Indiana. He led them into battle at the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro and in the Tullahoma and Chickamauga campaigns. In the Chattanooga Campaign he led the charge at Missionary Ridge. In March 1865 he was appointed a Brevet Brigadier General for bravery and meritorious services. Brevet Brigadier General Edward S. Salomon was the commander of the 82nd Illinois which included more than 100 Jews, when the Confederate and Union armies collided and battled at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3, 1863. His ability to lead men was quickly recognized and he rapidly rose through the ranks. Salomon received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in March 1865. After the Battle of Atlanta, Colonel John Cleveland Robinson recognized the feats of Colonel Salomon when he wrote: "I consider Colonel Salomon one of the most deserving officers. His regiment is deserving of high praise. In a point of discipline it is second to none in the corps." Jews and the Confederacy During the war, approximately 3,000 Jews (out of a total of about 150,000 Jews in the United States and the Confederacy) fought on the Confederate side (out of a total of 8000~ soldiers). The most prominent Jewish figure was Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884), a strong slavery supporter, who, before the Civil War, was the first Jewish Cabinet member in a North American government. Benjamin was born a British subject in Saint Croix to Phillip Benjamin, an English Jew, and his wife, Rebecca Mendes, a Portuguese Jew (Sephardic). He emigrated with his parents to the U.S. several years later and grew up in North and South Carolina. He was considered the "brains of the Confederacy," serving in high office throughout the war: as Confederate Attorney General in 1861, Secretary of War in 1861 and 1862, and Secretary of State from 1862 to 1865. President Jefferson Davis called Benjamin "the most capable statesman I have ever known," but he was subject to "vicious anti-Jewish attacks" as the object of popular discontent after becoming acting Secretary of War in 1861, a position he resigned. He quarreled with the Confederate generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Stonewall Jackson over strategy. In 1864, as the South's military position became increasingly desperate, Benjamin publicly advocated a plan whereby any slave willing to bear arms for the Confederacy would be emancipated and inducted, but his proposal faced stiff opposition from traditionalists. It was not passed until March 1865,