Visualisations of the nativity and ethnicity data taken from the surviving muster rolls of USS Carondelet between 1863 and 1865. Click on each image to enlarge. The initial chart follows the change over time; this indicates that while native-born white Americans made up almost 50% of the crew in early 1863, this figure fell as the year progressed and rarely exceed 40% after that date. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, the African American representation climbed from 20% at the beginning of 1863 to a high of almost 30% by mid-1864, before falling precipitously from late 1864 through to the end of the conflict. Men of Irish and British nativity made up only an extremely small proportion of the Carondelet‘s crew at the start of 1863, but by the Spring of 1864 they made up almost 30%. Their percentage representation was at its peak just prior to the war’s conclusion in 1865, when they made up over 30% of the sailors. These changing demographics likely impacted the nature and form of shipboard dynamics through the course of the war. Beneath the overview graphic are the individual breakdown visualisations for each muster, which you can click on to enlarge.
The Civil War Bluejackets Project 