Francis Lieber: German Intellectual and Lincoln Advocate

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Francis Lieber is best known to students of the Civil War as the author of the Lieber Code, General Order 100, which set down the rules of war for Union soldiers. A German intellectual who lived in South Carolina most of his life in the United States, Lieber became a committed foe of slavery. In 1864 he became a leading immigrant advocate of Lincoln's reelection. You can read about his attacks on George McClellan in this week's The Immigrants' Civil War article:
http://www.longislandwins.com/colum...er_comes_out_swinging_in_the_election_of_1864
 
His youngest son, Norman, was Judge Advocate on Banks' staff in Louisiana during 1862-1864. After the war he would serve as Judge Advocate General of the Army.

However, Francis' eldest son served in the Confederate Army.
 
His youngest son, Norman, was Judge Advocate on Banks' staff in Louisiana during 1862-1864. After the war he would serve as Judge Advocate General of the Army.

However, Francis' eldest son served in the Confederate Army.
His oldest son died fighting for the Confederacy. In his letters Francis Lieber noted the intense personal stakes of his family in the war. I am going to write more about this next year, but one of his son's commanded a German immigrant company in the Union army and was badly wounded.
 
So Lieber was a buddy of Alexander von Humboldt. That's a factoid I can use somewhere (I just know it). Alexander was a naturalist and northern California Humboldt County is named for him (as is Humboldt State University).
 
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So Lieber was a buddy of Alexander von Humboldt. That's a factoid I can use somewhere (I just know it). Alexander was a naturalist and northern California Humboldt County is named for him (as is Humboldt State University).
I knew he knew Humboldt but I had no idea the county and college were named for Alex Humboldt. Interesting facts in themselves.
 
Through Lieber, concepts that von Clausewitz was trying to formalize, entered the vocabulary of Sherman, Grant and Sheridan.
Moral, logistics, destruction of the enemy's economy, the effort to follow Lincoln's verbal obsession with the Confederate armies, while actually dismembering the Confederate economy, Lieber's influence is immense. German intellectual appraisal of national warfare was made accessible through Lieber.
Eventually, Dunning and Burgess nullified Lieber's work and condemned the effort to make equal citizens of the freed slaves.
It was a very small world. Lieber's son was fighting at Donelson where Grant was commanding.
Lieber addressed the main issues involved in winning the war in 1863-1865.
If one does not figure out Lieber's influence on the Civil War, it all remains a mystery.
 
Interesting information about Lieber. I think it very significant that he promulgated a code of rules for warfare, which (correct me if I'm wrong), was something unique in the annals of warfare to that time.
 
Through Lieber, concepts that von Clausewitz was trying to formalize, entered the vocabulary of Sherman, Grant and Sheridan.
Moral, logistics, destruction of the enemy's economy, the effort to follow Lincoln's verbal obsession with the Confederate armies, while actually dismembering the Confederate economy, Lieber's influence is immense. German intellectual appraisal of national warfare was made accessible through Lieber.
Eventually, Dunning and Burgess nullified Lieber's work and condemned the effort to make equal citizens of the freed slaves.
It was a very small world. Lieber's son was fighting at Donelson where Grant was commanding.
Lieber addressed the main issues involved in winning the war in 1863-1865.
If one does not figure out Lieber's influence on the Civil War, it all remains a mystery.
Folks involved in international law and human rights and humanitarian law still refer to Lieber, otherwise he is now largely unknown.
 
So Lieber was a buddy of Alexander von Humboldt. That's a factoid I can use somewhere (I just know it). Alexander was a naturalist and northern California Humboldt County is named for him (as is Humboldt State University).
I knew he knew Humboldt but I had no idea the county and college were named for Alex Humboldt. Interesting facts in themselves.

guys, please ...
 
Folks involved in international law and human rights and humanitarian law still refer to Lieber, otherwise he is now largely unknown.[/QUOTE
Not only was Sherman trying to follow Lieber's guidelines in conducting the March to the Sea, but then Congress had to figure out how to adapt Lieber's proposed constitutional amendments into something concise and coherent.
Its funny that he taught at Columbia.
 
What follows after Lieber and the Solomon brothers is a very pronounced German and Austrian immigration.
The policy toward anti-Prussian dissidents in central Europe, was to have as many as possible move to the United States.
As a result, a good deal of demographic growth was transferred to the United States.
 
Lieber not only wanted to constrain warfare, but it was also trying to think about not creating a militarized state.
 
His thinking about how an army is going to respond to guerilla warfare other than simply exterminating the enemy.
 
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