Civil War Experiences of a German Emigrant: Company D, 12th Michigan Regiment

In this stirring memoir, Joseph Ruff recounts his experiences during the first year of his four years of service in Company D of the 12th Michigan Regiment. It was "by far the most severe year of our service...a year of battles, severe marches, constant duties, privations, illness, and death." Beginning as a green new recruit with no fanfare, no uniform and only the bare necessities, Joseph became a seasoned soldier at times living by his wits and off the land. Joseph recounts in harrowing detail his confrontations with the enemy and numerous narrow escapes. There was more than one occasion when Joseph felt that Divine Providence had not only saved him, personally, but had guided the war, as well. One of the most important battles of the war, the Battle of Shiloh, took place in April 6th of that first year. Joseph writes his account of the experience, beginning with a skirmish on the night of April 5th when he and two-hundred soldiers undertook a scouting expedition, little knowing that a force of 42,000 Confederate men was lying in wait prepared to attack next day. Fortunately, Joseph and his squad saw an outlying sentry, saving them from blundering into the entire enemy camp. Even so, they barely escaped through a barrage of bullets and returned to camp, carrying their wounded. Thus, they were able to deliver a warning to the Union camp, so timely it is thought to have affected the course of the war. Had the Union Army been caught unawares and defeated at Shiloh, it could have handed the Confederacy a victory. Joseph Ruff was born in Obendorf, Germany, March 18, 1841, the oldest of six children. He immigrated to America with his family in 1853 where they settled at Buffalo, NY. Two years later he came to Michigan and found work in Concord, living in the vicinity of Concord and Albion until his death in 1921. During the presidential campaign of 1856 Joseph followed the heated debate over the question of slavery, which in his words, "often came to blows." He read Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Lincoln/Douglas debates, becoming personally convicted on the issue. He proudly voted for President Lincoln, vowing to fight on the side of freedom, serving in the Union Army 1861-1865.