Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home

42. Private Franz Schorse

334 Schorse suffer a lot for this. When we get together in the evening, all the local stick-inthe -muds attack me and start talking politics [. . .] because first of all I know the Americans in and out, and secondly I know that John Bull and Brother Jonathan don’t exactly regard each other as schoolmates and old friends[. . . .] I admit this doesn’t make me any friends, but I will not betray my convictions even if I make an enemy out of everyone in Europe. Given his opinions, it is hardly surprising that Krieger returned to America. In 1869 he and his Oldenburg bride left for Kiel, Wisconsin, where his brother was a farmer. He opened a general store that was already valued at $3,500 in 1870. At the turn of the century, he was still living in the same place and working in the same line of business.6 6. MC 1890: Veterans’ Census, Manitowoc Co./ Wisc., Schleswig Twp., #9; MC 1870: Manitowoc Co./ Wisc., #110, #201; MC 1880: Manitowoc Co./ Wisc., e.d. 77, #298; MC 1900: Manitowoc Co./ Wisc., e.d. 68, #179. Since the Kriegers cannot be found in the 1869 passenger lists, it is unclear whether they got married in Germany and then emigrated to America together; however , MC 1900 shows that his wife emigrated in 1869, the same year they married. 42. Private Franz Schorse Only the outlines of Franz Schorse’s life before his emigration and the outbreak of the Civil War can be reconstructed. He was born on July 10, 1844, in Rühle, Holzminden County, Duchy of Braunschweig, where his father was a pastor. His father later took a position in nearby Mahlum, where his mother died in 1858. These two villages, with populations of 679 and 469, respectively, were small and insignificant, but Franz Schorse obviously had a solid elementary education and also learned to play the piano, organ, and violin.1 In 1861 sixteen-year-old Franz Schorse left for Milwaukee, where several acquaintances were already living. His decision to emigrate was hardly motivated by poverty but rather by ambition and a thirst for adventure, and while he was en route to America, the war broke out. After his arrival he worked for several months as a clerk; on December 31, 1861, he joined the army. In Chicago he took his place in Company C of the 61st Illinois Infantry, a predominantly Anglo American unit. The company received its baptism of fire at Shiloh, Tennessee,* in April 1862 and source note: There is little more to be said about Schorse’s writing than the fact that there are few spelling and no grammatical errors, and that his High German is lively, precise, and almost elegant. 1. Konfirmationsliste 1858, Nr. 6, KB (ev.) Mahlum, Ns. StA Wolfenbüttel; information provided by the donor; Kleinau (1968), 493, 392–93. Schorse 335 took part in the main campaigns of the western army up to the siege of Vicksburg.*2 Schorse wrote his only surviving letter about the war on the same day the fortress on the Mississippi capitulated. Snyder’s Bluff near Vicksburg, Miss. June [July] 4th, 1863.3 Dear father, I received your letter of May 14 yesterday, at exactly the same time that Pemberton raised the white flag in Vicksburg.* Because it was already late in the day, however, Genrl. Grant sent in a message that the official surrender would be this morning. So at 8 o’clock this morning, on the day of the celebrations in honor of the ‘‘Constitution of the United States of Amerika,’’4 Grant’s troops marched into the city of Vicksburg, where 20,000 rebels surrendered their weapons. So when you say, ‘‘the work of the army is coming to naught,’’ then leave us out, because now we have taken Fort Donelson and Henry with 15,000 men, Island No. 10 with 3,000, and now Vicksburg with 20,000. Genrl. Grant’s skill has been remarkably apparent in the last weeks. But before I write about that I want to tell you how we got here. You’ve probably heard the story of the last battles; and also that Johnson [Johnston ] was on his way, although too late, to rescue his friends in Vicksburg. And that meant the rear of our army wasn’t strong enough to stave off J., if he had wanted to throw his entire Force at one spot in order to make a gap...