A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War: Marcus M. Spiegel of the Ohio Volunteers (review)

Book Reviews 159 Among the many excellent articles in the collection, I will allow myself only one special recommendation. Those who are interested in the search for the "typical medievalJew" will find Yuval's article ofgreat value. Yuval translates (pp. 97-98) the short reminiscences of a medieval GermanJew, and adds a very detailed discussion and commentary. The anonymous author, who fought in a local war in 1371, was a bazzan in 1382, and was thrown into prison on account of a quarrel with friends in 1390, presents an instructive contrast to other medieval Jews, for example, to Goitein's Genizah personalities. In sum, professors who are teaching courses on medieval]udaism will find articles here which they might well wish to assign to their students, whether undergraduates or graduate students. We look forward to volume four of Binab, which will focus on Jewish intellectual history in late antiquity. Joseph Davis Gratz College A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War: Marcus M. Spiegel of the Ohio Volunteers, edited by Jean Powers Soman and Frank 1. Byrne. lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. 353 pp. $12.95. Originally published in 1985 by Kent State University Press under the title Your True Marcus: The Civil War Letters of ajewisb Colonel. Marcus M. Spiegel was born in 1829 in Germany, the son of a rabbi. He became a Forry-Eighter, a refugee from the failed 1848 revolution in Germany. Like several thousand other Germans who fled the post-rebellion reaction, Spiegel made his way in 1849 to the United States. Spiegel lived first in New York, where his family already lived, having migrated there in 1846, and then moved to Chicago. There followed several years ina variety of occupations, including the lonely'life of a peddler in Ohio. In Ohio he met a young Quaker lady, Carolinej Hamlin, who became his bride and converted to Judaism. In part to please his wife's family, Spiegel moved to Ohio and when the Civil War began in 1861 he was in business ·in Holmes County, in the small town of Millersburg. Ajewisb Colonel in tbe Civil War consists primarily ofSpiegel's letters to his wife and family after he joined the Union army. These letters are interspersed with editorial explanations and biographical continuity. The editors identify the people mentioned in the correspondence and explain the German and Hebrew words occasionally encountered in the letters. His 160 SHOFAR Winter 1997 Vol., 15, No. 2 many years in business gave Spiegel a working knowledge of English, and his descriptions of army life and politics are colorful· and vivid. Marcus Spiegel volunteered for military service in late 1861. like many another volunteer his motives were mixed: he was a patriot determined to fight for his adopted country, but he was also strongly attracted by the steady pay of a Union officer. His financial affairs were precarious, and he hoped to make a financial nest egg during his service time. As he wrote his wife from Virginia in early 1862, ". . . this is the only time that I can see a clear way of getting money enough to keep us comfortable" (po 32). Spiegel began his military career as a "recruiting lieutenant" for the 45th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. That regiment soon became part of the 67th Ohio, commanded by Colonel Otto Buerstenbinder, like Spiegel a German immigrant. Captain Marcus Spiegel was officially mustered into the Union army in January 1862 at Camp Chase, Ohio. Spiegel's steady stream of letters home offers a familiar picture of camp life, chance encounters with relatives and friends, army politics, and then the hardships of campaigning. His first combat was in the Battle of Kernstown (Virginia), March 1862, where Union forces under James Shields won a modest victory against Stonewall Jackson. Soon after this battle Spiegel enjoyed a furlough home, and when he returned to his regiment the 67th Ohio was about to participate in General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. After the failure of that campaign Spiegel and his regiment returned to northern Virginia. Disappointed by his lack of success in winning promotion in the 67th Infantry, Spiegel accepted a post as lieutenant colonel of the 120th Ohio Infantry, commanded by Colonel...