Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Date of Award

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

History

Committee Chair

Henry McKiven

Abstract

This thesis reveals the experiences of a Hungarian Separatist, Alexander Asboth, and how he applied those experiences in the American Civil War. It examines Asboth’s biography, his expansive view of the Union, and how he differed from many commanding officers in the Western theater. Moreover, this thesis illuminates Asboth’s military service, including his leadership of a diverse force at Barrancas, Florida, and adds to the understudied collaboration of foreign-born officers and Black soldiers in Gulf Coast Civil War history.

During the 1848 Hungarian separatist movement, Asboth served as an Army staff officer under the leader Lajos Kossuth. However, the separatists failed in their bid for independence from the Habsburgs. Asboth and other separatists fled to Turkey as refugees. He eventually received asylum in the US, where he became a citizen and hoped to enjoy the rights denied him by the Austrian Empire. Asboth arrived in the US during the secession crisis. With the outbreak of the Civil War, his European background and interpretation of the sectional struggle led him to side with the US. Considering the secession was a separatist act, my thesis will explain why a Hungarian separatist fought to preserve the Union.

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