Several years ago, I wrote a post about the way the Confederate army was racially integrated. Actually, I’ve written on that subject a couple of times, talking about the lives of free men of color like the Townsend brothers in the 26th North Carolina and the Cozzens brothers in the 37th North Carolina. These men volunteered to serve, and, according to the 1860s, they were not white. You can check out those posts here and here.
Along those same
lines is the service of Christopher Wren Bunker. However, Bunker’s father was
not Black, but was born in Thailand, as was his uncle. The two brothers are
better known as Chang and Eng Bunker, the famous Siamese Twins.
The brothers were
born in the fishing village of Mekong, Siam, now Thailand, in 1811. They were
conjoined at birth, and in August 1829, came to the United States. Due to their
being conjoined, they were seen as oddities and picked up jobs with Hunter and
Coffin and later with P.T. Barnum, traveling around the United States. They
decided to settle in the states, became naturalized citizens, broke with
Barnum, adopted “Bunker” as a surname, and set out on their own. For a time in
the late 1830’s, they quit touring and settled in the Traphill section of
Wilkes County, North Carolina. Eng and
Chang met two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates, whom they married in 1843. Eng
and Sarah had ten children, while Chang and Adelaide had twelve children. They
relocated to Surry County, North Carolina.[1]
One of those sons was Christopher Wren Bunker, born to Chang and Adelaide in 1845. On April 1, 1863, in Wythe County, Virginia, Bunker enlisted in Company I, 37th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. He was mustered in as a private. Bunker was captured at Moorefield, Virginia, on August 7, 1864, and sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, arriving on August 24, 1864. A descriptive list described Bunker as having a dark complexion, brown eyes, and black hair, five foot eight, and twenty years of age. On March 4, 1865, Bunker was transferred to City Point, Virginia, where he was paroled.[2]
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| Christopher W. Bunker (findagrave) |
But wait, there is
another Bunker in the 37th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. Stephen D.
Bunker, son of Eng and Laura Bunker, also served. According to his widow’s
pension record, Stephen D. Bunker enlisted in July 1864. There is no clear
record in the 37th Battalion for Stephen, but there are a couple of
pages for a D.C. Bunker who was absent wounded in 1864.[3]
What about the 37th
Battalion Virginia Infantry? They were originally known as Dunn’s Partisan
Rangers, organized in August 1862. Lt. Col. Ambrose C. Dunn was the first
commander. The battalion saw duty during the Jones-Imboden Raid, the battle of
White Sulphur Springs, the Siege of Knoxville, and the Valley Campaigns of
1864, including the battle of Moorefield and third battle of Winchester. The
battalion disbanded in mid-1865.
Chang and Eng
Bunker passed away in 1874 and are buried at White Plains Baptist Church
Cemetery in Surry County, North Carolina. Christopher Wren Bunker passed in
1932 and is buried at the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery in Surry County. Stephen D. Bunker passed in 1920 and is also
buried at White Plains Baptist Church in Surry County.
While there is
probably not another story quite like that of Chang and Eng Bunker and their
sons Christoper and Stephen, there are undoubtedly many other documented cases
of diversity in the ranks of Confederate regiments.
