Use the above window to search all fields. Otherwise, search individual fields below.
Please note: In many of the bibliographic records, MKI has not used umlauts (ä, ö, ü) or the letter ß. Try searching both for umlauts and for ae, oe, or ue, and ss.
| Format | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Vetter, Marianne//Hicks, Liz |
| Title, Analytic | In Search of Christian Schifferling |
| Journal Title | The Journal (German-Texan Heritage Society) |
| Date of Publication | Fall 2011 |
| Volume ID | 33 |
| Issue ID | 3 |
| Location in Work | 154-158, ill. |
| ISSN | 0730-3106 |
| Abstract | Marianne Vetter of Bern, Switzerland, owns family letters written during the 1850s by her great-great-great uncle, Christian Schifflering. Christian was born in 1828 in Eckartsweier, Baden. Family stories speculated that Christian did not get along with his step-mother, and he left for America in 1849, where he enlisted in the U.S. Army. This article provides three translated letters from Christian, one dated 1851 and two dated 1852. The letters include descriptions of military life and the Texas landscape, as well as some anti-Semitism and the difficulties of making a life in America: "Nobody in Germany knows how it truly is here. Most of the people who are here do not dare to write the truth because they are ashamed of it. If somebody has found a place where he earns a little bit of money, he has to work sore [very hard] for it. One illness is enough to take away the little money you put aside. . . . This here is the land of freedom, but it is also the land where nobody gives a damn about the other one." Additional information was discovered by Liz Hicks in searches of military records at the National Archives: Christian's occupation was as a tailor, he served in the Civil War in the 47th Ohio Infantry, Company H. He received a disability discharge in 1880, "broken down in line of duty through exposure and hardships due to the service and old age." He died in 1893 at the Soldiers Home in Washington, DC, and is buried in the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery. |
| Call Number | MKI Periodicals |
| MKI Terms | Letters/ Soldiers/ German Americans -- Texas/ Native Americans/ United States, Foreign opinion -- German/ Civil War, 1861-1865 -- German Americans |