Chinese Participation in the Civil War
Blog, Civil War November 2nd. 2009, 10:22am
Joseph Pierce
During the year 1860, while the United States seemed to grow ever closer to armed conflict over States rights and slavery, another war was brewing half-way around the world.
In a strange turn of political and military events, the British and French seemed to put a hold on their own animosity to focus on a common foe, the Chinese. Eager to establish economic trade, or rather to traffic opium and other drugs, the British and French used combined arms to force the reluctant Chinese government to allow the trade.
As battles raged in the orient and the flames of war erupted on the shores of America, a small number Chinese immigrants took up arms for both North and South.
What scan research that has been done on the topic has brought to light at least fifty Chinese immigrants who fought alongside their American brothers-in-arms.
One such soldier was Edward Day Cohota, a Chinese boy rescued at sea in 1845 by a merchant seaman from Gloucester, Massachusetts. When war broke out, Edward Cohota waited anxiously for the day he could serve his adoptive country. It wasn’t long before he found himself in the ranks of the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry.
His service there brought him in armed conflict during the Battle of Drury’s Bluff near Richmond, Virginia, on May 16, 1864. According to accounts, Private Cohota received no injuries, even with seven bullet holes in his blue uniform.
Private Cohota continued to serve with honor and on June 3, 1864, he received a permanent part in his hair by a Confederate Minie ball at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia. He survived the battle and the war.
Apparently this Chinese immigrant was inclined to military service and continued to serve in the United States Army after the end of the Civil War. His new orders took him to Fort Randall in the Dakota Territory.
Through thirty years of dedicated service to the United States, Edward Day Cohota married and raised six children. He served in the Army for 30 years.
Unfortunately, due to an oversight and misinterpretation on his part, Edward filed for citizenship in 1882, shortly after the United States Senate passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. After 30 years of dedicating his life to his adopted country, his country refused to allow him citizenship. He died a non-citizen in 1935 at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Veterans in Hot Springs, S.D.
This is by no means the end of the story and much remains to be done on this fascinating topic.
For further research
Edward Day Cohota- by Gordon Kwok
Resolution honoring the contributions of AAPI soldiers during the U.S. Civil War
McCunn, Ruthann Lum. “Chinese in the Civil War.” Journal, Chinese America: History and Perspectives, 1996
Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.’s “The Civil War in the American West.” First Vintage Civil War Library Edition, 1993.
Sucheng Chan, “Asian Americans” Twayne Publishers 1991
