Immigrated Military Leaders In The Civil War.

On the eve of the Civil War, not only were American born men gearing up for the soon to be fighting, but so were immigrants who had fled to the United States years before the war. In the late 1840s, thousands of German immigrants came to the States after the failed 1848 Revolution. Of the total population in 1860, nearly 1,300,000 were German immigrants. Many of the German-Americans who fought in the war, mainly for the Union, were refugees or military leaders of other revolutions in Germany. Even though they were fighting on the Union side, some German-American soldier's got the bad end of the situation, including German leader Franz Sigel.

Sigel was a graduate of a German military school and served as a general in the 1848 German revolution in efforts to unify Germany. After the revolution, he left for England, and then in 1852, arrived in America. He continued to serve as a military leader for the 5^th New York Infantry, and then served as a professor of history and mathematics at a German-American Institute in New York until the outbreak of the war. He organized a German infantry to fight for the United States, and was sent to Missouri where he helped capture Confederate guards at Camp Jackson in May 1861 and assisted Nathaniel Lyons campaign, as well as the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Even though the Union lost at the first battle of the war, Sigel was still regarded with admiration of those he did come into contact with, having always been energetic and showed the utmost devotion to the Union cause while in battle. He was upgraded to general in a short period of time, and in November 1861 because of health reasons, left to go to St. Louis to recover for a month. In that time, his forces were given to another general, because they were classified as “rowdy Germans” and no one could contain them other than Sigel. When Sigel returned, he was upset to find that news out that he had been replaced.

The following month, Sigel resigned from the Union army, stating that there had been no reason for him to be replaced when he was coming back. Sigel felt the loss of honor and justice he had felt when he first registered with the military, almost as a dig at his military skill and tactic. Because Sigel was so well liked by all the forces, his general Halleck tried to get him to rethink his resignation or else there would be riots. But Sigel was not happy with the explanations he was given, claiming that before he had taken leave in November, that he had been told other divisions were going to be given to him, but they never were. Instead, they were assigned elsewhere and he did not want to be seen as a deceiving officer, and he still wished to resign. He had shown extreme loyalty to the Union, and the Union could not return the same in his favor.

Upon hearing of Sigel's resignation and reasons why, the German-American population rose up to Sigel's side claiming he had been treated unfairly by the generals in the army. Thousands of leaders in the German-American population expressed disgust at his mistreatment. Soon, hundreds of newspapers across the country was showing support for Sigel with their headlines. Petitions were brought to Lincoln to have Sigel reinstated as major general. The public outcry was too strong at this point to be ignored and in March of 1862, Sigel was reinstated. Because of Lincoln's support, waves of immigration support started as well. Underneath the reinstatement, other officers in the army were starting to investigate Sigel's skills as a military commander. After realizing that he was not a very good leader after all, they tried to get him to leave again, though that was unable to happen. Sigel was later promoted two other times after that, though he later failed to live up to his reputation in the early years of the war later on. Sigel was not the only officer to use political uprisings to further military careers, especially in damaging the interests of his people, and the misfortune was one to learn from.

Hess, Earl J. "Sigel's Resignation: A Study in German-Americanism and the Civil War." Civil War History, Volume 26, Number 1, March 1980,pp. 5-17.