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Explanation: After the failed liberal/socialist (infighting was involved) revolutions of '48 in the German states, many of the revolutionaries decided to start a new life in the US. Naturally, their inclinations were very much anti-slavery, and for that reason German-Americans remained strongly abolitionist and pro-Union during the US Civil War, and hundreds of thousands of German-Americans volunteered for service to whip the secessionist slavers. It was said (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) that some German immigrants could speak no English, except enough to ask to serve under the highest-ranking revolutionary veteran in the Union army, General Sigel. “I wants to fight mit Sigel!”
Yet another example of immigrants improving the country!
Yes, but what about the brown illegals, hmmm? /s
Thanks, got me reading the Wikipedia article about the revolutions of 48.
Hundreds of thousands? Wow.
Almost a tenth of the Union Army. We owe them a great debt.
We tend to think of historical times as very low population, because the population HAS grown significantly since then. But the USA Army in the Civil War had about 2 million soldiers in total, with about 1 million serving concurrently at its peak enlistment. 100k Germans is a significant number but sounds more reasonable in context.
Me, who has forgotten everything from history class: Oh, shit! We had a failed revolution in 1948? Sick!
Django Unchained makes more sense now.
When I first saw the movie, I thought it was a really nice and accurate touch to have Schultz as an implicit 48er. The liberal nationalist obsession with traditional mythology, the strongly anti-slavery worldview, his very educated-middle-class former profession of dentistry, his age, and, of course, the fact that he was very obviously a German immigrant.
Why is it that anytime anything happens in the United States a bunch of Germans come over and teach us how to fight?
And more importantly, any Germans feel like getting into a scrap in America right now?
Funny enough, the Germans of the US Civil War brought much more enthusiasm for The Cause than actual military experience - their combat records during the war were pretty average, and the German people had a reputation in the US at the time as artisans and academics, not soldiers. And, considering that many of these revolutionaries’ military experience was limited to their year of failed revolution, it wasn’t an entirely unearned reputation; they largely were middle-class civilians who came to settle in the US.
We could use definitely some of that anti-aristocratic enthusiasm right now, though, I feel.
For God-knows-what-reason, the Union’s best troops were largely Midwesterners. Guess dying on a battlefield is less terrifying than being bored for another forty years in the corn fields.
I can actually answer that as an Ohioan. We were one of the most militantly pro freedom states and it was partly influenced by us being a state that bordered both a slave state and a free nation, as well as the fact that the fugitive slave act was perceived as an explicit attack against us and as overstepping. We still held a lot of pride in our state’s actions preceding and during the civil war at least when I was growing up. These days I see too many traitor’s rags flying though.
These days I see too many traitor’s rags flying though.
Fucking mood. I’m from Appalachia originally, and finding out as a teen that Appalachia was a Unionist stronghold even deep in the Confederacy both:
A. Filled me with immense pride
B. Confused me, because every fuckwad and his cousin flies the traitor’s rag when you get deep in the mountains nowadays
People yap about their heritage while disrespecting their actual heritage.
I live in WV. I wasn’t born here but it is definitely my home state. It’s so sad to see what we’ve become, with traitor flags everywhere outside the cities. We voted for Trump by the highest ratio of any state the first time. I don’t even want to look up the numbers for this time.
I grew up a literal stone’s throw from WV (at least if you had a strong enough arm). It’s a shame what the rise of right-wing radio in the 90s has done to the place.
Used to be another kind of union stronghold too.
Yep, you nailed it with right wing radio. I remember so much Rush is Right stuff from my childhood, and I barely remember a lot of my childhood.
My grandpas were both union men. One was a real piece of shit who told his piece of shit son, my father, to get the hell out of the state. They lived across the river from Ohio.
My decent grandpa on the other side and his fantastic example of a son, my uncle, were both union men. They lived in the southern coalfields. If you know about Jesco White, they lived about a mile from him until they got enough money to move to town.
Now it’s so hard to talk unions here. I wish we had a union. I know be the change and all, but I need this job badly and they would not hesitate to fire us all for organizing. My field is pretty specialized, to the point that we only employ two people who live in WV, and our competitors are struggling. They have no presence or contracts here anyway.
And for a few reasons, I’m not going to run away like my dad did. Not yet. At least it’s still easy to get armed up here, for now.
I will not take this slander laying down. 20th Maine #1! Stand fast ye are the boys of Maine!
Hey now, I said largely, not exclusively!
Four of the most revered units of the Union were cornfield boys (Michigan Brigade, Iron Brigade, 1st Minnesota, Lightning Brigade). They don’t get much, so we let them have this!
We are one and the same. Both major pro-union anti-slavery states that contributed hard to the Civil War, and also nowadays have way too many people flying the traitor flag.
This is Lemmy. You did not flawlessly consider all possibilities, and will now never recover
I misread that as PlayStation owners.
History ignoramus here. Which German revolutions exactly are we talking about?
The Revolutions of 1848 (very creatively named), a series of attempted revolutions that swept through Europe as part of the general 19th century wave of liberalism and socialism against the feudal and aristocratic institutions which still dominated the continent.
