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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
These are the letters of a common man, who was both a soldier and a recent immigrant. Valentin Bechler knew little English and was imperfectly literate in his native German. He evinced no martial spirit, but thought of his military service as a job of work. His letters place more emphasis on camp and hospital than on the battles in which he was engaged. To the historian, Bechler is all the more valuable a witness for these reasons; for all too often war and immigration are to be seen only through the testimony of exceptional men. Almost equally valuable are his wife's letters from Newark, New Jersey, which show, in a form equally unpolished, what life was like on the home front for a family both foreign and poor.
page 145 note 1 Thirty-three letters written by Bechler exist, three of them on the back of letters received from his wife. There are thirteen other letters from Mrs Bechler. The whole collection is in the possession of Louise Lesser (Mrs Arthur Lesser) of Maplewood, N.J., whose mother was Bechler's daughter Hildegarde. Our selection has reduced their total length to about two-fifths, representing all features that can be regarded as typical.
page 145 note 2 Bechler's letters are a little below the level of writing of most of the material on which Bell I. Wiley based his The Life of Billy Yank (Indianapolis, 1951). Notably absent are the vivid description of episodes and the subtle self-analysis of such well-known books as Townsend, George A., Campaigns of a Non-combatant (New York, 1866)Google Scholar, Noyes, George F., The Bivouac and the Battle-field (New York, 1863)Google Scholar, Castleman, Alfred L., The Army of the Potomac, Behind the Scenes (Milwaukee, 1863)Google Scholar, Billings, John D., Hardtack and Coffee (in Van Doren Stern, Philip (ed.), Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies (New York, 1946), 1st edn., Boston, 1887)Google Scholar, Beatty, John, Memoirs of a Volunteer 1861–1863 (Ford, Harvey S. (ed.), (New York, 1946), 1st edn.Google Scholar as The Citizen Soldier, Cincinnati, 1878), and de Wolfe Howe, Mark (ed.), Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diaries of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 1861–1864 (Cambridge, Mass., 1946).CrossRefGoogle Scholar On hospitals, Bechler's description lacks the expertise of Castleman, but also the sentimentality so apparent in books by ladies of the U.S. Sanitary Commission: MrsHoge, A. A., The Boys in Blue, or Heroes of the ‘Rank and File’ (New York, 1867)Google Scholar, and Livermore, Mary A., My Story of the War (Hartford, Conn., 1888).Google Scholar
page 146 note 1 Conditions in Baden a few years before Bechler's emigration can be seen in Banfield, Thomas C., Industry of the Rhine (2 vols., London, 1846–1848), esp. vol. I, pp. 204–11Google Scholar, while the difficulties of the 1850s are summarized in Walker, Mack, Germany and the Emigration 1816–1885 (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), esp. pp. 157–61.Google Scholar Bechler crossed the Atlantic, however, after the great mid-century wave of Germans: 1856's 71,000 were fewer than one-third of 1854's total.
page 146 note 2 The Newark Daily Advertiser, 24 07 1861Google Scholar, reports a mass-meeting to petition the Common Council for relief measures to aid unemployed and their families.
page 146 note 3 Biographical detail comes in part from Mrs Lesser, in part from Adjutant-General Striker's Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War 1861–65 (Trenton, 1876).Google Scholar
page 146 note 4 Lonn, Ella, Foreigners in the Union Army and Navy (Baton Rouge, La., 1951), esp. pp. 67–79, 96–110, 573–85, 648–50Google Scholar, and appendix C.
page 147 note 1 Foster, John Y., New Jersey in the Rebellion (Newark, N.J., 1868), pp. 23–35, 64–5, 130 note, 775.Google Scholar For the background of this and earlier recruiting, see Basler, Roy P. (ed.), Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, N.J., 1953), vol. IV pp. 331–2, 353–4, 458–9Google Scholar, and Shannon, Fred A., Organization and Administration of the Union Army 1861–1865 (2 vols., Gloucester, Mass., 1965, 1st edn., Cleveland, 1928), vol. I., pp. 24, 35–6, 46–7; vol. 11 p. 277.Google Scholar
page 147 note 2 For the regiment's early days, see Atkinson, Joseph, The History of Newark, New Jersey (Newark, 1878), p. 262Google Scholar, and also footnote 2, p. 154, below. The 8th New Jersey's place in the Union order of battle, and a few reports on its activities, may be found in The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (130 vols., Washington, 1880–1901, cited hereafter as O.R.), first series, vol. XI, part 1, pp. 281, 466, 487–8, 759. 836–8; vol. XI, part II, pp. 26, 149–52, 158; vol. XII, part II, pp. 453–6, 461–3; vol. XII, part III, p. 586.Google Scholar
page 147 note 3 O.R., first series, vol. XI, part 1, pp. 470–2, 759Google Scholar; Foster, , pp. 753–4.Google Scholar
page 147 note 4 Apart from Bechler's own letters, see Newark Daily Advertiser, 3 June and 26 August 1861; Shannon, Fred A. (ed.), The Civil War Letters of Sergeant Onley Andrus (Urbana, Ill., 1947), pp. 17, 33, 48, 72 and noteGoogle Scholar; Castleman, , op. cit. p. 51Google Scholar; Commager, Henry S. (ed.), The Blue and the Gray (Indianapolis, 1950), pp. 438–9Google Scholar; Wiley, , op. cit. p. 371, note 22.Google Scholar
page 148 note 1 Atkinson, , op, cit., pp. 242–7Google Scholar; Foster, , op. cit., pp. 775, 789–93, 871Google Scholar (which states that, during the war, New Jersey paid out more than $2,00,000 to soldiers' families). When Bechler enlisted, the federal bounty of $100 could be paid only upon discharge. Later, an instalment came to be paid on enlistment (Shannon, , Andrus, p. 17).Google Scholar
page 148 note 2 The City Clerk of Newark has receipt-books with two entries of payments to Mrs Bechler, but other books have been lost. See also New Jersey Adjutant-General's Report for 1862; Newark Daily Advertiser, 27 05 1861Google Scholar; and, for background, Livermore, op. cit., chapter xxxi (hardships relieved by the Sanitary Commission) and Shannon, Union Army, vol. I, pp. 245–53.Google Scholar
page 148 note 3 The word is used in the sense advanced by Maurer, Friedrich in Volkssprache (Erlangen, 1933)Google Scholar and supported by Keller, Rudolf E., German Dialects (Manchester, 1961), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar Maurer uses the expression to refer to the extra-linguistic characteristics of folk language, i.e. the spoken or written language of peasants and working men of whatever area. The editors are indebted to Dr Frank Shaw of the University of Bristol for his aid in the precise identification of Bechler's dialect.
page 148 note 4 The translation uses commas wherever Bechler does, but nowhere attempts to improve his style by adding new ones. On the other hand, full-stops are supplied to ensure intelligible sentences.
page 149 note 1 ‘Dear Wife and Children: I got your letter of the 17th two days ago and I didn't like it. It seems to me that you have no regard for our hard suffering, otherwise you would not forget it and talk your nonsense. General McClellan is good enough for me. He is still a smart man. He doesn't want to get us slaughtered. I can't say that. Your silly talk makes me wish that General McClellan would set up two batteries of artillery out on Springfield Avenue and send you over a few bombshells. You haven't heard them whistle yet.’
page 150 note 1 A favourite word is ‘humbug’. Schulz, Hans, Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch (Strassburg, 1913)Google Scholar shows that the word was widely used in German after being borrowed from English c. 1840. Even though he did not take it from them, Bechler's comrades were likely to be using the word. Thus Castelman, op. cit. p. 17Google Scholar, writes: ‘When I witness… the conducting of affairs for political effect at home, I am almost inclined to believe our war a humbug’, and, page 28, he refers to the building up of skirmishes into great victories as ‘the greatest humbugs of our times’.
page 151 note 1 At Meridian Hill. ‘… we inarched out Pennsylvania Avenue to Fourteenth Street and out Fourteenth Street about two miles to Meridian Hill’, Small, Harold A. (ed.), The Road to Richmond: The Civil War Memoirs of Major Abner R. Small of the Sixteenth Maine Volunteers (Berkeley, 1929), p. 12.Google Scholar
page 152 note 1 Jacob Luithle.
page 152 note 2 This is not recorded in Miers, Earle S., Lincoln Day by Day (3 vols., Washington, 1960).Google Scholar Nor does Harper's Weekly include it in the abundant Civil War news; but the issue of 26 October 1861 shows a review of cavalry and artillery, the picture of which is reproduced in Constance Green, M., Washington, Village and Capital 1800–1878 (Princeton, 1962)Google Scholar, following page 236. If Bechler's review, like this one, was held on flat ground east of the Capitol, Lincoln could be said to have ‘gone back’ with the troops to the city; while his timetable would have been so little affected as to make necessary no formal record. McClellan's Own Story (New York, 1887)Google Scholar mentions only in the most general terms the many reviews he organized while training his army.
page 153 note 1 A first spelling of Marcus L. Ward, of the Newark Public Aid Committee.
page 153 note 2 Jacob Widmer, chosen by the Germans to work with the Public Aid Committee as visitor in Newark's 4th ward (Newark Daily Advertiser, 13 05 1861).Google Scholar Mrs Bechler's next letter spells his name correctly.
page 153 note 3 Commonly used by German-Americans to mean 50 cents, even long after the Civil War.
page 154 note 1 Despite the wording, this is not one of Bechler's sons: probably Minnerad was a neighbour in the same tenement.
page 154 note 2 By this time the 8th New Jersey were in Maryland. They were first stationed at Bryan-town east of Port Tobacco. Other elements of Hooker's division were on the Potomac shore, exchanging fire with Confederate batteries on headlands north of Budd's Ferry (upstream from the famous Aquia Landing, and running from near Evansport, Va., to Maryland south of Mattowoman Creek) - O.R., first series, vol. V, pp. 372–7, 387, and Atlas, vol. I, plate viii. Bechler's letter of 16 December, not printed here, shows that by that date his unit too were ‘directly opposite the enemy’.
page 154 note 3 Jübert was apparently the landlord.
page 154 note 4 Bechler's oldest boy, no more than 18 years of age.
page 154 note 5 Major William H. Henry, who served until August 1862 — Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey.
page 155 note 1 McClellan's army was now preparing to besiege Yorktown which, however, the Confederates evacuated early in May.
page 155 note 2 Doubtless the small two-man tent so widely used in the Union army. It was known as a ‘pup tent’.
page 156 note 1 After the fierce engagement before Williamsburg, which the enemy then abandoned, the Union forces were now on either side of the Chickahominy; and nine days later Hooker's division, on the south side, took part in the battle of Seven Pines.
page 156 note 2 Another spelling of Marcus L. Ward.
page 156 note 3 Not necessarily a sign of an important negotiation, but often of such simple needs as caring for wounded or burying dead without being fired upon.
page 157 note 1 A reference back to Fort Magruder, near Williamsburg, where, on 5 May, the 8th New Jersey had lost 36 men killed and had seen their colonel wounded (O.R., first series, vol. XI, part 1, pp. 487–8).
page 157 note 2 Benedict Prieth, publisher of the New Jersey Freie Zeitung. Mrs Bechler's letter of 1 December 1862, not printed here, praises him for his efforts to supply poor German housewives with money and coal.
page 157 note 3 The first reference to the mysterious injury. We do not possess his own account of what happened. When he describes his sufferings, in the unprinted letter of 9 September 1862, and when his wife refers to his foot later, the word krank (sick) is always used.
page 157 note 4 Bechler's attachment to the 6th Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery, cannot be dated precisely. It occurred between 22 May and very early June.
page 158 note 1 Written immediately after the Seven Days. The army was now at Harrison's Landing, watched by Confederate cavalry while Lee's main force refitted in camps nearer Richmond.
page 158 note 2 Captain John E. Beam, 2nd New Jersey Battery, was killed at Malvern Hill (O.R., first series, vol. XI, part II, p. 116).
page 158 note 3 Captain Bramhall's report stated: ‘Exposed as they had been for five days to almost uninterrupted fatigue, hardship, and privation, with little or no rest and almost nothing to eat, they were always ready to meet their duties.’ Of 138 men, only 108 were fit. The horses had suffered even more. (O.R., first series, vol. XI, part II, pp. 105–6.)
page 158 note 4 Another reference to Captain Beam.
page 159 note 1 Lincoln left Washington on 7 July, reached Fortress Monroe early on the 8th, and arrived at Harrison's Landing at 6.30 p.m., where, after receiving a salute from warships, he reviewed troops for three hours. Next day he had conferences with commanders, visited more troops, returned to Fortress Monroe, and left for Washington at 4.30 p.m. (Miers, , op. cit. vol. III, p. 126.)Google Scholar
page 159 note 2 The army had now withdrawn from the Peninsula. Bechler's letters of 1 and 2 September, not printed here, make it clear that, unlike the 8th New Jersey, his battery was not engaged at Bristoe Station or Second Bull Run.
page 159 note 3 Antietam was being fought that very day.
page 160 note 1 Germans were especially prominent in the artillery, where trained men were greatly in demand. See Kaufrnann, Wilhelm, Die Deutschen im Amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg (Munich and Berlin, 1911), p. 131.Google Scholar Lonn, op. cit., has many references to the exploits of German batteries.
page 161 note 1 Unlike men in work, Mrs Bechler could not offset rising wartime prices by winning higher wages.
page 161 note 2 Expressed as ‘drei shilling’ and ‘4 shilling’.
page 161 note 3 This marks one stage in his frequent movements from unit to hospital and back. Printed and unprinted letters show him in Wolf Street Hospital, Alexandria, Va., from 11 September. On 29 October he was with his battery, by 6 November in hospital, on the 11th with his battery, on the 14th in hospital again.
page 161 note 4 The war was moving south in Virginia, Fredericksburg being fought on 13 December.
page 162 note 1 The allusion is once more to Marcus L. Ward.