Damn Dutch

By David L. Valuska, Christian B.  Keller, Christian Keller, et al.

Book Overview

This is the first work to highlight the contributions of regiments of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the post-1820 immigrant Germans at the Battle of Gettysburg. On the first day, the 1st Corps, in which many of the Pennsylvania Dutch groups served, and the half-German 11th Corps, which had five regiments of either variety in it, bought with their blood enough time for the Federals to adequately prepare the high ground, which proved critical in the end for the Union victory. On the second day, they participated in beating back Confederate attacks that threatened to crack the Union defenses on Cemetery Hill and in other strategic locations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811706745
• ISBN13: 9780811706742
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Another book by Christian Keller

Fyi, Christian Keller also wrote: "Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory" (Fordham Univ. Press, 2007) Pages main/total: 179/234 ISBN: 978-0823226504]. Modern historians and students of the Chancellorsville Campaign have long reached the conclusion that the German units of the XI Corps fought as well as could be expected, considering their faulty alignment and exposure to a powerful flanking attack conducted by a greatly superior enemy force. German units had performed exceptionally well across all theaters of the war, and they were dumbstruck by the degree of vitriol and scapegoating attached to their performance at the battle and the surprisingly rancorous attacks against German units in the mainstream press and military high command. Unfortunately, the book appears to be out of print.

Flawlessly Presented, Highly Recommend!!!!!

Damn Dutch, is not only highly readble and flawlessly presented, it is extremely thought provoking. If you want to immerse yourself in an excellent history that reads like a novel, pick up Damn Dutch. Co-author Keller shines and adds significantly to the power of this story that has long been overshadowed by the Civil War's more "popular" vingettes.

Damn Dutch is a an excellent book

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Valuska and Keller's Damn Dutch. It not only covered the actions of Pennsylvania's German soldiers in the important battle of Gettysburg, but also those of the Pennsylvania Dutch ((descendents of eighteenth century German-speaking immigrants who developed their own dialect and culture in the Keystone State). Although approximately two hundred thousand native Germans and many descendents of Germans fought for the Union during the Civil War, scant attention has been paid to their wartime military service or how they viewed the war. Therefore, Damn Dutch is a welcome addition to the very limited number of studies about Germans in the Civil War. This book is well researched and well written. It is both a military history and a social history, and in addition describing military actions also addresses how the battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War in general affected Pennsylvania's immigrant Germans and the Pennsylvania Dutch. I highly recommend it.