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Radio War Nerd #315 — The US Civil War, Part 7: German '48ers, with Matt Christman (Patreon)

Published:
2022-02-05 04:02:44
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Guest: Matt Christman, Chapo Trap House 

Recorded: February 3, 2022

Matt Christman from the Chapo Trap House joins the War Nerd to talk about German immigrants in the US Civil War, by far the largest contingent of immigrants on the Union side, and how the 1848 revolutions across Europe informed the German immigrants' politics. 

Books mentioned: 

*Germans In The Civil War, The Letters They Wrote Home 

*Radical Warrior: August Willich's Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General 

Previous RWN US Civil War episodes:

*EP #295: The US Civil War, Part 1: Count Adam Gurowski*EP #297: The US Civil War, Part 2: Bleeding Kansas*EP #300: The US Civil War, Part 3: First Battle of Bull Run*EP #303: The US Civil War, Part 4: McClellan, Treason & The Battle of Antietam*EP #307: The US Civil War, Part 5: Vicksburg*EP #311: The US Civil War, Part 6: Buchanan's Treason & The Mormon War 

Buy John Dolan's book "The War Nerd Iliad" & his audiobook "Pleasant Hell".

Interlude music by Brendon Anderegg.

Check out the Radio War Nerd Merch store here!

Total time: 1:35:07

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

AuxMulder

It's always just nice to hear Matt's voice now.

Patrick Fitzgerald

Y'know it took me a couple years to get around to these Civil War episodes, but I'm hooked. They're really fantastic. A s a high school kid in the 70 early 80s, it's amazing how much the public high school curriculum was infected with the Lost Cause mythos. And I went to a Yankee school in NJ.

JDF

“I fights mit Siegel”

JDF

Also the guy responsible for duffing “Bishop” Leonidas Polk during the GA campaign (Sherman wheeling; Johnston trading space for time) was a German battery commander

JDF

His reputation as a dead eye artillerist with moxie won him a degree of leeway from the brass to (for example) deploy his guns at his discretion— often far forward— and his battery was treated as a quasi independent unit in relation to the rest of the army’s arty. Hence his parrots being emplaced perfectly to line up a snipe on the gaggle of staff officers and brass on the crest of the facing ridge

DF$

neato!

etienne

hallelujah our prayers answered

David

Amazing!

John Waaben

I love this podcast so much

Tara Burnett

i feel like everything christman's been doing for the last year has been working towards this and i'm so glad it's happened

orc

Yess!!

etienne

he had to re-study his entire US history to get the chops to go on RWN. can forgive him for how long it took

Tara Burnett

hell of presidents was actually just christman finding a way to justify and monetise his history exam cramming

Abiel Beluts

GODLY CROSSOVER!!!! THANKS RWN! THANKS CUSHGOD!

bowmitt15

RWN been blessing us lately with fantastic eps

J P 3

I have family that was part of one of the very early waves of German immigrants to Texas. I believe these may have been pre-48ers -- people who moved to Texas when it was technically still part of Mexico. During the Civil War part of the family moved to Mexico, married and had kids in Mexico and didn't return until after the war (a darkly comic joke that passed through the generations is that they didn't see any purpose in having slaves when they felt they could treat their children as if they were slaves). There were other parts of the family that came as part of later waves of German immigration to Texas in the second half of the 19th century. My sense is that the community was fairly insular. There was a mutual aid/insurance organization -- Hermann and Sons -- that the family belonged to (the organization still exists in San Antonio -- I believe it was also a bit like the Elks club). The real moment of assimilation came with WWII when the family decided it was time to "Americanize" the spelling of the family name, ditch the umlaut, and serve Uncle Sam.

Antoni Gumbau

Awesome program. August Willrich deserves a movie. Read some stuff about the Germans who served under Fremont in the Shenandoah. Great job, gentlemen.

KRE

This is awesome.

T

I’ve died and gone to nerd heaven

online Leftist Archive Project (LARP)

Thank you, gentlemen! Really looking forward to giving this next installment a listen, been reading Dawn of Everything along with Matt Christman and it's been very edifying. Also thanks for listing the books mentioned, that is very helpful!

OvO Hoot

The Joyce Carol Oates tweet, since no paraphrase is as absurd as the original: "All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?"

That's Good Broth

"issuing a correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

Greg

Thanks for mentioning the book Poilu, im reading it now, it's very good

Discount Cagliostro

Another standout ep. Y'all need to go back on Chapo. So used to hearing Matt in the rant zone when he talks history, so it was interesting to hear him in more of a dialogue format

Cody Roach

Central Texas German checking in. Most of the 48er culture has been absorbed by the "texan thing" like y'all say, but there are relics about. The oldest business in Austin, which plays host to all manner of political activity, from state legislature back room dealings to monthly DSA meetings, is a German beer hall.

Matthew C

I’m from giddings tx and i remember the classic joke(?) from there was that the roads were made extra wide because the founders were all drunk germans who needed the extra space to safely swerve while drunk driving

Ander Pierce

When the intro song changes I'll rock out to the new one and nostalgically listen to the hundreds of episodes with the old one

Playdoh

Matt on one of your US Civil War episodes is something I've really been hoping for, so tight

Gavril Rice

ah wonderful, looking forward to listening when i get caught up on the rest of the CW eps

Will Sundstrom

gaaahhhhh how did I miss this in my feed! The hell of presidents civil war stuff was my favorite and the RWN civil war stuff has been incredible. I'm such a sucker for a podcast crossover!