TeX 1995 July/TeX CD-ROM July 1995 (Disc 1)(Walnut Creek)(1995).ISO/macros/plain/contrib/samples/immig.tex

Text File | 1989-11-22 | 20.1 KB | 340 lines

\magnification=1095
\count0=0
\count100=0
\def\futnot#1{\advance\count100 by1\footnote{${}^{\number\count100}$}{#1}}
\nopagenumbers
\headline{\ifnum\count0>1\rm Hawkins, E. Glenn\hfil Page \folio\else\hss\fi}
\footline{\ifnum\count0=1\hss\rm\folio\hss\fi}
\vfill
\centerline{\bf The German Immigrants in Texas}
\centerline{\bf and the Civil War}
\vfill
\centerline{\bf Term Paper}
\centerline{\bf in}
\centerline{\bf History 370}
\vfill
\centerline{by}
\centerline{\bf Eldon Glenn Hawkins}
\centerline{\bf November 29, 1983}
\vfill
\eject
\bigskip
\centerline{\bf German Immigrants in Texas}
\centerline{\bf and the Civil War}
\medskip
The story of the German immigrants in Texas is a long and colorful one,
but perhaps the most interesting parts of their history concern
the Germans' attitudes and opinions on the vital questions that were destined
to break up what was once a solid Union.  Fleeing political and economic
persecution at home in Europe, the German immigrant of the
first half of the nineteenth centure came to America to find the freedom
he could not obtain at home.  The freedom he found here in the United States
gave many of his kind a deep love for the Union, and local prejudices
and misjudgements isolated the German settler from most of his
fellow Texans to produce one of the strongest centers of Unionist
activity in the South during the Civil War.

A key link in understanding the German immigrant's views on slavery,
secession, and the Union is to know the reasons that they left their
homeland, and what they expected life to be like in their new home.
The main reasons that so many Germans left the German Confederation in
the early part of the nineteenth century had to do with two major social
conditions existant in Germany and most of Europe at the time.  The first
of these was overpopulation.\futnot{Rudolph L. Biesele,
{\it The History
of the German Settlements in Texas (1831-1861)\/} (Austin, Texas:  Von
Boeckmann-Jones Company, 1930), 2.}  The effects of this problem were many
and varied.  Basically, there were far too many people trying to use the
same resources, both natural and man-made, at the same time.  The result was
a lower standard of living for most Germans, with the inevitably lesser
political and social clout that accompanies such a lifestyle.  This problem
of too many people trying to slice the economic pie into too many pieces
was further aggravated by the fact that there was a very unequal
distribution of wealth among Germans, which amounted to a few people
taking huge slices of an already inadequate economic pie and leaving
the crumbs for the masses to pick up.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 4.}

In addition to these two basic social problems, there were a couple of
important forms of economic hardships in Germany in the first half
of the nineteenth century.  The industrialization of the Rhine region
reinforced the ``rich-get-richer'' syndrome mentioned above---such was
the case in almost all nations at the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 7.}  The average worker was underpaid,
and one cannot blame him for looking
at emigration as a way to better his life.  Also, in order to pay for
the relatively recent Napoleonic wars, the tax rate in the various
German states was monstrous.  It was obviously very difficult to maintain
a decent standard of living while existing under an enormous tax burden.
In many states, the expensive habits of certain German princes made tax
rates even higher, much to the displeasure of their subjects.\futnot
{{\it Ibid.}, 8.}

So, by the early 1830's, the climate in Germany was perfect for emigration.
The common use of the word {\it Europamuede} (Europe weary) indicated a
desire to leave, and also implied that a land existed where one could be
free.  This land was America to many Germans, because of the glowing
reports sent home by individuals who had already crossed the Atlantic.
Newspaper reports about immigrants were widespread, and personal letters
from America were passed throughout Germany.  And most importantly, many
travel books were written in the 1820's and 1830's, with one especially
having an important effect on German immigration.\futnot
{Gilbert Giddings
Benjamin, {\it The Germans in Texas---A Study in Immigration} (Austin, Texas:
Jenkins Publishing Company, 1974), 4.}

Gottfried Duden went to Missouri in 1824, spent four years there, and
upon returning to Germany wrote a book about his experiences that was
published in 1829.  It was widely read throughout Southwest Germany,
and, combined with the economic conditions already discussed, helped start
the first big influx of Germans into America in 1831.  The economic woes of
Germany, combined with the excitement generated by books like Dudens'
instigated one of the largest immigration movements ever aimed at America,
with a large number coming to Texas.\futnot{Biesele, 3, (footnote).}

The final reason many Germans chose America and Texas began to take effect
in the early 1830's, with the abortive revolutions aimed at uniting the
German people into one state, and reached a high point in 1848 and 1849.
The primary motivation for this different set of immigrants was political
freedom.  These Germans were generally better educated than those simply
wanting a better livelihood, and as a result there is more written about
this area.\futnot{Benjamin, 7.}  However, it is sufficient to say
that in the case of these immigrants, they were fleeing punishment for
revolutionary activities, the loss of freedom due to offical crackdowns,
and/or the general unrest in Europe during this time.  It is important
to note here that there is not one single ``correct'' cause for the massive
numbers of Germans that came to America during the 1830's and 1840's.  Some
came to find political freedom, some came for economic freedom, and some
because of concerns beyond the scope of this report.  What one needs to
understand about this is that life in Germany became unbearable for many,
and when they decided to leave they came to the United States because of
the fact that America by then had traditionally become the ``promised land''
to those unsatisfied with life at home.

What exactly did the immigrants expect to find in America?  Quite frankly,
a ``land flowing with milk and honey''.  Several Germans heard of free
land being given away, and reports of low taxes and high wages made America
sound very good, indeed, with Texas being mentioned quite frequently as the
place to go.  The second, more intelligent group saw America as a land that
would allow them to express themselves in whatever fashion they chose.\futnot
{Biesele, 5-8.}  Basically, Germans saw in America a chance to be truly
free.  This explains partly their behavior in Texas during the secession crisis
and in the early part of the Civil War.  In their new-found homeland, Germans
were very much aware of the personal and political rights, and it was this
awareness, among other things, that helped lead the Texas Germans to their
clashes with Confederate authorities.

The Germans who arrived in Texas began doing so in large numbers about 1846.
They first settled in Austin, Colorado, Fayette, and Washington counties,
but later travelled westward and settled also in Comal, Gillespie, and
other assorted counties nearby.  They quickly setled into the ``American way''
of agriculture and capitalism, raising crops to sell to merchants.\futnot
{Walter Louis Buenger, Jr., ``Stilling the Voice of Reason---Texans and
the Union, 1854-1861'' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Rice University, 1979), 128.}

Although they embraced their new found freedom, the German Texans were still
somewhat clannish.  They spoke German, married other Germans, and formed their
own churches.  This habit made for a few problems in the relationships between
the Americans in Texas and the immigrants.

Despite this aloof attitude on the part of many Germans, they were quick to
adopt a ``value system based on $\ldots$ individual democracy $\ldots$ and
slavery''.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 130.}  To men and women weary of
suppression in their homeland the Democratic party, with its emphasis on
expansion of the suffrage and the right of a man to be individualistic, was
the obvious choice politically.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 132.}  They were
assisted in making this decision of party alignment by the actions of the
Know-Nothing party's nativistic rantings.

The Know-Nothings were the cause of the start of trouble between the Germans
and the Americans in Texas.  Imported from out-of-state in the 1850's, the
Know-Nothings managed to do very well in Texas in the 1854-1855 elections.
A sizeable minority (18\%) of the population in Texas were foreigners then,
so the nativist plank in the Know-Nothing platform appealed to many Texans
inclined towards prejudice against foreigners.\futnot{{\it Ibid.},
47.}  Unfortunately for the Germans, in 1854, at the height of the Know-Nothing
movement, a group of German intellectuals devised at a convention in San
Antonio a platform that advocated the gradual elimination of slavery in the
South.\futnot{Benjamin, 85-87.}  Because sentiment of this kind
was anathema to most ``good'' Southerners, it was immediately and erroneously
assumed by the Americans that the Germans were abolitionists.  Of course,
the Know-Nothing rags led the way in attacking the Germans.  Many letters
were written by indignant immigrants apologizing to the Americans and
begging them to realize that the San Antonio platform did not represent
the opinion of all Germans.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 47.}  It is
certain that the Germans, as relatively new inhabitants of Texas, felt that
it was none of their business to interfere in matters that in their minds
did not concern them.

For slavery was indeed a matter that did not involve the Germans directly.
While it was true that most Germans regarded the idea of human bondage as
repungnant, many still remained apathetic towards the issue.\futnot
{Benjamin, 85-87.}  If a German had an opinion at all, they probably regarded
it as the states' business, and as such, the federal government could not
compel the states whether or not slavery was legal.\futnot{Biesele,
{\it German Settlements in Texas}, 196.}  Most Germans were Democrats fully
willing to let the Southerners keep their slaves, even if they did disagree
about the moral implications amongst themselves.  This ambivalent attitude
towards slavery was not understood by the Americans in Texas at the time,
unfortunately.

The uproar over the San Antonio platform would have died down without doing
any irreparable damage to relations between the immigrants and the Americans
if it were not for a militant German abolitionist (one of a very few),
Dr.~Adolf Douai, who, as editor of the San Antonio {\it Zeitung}, kept on
calling for abolition in his paper.  Because of this man's ceaseless agitating,
with the resulting condemnation from the Know-Nothings and other Americans, he
is accused of singlehandedly giving the Germans in Texas the undeserved title
of abolitionist.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 202-203.}

This constant bickering over the slavery question only served to widen the
rift between the Germans in Texas and their American counterparts.  What
began as mere annoyance at the aloof behavior of one group of people all of
a sudden became much bigger and more ominous.  The stage was set for the
secession struggle and the resulting events during the Civil War in Texas.

Despite some real apathy on the slavery issue, most Germans had definite
ideas about secession.  There were basically three groups of ideas on
secession in the German community.  These three different sets of opinions
were caused by the degree to which the individual had been acclimated into
Southern society.  Isolation, such as that which occurred on the Texas
frontier, inspired rather strong Unionist feelings among Germans who had to
rely upon the U.S. Army for protection against the Indians.  Those on the
frontier were more idealistic also, as they were representatives of the
second, more thoughtful group of immigrants to come to Texas.  Full of
revolutionary ardor left over from the 1848 revolutions in Germany, they
were very much against slavery and this along with their dependence on the
Army for protection made them strong Unionists.\futnot{Bueger,
195-166.}

The group at the opposite end of the spectrum were highly integrated into
the white southern political and economic ideals in Texas.  These men
disliked the Know-Nothings (now largely defunct), remained intensely
loyal to the states' Democratic party, and were more ``localistic than
nationalistic'';\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 165.} that is, they were
not really in favor of secession, but if it occurred they would go along
with it.

Caught in the middle was the group that shared mainly Texas values, was
not really active in the Democratic party, and as a result was deeply
committed to the Union.  But although this group campaigned most actively
against secession, when Texas seceded, they went with her.\futnot
{{\it Ibid.}, 166.}

At first glance, there seems to be a serious contradiction in the above
statements that the Germans were strong Unionists, and yet they generally
went with the state when she seceded.  This contradiction in reality does
not exist.  It is true that the Germans loved the Union; it had given them
freedoms hitherto undreamed of, and had far surpassed their wildest
expectations in the quality of life they had obtained in America.  But
they still felt a bit isolated from the rest of the Texans, and there
was also the feeling that they were still newcomers to Texas and that
they should not meddle in the Americans' affairs.  And finally, by 1859,
most of the long-time German immigrants were, despite their own doubts,
Texans.  As has been previously discussed, they readily adopted American,
and particularly Southern, politics and ideology.  But while the Germans
were willing to go along with secession if the rest of Texas wanted it,
they as a rule did not support the Confederacy, and most were firmly opposed
to the idea of serving in the Confederate armed forces.  This desire to be
let alone by the Confederacy caused severe problems with the new Confederate
government.

Unionist activities of the Germans in Texas during the Civil War can be
divided into two parts---those performed by the militant Unionist Germans
on the Texas frontier in Gillespie and surrounding counties, and those
that occurred in the less militant German counties in the interior,
centering around Fayette county.

The activity around Fayette country and adjoining counties consisted
mainly of illegal anti-rebel meetings and the recruiting of stay-at-home
companies of the state militia.  According to Elliot, ``Unionist meetings
were frequent, enthusiastic, and well attended $\ldots$ Speeches were
vehement, and the press was caustic in branding as traitors those who would
divide the Union''.\futnot{Claude Elliot, ``Union Sentiment in
Texas, 1861-1865'', {\it Southwestern Historical Quarterly}, L (April, 1947),
470.}  Stay-at-home companies were a very clever way that the Unionists of
the area, expecially Fayette county, kept the men from having to serve in the
Confederate army.  As soon as the war started, the men rushed to join state
militia and the state troops.  Twenty-four companies existed in Fayette by
1861, but only 150 men had been sent into the Confederate army, much to the
embarrassment and chagrin of patriotic rebels and even mild Unionists.\futnot
{{\it Ibid.}, 470-471.}

The Conscription Act of 1862 set off the already boiling Union sentiment and
nearly caused a rebellion.  The enrolling officer of Austin county, A.~J. Bell,
reported that resistance to the draft was being seriously considered in several
communities, and he asked for help from other forces in the area.  A few weeks
later Bell reported that the counties were in open rebellion against the
Confederate government.  Companies of infantry and cavalry were even drilled
in preparation for any possible fighting.  In order to control a rapidly
deteriorating situation, martial law was declared and troops were sent in to
calm things down.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 470-471.}  Open resistance
to Confederate rule in Central Texas then came to an end, for all practical
purposes.

In Gillespie and neighboring counties on the western frontier, however, things
were not just different, but also a lot more violent.  Most of the Unionist
activity in this area was centered in Gillespie county, with the aid, if
needed, of surrounding German dominated counties.  The first man chosen as
enrolling officer for Gillespie country was Jack Kuechler, a staunch Unionist.
He proceeded to enroll only those citizens who were loyal to the United States,
and would not even talk with those who wanted to join the Confederate
army.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 464.}  This was about as far as opposition
went, until General P.~O. Hebert declared martial law in Texas in March, 1862.

This declaration required that all alien males over sixteen must take an oath
of allegiance to the state and the Confederacy.  Immediately, Unionist
sentiment flared among the German settlements and the Union Loyal League
(organized in June, 1861) held a meeting.  Three companies were formed,
with Fritz Tegener chosen as major, and then they dispersed.  These companies
were to protect against maurading Indians, but they were accused of trying
to duck Confederate service.

When Governor Frances~R. Lubbock heard of the disturbance, he sent Captain
James Duff and two compnies of partisan rangers to Fredericksburg.  Upon
arriving, Duff declared martial law (again) in Gillespie and part of Kerr
county.  He then gave the people six days to come to him and take the oath
of allegiance.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 463.}  During his stay, Duff
behaved in an extremely poor fashion, arresting and jailing at will anyone
he or his troops suspected of ``treason''.  He also shot and hung quite a
few people, too.\futnot{Robert W. Shook, ``The Battle of the Nueces,
August 10, 1862'', {\it Southwestern Historical Quarterly}, LXVI, (July, 1962),
34.}

Because of these persecutions, several Germans decided to leave Texas.  Some
left for New Orleans to serve in the First Texas Cavalry Regiment (Union)
organized by Benjamin~F. Butler.  Others decided to cross the Rio Grande and
then sail to New Orleans and meet the Federals that way.  So on August 1, 1862,
about eighty men assembled at a point just west of Kerrville, with the
intention of crossing into Mexico.  Approximately sixty men eventually left
for Mexico sometime on either the first or second of August.  Upon learning
of this expedition, Duff, back in San Antonio by now, send Lieutenent C.~D.
McRae to pursue and break them up.  After seven days of pursuit, McRae caught
up with the Unionists on the West Fork of the Nueces River.  The Confederates
launched an attack in the early morning of August 10, 1862.  Thirty-two
Unionists were killed and several wounded, while McRae lost two men with
eighteen wounded.  McRae has been accused of murdering nine wounded survivors,
and of leaving the dead unburied, and there is some evidence to support
this.\futnot{{\it Ibid.}, 36-41.}

After this ``Battle of the Nueces'', Duff returned to Gillespie county,
where he proceeded to hang fifty ``traitors'' and kill several ``bushwackers''
as well.\futnot{Elliot, 466.}  After this, most blatant opposition
to the Confederacy faded away, with the Germans on the frontier merely content
to catch word of Union victories at the front and quietly await the end of the
Confederacy.

The Germans in Texas, then, underwent several hardships during the Civil War
because of the misunderstandings between them and the Americans that occurred
prior to the war.  The immigrants' own reticence, their somewhat complex views
on slavery, secession, and their relationship with the Union, as well as the
machinations of the Know-Nothings all stamped the Germans as standoffish,
abolitionist foreigners of questionable loyalty to the beloved Confederacy.
This image did not help when the Confederate government began making demands
on the Germans that the immigrants were not prepared to meet.  When one stops
to think of the enormity of the questions that faced the Germans on their
arrival in Texas, it is amazing that they adapted so well and so quickly to
their new home, despite the initial difficulties facing them.  That they did
so says much in their credit, and they set a fine example of courage in the
face of hardship that one must admire even today.
\bye