Adolph von Steinwehr

Adolph von Steinwehr

Baron Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr (born September 25, 1822 in Blankenburg , Harz , † February 25, 1877 in Buffalo , New York ) was a Brunswick-German army officer who emigrated to North America to the United States of America in the 1850s , to earn his living there as a geographer , cartographer and officer . He also wrote a number of writings as an author. After the outbreak of the American Civil War , von Steinwehr served as a general in the Union Army and was involved in the Battle of Gettysburg , among other things .

Childhood and youth

Von Steinwehr was born in Blankenburg, a small town in what was then the Duchy of Braunschweig . He comes from a family with a military tradition. His grandfather fought in the Prussian army against Napoleon's troops . As a young cadet, von Steinwehr attended the military academy in Braunschweig, where he was prepared for officer service from the start. In 1841 he graduated at the age of 19 and was accepted into the service of the Brunswick Army as an officer (lieutenant) . At the end of 1841 he married Florence Mary Murrell (1822-1905) from Mobile (she later received a pension from Congress). His daughter Hildegard Luise Valeska (born October 11, 1857) later married the Prussian major Hermann Gustav Carl von Meysenbug (born February 2, 1848)

Only six years later he quit his service there and emigrated to the United States. After the crossing, he soon settled in rural Alabama . As an engineer, he served in the US Coastal Survey and used it to control the border with Mexico and the (then) border town of Mobile , Alabama, during the American-Mexican War . However, since he was unable to demonstrate his military skills in combat despite his express request, he returned to Braunschweig in 1849 disappointed.

In 1854 he moved back to the United States, where he bought a farm near Wallingford , Connecticut . He later moved to New York State , where he lived when the Civil War broke out.

In the Civil War

At the beginning of the civil war , von Steinwehr set up a regiment , which mainly consisted of Germans. This 29th New York Infantry Regiment took part under him in the First Battle of the Bull Run , where it - initially held in reserve - played an important role in the reconnaissance and securing of the route of retreat of the Union troops, whereby Steinwehr's military and geographic skills proved their worth. From October 1861 he commanded the second brigade in General Ludwig Blenker's division in the Association of the Potomac Army . Under Steinwehr's command , the brigade was placed under Major General John C. Frémont's so-called "Mountain Department" on April 1, 1862 , and fought in the Valley Campaign against Major General Thomas J. Jackson (known as Stonewall Jackson ) and his Confederate troops. On June 12, 1862 Steinwehr was promoted to Brigadier General of the Volunteers, retroactively to October 12, 1861.

Shortly afterwards, Major General Franz Sigel , who came from Germany from Steinwehr, had assumed command of the corps , and von Steinwehr was given command of the 2nd division of the corps. Both associations were soon subordinate to the Virginia Army under Major General John Pope . This took part in the Northern Virginia Campaign, but played only a minor role in the second battle of the Bull Run . He was not used in the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg .

After Sigel's resignation in February 1863, Major General Oliver Otis Howard was given command of the XI. Corps . Steinwehr continued to command the 2nd Division in the association, including in the Battle of Chancellorsville and the famous Battle of Gettysburg . In both battles, Steinwehr's division was the focus of decisive skirmishes in which he was able to maintain a good reputation despite unavoidable setbacks and the subsequent withdrawal of his decimated forces. After Chancellorsville, where von Steinwehr had to give way to the surprising flank attack of his opponent "Stonewall" Jackson, General Howard attested him "cool, composed and discerning" demeanor during the battle. In Gettysburg he was hit by the full force of the attack by Lieutenant General Richard Ewell's Second Corps in the opening battle on July 1, 1863, so that the division had to withdraw to the cemetery of Gettysburg with heavy losses. Brigadier General Alpheus S. Williams , commander of a division of the XII. Corps, called him a "remarkably intelligent and understanding person". Nevertheless, the losses (including many of the German-born Union soldiers of the 29th Regiment) weakened the combat strength of the entire corps, which was marched to the western theater of war in September of the same year. There it merged with the similarly weakened XII. Corps to the new XX. Corps, which was subordinated to Major General Joseph Hooker . However, Steinwehr saw no further operations. From April to July 1864 he was on convalescent leave. His repeated requests for assignment to a new post were not granted. On June 19, 1865, he submitted his resignation, which was accepted on July 3.

Postbellum

After the war, von Steinwehr worked as a geographer and cartographer. Upon his return to Connecticut, he was offered a professorship at Yale University , which he accepted. After teaching for a few semesters, he moved to Washington, DC , later to Ohio and finally to Buffalo, where he died at the age of 54. His final resting place is in the " Albany Rural Cemetery " in Menands , New York.

Works (selection)

Steinwehr was a prolific writer and editor of scientific literature . Some of his writings are

as author:

• A School Geography: Embracing a Mathematical, Physical, and Political Descriptions of the Earth (published 1870);
• Primary Geography (published 1870; as co-author)
• An Elementary Treatise on Physical Geography (1873);

as editor:

• The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States (1874).

literature

• Eicher, John H .; Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands , Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Tagg, Larry, The Generals of Gettysburg , Savas Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-882810-30-9 .
• Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders , Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7 .
• Wilhelm Kaufmann, The Germans in the American Civil War , digitized biography
• J. Fletcher Brennan, Egbert Cleave, A biographical cyclopedia and portrait gallery of distinguished men: with an historical sketch, of the state of Ohio , Volume 1, p. 197

Web links

Commons : Adolph von Steinwehr  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Adolph stone weir in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/39369
3. ^ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of baronial houses, 1891, p.749