Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-09-04
Germans in the West.

Under this caption the New York Tribune, of
Friday last, contains letter from Cincinnati,
giving sketches of some of our German Off
GERS" Among others the correspondent presents
what it terms ''the singular history of Major
WILLIcH." We reproduce it for two reasons; one
of which is to present the career of II somewhat
remarkable and eccentric man, and the other to
develop the under current--the sympathies which
have controlling influence and which animate
the sectional war, which has already assumed gi-
gantic proportions The reader must bear in
mind that the extract is from a Republican pa
per, which, of course, would not wilfully misrep-
resent the true issues involved in the contest.
The letter is dated Cincinnati, August 18th:
August Which bears in mis- veins the blood of
the royal family of Prussia; and is also relative
of Schermacher, with whom large portion of
his youth was passed. He was a youth of noble
appearance, and gave the earliest indications of
equally noble powers. He was educated at the
Government Military School of Berlin, and was
soldier in the Prussian army until 1876, in which
he was rising from grade to grade, when his
tive love OF Freedom mastered him, and lodged
him one morning of the last-named year in the
prison of Spandau He had Joined the German
Band who formed the Union for the liberation of
Germany. At Wesel he compelled to resign,
and he at once set himself to learn the carpenters
trade On one occasion the very regiment he had
commanded came, during their march, across
their former leader, with his plane and adze At
his trade he labored-a trade at which the worlds
Messiah once toed-but he never forgot the peo-
pie or their cause. Willich was gifted with
copious stream of natural cloquence-indeed,
his eloquence is at times inspired, and the work
ing men were overjoyed to find in him a leader.
He had already committed enough offenses to
have cost him his head a dozen times if he had
not been a defendant of the royal family,
when the Revolution of Baden broke out.
Now was he in his element his fine military
education, his first-rate commanding qualities,
his indomitable industry and persistence, his
devout passion for liberty, his imprisoned elo-
quence-all conspired to make this the leader of
that revolution. Even more than what Hecker
was in Southern Germany, Which was in the
North. Terribly he swept on. till the sad day
when the revolution swooned. Wilch was only
saved from execution by his noble connection.
He was sent to London. Here he was one of the
celebrated committee of Revolutionists, of which
Louis Blanc, Kossuth, Mazzini, and kinkel were
other members. From London he at length found
his way to New York, where he pursued his trade
as a carpenter. At length his education was ac
cidentally discovered and he given place
in the Office of the Coast Survey, where his work
was that of combining separate surveys into COM
prehensiye maps-such may be just now Civ
ing you, reader, your only complete knowledge of
Pensacola, and Charleston harbor, and the Chesa
peake. Judge Stolo, of Cincinnati, there found
him, and, the Republicaner of this city beng in
want of an editor, he invited Willich here. He
came, and made it very strong and extremely
radical paper His influence among the Germans
was very great. especially among the Turner'S, of
whom he was here, as in New FORK, the repre-
sentative man. He was always true to his vows
to freedom, and utterly fearless When Orsn
was executed, Which, who had known him init
mately, called together the friends of liberty, and
their funeral torchlght procession, with its trans
parencies was the most remarkable, it was the
largest, that ever took place in this city Thesame,
on even larger SCALE and amid many threats, took
place under his auspices when John Brown was exc
cuted. Willich's Grafton on this latter occasion,
in the German theater of this city, was among
the most eloquent it has ever been my lot to hear;
in it he prophesjed the events that are now com
ing to pass. declaring among other things that
"where slavery exists for any length of time,
every honest man must at length become John
Brown, and that the spot made sacred by his
blood would presently call upon it nation of
warriors to chant the watchword of liberty there !"
/ could not fail to remember this when reading
that the New York regiment, lately encamped on
the field where John Brown was hung, frequently
SathCt ctt vi ttC cpos anu sang sho o" fSt'''''
"John Brown Song
sJohn Browns body lies moudering in the grave,
His souls mArchng on
Major Willichs friends have not been eager to
have him advanced at once to high official posi-
tions for they knew that such powers and culture
as he has must command their owh place in the
action. He will serye up to his place, and obtain
it in good time. He is in the vigor of his man
hood and entirely absorbed in this war-all the
more because he believes the monster, slavery,
having thrown itself straight across the track
where the nation and its President have sworn
the Government must be engineered, must be cut
in pieces.