these former Union soldiers sought to rejoin their old regiments. Their requests were denied. Despite pressure to try the prisoners for desertion or even treason, eventually those taken in rebel uniform were eventually allowed to enlist in the USVI regiments as galvanized Yankees.

By 1866, the last of the USVI regiments were disbanded and its soldiers discharged.

18 thoughts on “Galvanized Yankees – Meet the Confederate POWs who joined the Union Army

  1. At the same time the 3rd USVI was being recruited at Rock Island, the US Navy enlisted a substantial number of POWs from Rock Island and Camp Douglas. I havent seen any accounts of their subsequent service, if any. Does anyone have information on these galvanized yankees ?

    1. I have the US Army pension record for a family member (with a CSA record) who drew a Federal Pension for a disability, apparently for an injury received in a battle with Indians in Colorado.

        1. Thank you for your interest, but I am not inclined to go public with the information. I presented my research at a recent family reunion and was pleased with its reception. However, I do not wish to push my luck.

          I discovered the Galvanized Yankee connection because a librarian kept insisting to me the pension record of my family member was for a Federal pension, Since I now know of unit designations of the Galvanized Yankee Units, I have found another family member who was also a Galvanized Yankee. However, he was of a line of the family that I felt it best to leave him be.

    2. Read the new book, “Putting on Blue” by Dr. Al Hester, historian and former professor at the University of Georgia. He discusses the US Navy’s Galvanized Yankees. The book is available on Amazon.com

    3. Just found this site looking for similar info on US Navy recruits from rock island. Hadn’t heard about it until this weekend. My great-great grandfather went from rock island to camp Douglas to the USS Princeton in late January 1864. Alas, he died about two months later in a “Philadelphia hospital” and I would like to find out more about where he would be buried.

      1. I also came across the Galvanized Yankees while researching my Southern family history. I have a Civil War pension filing for a suspected Carolina ancestor stating his service as “E 49 U.S. Volunteer Infantry.” Can anyone clarify where he would have been recruited from? Thanks.

  2. my great grandfather james calvin robins was in the 6th us volunteers. his journey started in feb 1862 when he enlisted in the 25th arkansas infantry in st charles,ar. later he was assigned to the 1st arkansas light artillery. he was with this unit until the fall of atlanta in sep 1864. he was sent to camp douglas where he swallowed the dog and joined the 6th us volunteers and was sent to the colorado territory. in aug 1865 he deserted and went back to arkansas.

  3. Sidney Lewis Triplett Co. K, 53 NC Regiment. June 20 1863 deserted to the enemy. Confined to Ft. Mifflin, PA. December, 1863, took the Oath of Allegiance and joined the US Marine Corps. Assigned to receiving ship, USS North Caroline(Union). 30 December 1871, USS Pensacola. Declared a US Navy invalid. Settled in Moscow, ID, where he married and raised as family. Related to me: 3rd cousin 4 x removed. Elbert Sidney Dula Co. C, 60th NC Regiment, captured at Missionary Ridge, TN November, 1863. Sent to Rock Island, IL. Released October 17, 1864 after taking the Oath of allegiance and joining US Army. Assigned to Co. F, 3rd Regiment US Volunteers and sent to Julesburg, CO. 1870 living in Paris, Tx. 1895 given a pension, living in TX. 1900, widowed, living in Tarrant County, TX. 1900, living in the National Soldier’s Home, Washington County, TN. Died 1911. Related to me five times, the closest being a 2nd cousin 3 x removed.

  4. For a brief picture of Galvanized Yankees sent to Ft. Rice in the Dakota Territories from Point Lookout Camp for Confederate Prisoners in Maryland read, “Cottages: A Chesapeake Bay Novel” by Paula Farrar. Also, a must read is, “The Galvanized Yankees ” by Dee Brown.

  5. I published a book on galvanized Confederates in December, 2020, through the University of Tennessee Press that is titled Changing Sides Union Prisoners of War Who Joined the Confederate Army. I am currently working on a book on galvanized Yankees that I hope to publish through the same press. Galvanized Yankees belonged to much more than the six volunteer regiments made famous by Dee Brown. My book will present a more comprehensive view of the topic.

  6. Private Raleigh Vandiver Moler, Company A, 2nd Virginia Infantry and Company D, 12th Virginia Cavalry (2nd Cousin, 4 times removed (LRLS-BJX):
    Born 9/4/40. Enlisted 6/14/61 at Charles Town in Company A of 2nd Virginia Infantry as a private. AWOL 11/27 – 12/2/61. The last infantry entry shows him present 12/31/61. Enlisted 12/11/62 at Shepherdstown in Company D, 12th Virginia Cavalry as private. Only entry shows him AWOL Sept./Oct. 1863. NFR. Unofficial source (Shepherdstown Register obituary, 10/25/1917 says Moler captured and sent to Fort Delaware where he was held in confinement for some time. Finally with several other Confederate prisoners he accepted an offer of freedom from the Union authorities with the provision that he goes West for Garrison Duty at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The Confederate agreed to this condition hoping to escape on their way West or at Fort Laramie. Their scheme proved futile, however, as there was no opportunity to escape en route and once in Wyoming, the hostile Indians were so numerous that it was suicide to run the gauntlet. Therefore, Moler served in the U. S. Army until the end of the war fighting Indians on the Great Plains. Postwar farmer at Uvilla, Jefferson County, WV. Married Lydia E. Engle 1/5/69. Died 10/16/17. Buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Shepherdstown, WV.
    Can you identify in which company and regiment he may have served?

  7. Pvt Henderson Roy, 3rd Tenn. mounted infantry {Lillard’s} my GG Grandfather, is listed in the 1st USVI. Would there be any record of where he was captured or where he was held? After serving in a Colorado unit, he settled in Van
    Buren MO. never returning to Tennessee.

  8. Great Great Grandfather was recruited out of Rock Island pow camp and sent to Fort Sedegewick near Julesburg CO. His grave stone reads Co F 3rd US Vol Inf. He died in 1923. He was made to join Arkansas Inf unit. My uncle of him sharing the story of battle and being wounded and captured while enroute to hospital in a wagon. He said at one time that, that war made green persimmons taste good.

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