want of honesty because one or more of their number had violated law. The War Department records and the Treasury files will furnish ample evidence of the fact that many of the sins that were committed by others were heaped upon the shoulders of the Jews. It has always been an easy thing to strike at the minority and from time immemorial the prejudice against the Jew has been made a convenient vehicle for furthering malignant purposes and selfish ends.

Having enjoyed the friendship of President Grant and of General Sherman (I was for eight years officially connected with the former, and for a time on intimate social terms with the latter), I can state that I had repeated conversations with them regarding "Order No. 11," which was issued over the signature of General Grant, but of which he, at the time, had absolutely no knowledge. This fact I proved conclusively during the presidential campaign of 1888, when political capital was being made against General Grant among the Jews. By both generals I was assured that there had been a great deal of misinformation on the subject, and, that if they could permit themselves to speak of the facts as they were known to them it would not be the Jews who would be shown to have been derelict but a large number of Christians, many of whom had come highly recommended. It was the latter who were abusing the privilege accorded to them by the authorities at Washington and who had given both generals a great amount of trouble and annoyance.

I admit that it is unfortunate that the writer of the earlier article in the North American Review, whose statements otherwise deserve the fullest consideration, should have been led into so glaring an error as to name Generals Lyon and Rosecrans as Jewish soldiers. While we would have no objection to classing them among our American citizens of Jewish faith, we can substantiate our case very well without doing so, as the cursory list which I have cited will abundantly show. But while admitting the error of the earlier writer I cannot allow the statement of the latter one, with its implication that there was no one of Jewish faith who battled for the Union, to go unchallenged. The Jewish cemeteries of this city, and of every other large city in the land, contain the remains of brave men of Jewish birth who are not forgotten on Decoration Day by their surviving comrades of Christian faith; and what these men recognize the American people will not ignore.

The armies of every country afford ample proof of Jewish patriotism and valor. Even in benighted and tyrannical Russia, where, to a large extent they are soldiers by compulsion—50,000 or 60,000 of them—their officers have uniformly admitted that in battle there were no braver men than the Jews. The late Franco-German war afforded instances of distinguished heroism on the part of Jewish officers and soldiers in both armies. The Italian army and the French army to-day contain a large contingent of Jewish officers and privates who are not only respected, but honored by their compatriots. In the Turkish army some of the leading officers are of Jewish faith. Patriotism, however, is not confined to the field of battle; in private life, from time immemorial, acts have been performed of greater service, possibly, than any in the field, showing greater powers of endurance and evincing higher virtues than were ever recorded in the annals of war. During our late conflict many who remained at home made sacrifices of the most heroic character, and did their duty cheerfully and with alacrity, and I know of none who did their part more fully than the citizens of the United States of Jewish faith. In fact, the history of the Jewish people is one long tragedy of personal sacrifice and heroism. But as I wish to trespass no longer on the columns of your valuable paper, I beg leave to close with this simple statement; that it seems to me high time for Americans of all faiths to frown down all attempts that have for their object the lowering and humiliation of any class of our citizens."

Finding that my letter had been copied extensively, not only by the Jewish press, but by leading newspapers in the country, and favorably commented on generally, I determined to give to the world, as complete as I might find possible, a list of American citizens of Jewish faith who had "stood shoulder to shoulder" on the field of battle, and to add thereto the record of some typical instances of exceptional energy and public spirit in the civil walks of life.

What I had anticipated and supposed would be an easy task, requiring probably no more than six months at the utmost, has taken more than four years of continuous work, notwithstanding the assistance I received from many quarters, and I am even now compelled to give this work to the public in an inadequate form, with the feeling that it is incomplete and that much more should have been made of it.

The difficulties in the way of completing fully and accurately such a compilation as I have here attempted will scarcely be realized by those who have not undertaken a similar task. The work was begun nearly thirty years after the close of the war, when many of those whose names were to be gathered were dead, and many others dispersed throughout our vast domain and beyond our borders. In response to three successive calls made through the leading newspapers of the country, I received, indeed, a large number of replies, but after all, the great majority even of the survivors failed to respond, and of the data that reached me much could not be classified. Nearly a thousand names are accordingly placed in the unclassified list.

By far the majority of the names herein included were furnished by the soldiers themselves or their relatives, but a large number of them were sent to me by army comrades of the men referred to. Some of these may be incorrectly quoted both as to their names and the commands with which they were connected, but these errors may scarcely be considered as affecting the general result, so far at least as numbers are concerned. It was naturally impossible to verify all the notices sent to me, and this compilation must therefore, in the very nature of the case, be more or less imperfect and incomplete, but I may say without hesitation that the work is free from all errors which could be eliminated through a patient and cautious scrutiny. Several hundred names of soldiers from Indiana alone were finally excluded from my present lists, notwithstanding their pronounced Jewish character, such as Marks, Abrahams, Isaacs and others of a similar strain, whose owners were ascertained by my correspondents to be non-Jews, while on the other hand many soldiers bearing names of decidedly non-Jewish derivation were authenticated as Jews. If many whose names should be included fail to see them on this "roll of honor" the fault is at all events not mine, and the earnest effort which I have given to this work, wholly a "labor of love" on my part, leaves me free from the necessity of offering apology for whatever errors of omission or of commission may remain in it. The public records could not be utilized, because our army lists, unlike those of foreign powers, make no registry of the religious faith of the enrolled soldiers. I should, in this connection, urge upon my readers to aid me with such corrections of these army lists as they may be able to furnish, with the view to the record being perfected as far as may be, in a future edition of this book.

Unsatisfactory and at times discouraging as has been my task and its outcome, I have yet had at times the pleasure of obtaining and recording data of a most gratifying character. One of the most pleasing results of my labors is the fact that I am able to present a list of fourteen Jewish families that contributed to