A German Immigrant in the Union Army: Selected Letters of Valentin Bechler

Abstract

These are the letters of a common man, who was both a soldier and a recent immigrant. Valentin Bechler knew little English and was imperfectly literate in his native German. He evinced no martial spirit, but thought of his military service as a job of work. His letters place more emphasis on camp and hospital than on the battles in which he was engaged. To the historian, Bechler is all the more valuable a witness for these reasons; for all too often war and immigration are to be seen only through the testimony of exceptional men. Almost equally valuable are his wife's letters from Newark, New Jersey, which show, in a form equally unpolished, what life was like on the home front for a family both foreign and poor.