Mary Bobbitt Townsend

Peter Osterhaus is a character that flits through histories of the Western Theater of the American Civil War with some frequency, but one never learns a great deal about his background, or his particular contributions to the big picture. The author goes to some lengths in righting the balance in what is mostly a military life of the man, how he came to the United States as one of the German "48'ers," rapidly developed a reputation for competence and political discretion once war broke out, and then faded away. Much of this boiled down to how the war wrecked the man's health, but, at the end of the day, Osterhaus preferred to return to Germany and construct a civilian life for himself there; though he never gave up his American citizenship. In a sad irony, he apparently went to the grave in 1917 believing in German-American friendship, just as Wilson was on the verge of declaring war on Berlin.… (plus d'informations)

This is a detailed history of the military engagements in which Maj. Gen. Peter Osterhaus participated during the American Civil War from his perspective as a unit commander.Osterhaus was a Forty-Eighter who landed in New York on Nov. 9, 1849. At the end of the Civil War,in 1866 the Osterhaus family returned to Europe where the General lived for almost half a century until his death early in 1917. But Osterhaus's youth, Prussian military training, early career and experiences in the Revolution of 1848 are covered in just 10 pages. His lenghty stints as American Consul in Lyon and 25 years as a business man in Mannheim after he returned to Germany are covered in a 14-page chapter. Even much of this chapter is taken up with the former General's return visit to America in 1904. Between these sketches of the General's early life and his last 50 years are 190 pages on his Civil War military experiences. It is a shame that the author, a descendant of the General, could not have worked with a scholar with training in European history and continental languages to produce a more balanced and complete biography. And despite the author's skill in describing battlefield troop movements, more and better battlefield maps would have helped the reader understand the narrative. The map on page 31 is especially problematic.… (plus d'informations)