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| Format | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Hanselmann, Andreas |
| Title, Analytic | Adventures in North America, Based on My Own Experiences |
| Journal Title | Swiss American Historical Society Review |
| Date of Publication | Nov. 2011 |
| Volume ID | 47 |
| Issue ID | 3 |
| Location in Work | 1-55, ill. |
| Abstract | From the Prefatory Note (pp. [iv]-vi): "Andreas Hanselmann (1825-1905) had his roots in the Toggenburg, a valley belonging to the Canton St. Gallen and situated in the northeastern part of Switzerland. [H]e left his wife Susette and his two children . . . in 1860 and went to the United States. . . . offer[ing] no explanation for his departure. Being caught by the Civil War in New Orleans shortly after his arrival, he enrolled in the Louisiana Militia and, after the fall of that city to the Union forces, he changed sides and finished the war fighting for the North. At the war's end, he went via Panama from New York to California where he pursued different occupations, He was for a short time a dishwasher and later a shepherd in the surroundings of Sacramento. After 28 years spent in the Unite States, he went back to Switzerland in 1888 and rejoined his wife in Wattwil. . . . A few years before his death [in 1893], Andreas Hanselmann wrote an account about his American adventures. He wanted to tell his countrymen of his experiences at a time when few news items from abroad reached his quite remote valley. In his booklet he describes some events he had actually experienced as well as some stories he had evidently heard from others. Some information about events of the Civil War such as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln or the history of the gold rush intended to give Swiss readers an overview. Meeting other Swiss seems to have been of great importance to Andrew Hanselmann, perhaps because he was homesick. Several stories about crimes show that this type of news interested writers and readers already in the nineteenth century." The appendix (pp. 52-54) lists participants and provides a translation of an address given at a January 1899 meeting of American Civil War veterans in Luzern, Switzerland. |
| Notes | Narrated to His Countrymen by Andreas Hanselmann in Wattwil. Revised by Ch. H. im Bundt. Translated from the German by Richard Blatter. Revised, annotated, and edited for the SAHS Review by Leo Schelbert. German title: Erlebnisse in Nordamerika. Nach eigenen Erfahrungen seinen lieben Landsleuten erzaehlt von Andreas Hanselmann in Wattwil. Prefatory note (pp. v-vi) includes photograph of Andreas, his wife Susette, and their dog Barr [p. iv]. |
| Call Number | MKI Periodicals |
| MKI Terms | Swiss Americans/ Civil War, 1861-1865 -- German Americans/ Personal narratives/ United States, Foreign opinion -- Swiss/ United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives/ California/ New Orleans (La.) |