In regards to the above interest in Henry Sladek supposedly born in Australia, Mr. Gray mentioned my name as the originator of the query - in fact I've been researching links between Australia and the Civil War for over twenty years, concentrating on those veterans who came here after the war, the Australians who had served in the war, and the visit of the CSS Shenandoah to Melbourne during the war. Mr. Gray is incorrect in that I am from New South Wales, another eroneous statement on his behalf, I am actually a resident of Melbourne (the southern city where the Shenandoah visited in 1865).
The link with Henry Sladek was given to me by a researcher in the National Archives who has been trawling through the Civil War records looking for those born in the Antipodes, one of the names he did find was that of Henry Sladek which was queried at the time because we know that in the time of th 1840's, very few colonists in Ausralia came from outside the United Kingdom - in fact it was only during the 1850 gold rush to Australia that a number of European-born men arrived so for any male to have served in the Civil War (aged 15 years and upwards), the non-English names would be a dead giveaway. Oddly neough a similar problem existed sveral eyars ago whena very high-standign Civil War researcher produced a regimental history on the 37th illinois and mentioned one of its members also being born in Australia with the name of Morris Wetzler - as it turned out correctly, again he was shown to have been born in Austria and not Australia.
We are diligent in getting our information correct and always open to public opinion and changes of heart - if correction needs to be done - please make sure that we can all co-operate to get our facts right but remember we are human!
Best wishes from down under
Barry