Jewish Combatants in the Wars of Early America

In this book each Chapter describes and discusses a different Jewish man who volunteered for duty in the American Armed Forces of the Revolutionary War and later in the forces of the United States of America. The book is in chronological order starting with men who fought in the Revolutionary War and ending with those who fought in the Civil War. However, the Jewish presence in North America was present earlier, in the Colonial Period. Whether it is coincidence or not, the year 1492 was the year that Columbus sailed from Spain to discover the American continent and was also the year the Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain started the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition decried that all heretics: Jews, Moslems, and Protestant Christians were to be burnt at the stake. Although many Jews left Spain to avoid conversion, many accepted Christianity and were labeled by the Spaniards, Marrenos, or New Christians.

There is much speculation that some of the crew of Columbus were Jews or Marranos. At any rate the New World attracted many Jews and Marranos in an effort to escape the Inquisition. So many of them settled in the Islands of the Caribbean Sea and the surrounding Continental countries that they called themselves The Nation.

When the Dutch obtained their freedom from Spain, religious tolerance was proclaimed. Many Jews migrated there and prospered. What they looked like can be seen in the paintings by Rembrant. One family, the Salvadors, were among the founders of the Dutch West India Company and later forced the Governor of New Amsterdam, now New York, Peter Styuvsant, to admit three Jewish families from the Caribbean to settle in New Amsterdam. The first chapter of this book is devoted to a descendent of the Salvadors, named Francis, who was scalped in line of duty during the Revolutionary War.

Despite much discrimination, one of the men discussed, Captain Uriah Phillips Levy, influenced American history in two ways. Primarily, he was a leader in the successful effort to stop flogging of sailors in the United States Navy. The other was that Captain Levy bought Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson, after the President had died and Monticello had fallen in ruins. The mother of Captain Levy is buried in Monticello.

As already mentioned, the earliest Jewish migration to what is now the United States was from the Caribbean area. These Sephardic Jews settled in the Southern areas, the Colonies of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia. Centuries later, when the Civil War began in the United States these Jewish families were Confederates. Their lives and their relationship to the post-Civil War Reconstruction period is discussed.

As the records of all of these individuals and their families are not available, this book is not an encyclopedia of all the Jewish men who fought for their country in it's early Wars. I'm sure many important men were omitted. Perhaps as data becomes available others will be described. At the present, it is hoped that this volume will bring attention to the sacrifices that Jewish men made to the beginnings of the United States of America.