Government, State & County Bounties

Author Ella Lonn (Foreigners in the Union Army & Navy, LSU Press, 1951) relates that “many Germans had gone through the hard school of revolution in Europe [and thus] were opposed to the idea of “States’ rights,” thus making poor Jeffersonian Republicans. One notable German regiment in Lincoln’s army was the DeKalb Regiment, with about 700 of its 1,040 members, and commanders, having fought in the Prussian Army against the Danes in 1848-1849; and 23 of its 33 officers were veterans who had seen service in European campaigns. Like the earlier Hessians employed against American independence they would be compensated too, this time their allegiance was purchased with generous bounties from Federal, State and County governments. Bounty jumping was prevalent.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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Government, State & County Bounties:

“I was born on the 16th day of November 1843 in Germany in the province of Brandenburg, district of Potsdam, Kreis (county) Prenzlau in the Uckermark. I emigrated with my parents (Philipp and Auguste Albertine Schultze Milleville) to this country in the year of 1847 and landed in Buffalo on the Fourth of July, 1847. My parents settled in Niagara County, N.Y. in the Town of Wheatfield in a German settlement called Neu Bergholz.

When I was 13-1/2 years old I was confirmed by Rev. Heinrich von Rohr. I was home till I was 16 years old, then I started to learn the tailor trade with a man by the name of Friedrich Parchart. I served my three years apprenticeship with him. All the cash money I had during the three years was 75 cents which I got from a political candidate for taking a letter to August Wolf at Wallmow.

In the spring of 1862 I went to the city of Buffalo to work at my trade, but there was a poor show for a country Jake. Then I got a job…but the boss was a drunkard. He would work all day Sunday, and Sunday night he would go to a saloon and sometimes he would not come home till Tuesday morning and his family would have to suffer. Of course, I did not stay there long.

Then I got a job at 32 Main street by Jacob Metzger. There I stayed till I enlisted on the 20th day of January 1864. I got $300.00 Government Bounty, $75.00 State Bounty and $110.00 County Bounty. Of the Government Bounty, we got $50.00 every six months. The State and County Bounty we got right away. I enlisted in Co. I, 2nd New York Mounted Rifles. After I had been there a few days a fellow came and asked me to loan him my overcoat, he wanted to go to the city to buy tobacco. But he forgot to come back. I guess he was a Bounty jumper.”

(Civil War Diary of Gustave Herman Henry Milleville, Eugene Camann Collection, Historical Society of North German Settlements in Western New York Newsletter, May-June 2011, pp. 7-8)
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Government, State & County Bounties