Edward Day Cohota (US Army)

Narrative
Edward Day Cohota was a young Chinese immigrant who lied about his age to be able to enlist in the Union army in 1864.  He served with honor in the 23d Massachusetts (Army of the Potomac) during some of the war’s bloodiest campaigns in Virginia.  He was present at the Battle of Cold Harbor in June 1864 and helped save the life of a fellow soldier named Low who never forgot Cohota’s bravery.  Yet some Americans did forget the contributions of Chinese.  In 1882, Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act.  The anti-Chinese legislation did not affect Cohota, however, until 1912 when he was denied an application for a homestead on the grounds that he was not a legitimate citizen.  The insult infuriated the veteran.

“I have fought in the country’s service as a soldier…I believe that I, if anyone, have earned the right to be pronounced a citizen of the United States and enjoy all of its rights and privileges…I respectfully ask that some action be taken that will enable me to become a citizen of the United States of America.”

Cohota died in 1935 still stripped of his US citizenship.  Congress did not repeal the Chinese Exclusion rules until World War II.

Sources
This short report from the New York Times on November 13, 1927 notes that Cohota had “spent thirty years in the service” and “[was] spending his last days at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium” in Hot Springs, South Dakota. One important secondary source is Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s article: “Chinese In the Civil War: Ten Who Served,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives 10 (1996): 149-169. In addition, the US Army has a profile of Cohota on this page.

Places to Visit
No structures or sites related to Cohota exist. Cohota grew up abroad Captain Sargent S. Day’s ship as well as the Day family home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. After Confederates surrendered in 1865, Cohota was stationed at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. In 1935 Cohota died at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Veterans in Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Images
The US Army has a photograph of Cohota on this page.