Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

"Galvanized Yankees" were former Confederate soldiers who switched sides and joined the Union army after becoming POWs. They were mostly sent to units out west to deal with Indians during the war, away from other Confederate units.

The term is also sometimes, confusingly, used for Union soldiers who joined the Confederate army while POWs. "Galvanized Confederates" might be a better term for them.

I should also point out there is a group of former Confederate soldiers who joined the Union army, where the term "Galvanized Yankees" is less used - Confederates, usually conscripts, who deserted their units and subsequently enlisted in Union regiments. Here's an article from 12 years ago about the fight over the grave marker over one such soldier:

https://web.archive.org/web/200807050335...staff.html

Very good, Steve. This term applies only to Confederates who joined the U.S. military before the war was over or at the end. Many were recruited from Union prison camps and chose to take the offer rather than endure the hardships. Quite a few of these dated back to 1862, when the U.S. sent them to put down the Santee Sioux uprising that we have discussed here.

There was a verbal understanding that they could only be posted on frontiers and could only fight against Native Americans. They ended up being some of the best U.S. soldiers and most were cavalrymen who were especially useful on the Great Plains.

No former Confederate officer was to receive a commission in the U.S. Army, but some did. The best example is Gen. Joseph Wheeler of Alabama, who entered politics there after the war and became a brigadier general in the U.S. Army while fighting in the Philippine-American War at the turn of the century -- and yes, there was such a war that followed the Spanish-American War.