Willich,August (von) b. (?) 1810; (?) d. January 23, 1878; St. Marys, Ohio
Prussian artillery officer and petty nobleman, U.S. general, leftist Socialist en route to anarchism, Hegelian thinker, and trained carpenter, August Willich combined a number of contradictions in his person, all of which may be traced to having grown up in the house of the theolo- gician Friedrich Ernst Schleiermacher in Berlin.
After attending military school, Willich seemed designed for a typical Prussian army career when he came in contact with the Rhenish proto-Communists. Following a court-martial (he successfully sued the Prussian king over the issue of whether he could ask for and receive an honorable discharge), he resigned his commission as first lieutenant of artillery as well as his aristocratic title, and sided with the revolutionists in 1848. After the ignominious failure of Friedrich Hecker’s April 1848 campaign, Willich spent months in French exile training a volunteer force. During the constitutional campaign of 1849, this pan-Euro- pean legion covered the retreat of the revolutionary army to Switzerland. In London, Willich raised funds to support his veterans and to train for a new revolution. Having fallen out with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Willich emigrated to theUnited States in 1852, still accompanied by some of his men.
Willich worked as a carpenter in a Brooklyn shipyard, and in the Coastal Survey Bureau. This position he left in turn to edit the radical Cincinnati Republikaner (Cincinnatti Republican). He was an influential labor organizer and Turner activist. His prominence as one of the leading figures among the Forty-Eighter refugees and his sincerity (which even his enemies conceded) was of great help during the secession crisis of 1861 when Willich helped to form two regiments, the 9th Ohio and the 32nd Indiana. Both regiments were raised among the immigrants and political refugees with a clear political agenda: to defend the principles of democracy, to save the Union, and to achieve equal human rights.
Several veterans of his legion became officers in the regiments that Willich helped to organize; others raised units themselves.Willich was revered by his men as a fatherly figure (Papa Willich) who would always make the well-being of his men his foremost concern, addressing them off duty as “citizen” in the tradition of the French Revolution, and giving lectures on socialism. Captured at Stones River, Willich returned to his brigade in the summer of 1863, and his men gave him a huge welcome party. Banners in the streets, some of which made fun of his bad English, signaled an uncommon understanding between him and his men, although even some of his friends thought him a little naerrisch (crazy).
Brevetted brigadier at Shiloh, Willich was also an inventive spirit. He developed a mode of rolling, four-rank advance for his brigade, and he attempted to mobilize infantry by putting them on wagons. Willich led by example, as at Missionary Ridge (1863) where he was the first commanding officer to order his brigade forward, resulting in a resounding Union victory. In May 1864 a bullet paralyzed his right arm. For the rest of the war he commanded the District of Cincinnati, and was mustered out as brevet major general.
After the war, Willich moved to St. Marys, Ohio. He founded a Shakespeare society and the social Schlabberhannes Clubb (sic), and introduced modern German music, sponsoring Schubert evenings. He also returned to his prewar activism as a speaker at union meetings, Turner festivities, and Fourth of July celebrations. Politically, he moved in the direction of anarcho-syndicalism. “Old General Willich” who had never been able to raise a family himself, spent much of his invalid’s pension on candy for the children of St. Marys. Local folklore recalls him as a much beloved public figure, and the funeral after his unexpected death was one of the biggest events in the town’s history.
Wolfgang Hochbruck
See also American Civil War, German Participants in; Anarchists; Forty-Eighters; Hecker, Friedrich; Turner Societies
References and Further Reading
Dlubek, Rolf. “August Willich (1810-1878). Vom preuβischen Offizier zum Streiter fur die Arbeiteremanzipation auf zwei Kontinenten.” In Akteure eines Umbruchs. Manner und Frauen der Revolution von 1848/49. Eds. Helmut Bleiber, Walter Schmidt, and Susanne Schutz. Berlin: Fides, 2003, pp. 923-1003.
Easton, Loyd. Hegel’s First American Followers: The Ohio Hegelians John B. Stallo, Peter Kaufmann, Moncure Conway, and August Willich, with key writings. Athens: Ohio University, 1966.
Rattermann, Heinrich. “General August Willich.” Der Deutsche Pionier 9, no. 11 (1878) and 10, no. 4 (1879).
Stewart, Charles D. “A Bachelor General.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 17, no. 2 (1933): 131-154.