Nicholas J. Rusch

Nicholas Johann Rusch (born February 16, 1822 in Sankt Michaelisdonn , Duchy of Holstein , † September 22, 1864 in Vicksburg , Mississippi ) was an American politician . Between 1860 and 1862 he was lieutenant governor of the state of Iowa .

Career

Nicholas Rusch attended the public schools in his home country and then studied at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In 1847 he emigrated to America, where he settled on a farm in Scott County , Iowa. In the 1850s he became a member of the newly formed Republican Party . In 1857 he was elected to the Iowa Senate, where he was primarily responsible for the alcohol legislation and the concerns of German immigrants.

In 1860, Rusch was elected Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, alongside Samuel Jordan Kirkwood . He held this office between 1860 and 1862. He was Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Senate. He was then appointed the state's immigration officer by the governor. In this capacity, he spent ten months in New York City , where he promoted the state of Iowa, mainly among German immigrants, with the aim of getting as many as possible to move. Because of the civil war , the wave of immigration subsided temporarily and Rusch returned to Iowa.

He joined the Union Army as a captain and served in Vicksburg in the summer of 1864 . There he developed a strategy to protect Union ships on the Mississippi from attacks by the Confederates . For this purpose, armed loggers should be stationed along the river, on the one hand to supply the steamships with fuel and at the same time to repel attacks on the ships. Rusch went to New York again to hire woodcutters for this purpose. Shortly after his return to Vicksburg, he died unexpectedly on September 22, 1864, without his plan being realized.

Web links

• Nicholas J. Rusch in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard