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Does not surprise me that there were that many Belgians. I know there were around 200,000 Irish 300,000 Germans, 50,000 English/Scots and probably 50,000 Canadians in the Federal Army (and I am talking about foreign born men not just their ethnicity. ) Many of these were actively recruited by the federal government during the war.
It was easier (and less politically damaging for the lincoln administration)to hire foreign mercenaries than it was to conscript American voters and sons of voters for an unpopular war.
It is interesting to note that Northern colleges were full to capacity during the war while most Southern colleges had to close due to a dearth of students. Most Southern colleges that kept there doors open switched to training officers for the CS army.
This is especially telling when you consider that many northern colleges (such as Harvard) had large contingents of Southerners in their student body (most of whom went into CS service at the outbreak of war) and that the per capita rate of post-secondary attendance was much higher in the South than in the north in 1860.
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