The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, July 19th, 2010, in the visitor’s center of Ft. Negley Park, a unit of Metro Parks, Nashville, TN. This is located off I-65 just south of downtown between 4th Avenue South and 8th Avenue South on Edgehill Avenue/Chestnut Avenue. Take Exit 81, Wedgewood Avenue, off I-65 and follow the signs to the Science Museum and Greer Stadium. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm and is always open to the public. There is no charge to attend.

OUR PROGRAM:

“McCook’s Dutchmen: The 9th Ohio Infantry”

Twenty-five per cent of the Union Army’s troops were born outside of the United States. Of these, some 200,000 were German natives from the various states (Germany as a single nation did not exist before 1870). A number of these immigrants came over after the revolutions of 1848 and, after establishing themselves in cities like St. Louis, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, these men, with the coming of war in 1861, stepped up to defend their adopted nation. About 36,000 Germans fought in ethnic German regiments, such as the 9th Ohio Infantry. The remainder served in mixed regiments with soldiers of other ethnic backgrounds. While the Irish get more publicity, there were more Germans in the Civil War than any other immigrant ethnic group.

Of the 30 or so German regiments, one of the best known is the 9th Ohio of Cincinnati. “Die Neuner,” as they were called, was somewhat different than other German regiments due to its urban background, language of command, pre-war occupations of its ranks and previous military service of many of its ranks. Also interesting was the fact that its first colonel, Robert McCook, was of Scots-Irish ancestry! “McCook’s Dutchmen,” also known as the “Dutch Devils,” fought from Mill Springs through the Atlanta Campaign.

The program for this month will be based on speaker Joseph Reinhart’s new book, A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich and Wilhelm Stangel, 9th Ohio Infantry, which was just released last week by Kent State University Press. Mr. Reinhart, a member of the Louisville, Kentucky Civil War Roundtable, is a noted expert on Kentucky’s Union regiments
as well as Germans in the Union Army. He is the author or editor of a number of books on both topics. Mr. Reinhart is a graduate of Bellarmine College and Indiana University.

Please join us for an informative program on the 9th Ohio Infantry by a national expert, Joseph Reinhart.

We hope you will join us for the July meeting of the Nashville Civil War Roundtable. The Nashville Civil War Roundtable is made possible by Nashville Metro Parks and the Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Military History.