Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home

39. Private David Böpple and Family

324 Böpple his contact during the war. For the rest of his working life, Martens was a house and sign painter in Peoria, often working together with an American partner. When his wife died around 1900, he retired, and he spent his last eighteen years living in a home for disabled Union veterans in Danville, Illinois.15 15. Pension File, NatA; CD Peoria, 1882/83–1901/2. Bachmann appears in MC 1860: Peoria Co./Ill., Peoria, W. 1, #478. Interestingly, Bachmann owned a German bookstore; neither Martens nor his future wife were living in his household in 1860. MC 1870: Peoria Co./Ill., Peoria, W. 1, #267; MC 1880: Peoria Co./Ill., e.d. 220, #76; MC 1900: Peoria Co./Ill., e.d. 86, #126; MC 1900: Vermillion Co./Ill., Danville Twp., National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; MC 1910: Vermillion Co./Ill., Danville Twp., e.d. 134, #43. 39. Private David Böpple and Family David Böpple and Magdalena Metzger came from Heumaden and Nellingen, two neighboring villages on the Neckar River, a few miles upstream from Stuttgart. They married in February 1860, shortly before they emigrated. They did not take much of a fortune along with them, since Böpple brought to the marriage only his clothing, a silver watch, and 100 guilders* for the passage, and his wife received only 200 guilders in cash along with her trousseau. The couple arrived in New York in May 1860 and probably traveled straight on to relatives in Shelbyville, Illinois. Böpple, who is listed in the German records only as a blacksmith, combined his trade with farming once he settled in the United States. Although he was not forced to join the army by the draft or severe economic plight (he took along his own horse), Böpple joined the 7th Illinois Cavalry in August 1862. There are no traces of idealistic motivation in the letters; instead, it seems that the good pay in the army was the deciding factor.1 source note: The Böpples write very much alike: simple German with limited vocabulary and erratic spelling. For persons with little formal education, however, there are remarkably few traces of the Swabian dialect they grew up with. Not included here is one letter in the series from the time after 1865 and one undated fragment. 1. GA Heumaden, Inventuren und Teilungen, Bd. 39, Nr. 90; HPL, Teutonia, April 21, 1860; NYPL, May 8, 1860. One reason for emigrating was that although his father owned eighteen plots of land, nonewas as large as half an acre; ibid., Bd. 50, Nr. 5.The 1860 census, taken June 29, shows them without property, sharing a house with a Metzger family, and lists David’s occupation as a farmhand. MC 1860, Shelby Co./Ill., S. Div., #500. Shelby County was predominantly Democratic, voting for Douglas by a two-thirds margin in 1860. Burnham (1955), 386. For Böpple’s service record see Muster Rolls, Pension File, NatA. Böpple 325 David Böpple and wife Magdalena. (Emma Klein) magdalena böpple Schelbewill Illinois, December 8, 1863 Dearest mother-in-law and brothers-in-law, [. . .] My dear husband was sick for a month last summer, he had dysentery, but now he is well again, thank the Lord. I get a letter from him every week. Dear mother-in-law, you thought mydear husband was long since dead and I hadn’t wanted to tell you, I would have written immediately if he had died, but our dear Lord has kept him [----] healthy up to now, and I think He will [----] continue to do so if we ask Him, He will not desert us. [12 ll.: is sending photographs, also of her husband in uniform] The pay varies a lot, too, the infantry gets 13 dollars, and the cavalry gets 25 dollars if they have their own horses. David has his own horse and he gets 25 dollars a month. He’s already sent quite a lot of money home, and he can make more money in the war than he can at home. I myself would much rather have my husband than the money, but I think this wretched war will be over in the spring, and they say when they’ve fought 3 or 4 more battles then it will be decided, either for the southern side or for the northern. This regiment that David is in has never been in a big battle, all the soldiers in the regiment...