Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/189

 The Jews in the Confederacy. 177

THE JEWS IN THE CONFEDERACY.

By Mrs TOWNES RANDOLPH LEIGH, State Historian Alabama Division, U. D. C.

The Jews in earliest times, as owners of Palestine, were ac- knowledged as furnishing much of the sinews of war, though after Jerusalem passed into alien hands they declined in national achievements, still as individuals they performed a brilliant part in the battles of their adopted country. During the Revolutionary War more than fifty Jews were enrolled in the Continental army, conspicuous among them being Colonel Isaac Franks and Colonel David Salisburg Franks. No one gave more faithful aid to the revolutionists than Hayman Solomon, the intimate friend of Pulaski, and Kosciusko, giving to the American cause, upon the appeal of Robert, Morris, $658,007.13. He was captured and thrown into a British prison, dying therein.

In the Mexican War, General David deLeon made a most brilliant record, being twice thanked by Congress for gallantry and ability.

During the War Between the States, the ranking United States naval officer, until his death in 1863, was Commodore Uriah Philips Levy, upon whose tombstone we read : "He was the father of the law abolishing the barbarous practice of corporal punishment in the United States Navy." To-day Major Alfred Mordecai is the authority in the military world "of application of scientific research to mechanical war uses."

At the time of the War Between the States the Jews in the United States numbered 150,000 souls, but furnished from this number of men. women and children 10,000 fighting men. This was a remarkable per cent, one to every fifteen human beings. The North 'has preserved these Jewish records of the 6,000 who fought under Old Glory, but the South has not as yet collected or published the magnificent heroism of her 4.0O0 Jewish patriots.