Yankee Dutchmen under Fire

Civil War Letters from the 82nd Illinois Infantry

Joseph R. Reinhart

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781612777108
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Life and death, pride and prejudice, and combat in an ethnic Civil War regiment

Thousands of volumes of Civil War letters are available, but little more than a dozen contain collections written by native Germans fighting in this great American conflict. Yankee Dutchmen under Fire presents a fascinating collection of sixty-one letters written by immigrants who served in the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 82nd Illinois was one of the thirty or so predominantly "German Regiments" in the Union army, and one of only two Federal regiments containing a Jewish company. Fighting alongside the Germans was a company of Scandinavians, plus a scattering of immigrants from many other countries.

The letters span nearly three years of war and include firsthand accounts of major battles: Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in the East and Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, and Kolb's Farm in the West. The soldiers of the 82nd Illinois also describe campaigning in East Tennessee, Sherman's Atlanta campaign and his March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign (including the Battle of Bentonville).

The majority of the letters originally appeared in wartime issues of German American newspapers and kept the German community informed of the regiment's marches, camps, battles, and casualties. Lt. (later Capt.) Rudolph Müller, an idealistic and highly critical commentator, wrote twenty-one of the twenty-nine private letters to his close friend and confidant Col. Friedrich Hecker. Müller cautioned the colonel not to make his letters public because they often contained highly critical comments about commanders, fellow officers, public figures, Anglo-Americans, and American society.

Besides providing details of military life and combat, the documents reveal how the German-born writers viewed the war, American officers and enlisted men, other immigrant soldiers, and the enemy. They shed light on the ethnic dimensions of the war, including ethnic identity, ethnic pride and prejudice, and ethnic solidarity, and they reflect the overarching political climate in which the war was fought. Yankee Dutchmen under Fire is a valuable addition to Civil War studies and will also be welcomed by those interested in ethnicity and immigration.

One

Organization of the Regiment

The letters and newspaper articles in this chapter were written during the organization of the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. They begin on July 22, 1862, and end on August 19, 1862. The regiment’s first recruits signed up in June, and in mid-July groups of recruits began assembling at Camp Butler near Springfield, Illinois, while recruiting continued.¹ Recruiting soldiers was more difficult in the summer of 1862 than in the early days of the war when men enthusiastically rushed to the colors after Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was fired upon by South Carolina artillery and the war was expected to be short lived. Reports of the large number of men already killed and wounded in the fighting, along with the return home of many men crippled in the war, dampened the enthusiasm of many military-age males. Many cities and business organizations resorted to offering bounties to induce men to enlist to fill quotas set by the government and conscription of militiamen was to be used for any unfilled quotas.² The following letters express enthusiasm and pride and call for more men to join the regiment. The formation of the Jewish company in Chicago and life in the German regiment while training at Camp Butler are also described.

Illinois Staats-Zeitung

July 25, 1862

Springfield, Ill.

July 22, 1862

The 3 companies of the new Hecker Regiment arrived here from Highland on Sunday [the 20th] and our regiment appears to be complete and ready for field duty.³ We are supplied very well, excellently uniformed and armed, so we are lacking nothing at all. We have moved from Camp Butler and pitched our tents on a charming elevation shaded by trees in the neighborhood of the old camp.

Our soldiers are highly motivated. We are serious and united by love for the cause and possess a youthful spirit necessary for good and valiant soldiers. Between the time the men complete their daily duties and retire to their nice airy tents to rest for the next day’s work, they amuse themselves with gymnastics, dancing, etc., and it is truly a pleasure to watch them. How great the joy will be when the paymaster pays each one $40 today. (This $40 consists of $25 bounty, $13 pay, $2 recruiting money, and to this $40 will probably be added a $60 bounty for each man recruited in Cook County.)⁴ Even more, however, we are looking forward to the arrival of our colonel. Under his leadership we will prove through our actions that the 71st [82nd] Illinois Regiment is not inferior to the older German regiment where it counts—showing the Rebels what Germans blows are.

I might mention that our officers are trying hard to educate us to be competent soldiers through amicable treatment and at the same time through military rigor. Through their work they have already earned the respect and devotion of everyone in this short time. More soon.

X

Illinois Staats-Zeitung editor’s note. Of the three above-mentioned companies, one is from Chicago, another is from St. Louis [Mo.] and the third is from Highland [Ill.]. Additional companies of the regiment from different parts of the state will enter Springfield during the next 8 days.

George E. Heinzmann appealed to his fellow Turners to join the regiment in the following letter, dated August 6, 1862. Turners were members of a distinctly German gymnastic society called a Turnverein or Turngemeinde. Transplanted from Germany, the Turner movement grew quickly from one Turnverien in Cincinnati in 1848 (founded at the suggestion of Friedrich Hecker) to 150 local Turnvereine or Turngemeinden with 10,000 members across the county by 1860. A national organization (the Turnerbund) coordinated programs and activities. The Chicago Turngemeinde was founded in 1852. This uniquely German organization espoused order, discipline, and comradeship, and helped its members develop and maintain strong bodies through physical education (gymnastics, fencing, drilling, and sharpshooting), and improve their minds through lectures and libraries. Some Turner societies even contained one or more companies of militia.⁵ One of their slogans, “Bahn Frei!” translates to “Clear the way” or “Watch out,” and signaled their aggressiveness. As historian Bruce Levine writes, like Forty-eighters, “Turners were no random cross section of the immigrant population.” Although the majority of Turners were not Forty-eighters, they shared all or much of the Weltbild or worldview of these highly idealistic men.⁶ A large number of Turners fought in the Union army in both German and mixed regiments. For example, there were two infantry companies of Turners in the 24th Illinois and Turners fought in both the German 43rd Illinois Infantry and 82nd Illinois Infantry regiments.⁷

George Heinzmann, Company B (Geschichte der Chicago Turn-gemeinde aus mündlichen Ueberlieferungen und Vereinsdokumenten zusammengestellt)

Heinzmann, born in the Grand Duchy of Baden, was a 25-year-old painter who mustered in on September 26, 1862. Elected first lieutenant of Company B, Heinzmann advanced to captain on March 12, 1863, and mustered out on June 9, 1865. After the war he received a brevet (honorary) promotion to major retroactive to March 13, 1865. Company B was funded by Anton C. Hesing, part owner of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, and was called the Hesing Sharpshooters.⁸

Illinois Staats-Zeitung

August 6, 1862

Chicago

August 6, 1862

Clear the way!

How long do you still want to tarry? You should no longer want to deprive your besieged country of your services, and even if you wanted to, you cannot, because Conscription, forced levying, is at the door. Why not volunteer and do now under agreeable terms what you will have to do after August 15?⁹ Turners are represented in all armies of the Union. Our beleaguered homeland and our Turner brothers in the field are facing a fearsome enemy and need help, immediate help. Why hesitate any longer? For long enough, Turner brothers, we have practiced swordsmanship with fencing masks on our faces, with the saber and rapier in our hands; we have strengthened and toughened our bodies long enough through gymnastics to bear the stresses and strains of military service.

The time has come to stand the test of arms and strength in the face of the enemies of the Republic, the enemies of freedom. I enlisted yesterday as a “Private” in Br[u]ning’s company of the new Hecker Regiment, have already taken the oath of allegiance, and now call on my Turner brothers most sincerely and insistently to take the same step and unite with me under Hecker’s and Sigel’s standards in the battle for the Republic and for freedom.¹⁰

Alert, free, happy! Clear the Way!¹¹

George Heinzmann

Twenty-four-year-old Otto Balck, a native of Schwerin in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in northern Germany, expressed pride in the regiment and praise for Colonel Hecker in his public letter from Camp Butler. The light-haired, gray-eyed former clerk from Chicago mustered in as a private, Company A, on September 26, 1862; was appointed sergeant-major on October 23, 1862; mustered in as first lieutenant, Company C, on July 1, 1863; and was appointed the regimental adjutant on August 3, 1863. Balck was wounded at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863 and again near Ringgold, Georgia, in 1864. He mustered out with the regiment in June 1865 and was brevetted captain effective March 13, 1865.

Illinois Staast-Zeitung

August 12, 1862

Camp Butler

August 8 [1862]

Several times already, through some circumstances unknown to me, members of our company, the first in the new Hecker regiment, have experienced unpleasant delays in your valued newspaper arriving on schedule.** In the name of my comrades I would like you to find out if you could do something about this matter, to use your influence to speed its delivery. Because our company, as is generally known, was recruited in Chicago, you will understand how we eagerly await your newspaper. On the other hand, we are obliged to read your daily edition on the day published because of the lively interest and the patriotic zeal with which the Ill. Stsztg. helped with the formation of the First as well as the Second Hecker Regiment.

Our company was mustered in yesterday at Springfield as the first company of the new Hecker regiment.¹² Major [Edward S.] Salomon came to our camp from Chicago for this purpose. He brought a significant number of new recruits with him and was greeted with three strong German hurrahs. That same afternoon we traveled to Springfield by railroad where the mustering in was conducted by U.S. Mustering Officer Hill in the presence of Major Salomon as well as Hecker’s newly elected quartermaster, Panse.¹³

According to what we have heard, our enthusiastic company made a thoroughly favorable impression in Springfield because post commander Fonda called us the best of the troops in camp here. Such a statement on the part of an American toward an exclusively German company certainly is saying something. Each individual is proud of this company and also to belong to this regiment. The spirit is excellent and the camaraderie could not be better. I do not need to explain further that it is a pleasure to serve under such circumstances. The members of our company are thoroughly strong young men, full of courage and lust for life—solely German. We are not exaggerating when we state that it excited us when we saw the joy of our countrymen and the admiration of the Americans in Springfield who enthusiastically observed us. Yesterday, the handsome unifor...