The Blue & the Gray
The Blue: Adajah Behrend
Hospital Steward (1841-1932)
Adajah Behrend immigrated to America from Rodenberg in the German state of Hesse. In 1861 he enlisted in the 2nd Regiment Infantry of the U.S. Army and was promoted to Hospital Steward.
Wounded at the James River in 1862, Behrend served until the war’s end. After the war, he received his medical degree from Georgetown University, where he later taught, and became a member of Washington Hebrew Congregation. Behrend served as “Physician to the Poor” in northeast Washington.
A Father's Plea
In November 1862, President Lincoln issued an order allowing soldiers to attend church on Sundays when circumstances permitted. In response, Adajah Behrend’s father, Bernhard, wrote to Lincoln. Behrend’s letter inquired, “Shall you not give the same privilege to a minority of the army that you give to the majority?”
There is no record of Lincoln’s response. However, while serving in a Union hospital at Fairfax Seminary in 1863, Adajah Behrend furloughed (granted leave to) eleven soldiers for the High Holidays.
Adajah Behrend, hospital steward and later prominent physician in Washington.
Bernhard Behrend wrote this letter to the Jewish periodical The Occident, asking that Jewish soldiers receive leave to attend religious services, a right afforded to Christian soldiers.