Mary A. DeCredico on Anders Bo Rasmussen’s *Civil War Settlers: Scandinavians, Citizenship, and American Empire, 1848-1870*

The ethnic element of the American Civil War tends to focus on the impact German and Irish immigrants had on the Union war effort.  More recently, Richard Rosen has expanded the ethnic contribution to include Northern and Southern Jews.  Anders Bo Rasmussen’s latest monograph focuses on the role Scandinavian settlers—Swedish, Norwegian and Danish—played in the Civil War.  Civil War Settlers: Scandinavians, Citizenship and American Empire, 1848-1870 demonstrates that  immigrants from Sweden, Norway and Denmark embraced their new home in the Midwest and eagerly supported the nascent Republican Party.

Rasmussen states in his introduction that his book fits in the historiography of the Civil War by looking at “transnational, ethnic, and racial dimensions” (p. 8).  He concentrates on the town of New Denmark, Wisconsin, and adds that while not necessarily typical, it does represent microhistory at its best.  Rasmussen avers that New Denmark became an “important part in the Scandinavian-American chain migration that picked up speed by the 1840s with Wisconsin as a central hub” (p. 11).

Scandinavians flocked to the United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848, much as the Germans did.  For Norwegians, Swedes and Danes, what was most important about coming to America was the ability to enjoy liberty and equality, ideas that were constrained if not totally rejected in the “Old World.”  As a result, Scandinavians found the Republican Party especially attractive.

And yet, Scandinavian immigrants equated American citizenship with being white; they viewed African Americans and Native Americans as being “’savages.’”   Hence, the abolitionist and antislavery elements of the Republican Party were anathema to the Scandinavians.  In many respects, they embraced a Herrenvolk view of their new home.   This was clearly demonstrated in their relationship with Native American tribes in Wisconsin.  In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act and Scandinavian settlers in Wisconsin were delighted at the prospect of obtaining more land to farm.  That the land they eyed was owned by Native Americans did not bother them in the least.  Dismayed by the settlers’ encroachment on their lands, the Dakota Sioux attacked immigrant enclaves in New Ulm, Mankato and Fort Ridgely.  Fearing more violence, President Abraham Lincoln dispatched Major General John Pope (who had been defeated at the Battle of Second Bull Run) to Minnesota in September, 1862,  to quell the Sioux uprising.  The rebellion was put down, but at the cost of over 500 whites and an unknown number of Sioux.   Ultimately, thirty-nine Native Americans involved in the revolt were sentenced to hang.

Another initiative of the Lincoln administration that directly affected the Scandinavian immigrants was the Militia Act of 1862, which allowed the President to request a quota of men from the individual states to fight against the Confederate armies.  This piece of legislation elicited real concerns in the Scandinavian-American community and the uncertainty of who would be most affected was exacerbated by mixed signals emanating from the War Department and the State Department.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton argued that any immigrants who had voted were liable to the draft.  Secretary of State William Seward stated it was directed to U.S. citizens, not “’aliens.’”  The ambiguity was resolved in September, 1862, when the State Department clearly stated that any resident born in another country but who had exercised the franchise could be drafted (pp. 176-79).

Norwegian, Danish and Swedish residents of Wisconsin scrambled to obtain any exemptions they could.  But that process became more difficult after the passage of the Federal Conscription Act in 1863.  That Act declared that any foreign-born resident who had declared an interest in obtaining citizenship was “legally subject to military duty.”  According to Rasmussen, “To Scandinavian-born community members, these draft laws challenged American ideas of liberty and equality, since the state now coerced prospective citizens into the military  and undermined opportunities for economic equality by putting a greater burden on less affluent immigrants than was the case for rich people” (p. 197).

The belief the Civil War was becoming a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” also found adherents in the Confederate States.  Rasmussen briefly addresses the Scandinavian immigrants who went South before the war.  Newspapers often carried stories of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian immigrants who settled in the South and while opposed to slavery as an institution, often benefited from it: Some inherited slaves or hired them out to assist in farming (p. 201).  But taking advantage of the slave system did not include supporting the Southern planter class in its push for secession.  Still, the threat of violence forced Scandinavians in New Orleans to join a militia unit, the Chalmette Regiment.  Mustered to defend Fort Jackson guarding New Orleans, the  Scandinavians surrendered to Federal forces “’without firing a shot’” (p. 204.  Ultimately, the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian soldiers in the Chalmette Regiment deserted (206).

As the war proceeded, discussions within the Lincoln administration turned increasingly toward the subject of emancipation.  Following the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation establishing January 1, 1863, as the date all slaves in states in rebellion would be freed.  While the vast majority of the midwestern Scandinavian-American community was morally opposed to the institution of slavery, they did not embrace equality; indeed both the preliminary and final Emancipation Proclamation “reinforced a view of white citizenship” (p. 215).

The final chapters of Rasmussen’s book address the way Norwegians, Swedes and Danes adjusted to the postwar world.  Though women had been forced to take over farming duties while the men were at the front, the Scandinavian-American community continued to resist racial and gender equality, views Rasmussen traces back to the Old World.  Thus continued westward expansion in the post-Civil War world continued to create clashes between the Scandanavian community, Native Americans and freed people of color (p. 330).

Rasmussen’s book is a sweeping analysis of the way immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Denmark embraced American ideals of liberty and equality—but for whites only.  His range of sources is truly impressive: newspapers, personal correspondence, diaries and period pieces.  The scope is magisterial and speaks to his command of English and non-English works.  Civil War Settlers presents Civil War historians with a rich view of how the Scandanavian community supported the union war effort, but on their terms.