Germans in the Civil War - John Dieden

Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home  Edited by Walter D. Kamphoefner and Wolfgang Helbich  Publication Year: 2006

"German Americans were one of the largest immigrant groups in the Civil War era, and they comprised nearly 10 percent of all Union troops. Yet little attention has been paid to their daily lives--both on the battlefield and on the home front--during the war. This collection of letters, written by German immigrants to friends and family back home, provides a new angle to our understanding of the Civil War experience and challenges some long-held assumptions about the immigrant experience at this time."

John Dieden came to America as a teenager and became quite successful in Chicago as a businessman, owing to his stepfather, John Herting's, success primarily. In this letter, the German immigrant describes the arrest and trial of the abolitionist John Brown which created quite "a commotion" in the country but, more importantly, Dieden recounts how bravely Brown faced his death. 

Another excerpt (here) describes John's pride in being a German and his commitment to bipartisanism: "Political disagreements were common between Republicans and Catholics, but Dieden, like many Germans in Chicago, remained fully loyal to both groups."