I remember seeing a movie called “Gangs of America” when it came out in 2002. Being the history major that I am, I was intrigued when one of the scenes depicted Irishmen being recruited into the Union Army as they disembarked their ships in the year 1863. While rare, this actually happened, and not just to the Irish but many nationalities. Some of these were men who tried to overthrow existing governments in Europe and were forced to flee to America to avoid execution and imprisonment.
Can you imagine a U.S. President paying foreign-born socialist revolutionaries to literally attack and kill Americans here in America? Sounds crazy, but that's what Abraham Lincoln did. In Virginia there are war markers paid by our government that prove that many Union troops weren't even American “Yankees,” but were largely foreign-born immigrants and mercenaries.
There are historical signs in Sperryville, Virginia, that remind us how Lincoln paid his foreign-born minions to wage total warfare on American citizens! Lincoln even authorized that these immigrants could kill American civilians and plunder, loot, steal basically everything: “all the estate and property, moneys, stocks and credits of such person shall be liable to seizure.”
This is why many call the war, “Union War on Americans” or “Lincoln's War on Americans.” Many of the battles the Confederacy lost were directly due to being outnumbered by a large number of foreign-born immigrants wearing the blue. This also helps explain why Union troops had so little regard for American culture, our Founding Fathers, personal property, individual rights, church buildings and women.
Some of the Union leaders here on historical markers in Sperryville, Virginia, were:
General Adolph von Stenwehr: Born in Germany. He was a German officer who emigrated to the U.S. and became a Union General. He commanded mostly German immigrants against Stonewall Jackson and others from the First Battle of Manassas.
General Louis Blenker - Born in Germany, Blenker was a Uhlan officer and revolutionary who fought in the 1848-49 German Revolution. After he migrated to New York, he organized the 8th New York Infantry, a German unit, and rose to become a General in the Union Army. He was a leader of the German Division that became the basis for General Sigel's Corps.
General Carl Schurz - Born in Germany, Schurz was a revolutionary who was an activist in the 1848-49 German uprising/revolutions. Police forced him to leave after which he migrated to Wisconsin.
Franz Sigel - Born in Germany, Sigel was a revolutionary who led uprising as a Colonel in the 1848-49 German Revolutionary movement. Sigel immigrated to New York and taught in the public schools, before becoming a General in the Union Army. He unsuccessfully fought against Stonewall Jackson's Americans. Although he waged total war on American citizens and was soundly defeated over and over again, his fans have erected statues and named parks in his honor.
There are many more like this, but this post just focuses on those mentioned on these historical signs for now. It can be argued that Confederate Americans lost to a massive invasion by foreign invaders.
Now the reason that I write this article is currently President Trump is using ICE to deport all criminal illegal aliens and send them home. The question I have that no one seems ready to answer is: “How many of these migrants meant to overthrow our government are in favor of socialism?”