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‘Firm and fast and fearless’
Author translates Hoosier soldiers’ letters to German-language newspapers
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — German war heroes.
Many children of World War II would meet such a conversation topic with skepticism or a chilly glare, recalling the legacies of the Luftwaffe or Maginot Line trench warfare.
But Joseph Reinhart knows better. Two hundred thousand of the Civil War’s 2.2 million Union soldiers were German immigrants, the retired Louisville accountant said, including his great-great-grandfather.
It was when Reinhart discovered how conscientiously those soldiers in Southern Indiana and Kentucky documented their trials and successes that he discovered a second career.
An interest in the Civil War gripped Reinhart 12 years ago, so he set out “to write a 15-page article and wound up with a 500-page book” about Kentucky’s 6th Volunteer Infantry.
In his research, Reinhart discovered letters from one of that unit’s German soldiers to German-language newspapers, including Louisville’s Anzeiger, and another man’s German diary. Those were spun off into a sequel by Reinhart, who had a budding interest in German heritage after picking up genealogy and visiting Germany the year after the Berlin Wall fell.
Reinhart’s third book, “August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry,” features a unit whose Company H, “New Albany Company,” included many Southern Indiana men. One of the transcribed letters comes from a Jeffersonville private, Charles Denninghoff.
‘Truly an honor’
On Sept. 11, 1861, the Anzeiger published Denninghoff’s impressed account of training with Col. Willich during the war’s early days. A portion of Reinhart’s translation:
“[T]he undersigned returned yesterday from camp at Indianapolis where Colonel Willich is fully engaged in the organization of the First German Regiment. ... Daily a crowd of people streams there to watch the maneuvers and evolutions, and probably no one leaves the place without astonishment and amazement that Colonel Willich was able to accomplish so much with his troops in so little time. ...
“The undersigned participated in the drills for several days, and he must say, that the regiment executes movements that the Americans cannot accomplish after three months of practice. ...
“With regard to the camp, everything is so admirably arranged and orderly that nothing remains to be wished for. Food and drink are very good, likewise clothing and sleeping spaces. ... It is forbidden to bring whiskey into the camp, in return the sutler Krokel delights the thirsty souls with a foaming glass of beer. So, enjoyment and satisfaction prevail everywhere.
“It is truly an honor to belong to Willich’s regiment, firm and fast and fearless ... ‘woe’ to the enemy troops who will have to meet such a regiment.”
Impressions
The war’s early years produced far more letters than its dog days. But Reinhart supplements the letters with his own research on battles in the Western theater.
What surprised Reinhart the most was “how [Germans] felt they were second-class citizens but that they felt they were better soldiers and (more) cultured than the Americans.”
Some had already seen combat in the 1848 German revolution, giving them experience many young American fighters lacked.
Germans “would always get the tough assignment” and faced regular nuisances such as walking on wet roads while the Americans they fought beside walked on the dry side.
Reinhart also encountered hasty generalizations in histories of the war. A book he read in his early research claimed that Germans were “Americanized ... through the crucible of combat,” which is incorrect, Reinhart said.
“The Germans didn’t fully Americanize until World War I,” and only then because public opinion turned wholly against their home country, Reinhart said.
Moreover, “some of the books say Germans were all abolitionists, and that’s not true,” Reinhart said; only about 3 percent of the immigrants were active in the movement to end slavery.
“German historians embellish good and diminish bad,” the author added.
Found in translation
A prospective publisher — not Kent State University Press, which sells “Gallant Dutchmen” in hardcover for $35 — convinced Reinhart to play up the “ethnicity issue” to compete with the battle accounts.
Because the letters were written in German and published in German newspapers, a large portion of Reinhart’s work schedule involved applying his university-honed language skills in translation.
The average letter takes 24 hours to translate, Reinhart said, though “I’ve been working on one for four days.”
Reinhart has associates who help him with the most obscure or confusing phrases, too.
As far as Reinhart knows, his amateur authors all returned quietly to civilian life.
Reinhart’s next project will be familiar to his fans: “I’ve got 100 letters from the 9th Ohio (Infantry). It was all-German, too.”
Eric Scott Campbell writes for The Evening News in Jeffersonvile, Ind.
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ON THE NET
To buy “August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen,” visit upress.kent.edu/books/Reinhart.htm
