Adolph Von Steinwehr
Early life
Steinwehr was born in Blankenburg, in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany, the son
of a military family. (His grandfather fought in the Prussian Army against
Napoleon.) He attended the Brunswick Military Academy and was commissioned a
lieutenant in the Brunswick Army in 1841. In 1847 he resigned his commission and
emigrated to the United States, settling in Alabama. He served as an engineer in
the U.S. Coast Survey, surveying the U.S.-Mexico border and Mobile Bay, Alabama,
but his desire to serve in a combat position in the Mexican-American War was
denied and he returned to Brunswick in 1849, but not before marrying 19-year-old
Florence Mary of Mobile, Alabama. He returned to the United States in 1854 and
purchased a farm near Wallingford, Connecticut. He later moved to New York
state.
Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Steinwehr raised a regiment, consisting primarily
of German immigrants, the 29th New York Infantry, which he commanded at the
First Battle of Bull Run. The regiment was in reserve during the battle, but
served an important screening role during the Union retreat. He was promoted to
brigadier general on October 12, 1861, and commanded the 2nd Brigade of Louis
Blenker's division of the Army of the Potomac. This brigade was moved into Maj.
Gen. John C. Frémont's Mountain Department on April 1, 1862, and it fought in
the Valley Campaign against Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Fremont's
command was expanded into an army corps, which was soon commanded by Maj. Gen.
Franz Sigel, another German immigrant. Steinwehr was given the 2nd Division in
that corps. It was assigned to the Army of Virginia, under Maj. Gen. John Pope,
and participated in the Northern Virginia Campaign, but had little role in the
Second Battle of Bull Run. Although the corps joined the Army of the Potomac,
the division did not fight at the Battle of Antietam or the Battle of
Fredericksburg.
The command of what was now called the XI Corps changed to Maj. Gen. Oliver O.
Howard in 1863, and Steinwehr continued to command the division in the Battle of
Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg. The corps was the victim of the
surprise flanking attack by Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville on May 2,
1863, and the overwhelming attack by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps on
the first day of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. At Chancellorsville, Steinwehr's
division had one brigade, that of Col Adolphus Buschbeck involved in resisting
Jackson's attack. At Gettysburg, when the corps was forced to retreat back
through the town to Cemetery Hill, Col Charles Coster took a brigade of
Steinwehr's division out to the edge of the town, where it sacrificed itself
buying time for the retreating soldiers of the other two divisions. These two
defeats seriously degraded the combat effectiveness of the XI Corps and
humiliated many of the German immigrant soldiers in the corps. Nevertheless,
Steinwehr was well thought of by his superiors. After Chancellorsville, General
Howard wrote that Steinwehr's bearing during the battle was "cool, collected and
judicious." Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams, a fellow division commander, described
him as a "remarkably intelligent and agreeable person."
In September 1863, two divisions of the XI Corps, those of Steinwehr and MG Carl
Schurz, were transferred to the Western Theater to help relieve the besieged
Union army in Chattanooga, becoming part of the Army of the Cumberland. They
served under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker in the Battle of Wauhatchie, where the
brigade of Col Orland Smith from Steinwehr's division distinguished itself.
Buschbeck's brigade was engaged alongside Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's command
at the Third Battle of Chattanooga. After that battle the XI Corps was combined
with the equally depleted XII Corps to form the new XX Corps. That corps fought
under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea,
but Steinwehr was essentially reorganized out of his job and he commanded no
more combat units during the war. He resigned his commission on July 3, 1865.
Postbellum life
After the war, Steinwehr was employed as a geographer and cartographer. He
returned to Connecticut to accept a professorship at Yale University. He moved
to Washington, D.C., then to Ohio, and returned to New York. He died in Buffalo,
New York, and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York. Steinwehr
was a prolific author, including A School Geography: Embracing a Mathematical,
Physical, and Political Descriptions of the Earth (published in 1870); co-author
of Primary Geography (1870) and An Elementary Treatise on Physical Geography
(1873); editor of The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States (1874). He is
memorialized by the prominent Steinwehr Avenue in the city of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
Compliments of Wikipedia
Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich, Baron von
Steinwehr was born on September 25, 1822, at Blankenburg in the Duchy of
Brunswick. His father was an officer in the service of the duke and his
grandfather had been a lieutenant general in the Prussian army. Young von
Steinwehr was reared to be a soldier and, after attending the Brunswick military
academy, became a lieutenant in the ducal service. In 1847 he took a year's
leave of absence, came to America, and endeavored to obtain a Regular Army
commission for service in the Mexican War. Failing in this, he obtained an
appointment in the coast survey and while in Mobile married into an Alabama
family. In 1849 he took his wife back to Brunswick but five years later returned
to the United States and settled on a farm near Wallingford, Connecticut. When
the Civil War broke out, he was appointed colonel of the 29 th New York, which
took part in the campaign of First Manassas (Bull Run) as a part of Blenker's
brigade of Miles's division but was in reserve at Centre-ville and not actively
engaged. He was assigned to the command of the 2nd Brigade of Blenker's
division, which was attached to John C. Freniont's Mountain Department in the
Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862; however, von Steinwehr is not shown to have
been present at Cross Keys. When Franz Sigel replaced Fremont in corps command,
after the organization of John Pope's Army of Virginia, von Steinwehr was given
the 2nd Division—one brigade of his division lost over four hundred men at
Second Manassas. At Chancellorsville and Gettysburg the corps, now called the XI
Corps of the Army of the Potomac, was commanded by Oliver O. Howard and was
routed at both battles, with the German elements therein taking most of the
blame. In point of fact, Von Steinwehr made an important contribution to what
little opposition was offered by the Federal right at Chancellorsville by
constructing earthworks which were held beyond the call of duty by Buschbeck's
brigade of his division. After the disaster at Chickamauga, the XI and XII Corps
were sent west. Von Steinwehr participated in clearing the Tennessee River and
in the battle of Chattanooga in command of his division. However, upon the
consolidation of the XI and XII Corps into the XX Corps the following April, he
was demoted to command of a brigade of the XIV Corps, while a man his junior
(Brigadier General John W. Geary) was given command of one of the four divisions
of the XX Corps. Apparently feeling that he had been overslaughed, he seems to
have declined the assignment, for he makes no further appearance in the Official
Records. His resignation was accepted July 3, 1865. After the war he became
quite celebrated as a geographer and cartographer, teaching at Yale, working for
the Federal government, and publishing a number of works. He resided
successively in New Haven, Washington, and Cincinnati. Von Steinwehr died in
Buffalo, New York, on February 25, 1877, and was buried in Albany Rural
Cemetery, Albany, New York.
Reference: Generals in Blue. Lives
of the Union Commanders by Ezra J. Warner. Louisiana State University Press.
Baton Rouge.