Dennis, very interesting. In my research for "Lee's Tigers" I found that those Tiger regiments with the largest number of foreign born members tended to have the highest desertion rates. I don't think that's too surprising, however, because a number of foreign-born men were literally shanghaied in New Orleans and forced to enlist when the war began. It may be that a lot of foreign born volunteered because of peer pressure and then deserted at the first opportunity.

There's also such a thing as Galvanized Rebels. Late in the war, there was a concerted effort to recruit Irish Catholic Union prisoners from the prisoner of war camp at Salisbury, N.C., for the Louisiana regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia. Louisiana officers and chaplains believed the Irish Catholic prisoners were being neglected because of their religion (anti-Catholic sentiment was strong in both the North and South) and they might could be persuaded to join their fellow Irish Catholics in the Tiger units. It was claimed that several hundred were ready to do so but there doesn't seem to be any records after that. I've never found out if any substantial number did enlist with the Tigers or if maybe they were just leading officials on to get preferential treatment.