“At Least” 58 Chinese Americans Fought in the Civil War

Remember that episode of Pushing Daisies where Ned gets in a fight with a Chinese descendant of a Confederate soldier with a charming southern drawl? Surprise, there is evidence that Chinese Americans fought under the Confederacy: “Even though there were only about 200 Chinese-Americans living in the eastern United States at the time, 58 of them fought in the Civil War. Because of their previous experiences at sea, many of them served in the U.S. Navy. Only one Chinese-American soldier was actually born on American soil. The rest had come to the U.S. through the Pacific slave trade, adoption by Americans, independent immigration or the influence of missionaries. … Two of these, Christopher and Stephen Bunker, were children of Siamese twins Chang and Eng, who had been brought to the U.S. to appear in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The twins, of Chinese heritage, became prosperous, slave-owning farmers in North Carolina.”