Existing comment:
Germans in the American Civil War:
German-Americans influenced the outcome of the Civil War in many ways. They were the largest ethnic contingent to right for the Union. More than 200,000 Union troops were German-born, and German-Americans comprised 23.4 percent of all soldiers fighting for the North. There were major recruiting efforts aimed specifically at German-Americans in the Midwestern cities of Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee -- those cities with large numbers of recent German immigrants. Many of these German-American soldiers were part of the wave of immigration that followed the failed 1848 revolution in Germany aimed at instituting democratic reforms and rooted in a desire for German nationalism. These 48ers, as they were called, believed in economic and political freedom. They fought in great numbers for the Union cause, which most closely aligned with their beliefs.
Even more important are two German-Americans who not only influenced the outcome of the War, but also how the conflict has been viewed and mythologized. Thomas Nast's drawings gained enormous sympathy for the Union cause, while Adalbert Volck's vitriolic sketches presented the Southern point of view as a counterpart to Nast's work. To these two German-born artists, America owes some of the most iconic and enduring images portraying the events and the issues of the deadliest and most tragic conflict in American history.
German-American generals and soldiers also played pivotal roles in the war. The names Franz Sigel, Carl Schurz, August Willich, Louis Blenker, Alexander Schimmelfennig, Friedrich Hecker, George Armstrong Custer and Peter Osterhaus can be found in any history of the conflict. |