Italian Americans in the Civil War

Colonel Enrico Fardella, of the same and later of the 85th New York regiment, was made a brevet brigadier general when the war ended.

[4] He established a military school in New York City where many young Italians were trained and later served in the Union army.

Garibaldi was offered a Major General's commission in the U.S. Army through the letter from Secretary of State William H. Seward to H. S. Sanford, the U.S. Minister at Brussels, July 17, 1861.

[11] On September 18, 1861, Sanford sent the following reply to Seward: "He [Garibaldi] said that the only way in which he could render service, as he ardently desired to do, to the cause of the United States, was as Commander-in-chief of its forces, that he would only go as such, and with the additional contingent power—to be governed by events—of declaring the abolition of slavery; that he would be of little use without the first, and without the second it would appear like a civil war in which the world at large could have little interest or sympathy.

"[12]According to Italian historian Petacco, "Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery.

In December 1860 and few months of 1861, these volunteers were transported to New Orleans with the ships Elisabetta, Olyphant, Utile, Charles & Jane, Washington and Franklin.

[17] Following the protests of many soldiers, who did not feel like Italian citizens since they fought against the unification of Italy, it was renamed 6th Regiment, European Brigade in 1862.

[18][19] General P. G. T. Beauregard, a Louisiana Creole, had Italian ancestry via his mother Hélène Judith de Reggio, who hailed from a prominent first family of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana established in 1747 by her grandfather Francesco Maria de Reggio, an Italian nobleman of the House of Este.