Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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cruces
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Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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How did "Turner Halls" aid General Lyons in his role as the Union Commander in St. Louis in 1861?

BG Elkin
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cruces
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Re: Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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Hard to believe nobody willing to find the answer
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cruces
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Re: Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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Germans took the lead as war opened; six regiments were made up solely of Germans in Missouri.
NOTE: The 31,000 Germans in Missouri who went into blue saved the Western frontier for the Union; four fifths of the St. Louis Union men were foreign~born, chiefly German.
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cruces
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Re: Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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The Turnvereine made an important contribution to the integration of German-Americans into their new home. The organizations continue to exist in areas of heavy German immigration, such as Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Together with Carl Schurz, the American Turners were supportive of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. They provided the bodyguard at his inauguration on March 4, 1861, and at his funeral in April, 1865. In the Camp Jackson Affair, a large force of German volunteers helped prevent Confederate forces from seizing the government arsenal in St. Louis just prior to the beginning of the war.[5]
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Joe Meyer
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Re: Saving St. Louis and Missouri for the Union

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Dave, it has always amazed me that the German ethnic contribution to the Union in the Western Theater has drawn so little attention. The Turner Organizations in Missouri are a classic example. It has only been just recently that scholars have turned to unearthing the original German-language diaries and newspapers that existed then and still survive to add to our knowledge of the Civil War. I am reading one such book by Joseph R. Reinhart on the 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry U. S., which had a liberal share of German-Americans in its ranks. The complete and full story of those six German regiments from Missouri has yet to be told, but they were all, for the most part, heavily engaged in virtually every battle of importance within the Western Theater, and then some!
General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC UA
Commander, Union Army of the Tennessee


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