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J. R. Kealoha (died March 5, 1877) was a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii, who was among a small number of Hawaiians who fought in the American Civil War. Serving in a United States Colored regiment, Kealoha participated in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and was present at the unconditional surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. ==Life== After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Kingdom of Hawaii under King Kamehameha IV declared its neutrality on August 26, 1861. However, many Native Hawaiians and Hawaii-born Americans (mainly descendants of the American missionaries) abroad and in the islands volunteered and enlisted in the military regiments of other states in the Union and the Confederacy. Native Hawaiian participants in the American wars, during its period of independence, was not an unheard phenomenon. Individual Native Hawaiians had been serving in the United States Navy and Army since the War of 1812, and even more served during the American Civil War. Many Hawaiians personally sympathized with the Union because of Hawaii's ties to New England through its missionaries and the whaling industries, and the ideological opposition of many to the institution of slavery.〔 Little is known about the life of J. R. Kealoha before the war. He enlisted in 1864 as a private and was assigned to the 41st Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), a colored regiment formed in Camp William Penn, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1864. Most Native Hawaiians who participated in the war were assigned to the colored regiments because of their dark skin color and the segregationist policy in the military at the time.〔 Kealoha is one of the few Hawaiian soldiers of the Civil War whose real name is known.〔 Many combatants served under anglicized pseudonyms because they were easier for English-speaking Americans to pronounce than Hawaiian language names. They were often registered as ''kanakas'', the 19th-century term for Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, with the "Sandwich Islands" (i.e. Hawaii) as their place of origin. From October 1864 to April 1865, Kealoha fought in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, also known more popularly as the Siege of Petersburg.〔〔 During the campaign, Kealoha and another Hawaiian named Kaiwi, of the 28th Regiment United States Colored Troops, came across Samuel Chapman Armstrong, a son of an American missionary and a native of Maui.〔 Armstrong wrote of the encounter in a letter which was published in the Hawaiian missionary newspaper ''The Friend'' in 1865: Yesterday, as my orderly was holding my horse, I asked him where he was from. He said he was from Hawaii! He proved to be a full-blood Kanaka, by the name of Kealoha, who came from the Islands last year. There is also another, by the name of Kaiwi, who lived near Judge Smith's, who left the Islands last July. I enjoyed seeing them very much and we had a good jabber in kanaka. Kealoha is a private in the 41st Regiment US Colored Troops, and Kaiwi is a Private in the 28th U.S.C.T., in the pioneer corps. Both are good men and seemed glad to have seen me. Kealoha survived months of trench warfare during Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and with the 41st USCT regiment fought at the Battle of Appomattox Court House and was among those present at the unconditional surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.〔 The 41st USCT regiment was disbanded in December 14, 1865. After the war, Kealoha returned to Hawaii. He died on March 5, 1877 and was buried with eighteen other Native Hawaiians, in an unmarked grave in Section 1, Lot 56 of the Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu. During the Hawaii Territorial period, Kealoha's service in the Civil War was recorded by the United Veterans Service Council (UVSC), a precursor to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, which included his name in their records as a "Deceased Veterans" and listed the location of his burial place. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「J. R. Kealoha」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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