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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
committerNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+\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