I thought this item I sent to the St. Clair County mail list might also interest some members of this list. Tom Pearson I was intrigued by the question of whether St. Clair County Germans tended to avoid Civil War military service, and decided to do further research on the question. I used the Illinois State Archives Database of Illinois Civil War Soldiers to do much of my research. Following is the URL for this site's search screen: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/genealogy/civilwar.ht ml The Database of Illinois Civil War Soldiers can be used to discover which Illinois volunteer regiment and company an individual served in, and his place of residence at time of enlistment. I highly recommend it. The following site can be used to discover which Illinois county a particular Civil War company was raised in: http://www.illinoiscivilwar.org/searchco.html. Germans in the United States in 1860 in another site I found to be extremely helpful. The URL is: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/2816/germans/states.html. First, some background: In 1860, the U.S. had a total population of 31,400,000. Of these, 1,301,000 were German-born. Illinois in 1860 had a total population of 1,712,000, and a German-born population of 130,800. Illinois therefore had slightly more than 10% of the 1860 U.S. total German-born population. St. Clair County had a total 1860 population of 37,694. 4,396 men from St. Clair County served in Civil War military organizations, or 12% of the 1860 St. Clair County total population. (I am not sure if the 4,396 figure includes all military organizations, or just those sworn into federal service. If it doesn't include militia units, then the percentage of the total 1860 St. Clair County population serving in Civil War military organizations will be even higher than 12%.) The following companies of Illinois volunteer regiments were raised in St. Clair County. Using the Database of Illinois Soldiers site listed above, I checked surnames and places of residence at time of enlistment by company to see if a majority of surnames in the company were Germanic, or had some other ethnic origin. 2nd IL Artillery, Battery E- Mostly Germanic 5th IL Cavalry, Company H- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 10th IL Cavalry, Company E- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 16th IL Cavalry, Company F- Mostly Germanic 16th IL Cavalry, Company G- Mostly Germanic 9th IL Infantry, Company A- Mostly Germanic 9th IL Infantry, Company B- Mostly Germanic 9th IL Infantry, Company C- Mostly Germanic 9th IL Infantry, Company D- Mostly Germanic 9th IL Infantry, Company E- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 22nd IL Infantry, Company C- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 22nd IL Infantry, Company K- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 32nd IL Infantry, Company G- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 43rd IL Infantry, Company A- Mostly Germanic 43rd IL Infantry, Company B- Mostly Germanic 43rd IL Infantry, Company G- Mostly Germanic 43rd IL Infantry, Company H- Mostly Germanic 49th IL Infantry, Company E- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 59th IL Infantry, Company E- Some Germanic (not a majority) 70th IL Infantry, Company F- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 80th IL Infantry, Company C- Mostly Germanic 82nd IL Infantry, Company F- Mostly Germanic 82nd IL Infantry, Company G- Mostly Germanic 115th IL Infantry, Company K- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 117th IL Infantry, Company C- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 117th IL Infantry, Company H- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 117th IL Infantry, Company I- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 117th IL Infantry, Company K- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 142nd IL Infantry, Company H- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 149th IL Infantry, Company B- Mostly Germanic 149th IL Infantry, Company C- Some Germanic (not a majority) 149th IL Infantry, Company D- Mostly Germanic 149th IL Infantry, Company H- Mostly Germanic 149th IL Infantry, Company I- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) 149th IL Infantry, Company K- Mostly Germanic 155th IL Infantry, Company K- Mostly other (mainly English or Irish) There are 36 companies total listed (since a company was made up of approximately 100 men, the list above accounts for approximately 3600 men of the 4,396 men furnished by St. Clair County to Civil War military organizations). Of these 36 companies, 18, or exactly half, were made up of men with mostly Germanic surnames (16 of the 36 companies were made up mainly of men with English or Irish surnames). Two companies included some men with Germanic surnames, although these men constituted less than a majority of company members. If we simply exclude these two companies from our calculations, it can still be seen that least 1,800 (41%) of the 4,396 men furnished by St. Clair County to Civil War military organizations had Germanic surnames. It therefore seems obvious that St. Clair County German-born men not only didn't shirk their duty to their new Fatherland, they enlisted in numbers greater than that of any other ethnic group in the county. I invite others to replicate or further my research, as I find this question to be of great interest, and realize my research can by no means be considered exhaustive or scientific. I do hope, however, that I have helped put to rest the supposition that large numbers of St. Clair County Germans attempted to evade Civil War military service- it simply wasn't the case. Tom Pearson