JEWISH SOLDIERS IN BLUE & GRAY a first-of-its-kind film that reveals the little-known struggles facing American Jews both in battle and on the home front during the nation’s deadliest war, Recently unearthed personal narratives shed new light on this fascinating chapter in American history and powerfully illustrate the unique role Jews played on the battlefields and the home front.

Chronicles Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous 1862 mandate to expel Jewish residents from Union-controlled land and shares the story of President Lincoln’s doctor-turned-Union spy.

General Order No. 11 was the title of an order issued by Major-General Ulysses S. Grant on December 17, 1862, during the Civil War. It ordered the expulsion of all Jews in his military district, comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.. The order was issued as part of a Union campaign against a black market in Southern cotton, which Grant thought was being run “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders.”

Following protests from Jewish community leaders and an outcry by members of Congress and the press, President Lincoln ordered this revoked a few weeks later. During his campaign for the presidency in 1868, Grant repudiated the order, saying that it had been drafted by a subordinate and that he had signed it without reading it during warfare.

John Y Simon (1979). The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 7: December 9, 1862 - March 31, 1863. SIU Press. p. 56.

From: The Civil War Parlor