Leopold Karpeles: Jewish Civil War hero

On April 30, 1870, for his extraordinary service, Leopold Karpeles became the first of six Jewish Civil War veterans to receive the Medal of Honor.

Karpeles was born in 1838 in Prague, Bohemia, and immigrated to the United States in 1849, following his older brother, Emil. They both settled in Galveston, Texas.

For several years, Karpeles rode with the early Texas Rangers and was part of the Brownsville Guard as both companies helped to protect merchant shipments from Mexican bandits.

After a falling out with Emil about slavery, Karpeles moved to Massachusetts in 1860 to live with some of his abolitionist friends and to work at a dry-goods store.

In 1862, at the onset of the Civil War, Karpeles enlisted in the 46th Massachusetts Regiment and was appointed to a front-line position: color bearer. He was honorably discharged after his nine-month term, and reenlisted in 1863, this time in the 57th Regiment, from Springfield, Massachusetts, to continue fighting for the North.

Karpeles’ commanding officer, Lt. John Anderson, said of him, “His gallantry was conspicuous in the Battle of the Wilderness ... and the North Anna River, in which latter fight he was wounded while far in advance of the line, bearing the colors of the Regiment; but he carried the colors until wounded the second time.”

While recovering from his wounds, Karpeles met Sara Mundheim, the daughter of a Reform rabbi in Washington, D.C., whom he married and with whom he had his first two children. After his wife’s death, he married her sister, Henrietta, and went on to have six more children.

Karpeles is buried in the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, in Washington, D.C.

In 1989, a relative of Karpeles, who lived in Providence, donated Karpeles’ personal papers to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association.

Today, Karpeles’ Medal of Honor is on display at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History in Springfield.

Submitted by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association.

THE RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION is the oldest Jewish historical society in continuous operation in the United States. Stories for “From the Archive” are written by RIJHA staff, board members and volunteers based on information in RIJHA’s Chaya and Beryl Segal Archive. To learn about RIJHA and its programs, or to volunteer or become a member, please contact office manager Jaime Walden at (401) 331-1360.