"The Adopted Citizens and the Union"

CT Ertz

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Jan 21, 2010
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Quinton, Virginia
Dear CivilWarTalk Readers. I published this article in the August issue of Historyscapes, an Ages and Eras Periodical. Heinrich John Ertz was an ancestor of mine I discovered when going down an Ancestry rabbit hole! I hope that you enjoy it. Historyscapes.com publishes every month around the 15th and covers multiple themes and periods. I would love some feedback. Thank you.

"The Adopted Citizens and the Union"

On January 11, 1861, Heinrich John Ertz was born in Grant County, Wisconsin. That day, the Manitowoc Pilot, a newspaper from a neighboring county, ran an article that would have been of interest to his parents. The Pilot's seven columns were filled with stories on the political event of the day, mainly centering around the secession of Southern States, and the possibility of war. In one article titled "The Adopted Citizens and the Union" the paper speaks openly and positively about those who came from other countries to find a home in the United States. The article highlighted the Irish and German immigrant population. James Ertz and his wife Gertrude, Heinrich's parents, were both originally from Germany. Certainly, their thoughts on their family's future would have been impacted by the attitudes and expectations of their fellow Wisconsinites toward immigrants concerning the growing hostilities between factions of the Union. As if to stress the importance these immigrants, the Pilot sandwiched the article between "Position of Major Anderson" (Fort Sumpter) and "Military Movements in Charleston".[1]

The Manitowoc Pilot was not off base in their assertion that those who came to America to start a new life would be loyal to the United States and to the Union. Many of those who came from Europe had experienced the failed revolutions of 1848 and saw the United States as a Refuge for Republicanism. In Prussia, the government found strength in the new sense of Nationalism that swept through the German speaking countries. Otto von Bismarck had used the feelings of Nationalism to successfully defend the Prussian Monarchy's bid for absolute power. A member of the Prussian nobility and belonging to the powerful Junker family, Bismarck used a strong Prussian military and ruthless political moves to eventually unify Germany, but he had no regard for republicanism or the revolutionary goals many ethnic Germans embraced.[2]

With the failing of the Revolutions of 1848, many ethnic Germans fled to the United States, taking their liberal idealism with them. Of the 1.4 million men and women who left Germany for the United States in the 20-year period before the Civil War, an estimated five to six-thousand of them were participants in the1848 revolutions.[3] Captain August Horstmann of the 45th​ New York Infantry Volunteers, in a letter to his parents, spoke for many 48'ers when he wrote, "But even if I should die in the fight for freedom & the preservation of the Union of this, my adopted homeland, then you should not be too concerned, for many brave sons of the German fatherland have already died on the field of honor, & many more besides me will fall!—Much the same as it is in Germany, the free and industrious people of the North are fighting against the lazy and haughty Junker spirit of the South."[4]

Although not every German born Union soldier joined up for the same reasons as Captain August Horstmann, the revolutions of 1848 did play an important role. According to author Stephen D. Engle, many Germans viewed the United States as a nation with "the kind of republic many had hoped to establish in Germany."[5] Regardless of their reasons for serving, it is estimated that 200,000 German born men served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.[6] Although it is impossible to know the exact numbers, since ethnicity was not recorded on enlistment papers until the organization of the provost-marshal-general's office in 1863.[7]

Not all those who came from Germany settled in the Norther states. It is estimated that 70,000 ethnic Germans lived in the 11 seceded Southern states. 30,000 of these lived in Texas.[8] Throughout the duration of the war, many pro-Unionists groups were formed in the South, and Germans were often found at the center of these groups. Most German immigrants considered slavery a moral wrong, and those who held to the intellectual believes of 1848 revolution took a strong stand against slavery.[9] This caused many of those in the south to view German born immigrants with open hostility. Some Germans who refused to take an oath to the Confederate states and join the Confederate military were forced to flee the Confederacy. After the passage of the 1862 Conscription Act by the Confederate Congress those men who tried to avoid joining the Confederate military were acting in defiance of Confederate law.

In Texas General Hamilton Bee declared martial law and went looking for those who refused to join. In August 1862 Confederate Cavalry caught up to 65 Germans who were fleeing Texas to Mexico, in hopes of traveling to Union held New Orleans. As the pro-Union Germans made camp near the Nueces River, the Confederates attacked. The 100 strong company of cavalry overpowered and captured the 65 Germans, killing 19 of them.[10] This small victory for the Confederate government changed nothing, and Texas would continue to have problems with pro-Union Germans. Many other seceded states would also have problems.

The Unionists, German, and others drew away thousands of Confederate soldiers from the front lines weakening their overall strength. In some locations, Unionists practiced guerrilla warfare, and at times they even joined the Union Army. Eventually 2000 men from Texas would wear Federal Blue Uniforms.[11]These actions undermined Confederate strength and moral and contributed to the Souths defeat.

James Ertz and his wife Gertrude, and baby Heinrich would survive the war, and like so many other German Americans, they would play a small part in homesteading and populate the territories that would become the midwestern states of Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Others would push further west, into Montana and Utah, and California. And many returned to the South and tried to pick up the pieces of life that they had left behind when they were forced to leave.

The "48ers" may have lost their revolution in Germany, but they helped preserve and protect their new Republic from disintegration, and they help form a more perfect Union.







[1] Jere, Crowley. "Manitowoc Pilot." Chronicling America. January 11, 1861. Accessed December 7, 2020. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...Jan+&y=5&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

[2] Michael Bernhard, "Bismarck: A Life by JONATHAN STEINBERG", Foreign Affairs, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011, Vol. 90, No. 6 (NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011), pp. 150-154, accessed July 30, 2021, Review: The Leadership Secrets of Bismarck: Imperial Germany and Competitive Authoritarianism on JSTOR

[3] Ryan W. Keating, "Immigrants in the Union Army," Essential Civil War Curriculum, 2010-2021, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech Accessed August 1, 2021. https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/immigrants-in-the-union-army.html
[4] Walter D. Kamphoefner and Helbich Wolfgang, ed., Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home, (University of North Carolina Press, 2006), p 122.

[5] Engle, Stephen D. "YANKEE DUTCHMEN: Germans, the Union, and the Construction of a Wartime Identity." In Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Americas Bloodiest Conflict, edited by Ural Susannah J., 11-56. New York; London: NYU Press, 2010. Accessed August 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg4vn.4.

[6] Ryan W. Keating, "Immigrants in the Union Army," Essential Civil War Curriculum, 2010-2021, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech Accessed August 1, 2021. https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/immigrants-in-the-union-army.html


[7] Nathan W. Diebel, Germans and the Union: Immigrants' Struggle Against Assimilation in the Civil War Era, Oregon State University, May 23, 2019, accessed August 5, 2021, Honors College Thesis | Germans and the Union: Immigrants' Struggle Against Assimilation in the Civil War Era | ID: s1784s18k | ScholarsArchive@OSU (oregonstate.edu)

[8] Ibid, Diebl, Germans and the Union, p 39

[9] Evan Andrews, "6 Southern Unionist Strongholds During the Civil War", History.com, A&E Television Networks, LLC August 21,2018, Accessed August 5, 2021, 6 Southern Unionist Strongholds During the Civil War - HISTORY

[10] Evan Andrews, "6 Southern Unionist Strongholds During the Civil War", History.com, A&E Television Networks, LLC August 21,2018, Accessed August 5, 2021, 6 Southern Unionist Strongholds During the Civil War - HISTORY

[11] Ibid, Andrews, Southern Unionist
 
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