[Malika VO] It's hard to imagine now, but 160 years ago, Northern Virginia was the site of some of the most brutal battles of the Civil War.

[gunshots] Among the Union soldiers who fought here in May of 1864 was a Muslim man, a recent immigrant from Afghanistan named Mohammad Kahn.

Why he would risk his life here and what happened next is described in his military records, recently discovered in the National Archives in Washington, DC.

[Jonathan VO] I've pulled tens of thousands of files over the years.

This is probably the only -- if not among a handful of descriptions of Islam in a Civil War document.

That's what really struck me, and I was like, "This is...

gold!"

♪curious pensive music♪ [Mailka VO] The Civil War was a turning point in American history.

It preserved the Union, and ended slavery.

Three million men fought.

Three quarters of a million died.

In November of 1863, Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg, and delivered his most famous speech.

In two powerful minutes, he spelled out the meaning behind the sacrifices the war demanded.

Lincoln put it all together in the Gettysburg Address.

It went down right to the core values of the founding of the nation: that all men are created equal.

The Civil War, it was supposed to have decided the fundamental question... at the heart of what America was going to be: guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens of the United States.

Some people might think of the Civil War as a war of brother against brother, North and South.

But it also had a more global perspective; that had to do with humanity.

[Malika VO] As a Muslim, I want to know: could it be that people who shared my faith helped bring about this new birth of freedom?

That Muslims fought to end slavery too?

That's where Private Mohammad Kahn comes in.

He's part of a story researchers are still piecing together.

The details of Kahn's eventful life are revealed bit by bit in his application for a pension 200 pages long.

Because of it, we know more about his service than most other soldiers who fought in the conflict.

So this is someone interviewing him to determine if he would receive his pension?

A series of interviews over many years.

They couldn't understand his pronunciation of "Mohammad Kahn" when he enlisted, so they wrote the best they could, and "Ammahaie" is the best they could come up with for "Mohammad," and they just pretty much named everyone "John" if they had no-- like "John Doe."

What can you tell us about his religion, his faith, his Muslim identity?

They don't typically express a soldier's faith in one of these records, but when he's giving testimony from different apothecaries -- a sort of pharmacist that he was buying medicine from -- that one of them says, "He used to come into my store, and I would read to him what he called the 'Mohammedan Bible,'" or what they called the "Koran" but misspelled in the documents -- spelled with an H. There's the key right there; it's very clear what his faith was.

[Malika] So, "This man had long black hair, and this witness -- from his looks, manners, and general appearance -- supposed him to be... an American Indian."

♪pensive music♪ [actor as Kahn VO] I was born in Persia, and raised in Afghanistan.

I came to this country in 1861, with an American officer, a consul, but I don't remember his name.

[chuckling] I couldn't speak one word of English at that time.

About two or two and a half months after my arrival, I enlisted at New Haven, Connecticut, having been persuaded to enlist while under the influence of liquor.

-[Malika] What a story.

-Yeah.

Not unusual!

Were recruiters using alcohol to recruit people?

[Jonathan] Yes, and drugs.

[laughs] Wow!

I came across many stories -- complaints -- by, uh... soldiers claiming that these recruiters -- "runners," they called them -- would treat them to drinks at the tavern, and that they were recruited and enlisted against their will.

There was no question there was some of that that went on.

[Malika VO] Whatever led Kahn to enlist, he wasn't the only immigrant to join the Union forces.

[Don VO] There are 2.2 million soldiers that served in the Union army over the four years, and about one quarter of those were born in a foreign country.

[Malika VO] Most of these men came from Europe, but migrants had begun arriving from parts of Asia, too.

I remember coming across evidence of a solider who died at Gettysburg.

They called him "John Tommy."

He was a Chinese soldier.

He died for his adopted country.

So, is it a surprise to find Muslims in this war?

I was delighted to find this, and not entirely surprised.

[Malika VO] More evidence for Muslims in the Union army can be found in the United States Colored Troops, regiments made up mainly of Black Americans, many of them formerly-enslaved people.

Established in 1863, the Colored Troops and their supporters wanted to expand the Union's goals; they wanted to end slavery.

[Marquett] I am the full-time historical interpreter.

My job here is to share the truth of that history about this lost story about 209,145 men that answered our government's cry for help.

The names of every single colored soldier etched into this wall?

Yes, all who have served, including the soldiers from the West Indies, South America, folks of Asian descent.

So the rule was, if you were non-white, they're gonna put you in the Bureau of the United States Colored Soldiers.

The whole world was in this rebellion.

[Malika VO] Given Mohammad Kahn's appearance, you might expect to find his name on this memorial, but it's not here.

Instead, I find the name of the best-known Black Muslim in the Union army: an African immigrant named Nicholas Mohammed Ali Ben Said.

[Precious VO] Nicholas Said walked into the United States a free man before the Civil War started.

He was from the Kingdom of Bornu, that area that is now Northern Nigeria.

He arrived in 1860, joined up with the 55th regiment, and he said, "Because all my people seemed to be doing so."

Said is an unusual recruit.

Whoever's in charge of the unit notices how well-educated he is, and so he becomes a clerk, rather than a frontline fighter.

He's this really interesting figure because he's also literate.

He write his autobiography.

[Edward VO] He writes about his whole life, and also about the conditions of Reconstruction.

Interestingly, he doesn't mention his military service, probably because, being in the South, he doesn't want to be associated with the Union army.

He actually receives this rank as Sergeant.

This is a remarkable-- a remarkable man!

Muslim presence in the Civil War that he represents, and I think it's very important.

This is not a foreign story; it's a part of the American story.

[Malika VO] Alongside Nicholas Said, that story now includes Mohammad Kahn, whose name is not on this wall for a simple reason: he was part of an all-white unit, the 43rd New York infantry.

[Malika] How was he able to join the 43rd in the first place, though, looking as he did?

[Jonathan] He was recruited by his captain, and no one seemed to question it.

♪curious pensive music♪ He was getting full pay, full benefits -- if there were any -- of a white soldier at the time, so... [Malika VO] With Kahn in their ranks, the New York 43rd marched south, through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

Sometimes, Kahn was allowed to fight.

Other times, he was given more menial duties.

It's possible that he was mistreated because of his color, but also expected to march in line and do duty like a white man.

[Malika VO] In July of 1863, the 43rd reached Gettysburg, the best-known battle of the Civil War, and perhaps its turning point.

We know Kahn was nearby, while some of his comrades fought in close combat.

[Dean] The 43rd New York and the 7th Maine was the two regiments who formed the line of battle down over the field, and they charged up over the hill.

The Confederates were behind that very stone fence in that -woods.

-[Malika] Wow, so close!

[Dean] And they pushed the Confederates back.

"43rd New York infantry held this position from the morning of July 3rd until the close of battle."

[Dean] The 43rd was a very, very hard-fighting regiment, and they fought in just about every major battle of the Army of the Potomac.

Here at Gettysburg, five casualties in the 43rd, two of 'em killed outright, 11 wounded -- four of 'em mortally -- and one captured.

[Malika] So you can't get into his head, but you have seen so many documents.

Why do you think Mohammad Kahn would fight in the war?

[Jonathan] He knew how to be a soldier.

He said he knew how to load and fire a musket, and quickly was in the ranks, marching and doing his duty.

He may have felt tricked into enlisting, but he stayed and he fought.

That was a common path to citizenship and to national identity.

This is someone who could have been obscure, could have just come here and maybe lived some years, and gone back, maybe...

This is a man who agreed to be right in the thick of the fight.

Once he had gotten into it, I think he understood the stakes, and he went for it.

He could have ran away or really escaped at any time.

He did stick around for some reason, and it may have been because he felt morally and ethically obligated to see it through.

[Malika VO] As a Muslim, Kahn may have been inspired by traditional Islamic teachings about slavery.

These urged Muslims to treat enslaved people with dignity, and work for their freedom.

At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, there's evidence that Muslim attempts to end slavery in the US extended well beyond our shores.

Logs from the American Consulate in Tunis, North Africa, date back to 1864.

They contain the translation of a letter from a prominent Tunisian official, Major General Hussein.

Tunis, an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, had abolished slavery some 20 years earlier, citing the moral principles of Islam.

In this letter, Major General Hussein urged Americans to end slavery too.

"Oh, inhabitants of America, since God has permitted you to enjoy full personal liberty, and to manage your civil and political affairs yourselves, while many other people are deprived of such distinguished privileges and blessings, it would not tarnish the luster of your crown to grant to your slaves, as an act of gratitude for the favors God has bestowed on you, such civil rights as are not denied to the humblest and meanest of your citizens.

Humanity invites you to eradicate from your Constitution all that can give countenance to the principle of slavery."

-Strong words.

-[David] Very powerful words.

[Precious VO] We look at the letter from Hussein Pasha.

He doesn't mention white and Black.

He mentions the human being.

He references the Qur'an, and the experiences of the Muslims with slavery.

He was upholding these ideas of liberty and emancipation that I think most of us think are kind of the intellectual property of the West.

[Malika VO] When the American Consul in Tunis received General Hussein's letter, he sent it to the Secretary of State in Washington, DC.

He also sent a copy to a leading advocate for abolition, Senator Charles Sumner.

He's helping give ammunition to Sumner in his fight for -abolition in the United States.

-Oh, absolutely.

I think that's reflected when he says... "You will have strong support to the principles which you have for years set forth and defended."

This is clearly something that he believes Sumner can use to his advantage in arguing against slavery.

[Malika VO] Sumner was grateful to Major General Hussein according to the American consul's papers.

That's not surprising.

Here in the US Capitol, Sumner was known for referring to Islam in his arguments for abolition, especially in his famous "Barbarism of slavery" speech from 1860.

In it, Sumner criticized Southern slaveholders, contrasting their treatment of enslaved people with traditional Islamic approaches.

[Precious VO] He was quoting the Qur'an, to the level that this was actually reported in The New York Times; the speech was published in full.

[Malika VO] As diplomats and politicians waged their war of words, the conflict continued on the battlefield.

For Mohammad Kahn, this meant more fighting, and not just against Confederate forces.

A few days after Gettysburg, Kahn found himself in nearby Hagerstown, where, based on his appearance, a group of Union soldiers mistook him for a runaway slave.

[actor as Kahn VO] Just as I was going up the hill towards the railroad depot, I was arrested by a guard, and taken to the Provost Marshall's headquarters, where there were a large number of colored men.

This guard arrested all Black men they met.

I said that I was a regularly-enlisted solider of the 43rd New York, and asked to be sent to my regiment.

This I explained to them as well as I could in my broken English, but they wouldn't believe me.

They said he was a contraband slave, meaning that he was an escaped slave, that he was... not eligible for service and that he was lying, so they arrested him.

[Malika VO] Kahn was sent to a contraband camp in Philadelphia, one of many such camps set up to house formerly-enslaved people fleeing the South.

But this couldn't keep him from the frontline.

He spends months there in Philadelphia, trying to find his company!

Looking for his... [chuckles] his fellow soldiers!

[actor as Kahn VO] At the time, news came about the fighting in the wilderness.

I was around the railroad depot.

As I was very anxious to join my company, I jumped aboard a train just as it started, and went with it without asking permission of anyone to get aboard.

I landed in Washington.

[Edward VO] He gets off the train, and he kind of walks with other squadrons from DC to Virginia!

Finally, he finds his company.

♪tense music♪ [Malika VO] His company was engaged in brutal fighting, waged across Virginia's Spotsylvania County.

Kahn would not survive unscathed here for long.

[John] One US Army regular soldier describes this as "a battle of invisibles with invisibles."

Snarled, ugly, scrubby, bushy mess.

Black powder smoke could completely obscure a battlefield, even when it's entirely in the open.

Fighting in dense forage like this makes it almost impossible to see at all.

Not only do you not know where the enemy is half the time, a lot of times, you don't know where you are!

[Malika] So it sounds like heavy casualties.

[John] Heavy casualties.

[actor as Kahn VO] I had picked up a rifle, and I went straight to my company and fell into line.

10 or 15 minutes after this, my regiment made a charge.

Almost immediately, I was shot, wounded in the left hand.

Given everything you said, it's really not surprising that Mohammad Kahn would have been injured here.

[John] No, it's not surprising he was injured here at all, and it's borderline miraculous that he wasn't killed.

[Malika VO] Still, Kahn's wound was so severe that he spent several months recuperating at a military hospital.

But in early 1865, Mohammad Kahn rejoined his regiment again.

He fought alongside his comrades as a sharpshooter until the end of the war.

That came in April of 1865, and, with it, rapid change, despite Lincoln's assassination.

[Don VO] I think that Reconstruction was actually a huge achievement.

I mean, first of all, it was total, it was immediate, and it very quickly passed three major Constitutional amendments.

[Edward VO] 13th Amendment abolishes slavery, the 14th guarantees equal protection under law for all, and the 15 guarantees voting rights for men, regardless of national origin.

The writing of the 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments really intended to solve the problems at the heart of America.

It didn't turn out that way.

[Malika VO] For Mohammad Kahn, the war was over, but a new challenge had begun: to rebuild his life as a civilian.

By this time, his wife had arrived from South Asia, and Kahn tried to make a living as a peddler, selling beads, baskets, and herbal medicine.

All the while, he struggled with the wounds he received in the war, and fought for his rights as a veteran, too.

Is it typical to struggle to get your pension?

[Jonathan] Yes.

So, they required either direct evidence -- documentation -- that you had served and were wounded and deserved a pension, or were sick and deserved a pension, or you need a lot of testimony.

He could produce neither.

He went through a lot of hassle getting this one, so he... talked to the Pension Office, talked to congressmen, he lived in the District of Columbia so he was in the halls of Congress, knocking on doors, asking for favors, getting assistance.

He was what they would consider a great pest, in the sense that he was there all the time.

Everyone knew him.

They did all kinds of favors trying to get records for him.

They contacted the Secretary of War, eventually.

And they loaned him money; a lot of Black soldiers from the Civil War did work in the Pension Office, and that's who he actually borrowed money from when he would come to these offices.

They really felt for him, you know?

They knew his struggle was genuine.

Do you think his race factored into his struggle to get his -pension?

-[Jonathan] Absolutely.

He received a lot more pushback.

He had to enlist the help of all these powerful people to assist him.

[Malika VO] Kahn fought for over 20 years to receive the pension he was due, but the laborious process generated the paperwork that allows us to reconstruct his story.

The pages became his history.

When he died in 1891, Kahn was buried in Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn, under the name the Army gave him, not his own.

Here, he lies among 4,000 other Civil War veterans, white soldiers and members of the US Colored Troops.

♪stirring orchestral music♪ I'm getting goosebumps knowing that we're close.

5,009.

[sighs] There it is.

John Ammahaie, New York.

We found it.

[Malika VO] We'll never be completely sure what Mohammad Kahn was fighting for.

What we do know is that somehow he made the war that ended slavery his own war, a war that advanced the cause of freedom then, and continues to shape the nation we're becoming now.

♪♪♪