. The Dispatch Volume 38, Number 5 May 2021 . General August Willich's quarters near Lookout Mountain, Tennessee Drawing shows General Willich, with his pet raccoon on his shoulder, talking with another officer near a campfire and soldiers relaxing near tents. By Adolph Metzner. From the Library of Congress https://lccn.loc.gov/2017647007 CDCWRT May 2021 man who could also be stubborn, MAY MEETING impulsive, and even foolhardy—risking his life unnecessarily in the face of Friday, May 14, 2021 overwhelming odds. Dave earned his B.A. in political VIRTUAL MEETING science and his M.A. in history at the USING ZOOM University of Massachusetts. He lives with his wife Jeanne and his books in DAVID DIXON Santa Barbara, California. General Willich: Warrior for Dave will randomly select three Social Justice participants from the Zoom presentation to receive a copy of his Business Meeting 7:00 p.m. book, Radical Warrior: August Willich's Presentation 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General. Join us on Zoom to be Questions & Answers 8:00 – 8:30 p.m. entered in the drawing. An estimated 200,000 men of German birth enlisted in the Union Army during ZOOM DIRECTIONS the Civil War, far more than any other contemporary foreign-born population. 1) Download Zoom program from the One of these, Prussian Army officer Internet at https://zoom.us/download Johann August Ernst von Willich, led a 2) Once in Zoom, create a username remarkable life of integrity, and password OR log in through other commitment to a cause, and interaction methods such as your Facebook with leading lights of the nineteenth account username and password. century. After resigning from the Prussian Army due to his republican 3) On the Zoom main page, you will see beliefs, Willich led armed insurrections four icons. To join a scheduled during the revolutions of 1848–49, with meeting, click “Join” in the upper right Friedrich Engels as his aide-de-camp. side. Enter the meeting ID number and Ever committed to the goal of universal passcode. Meeting ID: 876 3245 3907 human rights, he once dueled a disciple of Karl Marx—whom he 4) Your computer camera will turn on. A thought too conservative. Willich pop-up box appears and asks if you emigrated to the United States in 1853, want to join with computer audio. Click eventually making his way to the blue “Join” icon. Cincinnati, where he served as editor of the daily labor newspaper the 5) Click the “mute” button seen on the Cincinnati Republican. left side of the bottom black bar so a slash appears across the microphone. With exhaustive research in both English and German language sources, Please keep your microphone MUTED author David T. Dixon chronicles the during the presentation to eliminate life of this ingenious military leader—a interruptions of background noise. CDCWRT May 2021 UPCOMING EVENTS: struggle for Italian Reunification and the American Civil War in a similar June 11: Bruce Mowday will present global context, arguing that both “Three Views of Gettysburg” as a Zoom conflicts resulted in part due to the presentation accumulation of social and economic power in the rural elites in both Italy September 10: Ron Kirkwood returns and the United States. In southern Italy to speak on “Women to the Rescue at in particular, wealthy landowners Spangler.” We would like to have this resisted ceding power to a centralized as an in-person presentation, but we government. Ultimately, however, the will make that decision closer to the “exploited agrarian masses” in Italy, date. rebelled against that concentration of power. As Dal Lago frames it, the October 8: topic to be finalized struggle in Italy and the outbreak of war in America became parallel instances of “social revolution.” THANK YOU, MEMBERS Both Dixon and Dal Lago force us to examine the American Civil War from The Round Table wishes to thank Matt an Atlantic perspective that accounts George for his donation to the for the related struggle of the American Preservation fund. enslaved and landless European peasants. Willich saw this connection clearly. As Dixon writes, Willich believed that, “Whether worker A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE exploitation was happening on the by Nick Thony plantation or on the factory floor, the root of this injustice was the same.” August Willich, a “Prussian nobleman turned radical socialist,” became an It is not surprising that Willich implausible American hero. His sympathized with Thomas Paine, unlikely life, skillfully chronicled in calling the transatlantic revolutionary David Dixon’s latest work, Radical the “embodiment of patriotism and free Warrior, underscores the connections thought.” Paine, like Willich, between the American Civil War and participated in more than one the mid-nineteenth-century European revolution, arriving in the colonies just revolutions Willich played a primary in time to convince thousands of role in. As Dixon writes, for Willich, Americans to pursue independence “the call to arms in 1848 and 1861 were with his popular missive Common virtually identical.” However, instead of Sense, and later becoming a central battling the monarchy, as Willich did in figure in the French Revolution. Like Europe, the struggle in America was to Willich who came later, Paine identified displace a “traitorous slave a global struggle. “Every spot of the aristocracy.” old world is overrun with oppression,” Paine wrote in Rights of Man. Enrico Dal Lago’s book, Civil War and “Freedom hath been hunted round the the Agrarian Masses, places the globe.” CDCWRT May 2021 BOARD UPDATES First will be three regular Civil War questions. Email your answers to The Executive Board met via Zoom on [email protected] All responders April 19. Matt George, our Program with correct answers to the first three Chair, has speakers scheduled through questions will receive a book. the fall of 2021. We hope that by then th we can have in-person meetings. 1) What was the nickname of the 124 Decisions regarding a summer picnic New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment? will be made closer to the summer and (hint: think of the N. Y. county they based on health guidelines at that time. were from) Treasurer Steve Muller reported that 2) The Colonel of this regiment, who the Preservation Account has rode a white horse, was killed at $3,037.00 The Operating Account has Gettysburg. Who was he? $4,027.68 in it. Thank you to all the 3) What were the four regiments in members who renewed their Strong Vincent’s brigade at membership this year. Gettysburg? The Board has been pleased with the Now some special trivia questions for number of people who join our Zoom fun. Today we live in divided times. presentation meetings or watch the The following two quotes (one long, recorded video on our Facebook page. one short) are by two literary people The numbers of “likes” and who differ in gender, age, race and engagements have increased over the historical period. The common theme years. Our reach has grown as is hope. Who are they? speakers and audience members share videos and posts with their friends. Quote 1: “I say, the evolution of the United States...coincident with these The Board also discussed the thoughts and problems, and their possibility of creating a Civil War vitality and amplitude, and winding display in a community location, such steadily through the future, affords the as a library or historical society. We greatest moral and political work in all will share details once they are the so-far progress of Humanity. And finalized. Anyone interested in helping fortunately, today, after the experience can contact the Board at our email and warnings of a hundred years, we address on the back of the newsletter: can pause and consider and provide [email protected] for these problems, under more propitious circumstances, and new and native lights, and precious even if BUFORD’S VIEW costly experiences, - with more political and material advantages to by Matt George illumine and solve them – than were ever hitherto possessed by a nation. Since we did not have any trivia ...The summing-up of the tremendous questions last month, this milestone moral and military perturbations of edition of Buford’s View (#50) will be 1861-’65, and their results…is that they devoted to Civil War and related trivia. CDCWRT May 2021 all now launch The United States forth, In 1854 in N.Y.C. (one hundred years consistently with the entirety of before Rosa Parks), a young African Civilization and Humanity, and in main American woman named Elizabeth sort the representative of them, leading Jennings Graham was physically the van, leading the fleet of the Modern thrown off a horse drawn street car by and Democratic, on the sea and the conductor and a policeman voyages of the Future. …And the real because of the color of her skin. She history of the United States – starting sued. Who was the young lawyer who from that great convulsive struggle for took her case and won? What did he Unity, triumphantly concluded, …after become many years later? Where is he all – is only to be written at the remove buried? What was his job during the of hundreds, perhaps a thousand years Civil War? hence.” Lastly it saddens me to report the Quote 2: “We will rebuild, reconcile, passing of two old friends. Ray and recover, Wemple, a former member, was an In Every known nook of our nature expert and lecturer on the Signal Corps and Lowe’s balloons during the Civil In every corner of our country, War. Ray died on April 5. Mary Our people, diverse and dutiful, Heisinger from Greenville also died on April 5.