Writer sheds light on forgotten history of Chinese Americans in US Civil War

Edward Day Cohota was among the Chinese Americans who served in the US Civil War. However, after the Civil War ended in 1865, many were denied the right to citizenship by the Naturalization Act of 1870 and the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Edward Day Cohota, born near Shanghai, was brought from China to Massachusetts as a boy by a sea captain. Only a few books such as Arthur Bonner's The Chinese in New York, 1800-1950 ever mentioned these Chinese men's service.