[3] Unlike the segregated U.S. Army in the 1930s, the Lincoln Battalion integrated white and black soldiers on an equal basis.

The Spanish Civil War's triggering event was the coup of July 1936 in which the Nationalists attempted to overthrow the elected Republican government.

On 26 July, less than ten days after the coup started, an international Communist conference was held in Prague to formulate plans to assist the Republicans.

Over one ship per day arrived at Spain's Mediterranean ports carrying munitions, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, artillery, and trucks.

On 27 February 1937, the unit lost two-thirds of its forces, including commander Robert Hale Merriman (who was badly wounded) in a futile assault on Nationalist positions.

Merriman had begged Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Ćopić (described as "rather inept") not to launch the attack, fearing slaughter.

Joined by the newly trained George Washington Battalion, the XVth Brigade took action at Villanueva de la Cañada on the second day of the Brunete Offensive and secured the town after hard fighting.

[11] The XVth Brigade then deployed against "Mosquito Ridge", but despite repeated assaults, they could not dislodge the Nationalist troops holding that critical piece of terrain.

After Fuentes, the XVth Brigade was pulled back to a reserve position, receiving its first extended period of rest and relaxation since going into combat at Jarama.

The XVth Brigade was deployed to hold the recently captured city of Teruel against the expected Nationalist counterattack.

But before the units could get to the rest areas, their trains and trucks were stopped, and they were redeployed to the front, where they participated in an offensive that was expected to relieve some of the pressure on Teruel.

The remnants of the Battalion gathered on the far side of the Ebro River, where they were slowly reconstituted with a limited number of international volunteers from the hospitals and rear areas.

Spanish troops, many young conscripts, were drafted into the XVth Brigade's battalions to bring them fully up to strength.

On 21 September 1938, Juan Negrín, the Spanish prime minister, announced to the League of Nations the unilateral withdrawal of the International Brigades from battle.

You are the heroic example of democracy's solidarity and universality in the face of the vile and accommodating spirit of those who interpret democratic principles with their eyes on hoards of wealth or corporate shares which they want to safeguard from all risk.

[citation needed] Furthermore, Franco was supported by the Italian army and air force, which had only recently conquered the African nation of Ethiopia.

Langston Hughes, a journalist for the Baltimore Afro-American at the time, wrote, "Give Franco a hood, and he would be a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

It is difficult to list exactly how many members of the battalion were communists because political ideology was not a litmus test for serving in the war.

[5] Unlike most of their European counterparts, the Americans in the International Brigade were more likely to be students who had never seen military service before the Spanish Civil War.

As Mo Fishman, a veteran of the battalion, recalled in 2006, "Some men were running away from bad marital or love situations, but what united all of us was that we hated fascism."

Organized by Dr. Edward K. Barsky, the American Medical Bureau (AMB) recruited doctors, dentists, nurses, administrators, and ambulance drivers to support the Spanish Republic.

[27] In the United States, the AMB staged events to shift public opinion away from supporting the aid boycott to the Spanish Republic imposed by the American government following the agreements of the Non-intervention Committee.

Many women leaders in the aid movement were wives of prominent American leftists or soldiers in the Lincoln Battalion.

[citation needed] After returning to the United States, many joined the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB).

Former Lincoln-Washington commander Milton Wolff volunteered in 1940 for the British Special Operations Executive and arranged the provision of arms for the European resistance organizations.

[33] Once the United States entered World War II, the Federal Bureau of Investigation recommended that all veterans of the Lincoln Battalion be denied military promotion to prevent communists from rising in the armed forces.

After World War II ended, veterans of the Lincoln Battalion were denied military enlistment and government jobs.

Veterans were fired, spied upon, harassed, labeled communists to employers, denied housing, and refused passports for decades.

[36] Members of the XV International Brigade adapted a song by Alex McDade to reflect the losses at the Battle of Jarama.

In 2007, the exhibit Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil War at the Museum of the City of New York examined the role that New Yorkers played in the conflict, as well as the political and social ideologies that motivated them to participate in activities ranging from rallying support, fundraising, and relief aid, to fighting—and sometimes dying—on the front lines in Spain.