Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory

(New York: Fordham University Press, 2007)

Analyzes the role of German-Americans in the U.S. Civil War, especially the performance of the German regiments in the Union XI Corps at Chancellorsville in May 1863 and home front reactions to the nativistic prejudice unleashed following the Union defeat. Their experiences with nativism during the war colored their postwar memory of the conflict, creating a stronger sense of ethnic identity and a culturally pluralistic vision of their place in American society.