on April 26, 1865, submitted an address to the American Minister in
Berlin, in which the following language occurs:
Living among us you are witness of the heartfelt sympathy
which this people have ever preserved for the people of the
United States during the long and severe conflict. You are
aware that Germany has looked with pride and joy on the
thousands of her sons, who, in this struggle, have arrayed
themselves on the side of law and justice. You have seen
with what joy the victories of the Union have been hailed
and how confident our faith in the final triumph of the
great cause of the restoration of the Union in all its
greatness has ever been, even in the midst of adversity.
While there is a strong tendency in certain directions to ignore
or obscure the facts of American history by imputing some vaguely
unpatriotic motive to those who prefer to see the United States
travel the same conservative path which has made it the dominating
power of the world, after 140 years of devotion to the patriotic
standards established by the founders of the Republic, it shall not
deter us from calling attention to the testimony of a great American,
James G. Blane, by quoting certain passages from his book, “Twenty
Years in Congress,” which leave no doubt what his attitude would be
to-day. The quotations are taken from Vol. II, p. 447:
From the government of England, terming itself liberal
with Lord Palmerston at its head, Earl Russel as Foreign
Secretary, Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the Duke of Argyll as Lord Privy Seal, and Earl Cranville
as Lord President of the Council, not one friendly word
was sent across the Atlantic. A formal neutrality was
declared by government officials, while its spirit was
daily violated. If the Republic had been a dependency of
Great Britain, like Canada or Australia, engaged in civil
strife, it could not have been more steadily subjected to
review, to criticism, and to the menace of discipline.
The proclamations of President Lincoln, the decisions of
Federal Courts, the orders issued by commanders of the
Union armies, were frequently brought to the attention of
Parliament, as if America were in some way accountable to
the judgment of England. Harsh comment came from leading
British statesmen; while the most ribald defamers of the
United States met with cheers from a majority of the House
of Commons and indulged in the bitterest denunciation of
a friendly government without rebuke from the Ministerial
benches.
(Vol. II, Chap. 20): March 7, 1862, Lord Robert Cecil,
in discussing the blockade of the southern coast, said:
“The plain matter of fact is, as every one who watches
the current of history must know, that the =Northern
States of America never can be our sure friends=, for
this simple reason: not merely because the newspapers
write at each other, or that there are prejudices on each
side, but because we are rivals, rivals politically,
rivals commercially. We aspire to the same position. We
both aspire to the government of the seas. We are both
manufacturing people, and in every port, as well as at
every court, we are rivals to each other.”
March 26, 1863, Mr. Laird of Birkenhead: “The institutions
of the United States are =of no value whatever=, and have
reduced the very name of liberty to an utter absurdity.” He
was loudly cheered for saying this.
April, 1863, Mr. Roebuck declared: “That the whole conduct
of the people of the North is such as proves them not only
unfit for the government of themselves, but unfit for the
courtesies and the community of the civilized world.”
Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of England, asserted that:
“As far as my influence goes, I am determined to do all
I can =to prevent the reconstruction of the Union=.”--“I
hold that it will be of the greatest importance that the
reconstruction of the Union should not take place.”
February 5, 1863, Lord Malmesbury spoke disdainfully of
treating with so extraordinary a body as the government
of the United States, and referred to the horrors of the
war--“=horrors unparalleled even in the wars of barbarous
nations=.”
England confidently believed that the North would suffer a crushing
defeat, and the same opinion was held by the French government.
Napoleon the Third felt absolutely confident that the South would
triumph. (See “France’s Friendship for the United States.”)
The London “Times” in 1862 voiced English sentiment against the Union
in a manner that has been paralleled only by its denunciations of
Germany at the present time. It said:
“To bully the weak, to triumph over the helpless, to
trample on every law of country and customs, wilfully to
violate the most sacred interests of human nature--to defy
as long as danger does not appear, and as soon as real
peril shows itself, to sneak aside and run away--these are
the virtues of the race which presumes to announce itself
as the leader of civilization and the prophet of human
progress in these latter days.”
A clear statement of the English Parliament’s attitude toward the
United States in the Civil War is contained in the autobiography of
Sir William Gregory, K. C. M. G. (Member of Parliament and one-time
Governor of Ceylon), edited by Lady Gregory (London, 1894), pp.
214-6: “The feeling of the upper classes undoubtedly predominated in
favor of the South, so much so that when I said in a speech that the
adherents of the North in the House of Commons might all be driven
home in one omnibus, the remark was received with much cheering.”
Among those who invested in the Confederate bonds were many Members
of Parliament and editors of London newspapers. Prominent among them
was Gladstone. “Donahoe’s Magazine,” April, 1867, published a list of
prominent investors in Confederate bonds, which shows that 29 persons
lost a total of $4,490,000 in such investments. The list follows:
Lbs.
Sir Henry de Hington, Bart 180,000
Isaac Campbell & Co. 150,000
Thomas Sterling Begley 140,000
Marquis of Bath 50,000
James Spence 50,000
Beresford Hope 50,000
George Edward Seymour 40,000
Charles Joice & Co. 40,000
Messrs. Ferace 30,000
Alexander Colie & Co. 20,000
Fleetwood, Polen, Wilson & Schuster, Directors
of Union Bank of London, together 20,000
W. S. Lindsay 20,000
Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart 20,000
John Laced, M. P. from Birkenhead 20,000
M. B. Sampson, Editor of Times 15,000
John Thadeus Delane, Editor of Times 10,000
Lady Georgianna Time, Sister of Lord
Westmoreland 10,000
J. S. Gillet, Director of the Bank of England 10,000
D. Forbes Campbell 8,000
George Peacock, M. P. 5,000
Lord Warncliff 5,000
W. H. Gregory, M. P. 4,000
W. J. Rideout, London Morning Post 4,000
Edward Ackroyd 1,000
Lord Campbell 1,000
Lord Donoughmore 1,000
Lord Richard Grosvenor
Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Priv. Sec. to Lord
Palmerston 500
Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone 20,000
--------
Total Losses £898,000
The present holders of these bonds have never despaired of being able
some day to collect the amounts from the United States Treasury,
and it will only need a closer alliance between the United States
and Great Britain, as proposed by the advocates of an Anglo-Saxon
amalgamation, to bring these claims to the front.
=Germans in Civil War.=--Four authors have dealt exhaustively with
the subject of the German-born soldiers in the Union army. They
are Wilhelm Kaufmann in his valuable work, “The Germans in the
American Civil War” (R. Oldenbourg, Berlin and Munich, 1911), J. G.
Rosengarten, “The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States”
(J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1890), Frederic Phister,
“Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States” (Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1883) and B. A. Gould, “Investigations in the
Statistics of American Soldiers” (New York, 1869).
The first three are more or less founded on the latter, but in
Kaufmann, particularly, many errors of computation on the part
of Gould are shown up which increase the number credited to the
German participants in the Civil War. Rosengarten is particularly
valuable as reference in regard to the share of the Germans in the
Revolutionary War. According to Gould, more Germans served in the
Union army than any other foreigners. This is substantiated by all
the writers. Kaufmann proves that the colossal total of 216,000
native-born Germans fought in the Union army. In addition the army
included 300,000 sons of German-born parents and 234,000 Germans
of remoter extraction. Besides the Germans fighting in the ranks,
Kaufmann holds that the roster of generals and other high officers
of the Union army contained more names of German than of any foreign
nationality. He also calls attention to the fact that a large number
of German aristocrats, including such eminent names as von Steuben,
Count Zeppelin, von Sedlitz, von Wedel, von Schwerin, and one German
prince (Prinz zu Salm-Salm) took the field in behalf of the Union.
Prince Salm-Salm was accompanied by his wife who performed valuable
service as a nurse.
Professor Burgess writes: “The German and German American contingent
in our armies amounted, first and last, to some 500,000 soldiers.
They were led by such men as Heintzelmann, Rosecrans, Schurz, Sigel,
Osterhaus, Willich, Hartranft, Steinwehr, Wagner, Hecker and a
thousand others. Mrs. Jefferson Davis, the wife of the Confederate
President has often said to me that without the Germans the North
could never have overcome the armies of the Confederacy; and unless
that had been accomplished then, this continent would have been,
since then, the theatre of continuous war instead of the home of
peace.”
Gould’s figures of the relative number of foreign-born soldiers in
the Union army are as follows:
Germans 187,858
British Americans 53,532
English 45,508
Irish 144,221
Other foreigners 48,410
Foreigners not otherwise designated 26,145
According to these figures, the Germans constituted upward of 37%
of the foreign-born soldiers in the Union army, while the English
numbered less than 8%. The Anglo-Saxon, therefore, is not represented
in a critical stage of the nation’s struggle for survival in
proportion to the importance assigned him in our affairs at the
present day.
Kaufmann, in analyzing these figures, shows that the number was
understated as regards the Germans and overstated as regards the
Canadians. More than 36 per cent. of the Union troops furnished
by the State of Missouri were born in Germany, and the Germans
furnished more troops pro rata, according to the census of 1860, than
any other racial element, including native born Americans. It is
interesting to note that the States in which the Germans were largely
represented made the largest response to President Lincoln’s first
call for volunteers. The call, issued April 15, 1861, was for 75,000
volunteers to serve three months. New England was the center of the
agitation and the hot-bed of the abolition movement. Lincoln’s call
was responded to by 91,816 men.
New England was represented by only 11,987
New York 12,357
Pennsylvania 20,175
Ohio 12,357
Missouri 10,591
Taking Gould’s figures, the State of Missouri and the State of New
York each sent more German-born soldiers to the war than either
Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware,
Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Minnesota or Kansas
sent native-born troops, and the German-born Union soldiers from
these two states together (67,579 men) formed a larger contingent
than the native-born contingent of either New Jersey or Maine, and
larger than New Hampshire, Vermont and Delaware together (64,600
men). Pennsylvania furnished more German-born troops than Delaware,
District of Columbia or Kansas separately furnished native Americans.
Six States--New York, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania and
Wisconsin--furnished more German-born soldiers to defend the
country than Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut did
native sons. More German-born Union soldiers came from New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Missouri than native-born from
Massachusetts. The effort of Provost Marshal Fry to charge about
200,000 desertions and innumerable cases of bounty jumpers to the
account of foreign-born element in the Union army leaves the Germans
unscathed, since he showed that “especially in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey the number of
deserters is especially large.” In the New England States there were
but 5,077 German enlistments out of 369,800 (Gould) all told, and
the desertions in those states as well as New York and New Jersey,
in view of the large German enlistments in the Western States not
named as noted for desertions, must be charged to some other element.
It was the practice to blame all the evils during the war on the
foreign-born and to shift to their patient shoulders the sins of
commission and omission of others.
It is impossible for lack of space to name more than a comparatively
few of the Germans who as officers distinguished themselves in the
Civil War. Several omitted in the list below will be found under
their names in separate paragraphs. In many instances the German
officers who by their efficiency and splendid training in Germany had
laid the foundation of notable victories were callously deprived of
all credit, and in the case of others jealousy and a deeply grounded
racial antipathy intervened to prevent them from obtaining the
rank to which they were by education, experience and achievements
entitled. In any case where it was an issue between a native and a
foreigner, the latter was sure to suffer. Those named below were born
in Germany and do not include American-born Germans like Generals
Rosecrans, Heintzelmann, Hartrauft, Custer, etc.
Franz Sigel, Major General and Corps Commander; born 1824, at
Sinsheim, Baden; died in New York in 1902. His memory is honored by
two equestrian statues. A detailed account of his achievements is not
considered necessary here. His name has been a household word.
Adolf von Steinwehr, probably the best-grounded military officer
among the Germans in the Union army, Division Commander and Brigadier
General; born 1822 in Blankenburg, in the Harz, died 1877 in Buffalo.
Prussian officer and military instructor in Potsdam. Served in
the Mexican war. Distinguished himself at Gettysburg, where he
held Cemetery Hill, (for which Gen. Howard received the thanks of
Congress), gathered the remnants of the 11th and 1st corps, and
continued the defense July 2 and 3.
August von Willich, one of the most famous fighters in the Union
army, a typical “Marshal Forward.” Brevet Major General and Division
Commander; born in Posen 1810, died at St. Marys, Ohio, 1878. Made
possible the advance of Rosecrans’s army upon Chattanooga by taking
Liberty and Hoover’s Gap in the Alleghanies. Earned laurels at
Chickamauga and set an heroic example to the whole army by leading
his nine regiments up Missionary Ridge and sharing the great victory
with Sheridan.
Julius Stahel, German-Hungarian. Perfected the organization of the
Union Cavalry. Generals Hooker and Heintzelmann pronounced Stahel’s
cavalry regiment to be the best they had ever seen. At Lincoln’s
request, to this cavalry was confided the defense of Washington. Was
made Major General simultaneously with Schurz. Commanded the vanguard
of Hunter’s army in the Shenandoah Valley, was attacked by the
Confederate Cavalry under Jones on the march to Staunton, repulsed
the attack and pursued his opponent to Piedmont, where he found the
enemy strongly entrenched. Stahel repulsed all attacks until Hunter’s
arrival and won the medal for bravery. Though seriously wounded, he
led his squadron in a brilliant assault, broke through the enemy’s
lines and scattered the opposing forces.
Gottfried Weitzel; Major General and Corps Commander; born in the
Palatinate; educated at West Point; lieutenant in the engineer corps,
U. S. A. Commanded a division under Grant, and at the head of the
25th army corps was the first to enter Richmond, April 3, 1865, where
the next day he received President Lincoln. The following dispatch
explains itself:
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, April 3, 10 A. M.
To Major General Dix:
It appears from a dispatch of General Weitzel, just
received by this Department, that our forces under his
command are in Richmond, having taken it at 8:30 this A. M.
E. M. STANTON, Sec’y of War.
August V. Kautz; Brevet Major General; born in Pfarzheim,
distinguished cavalry leader. Served during the Mexican war.
Commanded the 24th army corps, with which he entered Richmond with
Weitzel. Became Major General in the regular army after the war.
Admiral Albert Kautz was his brother.
Colonel Asmussen, Chief of Staff to General O. O. Howard; former
Prussian officer. Resigned as the result of serious wounds.
Ludwig Blenker, born 1812 in Worms, died 1863 in Pennsylvania. Served
in Greece and in the Baden revolution. Became famous for covering the
retreat at the first battle of Bull Run.
Heinrich Bohlen, born 1810 in Bremen; killed in battle at Freeman’s
Ford on the Rappahannock, August 21, 1862. Brigade Commander under
Blenker; distinguished himself at Cross Keys.
Adolf Buschbeck, Brigadier General; a Prussian officer from Coblenz;
military instructor at Potsdam. Died 1881. Distinguished himself
in the two battles of Bull Run and at Cross Keys, and became the
real hero of Chancellorsville; fought gallantly at Gettysburg and
Missionary Ridge, and was in Sherman’s march through Georgia, gaining
new laurels in the bloody battles of Peachtree Creek, and at Ezra
Church, July 28, 1864, where Buschbeck repulsed the enemy three
times. With Willich and Wangelin the most noted German American
fighter in the Union army.
Hubert Dilger, a former artillery officer in Baden, although never
attaining a rank beyond that of captain, distinguished himself
in numerous battles for the Union. By many considered the ablest
artillery officer in the northern army. Commanded the only gun which
was effectively served in the defense of Buschbeck’s brigade at
Chancellorsville. Its escape from destruction was almost miraculous.
Was famous throughout the army.
Leopold von Gilsa, former Prussian officer; brigadier general;
rendered distinguished service in numerous campaigns, but failed of
promotion through the admitted intrigues of the Princess Salm-Salm.
Wilhelm Grebe; born in Hildersheim. Received from Congress medal for
personal bravery; was cashiered for fighting a duel, but restored
twenty years after by an act of Congress.
Franz Hassendeubel, one of the most distinguished engineer officers
in the Northern army; born 1817 in Germersheim, Palatinate. Came
to America in 1842; engineer officer in Mexican war; built the ten
forts that defended St. Louis. Brigadier General in 1863. Fatally
wounded on a tour of inspection around Vicksburg, died July 17, 1863.
Hassendeubel Post, G. A. R., St. Louis, perpetuates his memory.
Ernst F. Hoffmann, former Prussian engineer officer, born in Breslau.
Chief engineer 11th army corps. Highly praised by General J. H.
Wilson.
George W. Mindel, brevet major general, twice awarded the medal for
bravery, the first time for directing the assault of a regiment
which pierced the enemy’s center in the battle of Williamsburg,
May 3, 1862, the second time in the march through Georgia; officer
on McClellan’s and Phil Kearney’s staffs; distinguished himself at
Missionary Ridge. Born in Frankfort and buried in Arlington.
Edward G. Salomon, brevet brigadier general, organized a Hebrew
company in Hecker’s 82d Illinois, and became its Colonel when Hecker
was wounded; rendered distinguished service throughout the war, and
was appointed governor of Washington territory.
Alexander von Schimmelpfennig, one of the most noted German-American
fighting generals; died 1865 from the hardships of the war. Former
Prussian officer. Recruited the 74th Pennsylvania regiment, one of
the elite regiments in the Army of the Potomac. In the second battle
of Bull Run his brigade hurled General Jackson’s crack troops back
over the railroad beyond Cushing’s Farm. Fought with distinction
at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and was the first to enter the
hotbed of secession, Charleston, S. C. He was an officer, one of many
Germans, whose memory deserved to live for their deeds, and whose
deserts were minimized by those who envied them.
Theodore Schwan, general in the regular army, from Hanover; rose
from the ranks; fought against the Mormons and took part in twenty
battles during the Civil War. Received the medal for personal bravery
from Congress, and after the war became an Indian fighter; military
attache to the American embassy in Berlin 1892; published his
military studies, which were highly praised. Was the real conqueror
of Porto Rica, Spanish-American War, in which he commanded a division
of 20,000 men under General Miles.
Hugo von Wangelin descended from an old Mecklenburg noble family;
educated in a Prussian military school; came to America at the age of
16. Fought almost continually alongside of Osterhaus throughout the
war. His brigade earned undying glory at Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain,
Missionary Ridge, and Ringgold, Ga., where he lost an arm. He
whistled “Yankee Doodle” while the surgeons were sawing through the
bone. Wangelin held Bald Hill before Atlanta, after the Union troops
had been previously driven off. Engaged in fifty battles and was four
years continually on the firing line. His “vacations” were periods of
convalescense from wounds.
Max von Weber; fought under Sigel in the Baden revolution. Colonel of
the 20th New York (Turners) 1861, until appointed brigadier general.
Commanded Fortress Monroe and won distinction in the fights around
Norfolk. At Antietam he commanded the third brigade of the third
division French in Sumner’s corps, and still held the position at
Rulett’s House after Sedgwick’s left had been enveloped, exposed
to a murderous fire until relieved by Kimball’s brigade and after
repeatedly repulsing the enemy. He was seriously wounded.