Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/190

 178 Southern Historical Society Papers.

We are anxious to secure this data, and trust the Hebrew will not for the first time be wanting in pride of race or achievement, but will early respond to our call for assistance in collecting this information.

The War Beteen the States gave again to the Jews their great- est opportunity for proving their military ardor and capacity, and splendidly did they meet the occasion. Among the 10,000 to enlist, nine became generals, eighteen colonels, forty majors, over 200 captains, twenty-five surgeons, one a chaplain, Rabbi Jacob Frankel ; eleven naval officers. Fourteen families alone contri- buted fifty-three men to the Confederate army. Among these North Carolina sent six Cohen brothers ; South Carolina, five Piloses brothers, George Ralph jMoses and his three sons, and from Alabama ; Arkansas, three Cohen brothers ; Virginia, three Levy brothers ; Louisiana sent the four Jonas brothers.

Alabama furnished 150 Jews to the Confederacy, leading all Southern States in enlistment of the Jews. Virginia came third, enrolling 113; Georgia, second, enrolling 140, with Octavius Cohen, quartermaster of Georgia troops. The Jews below the Mason and Dixon line served valiantly for their beloved South- land. Adolphus Aleyer, of Virginia, enlisted with the first com- pany mustered into service, serving through the entire war, hold- ing the position of assistant adjutant general. After the recon- struction regime he was elected to the National House of Repre- sentatives, 1891. serving until his death on the Committee of Naval Affairs.

Benjamin Franklin Jonas was a Kentuckian, though enlisting from Louisiana as a private in the artillery service, later becoming adjutant of artillery Hood's Corps of the Army of Tennessee. In 1876 he became a member of Congress and served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee until his election to the United States Senate.

Lsidore Strauss, one of the Titanic martyrs, enlisted from Geor- gia, being elected as a lieutenant of the regiment he had helped to organize. Because of his youth, after a few months' service, his commission was recalled. In 1863, however, he was sent by