Customer Reviews

Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

German-Americans, during the Civil War, were proud of saying "I fights mit Sigel." Franz Sigel was a German officer, who fled to the United States after an unsuccessful insurrection, in which he played a role as an officer of a revolutionary force (in 1848). The purpose of the book is straightforward. In the author's words (page xix): "The purpose in this study is to understand Franz Sigel's life, to venture some explanations, and to provide a framework that would make sense to the reviewer.

The first chapter focuses on Sigel's background, from his birth in Baden to his retreat after the unsuccessful military venture into Switzerland. The crushing of the republican forces was an event that colored Sigel's later life. He was a "champion of idealism, liberalism, and democracy" (page 25), but failed to achieve those goals in Germany. These factors are part of the context for his declaring for the Union at the outset of the Civil War, after he arrived in the United States in 1852.

It is his performance in the Civil War that is central to people's views of Sigel. In early small-scale conflicts, he had some success in Missouri. Part of his importance was generating many German recruits flocking to the Union forces. His popularity among Germans and his ability to inspire new recruits into the Union Army helped him last as long as he did as a field commander. In his first major battles, Wilson's Creek, he convince the commanding general to try a Robert E. Lee-like division of forces to strike the larger Confederate Army from front and flank. At this stage of the war, this was essentially not very practical. The end result? A Union defeat and the death of General Nathaniel Lyon.

I won't be tedious, going over battle after battles in which Sigel fought. Two illustrate: At Pea Ridge (Or Elkhorn Tavern), he began slowly, but actually had one of his few really good days of the war on the second and final day of the battle. It may be that the commanding general, Samuel Curtis, was the kind of take-charge commander he needed to work under (he was never very good in independent command, as later events would show). At Second Manassas, his generalship (he served as a corps commander) was uninspired, as was normal. He was finally shelved.

However, historically, he was an interesting figure in that, despite his flaws as a commander, he did elevate "the status of Germans in an American society and by raising the national consciousness of Americans" (page 233). Overall, the book is pretty well written, although sometimes matters might be more clearly explicated. Nonetheless, to get a better understanding of an important Union general, this is a good volume.

A very enjoyable look at one of the greatest German Americans involved with the Civil War. Tracks his early days to his time as a commander in the Union Army. Engle provides the reader with a new insight into Sigel's life, with a fresh style that never disappoints. A book that is long over due and finally pays tribute to a forgotten figure of the Civil War. A great addition to a Civil War collection, especially if you are interested in Civil War biographies.

Engle's description of Sigel's controversial Civil War career is sketchy, lacking in detail. We don't learn, for instance, why the German-born general was transferred East in 1862 (Sigel, among other things, felt slighted by General S. R. Curtis's official report on the battle of Pea Ridge); there's virtually nothing on his threatened resignation in the autumn of the same year, or the infighting among the ethnic generals (Schurz, Stahel, v. Steinwehr) in Sigel's Reserve Grand Division regarding the latter's succession as head of the 11th Corps.

On 15 February 1863, Sigel wrote to his wife: "It is certainly very hard to have to bear neglect, but when this war is over, people will ask very little whether this or that West Pointer played me tricks, but they will ask what I have accomplished. The obstacles that stood in my way, and against which I have had to fight at all times, and which I have often overcome, will only make it easier the better to assess what I have achieved."

If you are looking for such quotations, you are looking in vain. Engle's Sigel remains a dim and distant figure...