 Only a few hundred served in the Confederacy, being primarily 3rd and 4th generation descended from those who had migrated to the Carolinas in the 18th century and early 19th century.Approximately 516,000 Union soldiers, or 23.4% of all Union soldiers, were immigrants; about 216,000 of these were born in Germany.New York supplied the largest number of these native-born Germans with 36,000.