A new book about Indiana's only German Regiment has been published.

August Willich's Gallant Dutchmen:
Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry

Translated and edited by Joseph R. Reinhart

Civil War in the North Series
Kent State University Press
ISBN 0-87338-862-3
Cloth edition 224 pages
Retail Price $35

Organized by Colonel August Willich, a former Prussian army officer who led troops during the German Revolution of 1848, Indiana’s German 32nd Indiana Regiment fought in the Western Theater of the Civil War. The 32nd Indiana forged an enviable combat record on the battlefields at Rowlett's Station in Kentucky, at Shiloh, Stones River, and Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, and at Chickamauga and Pickett's Mill in Georgia. During three years of service, Indiana’s highly acclaimed German regiment suffered 171 killed in action and dead from wounds; many more were wounded but survived. At least 91 men died from diseases and other non-combat causes. This remarkable regiment suffered the fourth highest number of combat deaths of all the Hoosier State’s regiments and is listed in William F. Fox’s “Fighting 300 regiments” of the Union army.
The letters collected here originally appeared in German in wartime issues of German American newspapers. These rare documents connect the contemporary reader to the world of the patriotic immigrant soldier and his hard-fighting regiment, revealing personal motivations, wartime experiences, opinions, ethnic pride, and bravery, as this regiment engaged in some of the bitterest fighting in the West. These gripping letters also provide insight into the social, political, and cultural dimensions of the war and reveal the competing ethnic identities, nativism, and immigrant acculturation of the late-nineteenth-century America. The Germans of the 32nd Indiana proved themselves to be "Gallant Dutchmen" in the fight to save the Union. Gallant Dutchmen is a valuable addition to Civil War studies and will be welcomed by those interested in ethnic and immigration studies.

Joseph R. Reinhart is an independent scholar who has specialized in Civil War research. His recent publications include Two Germans in the Civil War: The Diary of John Daeuble and Letters of Gottfried Rentschler, 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry and A History of the 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry U.S.: The Boys Who Feared No Noise.
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