Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-03-20
The GermanLoyalIsts.

The arrest of the German Unionists 10
Richmond recalls, what the country can
never forget, the loyal and patriotic stand
taken Throughout the country during this
revolution by our German fellow citizens
Some of the first militia regiments that
marched from this city to save the capital
were largely composed OF Germans In
the West, it is not too much to say that the
German regiments, organized with such
patriotic ardor in st. Louis and the vine
districts of the Southwestern counties,
saved the State. Without the least hesita.
tion or wavering they offered up themselves
and their means in the cause of Freedom
and the Republic. Mauy,of their members
were living in remote rural situations, sur
rounded by secessionists: but regardless of
all danger they pressed forward to fight for
the good cause. Their houses were sack
ed and their pretty farms wasted, some-
times their families were murdered. but this
did not deter these patriotic men. Itmust
be remembered, also that these German
regiments with which Lyon, and Sigel, aud
Fremont made such rapid marches and
dashiug attacks, were by no means raw
militia. Many of them had served in Eu-
ropean wars; all had been thoroughly
drilled in tile National service at home.
The well-knoWn German regiment in Ohio
the Ninth-which decided by brilliant
baYonet-charge, the battle of Mill Springs,
and distinguished itself Ia SO many skir-
mishes, was composed in part of old, 4ex-
perieuced soldiers, who had seen service,
and for the rest, ofwell-drilleds Prus-
SLAMS :iasu ,f-{ NJ sscfi si64f
What the fighting qualities of the Prus-
SLAMS are need hardly be told. Who that
remembers the narrative of their heroic
campaign in 1912, against Napoleon, or
such battles as that of Lutzen, where
young volunteers fought against the Veter-
ans OF France, can doubt their value to any
cause, where their feelings are engaged as
we'll as their arms. FlG 81,
The German element Of our population,
both in the North aud South, must and al!
ways will be loyal. II is SO In Western
Texas, even II for the time crushed down
by despotiC power. It is equally SO in
New Orleans and in Richmond. There is
au evident reason for this. More than any
American canipossibly appreciate, the SUBJ
jects,of the different States of the Father
land know the value of national unity,
They have suffered too many evils from the
nun erous subdivisions and separate Cow
ernmeuts of Germany, to desire, for any
cause, theabreaking mp of the American
Untou. !Then the Germans .eof America
have abandoned home and friends for the
sake of principle, even liberty. Seeking
arefuge aud a free country here, they find
themselves again in the old contest which
has so long been waging in Europe-the
struggle between privileged, aristocracy
and those who defend the rights of man.
For. a German exile a soldier of freedom,
democrat, fired by the wrongs done in ali
ages by the powerful on the weak-for
such afonet to be the friend of sIave-mas-
terror the supporter of this disgusting ar
istocracyiO f3the South, is simply impossi-
BILE. No; the German is, by necessity, q
loyal upholder of the Union, aud an eter.
nal enemy of2slaVery and a slave COnfed-
eraoy. The battle-fields of Missouri,
stained with German blood; the bIaekened
homesteadsi and vineyards; the loyalty
amid treason and Oppression ut the South,
witness to this.l Wherever the Germans
are settled in the slave districts, there we
may be sure that under whatever present
appearances and DISCUSSES, we shall fiud
whensthe Union armies come, stauneh aud
faithful friends of the Republic. psi ;9a n
These experiences of the noble patriot
ism Of our foreigu-born citizens, during
this revolution, have scattered many. pre-.
sumptuons theories, and have strenRthened
Immensely the popular confidence iniour