Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr (USA)

ColorizedPast

Corporal
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Location
Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr (USA)

Baron Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr was born in Blankenburg, Duchy of Brunswick, Germany on 22 September 1822. He attended the Brunswick Military Academy and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Brunswick Army in 1841. In 1847, he resigned his commission and emigrated to the United States, settling in Alabama. He served as an engineer in the U.S. Coast Survey, surveying the U.S. – Mexico border and Mobile Bay, Alabama. He returned to Brunswick in 1849. In 1854, he moved back to the United States and settled in New York.

At the start of the Civil War, Steinwehr raised the 29th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment consisting of primarily German immigrants. The regiment was held in reserve during the First Battle of Bull Run serving an important screening role during the Union retreat. He was promoted to brigadier general on 12 October 1861 and commanded the 2nd Brigade of Louis Blenker’s division of the Army of the Potomac.

His brigade was transferred to Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont’s Mountain Department in April 1862, and it fought in the Valley Campaign against Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Fremont’s command was expanded into an army corps, which was soon commanded by Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, another German immigrant. Steinwehr was given the 2nd Division. It was assigned to the Army of Virginia, under Maj. Gen. John Pope, and participated in the Northern Virginia Campaign, but had little role in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Although the corps joined the Army of the Potomac, Steinwehr and the 2nd Division did not fight a the Battles of Antietam or Fredericksburg.

Oliver O. Howard was assigned to command the XI Corps in 1863, and Steinwehr commanded the division in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Despite the corps struggles at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, Steinwehr was well thought of by his superiors. After Chancellorsville, Howard wrote that Steinwehr’s bearing during the battle was “cool, collected and judicious.” Alpheus Williams, a fellow division commander, described him as a “remarkably intelligent and agreeable person.”

In September 1863, Steinwehr and Carl Schurz’ divisions were transferred to the Western Theater to help relieve the besieged Union army in Chattanooga, becoming part of the Army of the Cumberland. They served under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker in the Battle of Wauhatchie, where the brigade of Colonel Orland Smith from Steinwehr’s division distinguished itself. Colonel Adolphus Buschbeck’s brigade was engaged alongside Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s command at the Third Battle of Chattanooga. After that battle, the XI Corps was combined with the equally depleted XII Corps to from the new XX Corps. Steinwehr was reorganized out of his job and he commanded no more combat units during the war and resigned his commission on 3 July 1865.

After the war, he was employed as a geographer and cartographer. He returned to Connecticut to accept a professorship at Yale University. He moved to Washington, D.C., then to Ohio, and returned to New York. He died in Buffalo, New York on 25 February 1877.

161216 Adolph Von Steinwehr.jpg

161216 Adolph Von Steinwehr comparison.jpg
 
Back
Top