- Joined
- Aug 25, 2013
- Location
- Hannover, Germany
I have been told that modern day Steinwehr Ave. in Gettysburg is a challenge for every CW buff's wallet. But who was Adolph von Steinwehr?
He was born in 1822 in Blankenburg, in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany. Coming from a military family, young Adolph attended the Brunswick Military Academy from where he graduated in 1841 to become a Lieutenant in the Brunswick Army. Serving for six years, Steinwehr grew dissatisfied and elected to move to the United States in 1847. Arriving at Mobile, AL, he found employment as an engineer with the US Coastal Survey. As the the Mexican Ametican War was underway, Steinwehr sought a position with a combat unit but was declined. Disappointed, he decided to return to Brunswick two years later with his American-born wife, Florence Mary.
Unable to adjust to life in Germany again, he immigrated permantly to the US in 1854.
Initially settling in Wallingford, CT, he later moved to a farm in New York. Active in the German-America community, Steinwehr proved well-placed to raise a largely German regiment when the Civil War began in April 1861. Organizing the 29th New York Volunteer Infantry, he was commissioned as the regiment's colonel in June. Reporting to Washington, DC that summer, Steinwehr's regiment was assigned to Colonel Dixon S. Miles' division in Brigadier General Irvin MacDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia.
Read more about Steinwehr here:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od...ar-Brigadier-General-Adolph-von-Steinwehr.htm
As I visited his birthplace Blankenburg today, I thought you might like to see how it looks like today, pretty much the same as 160 years ago, when Steinwehr and his wife left to start a new life in the New World. Sorry for the thumbnails being sidewards, I seem to be unable to turn them...
He was born in 1822 in Blankenburg, in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany. Coming from a military family, young Adolph attended the Brunswick Military Academy from where he graduated in 1841 to become a Lieutenant in the Brunswick Army. Serving for six years, Steinwehr grew dissatisfied and elected to move to the United States in 1847. Arriving at Mobile, AL, he found employment as an engineer with the US Coastal Survey. As the the Mexican Ametican War was underway, Steinwehr sought a position with a combat unit but was declined. Disappointed, he decided to return to Brunswick two years later with his American-born wife, Florence Mary.
Unable to adjust to life in Germany again, he immigrated permantly to the US in 1854.
Initially settling in Wallingford, CT, he later moved to a farm in New York. Active in the German-America community, Steinwehr proved well-placed to raise a largely German regiment when the Civil War began in April 1861. Organizing the 29th New York Volunteer Infantry, he was commissioned as the regiment's colonel in June. Reporting to Washington, DC that summer, Steinwehr's regiment was assigned to Colonel Dixon S. Miles' division in Brigadier General Irvin MacDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia.
Read more about Steinwehr here:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od...ar-Brigadier-General-Adolph-von-Steinwehr.htm
As I visited his birthplace Blankenburg today, I thought you might like to see how it looks like today, pretty much the same as 160 years ago, when Steinwehr and his wife left to start a new life in the New World. Sorry for the thumbnails being sidewards, I seem to be unable to turn them...
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