Brigadier General J. Peter Osterhaus and the Journalists of the Chicago Tribune (Editorial)
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, May 5, 1862
The following article appeared in the Chicago Tribune of May 3:
"Another Brigadier General
"The appointment of the 999th brigadier--we confess that lately we have been unable to keep a count of the many promotions--has been proposed to the Senate. His name is--well, it is mentioned in the dispatches, and we did not know it before. He may be deserving enough, but the trouble is that whenever a new appointment is made, somebody complains that some other man, who is just as worthy, has been overlooked. For instance, half of the colonels from Indiana have been decorated with 'stars,' and now the Indianapolis Journal is dissatisfied because one of them was not promoted.
2Since our national finances are in such poor condition, why don't we adopt the English practice of selling officers' commissions? Then there would at least be no favoritism or partisanship."
Among the news items published in the Chicago Tribune, the learned journalists which claim that they do not know the name of the 999th brigadier general, we find a dispatch containing the following information:
"Cairo, May 2. We have learned that Colonel Osterhaus has been appointed brigadier general by the President for meritorious services rendered in Missouri."
Well, my German friends, there goes the statement that the journalists of the "Great Newspaper," the Chicago Tribune, which claims to be the leading organ of the Republican party in the great Northwest, did not know of Colonel Osterhaus, who has been commanding a division for some time; who earned his decoration of stars on the battlefields of Booneville, Dug Springs, Springfield, 3and Pea Ridge; who, with Sigel, was among the first to organize companies in Missouri; who already commanded a battalion when Camp Jackson was taken; and whose promotion by the President caused the scribes of the Tribune to advise the selling of officers' commissions!
Three days ago, Mr. Isaac Arnold, the Congressional Representative from this district, sent me a copy of a petition addressed to the President and signed by all the Congressmen from Illinois and Missouri. This petition, which I published in the Illinois Staats-Zeitung last Friday, reads as follows: "We respectfully petition you to promote Colonel J. P. Osterhaus to the rank of brigadier general. He displayed great bravery and eminent ability at Camp Jackson, Boonville, Dug Springs, Springfield, and Pea Ridge, and has rendered effective service at all of these places." On Friday, Mr. Arnold sent us a special dispatch informing us that he and his colleagues had been successful in their endeavors, and that President Lincoln had sent Colonel Osterhaus' appointment to the Senate for approval.
4However, not only the Congressmen from Illinois and Missouri, not only prominent citizens of St. Louis and Chicago, among whom were the judges of state courts, signed petitions asking that Peter Osterhaus be promoted because of services rendered on the battlefield, but also all of the officers of the brigade which Mr. Osterhaus commanded. From their camp near Keesville, Missouri, they sent the President a letter in which they described the military activity of Osterhaus as follows:
"Since that memorable April 22, Colonel Osterhaus has continually participated actively in the War. At Camp Jackson, he commanded Schaefer's Battalion of the Second Regiment of Missouri Volunteers as major. At Boonville, he fired the first shot, and on every subsequent occasion he distinguished himself by his calmness and bravery. At Wilson's Creek, his battalion also opened the fight under General Loon, and was constantly under fire, even serving as rear guard during the retreat to Springfield. His ability and meritorious conduct in that battle received special official recognition from Major Dubois of the First Missouri Artillery. Upon his return to St. Louis, he immediately began 5the organization of the Twelfth Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, which left for Sedalia on September 23, 1861, and he has been on the battlefield ever since. At Jefferson City, General Fremont appointed him brigadier commander, and he held this position until the second advance on Springfield in February, 1862, when General Curtis made him commander of the First (Sigel) Division of the Southwest Army. In both commands, he enjoyed the confidence and the respect of his subordinate officers. In the Battle of Pea Ridge, especially in the engagement which was fought near Leetown, his coolness and bravery, and particularly his clever tactics, won the admiration of all who were privileged to be witnesses, and we believe that he is a great leader, worthy of universal confidence and respect. Surely, no one is more deserving of promotion, and his advancement would certainly be popular among the officers and men of this division."
General Curtis forwarded this petition to the President and himself warmly recommended that Osterhaus be appointed a brigadier general, after General Halleck had repeatedly urged Lincoln to make the promotion. Yet, in the face 6of all this, the Chicago Tribune had the effrontery to say: "The appointment of the 999th brigadier general has been proposed to the Senate. His name is--well, it is mentioned in the dispatches, and we did not know it before..... Since our national finances are in such poor condition, why don't we adopt the English practice of selling officers' commissions? Then there would at least be no favoritism or partisanship."
Who can blame these wise men of the Chicago Tribune, whose complete incompetence we have proved on several occasions, for not being familiar with the career of General Osterhaus? They did not even mention the reports of Osterhaus when he was Acting Division Commander or those reports which Major General Sigel issued on the Battle of Pea Ridge and which were published in all of the English-language newspapers of St. Louis!
No Germans have been appointed general by the Senate, with the exception of Sigel and Weber, and it was not necessary for these two men to purchase their officers' commission, as the English aristocrats do, nor do they owe their 7promotion to favoritism or partisanship.
We, too, have often thought that commissions should be sold to the highest bidder. And not long ago the Tribune had excellent occasion to turn the ridicule which it expressed regarding the promotion of Osterhaus in another direction; this was when the telegraph brought the news that Colonel Julius White, ex-collector of customs, and one of the chief favorites of the Tribune clique, had been appointed brigadier-general, for in his case it was not merit, but favoritism and the political influence of the Tribune clique that was at the bottom of this very foolish promotion.
Very likely, the Chicago Tribune will offer the excuse that it did not have General Osterhaus in mind when it wrote this infamous article, which deeply insults all Germans, but that it was thinking of Captain Gibbons of the Fourth Artilery Regiment. However, this excuse is not valid, for the Tribune expressly writes: "The 999th brigadier general has been proposed to the Senate," while the dispatches concerning Gibbons state that his appointment 8had been approved by the Senate.
The Germans have not forgotten that their fellow countrymen who served on the staff of Fremont were called "the foreign gang" by the Chicago Tribune, and, therefore, they need not be in doubt concerning the attitude of the Hero of Bull Run, who is often lauded in the columns of that publication.
And now the Chicago Tribune claims that it wields a mighty influence over the German voters!!
