Leopold von Gilsa (1824-1 March 1870) was a Union Army colonel who commanded a German brigade of the Army of the Potomac's XI Corps during the American Civil War. A German immigrant, he was often subjected to xenophobia and unjustly accused of cowardice at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
Biography[]
Leopold von Gilsa was born in Erfurt, Prussia in 1824, and he served in the Prussian Army during the First Schleswig War of 1848-1851 before emigrating to the United States and settling in New York City. He became a piano player and piano instructor, and he sang in Bowery music halls. When the American Civil War erupted, he raised the 41st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment from fellow German immigrants from Yorkville, Manhattan, and it was attached to the Army of the Potomac. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Cross Keys in 1862, and he became a brigade commander after recovering later that year. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, he and his men were unjustly accused of cowardice after they broke and fled under Confederate fire, as Von Gilsa's warnings about Confederate positions to O.O. Howard had been ignored. His men were subjected to xenophobia, especially after Von Gilsa poured out a stream of German curses against Howard during the retreat. In June 1863, Francis C. Barlow had Von Gilsa arrested for allowing more than one man at a time to leave the column to get water, and he was reduced from brigade to regiment command after again being xenophobically accused of cowardice at the Battle of Gettysburg. From August 1863 to June 1864, he commanded a brigade on Folly Island, South Carolina, commanding the island's garrison. In June 1864, his regiment was mustered out of service with only 327 of its original 1,500 troops remaining. He mustered out in December 1865 and died in New York City in 1870, and Barlow and Carl Schurz would praise his courage after his death.