Date of Award
5-1-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in History
First Advisor
Robert Colby
Second Advisor
April Holm
Third Advisor
Susan Stearns
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines the formation, service, post-war life, and impact of the 6th United States Volunteer Infantry Regiment. This regiment and the five preceding it consisted of Confederate POWs who enlisted in the Union Army between 1864 and 1865. The project intersects with a few different historiographies, including Confederate nationalism/dissent and the military’s role in westward expansion. The 6th was formed from soldiers in Camp Douglas, Illinois, Camp Morton, Indiana, and Camp Chase, Ohio. The soldiers were predominantly young and poor southern farmers. These men represent a form of southern dissent to Confederate nationalism and the claims of the Lost Cause that the South and the Confederacy were synonymous. While the Galvanized Yankees do not represent a substantial portion of the Confederacy, they, along with other southerners, point to the many divisions within it. The 6th served most of its 18 months on the frontier, spread out across various territories and numerous posts. They represented a stopgap between the volunteer soldiers who were mustering out and the reorganized regular army. These soldiers served an expanding nation by protecting overland immigrant routes, defending telegraph lines, and garrisoning posts to control Native American groups until the fall of 1866, when they mustered out. The regular army, after the war, slowly professionalized, hoping to cast off the amateurism that volunteer troops like the Galvanized Yankees represented. Upon their muster out, most of the men returned south and continued their lives. However, the effects of the war on their bodies left wounds and illnesses that were not covered by pensions due to their Confederate service. Late in their lives, these veterans were granted pensions, signaling a nation slowly coming back together and a resistance to military expenditures.
Recommended Citation
Ihde, Seth, "The 6th United States Volunteer Infantry: The Last of the Galvanized Yankees" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8834.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/8834