page_title: Military history of Jewish Americans
section_title: Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of Jewish Americans / Participation by war / Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Judah P. Benjamin, Democratic Senator from Louisiana, 1852-61. Confederate States Attorney General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State.
context_page_description: Jewish Americans have served in the United States armed forces dating back to before the colonial era, when Jews had served in militias of the Thirteen Colonies. Jewish military personnel have served in all branches of the armed forces and in every major armed conflict to which the United States has been involved. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, as of 2006 there were currently 3,973 known Jewish servicemen and servicewomen on active duty.
  A number of Jewish American servicemen have gained fame due to their military service, and many have received awards and decorations for distinguished service, valor, or heroism. More than 20 Jewish servicemen were awarded the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor. Many other American Jews who served in the military later achieved prominence in business, politics, science, entertainment and other fields. Foreign Jews have also been significant in the development of military science and technology – including physicists Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, and Edward Teller, who were important in the Manhattan Project, which led to the development of the first nuclear weapons.
context_section_description: Reflecting their pattern of long settlement in both northern and southern cities, Jews served and supported both the Union Army of the Northern States as well as the Confederate States Army of the Southern Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. They had generally taken on regional loyalties according to residence.  Jews were among the supporters of each side of the American Civil War. Some 150,000 Jews lived in the United States at the time of the American Civil War, about 0.5 percent of the population. One academic estimate was that at least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederate during the Civil War. Donald Altschiller estimates that at least 10,000 Jews served, about 7,000 for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy, with some 600 Jewish soldiers killed in battle.
  Jews also played leadership roles on both sides, with nine Jewish generals and 21 Jewish colonels participating in the war. Judah P. Benjamin, a non-observant Jew, served as Secretary of State and acting Secretary of War of the Confederacy.
caption: Judah P. Benjamin served as the second Confederate States Secretary of War from September 17, 1861 – March 24, 1862.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "102", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0200", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0101", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1095", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1395"}