Osterhaus, Peter J. b. January 4, 1823; Coblenz (Westphalia), Prussia d. January 2, 1917; Coblenz (Westphalia), Prussia
One of five German Americans to reach the rank of major general in the American Civil War. Osterhaus served briefly in the Landswehr before joining the 1848 uprisings, serving with the largest revolutionary army in Baden.
Following the failed revolution, Osterhaus was forced to flee to the United States in 1849, where he finally settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Working as a merchant and postmaster, Oster- haus engaged in state and national politics, supported the Republican Party, and became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln.Following Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion of the South (April 24, 1861), Osterhaus mustered into the U.S. Army, commanding Company A, 2nd Missouri Volunteer Infantry. He fought with this primarily German American unit at Wilson’s Creek in August 1861 through March 1862 at the Battle of Pea Ridge, where his battlefield abilities led to his promotion to the rank of colonel of the 12th Missouri Infantry. The following month Osterhaus was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
For much of the rest of the year, Os- terhaus remained on sick leave due to diarrhea and pleurisy, and returned to active duty after being reassigned to Ulysses S. Grant’s army in Tennessee. Osterhaus commanded the 9th Division of Major General John McClernand’s XIII Corps at the battles of Arkansas Post, Port Gibson, and Jackson, Mississippi. On May 16, 1863, he led his unit in the attack at Champion’s Hill east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, followed by the Battle of Big Black River. Os- terhaus received his only wound during the entire war at this last engagement.
Following the Vicksburg campaign, Osterhaus was given command of the 1st Division, XV Corps under William T. Sherman as the army transferred its base of operations to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in November 1863. He led his division (under overall temporary command of Joseph Hooker) in what became known as the “Battle above the Clouds” on November 24, 1863, and on the following day participated in driving Confederate forces off Missionary Ridge. Osterhaus and the 1st Division rejoined the XV Corps to take part in the drive toward Atlanta, which culminated in the capture of that city in September 1864 and his promotion to the rank of major general.
Following the capture of Atlanta, Osterhaus took part in Sherman’s March to the Sea, leading to the capture of Savannah, Georgia, in December 1864.Though Osterhaus continued with Sherman’s army into North and South Carolina and even briefly commanded the XV Corps, he spent the last few months of the war serving as chief of staff
General Peter J. Osterhaus was one of five German Americans to reach the rank of major general in the American Civil War. (Library of Congress) under General Edward S. Canby in New Orleans, Louisiana. Canby appointed Osterhaus commander of the Military District of Mississippi, a position he held until he was mustered out of service in February 1866.
After the war, Osterhaus served as U.S. consul to France from 1866 to 1868 and in his later years he again served in the U.S. consular service in Mannheim, Germany.
Kevin M. Levin
See also American Civil War, German Participants in; Forty-Eighters; Schurz, Carl
References and Further Reading
Hess, Earl J. “Grant’s Ethnic General.” In Grant’s Lieutenants. Ed. Steven E. Woodworth. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford University, 1988.
Piston, William G., and Richard W. Hatcher, III. Wilson’s Creek. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2000.