taking early retirement?
Apparently Stonewall Jackson was not the only well-known general who contemplated retirement in the winter of 1862. Here’s a note from Union General Franz Sigel.
From The New-York Times February 8, 1862:
A LETTER FROM GEN. SIGEL.
The following brief communication from Gen. SIGEL, to a friend in Detroit, sets at rest the off-disputed question as to whether he did or did not, lately, resign his command in Missouri. It has been authoritatively published in the German papers:
ST. LOUIS, Sunday, Jan. 26, 1862.
ESTEEMED SIR: In relation to the contents of your letter of the 10th inst., received by me yesterday, in St. Louis, I can, unfortunately, only say that a variety of circumstances of a personal nature, but, more especially, the regard and consideration I owe to the troops under my command, have compelled me to send in my resignation. You will, however, not take it amiss in me that I have no desire to leave my command at the moment when the last blow is to be struck against the army of the enemy in Missouri. For the latter reason I have not insisted upon immediate dismissal, but hope that it will be accorded so soon as the Government shall have been fully acquainted with the cause of dispute.
Thanking the Germans of Detroit who have so warmly interested themselves in my behalf — and thereby, too, in their own — I send you cordial greeting, and am yours, most sincerely,
FRANZ SIGEL.
To C. MARXHAUSEN [Marrhausen?], Esq., Editor of the Michigan Journal, Detroit.
It is said that The Michigan Journal was a German language paper published between 1855 and 1876. It was of the Republican political persuasion.
I liked this letter because it’s a good example of Sigel’s value as a political general. German support was very important to the northern war effort. Sigel had the influence with the German community.
Detroit's Woodward Avenue, 1865
