Originally published on March 29, 2012 in The Immigrants’ Civil War
by Patrick Young, Esq. – Blogger
On April 9, 1862, young German-born officer William Mank surveyed the killing grounds of Shiloh and shuddered. “Prrr,” he wrote. “What a sight is offered to me when I look around, friends and enemy dead and wounded lay among one another.” The situation of the wounded, lacking any semblance of decent medical care, was appalling. Mank wrote that the “wounded [were] asking for water, but God have mercy, we have none ourselves.”1
Shiloh was a confused battle in wooded countryside. Without adequate medical preparations, the wounded from both sides suffered immeasurably.
William Mank, in his late twenties, had joined the 32nd Indiana the year before. His commander was Colonel August Willich, a veteran of the German Revolution of 1848 who had become a committed communist and social revolutionary. Willich would prove to be one of the most effective officers in the Union Army.2
The 32nd Indiana was called the 1st German Regiment by its men. The unit included many soldiers who were considered radicals even by other immigrants. Col. Willich’s political views would mark the regiment as unique.
By most accounts, Col. Willich and his men enjoyed a remarkable rapport. He was regarded as a brave man who always shared his men’s danger and as a scholar with an outstanding intellect. His employment of his learning was not always appreciated by his men, however. For example, when members of the regiment were killed in an early skirmish, Willich marched his men out to the cemetery in the dead of winter. According to one of his soldiers:
Willich, in spite of intense cold, regaled us with a 1 ½ hour long address. He began by saying that now a decisive moment of the war had come, history showed proof…of such in the Peasants’ War, in the Reformation War, in the French Revolution, and in the Revolution of ’48… Then he…spoke on the cause of the war; involuntarily his all too vivid sense of fantasy strayed from this small earth up to the higher regions. He gave us a lecture about astronomy as well as other branches of human inquiry, and finally fell back out of the sky into reality because he began to notice how we began to stomp our benumbed feet.3
The soldier wrote that the 32nd Indiana’s men “went back to our quarters actually wiser, but also stiffer and partly angry.” He added that Willich’s speech covered “interesting subjects to enjoy with a glass of beer, not…in 10 degree cold.”4
Apart from his learned digressions, August Willich cultivated a sense of progressive purpose in his regiment. He was hailed in the German liberal press as “a hero of the revolution and a man of freedom,” and he tried to inculcate that radical spirit in his regiment. When it received its regimental flag, a poem was recited that declared, “Let all see that the German can fight for freedom and justice.”5
On informal terms with his men, Willich called them his “blockheads” and they named their camp newspaper that. One soldier wrote that “we have established a camp newspaper whose name ‘Blockhead’ comes from the only swearword that Colonel Willich uses…you can probably believe that it causes laughter.” The men regarded him as a paternal figure and called him “Papa Willich” because of his care of their welfare.6
Colonel Willich’s freethinking ways carried over into all aspects of the unit’s life. He always made sure to secure beer for his men, for example. His regiment was also one of the few in the army whose chaplain was not a member of the clergy, but rather a Freethinker who one soldier said would deliver his sermons “free of all religious humbug and [resting] only on the appeal of reasoned morals.” The chaplain always allowed time for the soldiers “to prove wrong what [they] disliked in the lecture of the chaplain.”7
On April 7, 1862, the 32nd Indiana arrived at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. During the course of the day, it was almost cut off and annihilated, and more than one in ten of its soldiers was killed or wounded. In all, nearly 25,000 Americans on both sides became casualties of the bloodiest battle in American history up to that date. William Mank would write two days later that “although victorious, we paid dearly.” Over the next three years, the 32nd Indiana would pay dearly time and again in its “fight for freedom.”8
This animated Battlefield Map shows the development of the Battle of Shiloh.
Resources
August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006), is the principal source for this article. Joe Reinhart has translated several volumes of immigrant soldiers’ letters and diaries. I would say he has given a voice to the voiceless, but these men could speak for themselves. Joe has really given the rest of us ears so we can hear what they had to say.
PBS has created a simulation in which you can explore Union General U.S. Grant’s decision-making during the battle.
Sources
1. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 75; Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by O. Edward Cunningham, Savas Beatie (2007) pp. 360-361; Memoirs of General William T. Sherman published by De Capo (1984) pp. 222-247; “The Battle of Shiloh” by U.S. Grant in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol. 1 pp. 465-486; “Shiloh Reviewed” by Don Carlos Buell in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol. 1 pp. 487-536; “The Campaign of Shiloh” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol. 1 pp.569-593.
2. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by O. Edward Cunningham, Savas Beatie (2007) pp. 360-361. Cunningham characterized Willich as “an ardent communist and revolutionary and one of the most experienced soldiers in the United States Army.”
3. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 59.
4. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 60.
5. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 31.
6. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 13, 30.
7. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 19.
8. August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry, translated by Joseph Reinhart, Kent State University Press (2006) p. 71, 75.
