Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Doc. 248.-the Twentieth Regiment, N. Y. S. V. “United Turner Rifles.” departure from New York, June 13.

The Turners constitute a great social, educational, musical, gymnastic, and semi-military popular society, to which every German, of whatever rank, so he be of good moral character, is expected to belong. The brotherhood affords so many cheap advantages that it is almost universal among the Germans; and in virtue of this fact, the 20th Regiment leaves with as many warm wishes for fortune and success from as numerous a circle of devoted friends as the Firemen's Regiment itself, and owing to the nature and manner of its organization, will live in the hearts of the brothers and sisters of the Bund, and be watched in its future movements, perhaps, more closely than any other of our volunteers.

The regiment is not only thoroughly equipped and sworn for the war, but every man is perfectly and completely drilled in the manual and manoeuvres of the soldier, as well as ready and anxious to be of service to his country. Gymnastic training, in most cases the work of years, has made the men tough and muscular, and capable of great endurance. As they marched from Forty-third street, down Second avenue, through Twentieth street, down Broadway, and thence by way of Pearl and Chatham streets to Canal street, many thousand people greeted them from the sidewalks and windows, bestowing high and unqualified praise upon them. There were many, hitherto knowing nothing of their existence, who awarded them the palm for stout soldierly bearing, among all the regiments that have yet left New York.

The procession, including the escort, was quite imposing, as every German society in the city resolved to be out, and was represented on the parade, to which add a battalion of the Turner Schutzen corps, five companies of Yon Gilsa's De Kalb Regiment, a fire company from Union Hill, the noble “Duysing Zouaves,” numerous citizens, four-horse baggage wagons, and an emblematical warlike tableau, drawn by six fine horses, and consisting of a tent, with soldiers on guard, and specimens of the colors, the arms, and the various equipments of our now Grand Army.

Among the societies represented were the following: New-Yorker Sangerbund, Social Reform Gesang Verein, Fidelia, Mozart Mannerchor, Arion, Helvetia Mannerchor, Dramatic Club, New-Yorker Rifle Corps, the associations of Turners from Bloomingdale, Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, and the old Turners, who were the original founders of the Verein, all in their uniforms of white. At a seasonable hour the societies formed in line opposite Turn Halle, in Orchard street, and marched to Grand street, where they were joined by a body of the Social Reformers, thence through Hester street to [365] Metropolitan Hall, and soon swelled in numbers as they approached Union Square, where they met the regiment at 4 o'clock.

The display of society banners, badges, and mottoes was numerically fine, the most common being those of Turner Societies exhibiting an ogling night owl with a torch in one claw and a sword in the other, superscribed by the word “Bahnfrei,” (Clear the track.)

In front of the City Hall, a review by the Common Council, and presentations by private citizens, took place. The Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles presented a flag, and said:

Colonel Weber and the Officers and Soldiers under your command:--

In behalf of Mrs. Charles Edward Strong, and other patriotic ladies of the City of New York, I present you this National Flag for your Regiment, which they commit, with undoubting faith, to your brave and loyal keeping. To whom could they more properly entrust it than to you, the lineal descendants of the Germans of those early ages who, amid the verdant forests and sparkling waters of the Fatherland, bravely battled for liberty and freedom against the cruel domination of imperious, slaveholding, and all-enslaving Rome?

Gallant Germans! Friends and brethren! we hail you as fellow-countrymen and co-equal heirs of our nation's destiny. The land of poetry, of song, of science; the birthplace of Schiller, and Mozart, and Kepler, has given you to us, to share our fortunes and our fate. This goodly Western continent is not less yours than ours; upon its broad and teeming bosom we stand or fall together. Side by side, we now battle for our nation's life.

For this very purpose it was that you sought this western world. You came here that you of the present generation might enjoy that long-deferred but dearly-cherished object of every German heart, a comprehensive and united nationality. You left your native land, dismembered and disintegrated by long centuries of strife, that you might here breathe in freedom the invigorating air of a great, united, indivisible Republic. You left without regret the rival and contending Hapsburghs and Hohenzollerns, that you and your descendants, through coming ages, might inhabit and enjoy the land of Washington; that you might lawfully inherit and peacefully occupy the one great continental nation of the globe, stretching in unbroken expanse from ocean to ocean.

Noble Germans! Will you now permit this goodly heritage to be rudely torn from you? Will you abandon, without a struggle, this your magnificent domain, your own chosen land of refuge, to dismemberment and ruin? With the example fresh in memory of the fatherland, frittered by internal strife into dozens of petty principalities, can you now consent to dash down and demolish this majestic Republic, a dominant power among the nations of the earth, to set up in its place four and thirty rebel “sovereignties,” falsely so-called, “all in a row” ?

Thanks to the excellence of your German schools, you are men of education. Have you not been taught, and do you not instinctively know, that men in these modern days must live in nations and can no longer live in tribes? But what is the present treasonable attempt, alike wicked and weak, to throw down the united, organic sovereignty of our nation, but an attempt to restore the ancient rule of chieftains and tribes; to substitute the rattlesnake for the eagle; to hold aloft, not the immortal ensign of the Republic, radiant with its united stars, but local emblems, suited only for Chickasaws and Choctaws, the aboriginal and veritable inventors of “State sovereignty” ?

Intelligent and patriotic Germans You now go bravely forth to arrest this suicidal work of madness and ruin. Trebly armed with the justice of the cause, you march to battle to uphold the priceless boon of national existence, vital not alone to us, the natives of the soil, but to the hundreds of thousands of loyal German hearts thickly congregated in all our cities, and already counted by millions between our two great oceans. You go to prevent dismemberment, not alone from the misguided South, but from all your brethren of the German race clustered around our widespread western waters; to preserve the national unity, not only of this great Republic, but of your race itself.

In this flag as a symbol, you carry with you the affectionate regards, the fervent prayers, of the men and women of New York, invoking in your behalf the gracious protection of that All-Wise Being, the Great Architect of Nations, to uphold and reward your bravery, your patriotism, your public virtue.

At the conclusion of Mr. Ruggles' remarks, Mrs. Rupp, on behalf of a committee of ladies, presented, with a brief speech, a regimental standard, with mottoes of the society of Turners.

Miss Sophie L. Beisel presented (also in behalf of a committee of ladies) the German colors of black, red, and gold, and made a neat speech, reminding the soldiers that the present was given to remind them of the donors and those left behind, their brothers and weeping sisters, hoping, too, that they would be gallant, and return with the prestige of many victories.

Mrs. Stapps, a tall, masculine, but finely-spoken and intelligent lady of forty-five, who served as a private, disguised, under Hecker, in the revolution of 1848, delivered a stirring speech, calling upon the soldiers to be courageous, to fight nobly for their second father-land; as they loved their sisters and wives, to promise to contend fitly for universal freedom, so that cannons and church bells might welcome them back with honor, pride, and general joy.

Col. Weber made a brief reply, thanking the [366] donors, on behalf of the regiment, for their regard, their presents, and their encouraging words; pledging that not only would the United Turner Rifles do honor to their original fatherland, but their adopted fatherland, whose flag they would seek to vindicate, and whose honor to raise above rebellion.

The following is a list of the officers of the 20th Regt.:

field and Staff officers :--Colonel, Max Weber; Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Weiss; Major, Engelberth Schnepf; Adjutant, Rudolph Kluckhuhn; Quartermaster, George Minch; Surgeon, Julius Hausen; Assistant Surgeon, Charles Heiland; Sergeant Major, Henry R. Walter; Assistant Quartermaster, Charles Lorch; Drum Major, William Kaufman; Bugle Major, Paul Gruchlin.

Company A--Captain, Lorenz Meyer; 1st Lieut., William Knecht; Ensign, Herman Stoeckel. Company B--Captain, Anthony Brecklin; 1st Lieut., Franz Munich; Ensign, Fritz Letzeiser. Company C--Captain, Charles Hochleitner; 1st Lieut., Otto Hoym; Ensign, Gustav Lorens. Company D--Captain, J. W. Einbigler; 1st Lieut., William Drackers; Ensign, Conturier Charles. Company E--Captain, Ernst Otto Bernet; 1st Lieut., Henry Clober; Ensign, Chares Voelker. Company F--Captain, Charles Semsey; 1st Lieut., Herman Benecke; Ensign, Rudolph Beutler. Company G--Captain, William Schoen; 1st Lieut., William Syring; Ensign, Jacob Pabst. Company H--Captain, William Yon Doehr; 1st Lieut., William Schul; Ensign, Robert Merkle. Company I--Captain, Henry Stumpf; 1st Lieut., Adolph Wilson; Ensign, George Koenig. Company K--Captain, Joseph Hoeffling; 1st Lieut., Wm. Hafner; Ensign, Louis Kroeck.--N. Y. Tribune, June 14.