[Marxism] Weydemeyer's rank

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This German American heritage site supports Mark L's contention that
Weydemeyer was not a Major General.

CB

^^^^^
http://www.germanheritage.com/Essays/1848/civil_war_part2.html

Civil War and Reconstruction(Part2)     
        The Volunteer Army 

The whole amateurish procedure of raising a volunteer army at the beginning
of the war delighted German liberal and radical leaders, for they would
share in politically motivated generalships and brevets. In the course of
the war, four Germans became major generals, Franz Sigel, Carl Schurz, Peter
Joseph Osterhaus and Adolph Steinwehr. Nine advanced to the rank of
brigadier general. 

 <http://www.germanheritage.com/Essays/1848/sigel.jpg> Franz Sigel
(1824-1902) was undoubtedly the favorite of German-Americans. A graduate of
the Karlsruhe military academy, he had led the revolutionary forces In Baden
in the skirmishes of 1848/49. During the Civil War, Sigel turned out to be
less effective as a field commander than as a magnet drawing large numbers
of Germans from Missouri and elsewhere Into the Union ranks. While the North
remembered him chiefly for his defeat by teenage Virginia Military Institute
students at New Market, he long remained an idol of German-America. 

The other well-known political appointee, Carl Schurz, also had his reverses
as a general but, by and large, was a true leader of men and performed
better than some of his more experienced peers. Osterhaus and Steinwehr both
adjusted their Prussian military know-how to American conditions and, after
two years of obscure roles, distinguished themselves and their largely
German troops in the Army of the Tennessee. 

Among the brigadier generals, Alexander Schimmelfennig put his solid
Prussian army training to good use and also rallied the Pittsburgh Germans
to the Union flag. Fellow Forty-Eighter Louis Blenker, a pompous gentleman,
had a personal staff of 80 hangers-on and was speedily retired from service
after he led 2000 men in a torchlight procession through Washington in honor
of General George B. McClellan. By contrast, Frederick Salomon, a brother of
Wisconsin governor Edward Salomon, both Forty-Eighters from Halberstadt, had
a distinguished career in the western and southern campaigns. An early
disciple of Karl Marx, Brigadier General August Willich of Ohio was one of
few really brilliant officers. This "communist with a heart," as Marx called
him, was a former Prussian nobleman and artillery captain, who had learned
the carpenter's trade in order to live closer to his ideals. Another
Marxist, Joseph Weydemeyer, commanded the Fortieth Missouri Regiment.
Hundreds of other officers, many with a soldiering past in Austria or
Prussia, numerous engineers and surgeons all did their duties well. 

Statistics show that about 177,000 German born men were on the rolls of the
Union Army. There were many more of German parentage, of course. Some served
out of sheer patriotism, some to gain acceptance from their fellow
Americans. Others found the enlistment bonuses irresistible, especially poor
immigrants or those recruited as they stepped off the boat at Castle Garden,
Manhattan lsland's new immigration depot. Whatever their motives, they
served and the rows of German names in national cemeteries provide the most
eloquent testimony to their participation in the struggle. German sacrifices
were especially noteworthy and valuable in the border states of Missouri,
Kentucky and Maryland, where much of the Union sentiment crystallized around
German communities. 

To many of the 75,000 Germans living in southern states at the time of
secession, mostly in Texas, New Orleans, Richmond and chariest on, the war
posed a dilemma. Few had anything to do with slavery and most disliked the
institution. Some fled north, often at great risk, and one band of young
German Texans tried bravely and vainly to fight its way to Mexico. But most
stayed and served the states that had become their home. German units were
raised in several cities of the South and more than once faced Yankee
Germans on the battlefield. Prominent Germans in the Confederacy included
Charles Minnigerode, a liberal refugee of the 1830's, then rector of St.
Paul's in Richmond where Jefferson Davis worshipped. Württemberg-born
Christopher B. Memminger held the thankless post of Secretary of the
Treasury of the Confederate States. Swiss-born Captain Henry Wirz was
superintendent of the notorious Andersonville prison camp. (After his
capture, he was defended by Forty-Eighter Louis Shade of Washington.) 

Immediately after the war, numerous Germans joined the carpetbaggers who
swarmed over the South, despised by the local Germans as much as by other
Southerners. Joined by genuine German Unionists who had suffered fierce
persecution, they occupied government posts under Northern military rule.
New Orleans lawyer Michael Hahn, born in the Palatinate, was Reconstruction
Governor of Louisiana. 

All over the Midatiantic and Midwestern states German veteran officers lined
up for appointments to small federal posts. Others entered state and local
politics. In most cases they still needed a German constituency for any
appreciable success. Few, as yet, had so completely surrendered to their new
nationality that they could appeal to all voters regardless of origin. 

Source:

        


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