OK, you're thinking, "Nice painting of a Civil War Soldier but, Pete, that dude looks Chinese!" Well, he is. I was inspired to do this one after reading about a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives recently.
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) spearheaded the effort to pass resolution 415 which posthumously honors Asian Americans who served in our Civil War. Some of you may be rolling your eyes. Big deal, so a couple of Chinese men fought in the Civil War. Actually it kinda is a big deal.
This little gouache study is my best shot at a portrait of Joseph L. Pierce. No one knows how Pierce (he picked the name after the President), got into the country but he ended up in the care of a sea captain from Connecticut. The captain's mother raised him as part of the family and he eventually became a farmer.
When the war broke out he enlisted in the 14th Conn. Volunteers and fought at Antietam, MD and Gettysburg, PA. Joseph L. Pierce is specifically named by H. Res. 415. The other name mentioned is Edward Day Cohota. Cohota was a stowaway on a clipper ship named "Cohota" and, like Pierce, was raised by the captain's family. He served in the 23rd Mass. Volunteers until the end of the war. Then, he rejoined the army where he had a 30 career. Astonishingly, he was denied US citizenship due to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which was an attempt to stop Chinese immigration. Shameful.
It goes to show you how ethnically diverse America was during the Industrial Revolution era. I've always known that African-Americans, Irish, Germans, Poles, Scandinavians and Italians participated in our Civil War and now I know to add Chinese to that list. If you want to find out more, as always, there's a website. I suggest you take a peek. It's made me look at that period in our history just a little differently.
We, as Americans, have always struggled with immigration issues and how to deal with our diverse culture. We probably always will.
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