August Willich

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August Willich as Brigadier General

Johann August Ernst von Willich (born November 19, 1810 in Braunsberg , † January 22, 1878 in St. Marys , Ohio ) was a leader of the insurgents during the Baden Revolution and general of the Union Army in the Civil War .

Life

August von Willich entered the Potsdam Cadet Institute in 1821 . At the age of 18 he was promoted to second lieutenant in the 7th Artillery Regiment of the Prussian Army in Wesel . Because of his sympathy for the League of the Just , he was brought before a court martial and discharged from the army. In 1847 Willich gave up his title of nobility.

During the revolution of 1848/49 he was the military leader of the Hecker train and fought in battle on the Scheideck . He then fled to Switzerland and France .

In 1849 he returned and fought as commander in chief on the Palatinate side in the Palatinate-Baden uprising . Friedrich Engels served as his adjutant during this time . After the suppression of the uprising, Willich fled again to Switzerland. Willich then went into exile in London. There he joined the Communist League around Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In 1850 there was a deep political conflict between Marx and Engels on the one hand and Willich and Karl Schapper on the other. There was a split in the organization and the formation of bitterly fighting factions. Nonetheless, Willich tried to exonerate the defendants who supported Marx during the Cologne Communist Trial. He tracked down the counterfeiters of incriminating material and brought the perpetrator to a police court. Only a short time later the covenant dissolved. In 1853 Willich emigrated to the United States and lived as a carpenter, surveyor and editor of the "Cincinnati Republicans. Organ of the Workers" in the USA.

August Willich fighting in the Civil War

In 1861 Willich joined the 9th Ohio Regiment as a soldier and thus took part in the Civil War. He later became the commander of the 32nd Indiana Regiment (1st German Regiment). Willich trained both regiments according to Prussian regulations. For his service in the Battle of Shiloh (April 6/7, 1862) he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers with effect from July 17, 1862 . Willich was captured in the Battle of the Stones River and spent four months in Libby Prison until he was exchanged in May 1863. Participation in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Battle of Chattanooga followed . On May 15, 1864 Willich suffered a severe arm wound near Resaca , Georgia , so that he was unfit for field service. On January 15, 1866, he was honorably discharged with the certification of major general of the volunteers (effective October 21, 1865). After the war, Willich went to Cincinnati and worked in various government offices. In 1870 he traveled to Germany and offered to fight in the Franco-Prussian War , which was rejected due to his age and political past. He then returned to the United States. August Willich died of natural causes and is buried in Elm Grove Cemetery in Saint Marys.

Honors

literature

  • Heinrich A. Rattermann: General August Willich . In: The German Pioneer . February 9, March 1878, pp. 439-445, 488-495.
  • August von Willich: In the Prussian Army! Disciplinary proceedings against Premier Lieutnant von Willich . Heinrich Hoff, Mannheim 1848. MDZ Reader
  • Joseph R. Reinhart (Ed.): August Willich's gallant Dutchmen. Civil War letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry . Kent State Univ. Press, Kent, Ohio 2006.
  • Rolf Dlubek : August Willich (1810–1878). From Prussian officer to campaigner for workers' emancipation on two continents . In: Helmut Bleiber, Walter Schmidt , Susanne Schötz (Hrsg.): Actors of upheaval. Men and women of the revolution of 1848/49 . Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2003, pp. 923-1004.
  • Daniel Nagel: From Republican Germans to German-American Republicans. A contribution to the identity change of the German forty-eight in the United States 1850–1861. Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 2012, ISBN 978-3-86110-504-6 , p. 593 ff.

Web links

Commons : August Willich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ August Willich's grave
personal data
SURNAME Willich, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Willich, Johann August Ernst von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Leader of the rebels during the Baden Revolution and General of the Northern States in the Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunsberg
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1878
Place of death St. Marys , Ohio