Can anyone determine how many (percentage) foreign-born soldiers served in the 9th Georgia? A recently published study indicated that 3.4 percent of soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia were born in a foreign country. From a muster roll in Greg White's book on the 31st Georgia, I calculated that 1.5 percent of the 31st was foreign born. Incidentally, Irishmen made up 50-60 percent of the foreign born soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies at Gettysburg. according to my analysis. The potato blight of the 1840s was responsible for the exodus from the Emerald Isle. County Donegal's population fell from 296,000 in 1841 to 18,000 by 1861, and it has not recovered its former size to this day.