Page 5 of 2,087
Transnational Volunteers: A Research Note on Border-crossing to Enlist in the American Civil War
| Type of resource | |
|---|---|
| Author/collaborator |
|
| Title |
Transnational Volunteers: A Research Note on Border-crossing to Enlist in the American Civil War
|
| Abstract |
The author notes that historians of transnational and global relations have increasingly reminded us that fighting in “someone else’s war” is not a new phenomenon. She focuses on soldiers who left British North America (BNA) to enlist in the American Civil War. The author’s research note describes a method for distinguishing cross-border enlistments from the many BNA-born immigrants already living in the United States. By cross-referencing online data archives, the author was possible to create an original database of BNA-born individuals who lived in the Eastern Townships in 1861 and crossed the border to enlist in Vermont. A comparison of patterns of enlistment behaviour shows that the transnational volunteers’ actions closely tracking those of native-born and naturalized Vermonters. Both groups followed the same trajectory, with high rates of volunteering in early months, a decline, and then a spike in late 1863, when federal authorities deployed more generous bounty payments as a policy instrument to alter the incentive structure for enlistment. Nonetheless, the author concludes that seventy percent of these BNA residents had already enlisted before September 1863.
|
| Publication |
The Canadian Historical Review
|
| Volume |
Vol. 104
|
| Issue |
no. 3
|
| Pages |
387-406
|
| Date |
September 2023
|
| Language |
en
|
| Citation |
Jensen, Jane. “Transnational Volunteers: A Research Note on Border-Crossing to Enlist in the American Civil War.” The Canadian Historical Review Vol. 104, no. 3 (September 2023): 387–406.
|
| Find in a library | |
| Permalink |
Page 5 of 2,087
