German-Americans and the Eleventh Corps

German-Americans and the Eleventh Corps. . A large number of the soldiers who camped in and built the roads and fortifications preserved in this park were German-Americans. Most studies of ethnicity in the Civil War have focused on Irish or African-American soldiers, yet German-Americans were the largest ethnic group in federal service, enlisting in numbers beyond their proportion to the overall population. In the Army of the Potomac, these immigrant soldiers outnumbered those of Irish descent two to one. Most came from New York and Pennsylvania; smaller numbers from Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin. Many participated in the early western battles of Wilson’s Creek, Carthage and Pea Ridge, where General Franz Sigel, who later briefly commanded in this area, was hailed as a hero. In the east, General Ludwig Blenker and his “German Division” were lauded for covering the Union retreat from 1st Manassas. The public’s perception of German-American soldiers, however, changed drastically after the Battle of Chancellorsville. There the 11th Corps, which contained a majority of German-speaking soldiers, under Major General Oliver Otis Howard, a West Point graduate from Maine, was flanked and decisively defeated by Stonewall Jackson’s veteran Confederate infantrymen., After Chancellorsville, German-American soldiers became the scapegoats of the failed campaign even though numerous Eleventh Corps soldiers had tried to warn Union Generals Hooker, Howard, and Devens that Confederates were massing on their flank. Captain Hubert Dilger of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery I, was told at Hooker’s headquarters to “tell his yarn at Eleventh Corps headquarters,” where he was also dismissed. Dejected, he returned to his battery and prepared it for action. Dr. Christian Keller of the U.S> Army War College, in a recently published book titled Chancellorsville and the Germans, stated that, “It is not an exaggeration to say the North’s German-born population net got over what happened in the Virginia woods in May of 1863.” In those woods, approximately 8,800 poorly deployed 11th Corps soldiers were attacked on their right and rear by 26,000 Confederate soldiers. In the aftermath of the Chancellorsville campaign, no single man would be blamed for the battle; instead the blame fell on an entire corps, and, by proxy, German-Americans. Many years later, Major General Darius Couch, a West Pointer and former Commander of the Army of the Potomac’s Second Corps at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, wrote about the flank attack. In his summary, he noted that, “It can be emphatically stated that no Corps in the army, surprised as the Eleventh Corps was at this time, could have held its ground under similar circumstances.” Thirty years after the baffle, Captain Hubert Dilger received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Chancellorsville., (sidebar) , “Exclusively German” 11th Corps Regiments , (21 May, 1863) , 82nd Illinois , 29th New York , 41st New York , 45th New York , 54th New York , 58th New York , 68th New York , 27th Pennsylvania , 74th Pennsylvania , 75th Pennsylvania , 26th Wisconsin, Mixed Nationality 11th Corps Regiments , (21 May, 1863) , 119th New York , 107th Ohio , 73rd Pennsylvania , 153rd Pennsylvania , Source: OR, Series I, Vol 25, #39, (captions) , 41st New York Infantry, 82nd Illinois Infantry, Brig. Gen. Charles Devens, Jr. , Commander, 1st Division, XI Corps, Brig. Gen. Charles Devens, Jr. , Commander, 1st Division, XI Corps, Brig. Gen. Adolf von Steinwehr , Commander, 2nd Division, XI Corps, Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz , Commander, 3rd Division, XI Corps, Captain Hubert Dilger , 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery I