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The U.S. Civil War was fought mostly on southern soil where many foreign residents suffered significant monetary and personal losses. In 1880 the United States and France set up a commission to examine claims from French citizens living or doing business in America between 1861 and 1866. Over 700 claims were adjudicated although few were paid any significant amount of money. The case files, housed at the National Archives, are a treasure-trove of information about these immigrants and their families, their origins, their occupations, as well as the operations and conduct of both southern and northern troops who fought literally in their backyards. The majority of the claims were filed from Louisiana, although a hundred or so came from Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.