Stonewall “Stonewall Jackson routs Lincoln’s Hessians”

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CSA Today

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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“[When] I consider Chancellorsville, one of the most interesting battles of the civil war . . . [never] did the Federals have a better opportunity to crush Lee’s army. Lee only had Stonewall Jackson’s and A.P. Hill’s Corps. Longstreet was at Suffolk, two hundred miles away. Hooker’s army consisted of one-hundred and twenty thousand well-equipped, well-disciplined men, who had the utmost confidence in “Fighting Joe.”
Here we had the finest exhibition of generalship during the war, and it won.

The bulk of Hooker’s army crossed the Rappahannock about fifteen miles above Fredericksburg . . . Jackson’s corps began moving about three o’clock Saturday morning, May 2, 1863, toward Hooker’s right. About 4PM we reached Hooker’s right flank. We were in a thick woods, and the enemy was two hundred yards in front in an open field. They were making coffee, and evidently unconscious of the presence of so formidable a foe, notwithstanding we had driven their pickets in.

Everything was about ready for the attack. Stonewall Jackson was sitting on a log by our company (B). Mr. Camp, a good man and Methodist preacher, a member of our company, seeing the attack was imminent, suggested we all kneel while he prayed. Jackson dropped his head, the others likewise. Immediately after the prayer the attack was ordered.
We were right among them before they could turn their cannon on us. They broke, and the rout was complete.
We pursued them, killing and capturing them for two miles. Many who were not captured or killed “did not stop south of Baltimore.”

[This enemy] corps was never again reorganized, I understand. All that I saw were foreigners, mostly Germans.”

(With Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, J. H. Taylor, Confederate Veteran, September 1900, pg 408)
 
“[When] I consider Chancellorsville, one of the most interesting battles of the civil war . . . [never] did the Federals have a better opportunity to crush Lee’s army. Lee only had Stonewall Jackson’s and A.P. Hill’s Corps. Longstreet was at Suffolk, two hundred miles away. Hooker’s army consisted of one-hundred and twenty thousand well-equipped, well-disciplined men, who had the utmost confidence in “Fighting Joe.”
Here we had the finest exhibition of generalship during the war, and it won.

The bulk of Hooker’s army crossed the Rappahannock about fifteen miles above Fredericksburg . . . Jackson’s corps began moving about three o’clock Saturday morning, May 2, 1863, toward Hooker’s right. About 4PM we reached Hooker’s right flank. We were in a thick woods, and the enemy was two hundred yards in front in an open field. They were making coffee, and evidently unconscious of the presence of so formidable a foe, notwithstanding we had driven their pickets in.

Everything was about ready for the attack. Stonewall Jackson was sitting on a log by our company (B). Mr. Camp, a good man and Methodist preacher, a member of our company, seeing the attack was imminent, suggested we all kneel while he prayed. Jackson dropped his head, the others likewise. Immediately after the prayer the attack was ordered.
We were right among them before they could turn their cannon on us. They broke, and the rout was complete.
We pursued them, killing and capturing them for two miles. Many who were not captured or killed “did not stop south of Baltimore.”

[This enemy] corps was never again reorganized, I understand. All that I saw were foreigners, mostly Germans.”

(With Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, J. H. Taylor, Confederate Veteran, September 1900, pg 408)

Anyone who knows the first thing about the Civil War knows this is poppycock. What corps was just north of the town of Gettysburg on July 1? Hessians were hired mercenaries, which is not an honest description of the XI Corps.
 
Anyone who knows the first thing about the Civil War knows this is poppycock.
True, but it's also part of the rhetoric of the war; the Confederate insistence on invoking history was a compulsive habit that they just couldn't control. Comparing all foreign-born Union troops to Washington's notorious opponents at Trenton was a sensible propaganda move when you consider that the alleged immorality and bloodthirstiness of the Hessian mercenaries was ingrained in the national psyche.

The absolute need to compare themselves to the noble causes was so endemic that it kept happening even when the comparison was absurd or surreal (i.e. Jefferson Davis' 1863 speech to the Mississippi legislature comparing the northerners to disloyal and immoral people who apparently were carrying on the mission of Oliver Cromwell and comparing the southerners to the poor, persecuted English monarchy - the same one they themselves had separated from less than a century earlier).
 
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However,

@Pat Young, What is the percentage of Federal soldiers who were foreign born? I thought it was like 1/3 but I may be wrong.

If you are a backwoods Georgia\Alabama farmer who is not aware of these stats and you run into completely German unit who's officers are giving orders in German and your captives speak German or have a heavy German accent, you can't blame them for being reminded of the Hessians.
 
Chancellorsville, was an example of superior arms, not being enough against a superior commander. Fortunately the Union had a superior commander of its own(and Lincoln already had his eye on him), but he was still busy on the Mississippi.


P.S. after Chancellorsville, Lincoln had just about given up on the AoP having such a commander of its own.
 
However,

@Pat Young...If you are a backwoods Georgia\Alabama farmer who is not aware of these stats and you run into completely German unit who's officers are giving orders in German and your captives speak German or have a heavy German accent, you can't blame them for being reminded of the Hessians.

And what would such a backwoods farmer have known of German language? Think everyone would agree that there are more languages available. And they´d still wear uniform and have the US flag. By the way, and as far as I remember correctly, during the War of Independence there were very few Hessian units serving in the southern theater.
 
"Hessians" was standard derogatory slang for opposing soldiers, particularly those accused of only doing it for the money. It's a direct reference to the mercenaries used by George III in the Revolution, from Hesse-Darmstadt and other areas in Germany, and of course they figure most famously in the story of Washington crossing the Delaware. The term was propagandistically used during the War of 1812, but there were no Hessians (or indeed, any true mercenaries) involved; it's just meant to invoke the idea that anyone fighting against "us" must be motivated by base things instead of ideology, patriotism, etc.

(And rather an unfair slur on Germans, really. The original Hessians weren't there voluntarily or fighting for any extraordinary pay. George III paid the German statelet rulers to detail groups of their subjects to fight, so in a proper sense they were draftees. A sizeable number, not sure of the exact percentage, elected to stay in the newborn United States, and small wonder.)
 
As a Prussian by heritage, I find the reference to German-born American (and Canadian) citizens fighting on either side in the ACW as "Hessians"; used to posit, suggest or otherwise express the existence of a situation which intimates that said German-Americans were, or needed to be, "hired", "paid",or "compensated" to fight as frankly, well----offensive----regardless of who posted it originally, or who, perhaps in error, presented by repeating the original post as a repost without clarifying, stating or defining their belief in the truth of the statement.

None of the three brothers among my ancestors, all born in Germany (Prussia), received a dime to enlist; little enough "compensation" for the death of one and the practically war-long service of the other two.

Am I annoyed? You better believe it.
 
I have an ancestor from Hesse. I cannot find anything to indicate that he was one of those Hessian "mercenaries" who decided to become an American, but the timing is right for it.
 
However,

@Pat Young, What is the percentage of Federal soldiers who were foreign born? I thought it was like 1/3 but I may be wrong.

If you are a backwoods Georgia\Alabama farmer who is not aware of these stats and you run into completely German unit who's officers are giving orders in German and your captives speak German or have a heavy German accent, you can't blame them for being reminded of the Hessians.
It is estimated that one-in-four Union soldiers was an immigrant. A little more than a third of the immigrant soldiers were from German-speaking states. More than nine-out-of-ten immigrants who served in the Civil War fought for the Union army. The failure of the southern states to create a society in which immigrants could live was a contributing factor in the defeat of the Confederacy.

Southern propagandists referred to German immigrants as "Hessians" from the earliest days of the war, inculcating a sense of the Union army as foreign. German civilians living in the South were often particular targets of persecution. Confederate editorialists exploited the strongly nativist and Know Nothing sentiment in their states to rally their polities against "foreign invasion." The use of ethnic and racial hatred was a major propaganda tool in the South in both the depiction of black "savages" and immigrant mercenaries.
 
As a Prussian by heritage, I find the reference to German-born American (and Canadian) citizens fighting on either side in the ACW as "Hessians"; used to posit, suggest or otherwise express the existence of a situation which intimates that said German-Americans were, or needed to be, "hired", "paid",or "compensated" to fight as frankly, well----offensive----regardless of who posted it originally, or who, perhaps in error, presented by repeating the original post as a repost without clarifying, stating or defining their belief in the truth of the statement.

None of the three brothers among my ancestors, all born in Germany (Prussia), received a dime to enlist; little enough "compensation" for the death of one and the practically war-long service of the other two.

Am I annoyed? You better believe it.
It is amazing how freely ignorant modern writers simply assert that most immigrants enlisted for the money. They rarely cite any reliable sources or even appear to be familiar with immigrant writings at the time of the war. Immigrants enlisted for a variety of reasons, but most enlisted early in the war before the big bounties became common. When you see someone refer to immigrants who enlisted as "Hessians" just understand that it is coming from the same mindset that saw USCT as "Ni*****".
 
Most German immigrants who enlisted in the Union army were naturalized U.S. citizens. They were not, by and large, foreigners who came to the U.S. as soldiers of fortune. Many of their leaders were active members of American political communities. Carl Schurz for instance had run for Lt. Governor of Wisconsin before the war, losing by just a few hundred votes, Franz Sigel had been elected Superintendent of St. Louis' public schools in 1860. These were men who were committed to the U.S., who often had strong anti-slavery views, and who were among the first to volunteer.
 
It is estimated that one-in-four Union soldiers was an immigrant. A little more than a third of the immigrant soldiers were from German-speaking states. More than nine-out-of-ten immigrants who served in the Civil War fought for the Union army. The failure of the southern states to create a society in which immigrants could live was a contributing factor in the defeat of the Confederacy.

Southern propagandists referred to German immigrants as "Hessians" from the earliest days of the war, inculcating a sense of the Union army as foreign. German civilians living in the South were often particular targets of persecution. Confederate editorialists exploited the strongly nativist and Know Nothing sentiment in their states to rally their polities against "foreign invasion." The use of ethnic and racial hatred was a major propaganda tool in the South in both the depiction of black "savages" and immigrant mercenaries.

That doesn't really square with Heros von Borcke's story. He slipped into Charleston Harbor from Prussia and joined the Confederate Army, ultimately as one of J.E.B. Stuart's most trusted lieutenants. So, there's that.

We also know that New Orleans was the largest port of entry for immigrants, after New York, before the Civil War. So I don't know that the South "failed" to create a place for them. Maybe they all went up the Mississippi to Illinois?

One of the most notable Antebellum German settlements was in the East Texas hill country, around Austin. Folks there were opposed to slavery and secession and were given a hard time during the war, sure. But I think "persecuted" is really overwrought. The German settlers survived and thrived. Here is a short history of their experience:

"Their initial opposition to the practice of slavery, and maintenance of the ideals by which they immigrated to Bexar (County), did not win over the mindset of the majority, but maintained a flourishing movement throughout the war and facilitated reconciliation with the Union in following years."
 
That doesn't really square with Heros von Borcke's story. He slipped into Charleston Harbor from Prussia and joined the Confederate Army, ultimately as one of J.E.B. Stuart's most trusted lieutenants. So, there's that.
"
Not sure what presence of a particular German soldier of fortune in the Confederacy tells us about German immigrants who enlisted in the Union army. Help me out here, please.
 
“[When] I consider Chancellorsville, one of the most interesting battles of the civil war . . . [never] did the Federals have a better opportunity to crush Lee’s army. Lee only had Stonewall Jackson’s and A.P. Hill’s Corps. Longstreet was at Suffolk, two hundred miles away. Hooker’s army consisted of one-hundred and twenty thousand well-equipped, well-disciplined men, who had the utmost confidence in “Fighting Joe.”
Here we had the finest exhibition of generalship during the war, and it won.

The bulk of Hooker’s army crossed the Rappahannock about fifteen miles above Fredericksburg . . . Jackson’s corps began moving about three o’clock Saturday morning, May 2, 1863, toward Hooker’s right. About 4PM we reached Hooker’s right flank. We were in a thick woods, and the enemy was two hundred yards in front in an open field. They were making coffee, and evidently unconscious of the presence of so formidable a foe, notwithstanding we had driven their pickets in.

Everything was about ready for the attack. Stonewall Jackson was sitting on a log by our company (B). Mr. Camp, a good man and Methodist preacher, a member of our company, seeing the attack was imminent, suggested we all kneel while he prayed. Jackson dropped his head, the others likewise. Immediately after the prayer the attack was ordered.
We were right among them before they could turn their cannon on us. They broke, and the rout was complete.
We pursued them, killing and capturing them for two miles. Many who were not captured or killed “did not stop south of Baltimore.”

[This enemy] corps was never again reorganized, I understand. All that I saw were foreigners, mostly Germans.”

(With Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, J. H. Taylor, Confederate here

CSA Today,
We're not seeing the insult "Lincoln's Hessians" in the article. Why is it in the title?[/QUOTE
]
 
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