The Cincinnati region is known for its German heritage including the Over-the-Rhine district in the city, a tradition of beer brewing, a large and popular Oktoberfest celebration, and many residents claiming German family roots. Many Germans from the area fought in various Union regiments during the Civil War.
The Cincinnati area includes Campbell County, Kentucky, across the Ohio River on the southeastern side of that city. This county has its own history of German settlement, including in Newport, the county's largest city.
German immigration into the region had begun “well before the American Revolution,” and Germans were instrumental in the early days of Newport. “They helped build the first roads and streets and other structures.” They also were among the earliest businesspeople in the city. “Heinrich Pickele received a concession in 1795 to open the town’s first tavern, and Johann Bartel established the first brewery in 1798.”
In the early 1800s, the Napoleonic Wars dominated much of Europe, so immigration, including German movement to the Cincinnati. and Northern Kentucky region, greatly decreased compared to the decades of the late 1700s, though it “slowly increased after 1815” following Napoleon’s ultimate defeat at Waterloo.
Another area of Campbell County, now known as Camp Springs, also claims such an ethnic heritage. Described as an “old German settlement,” because it was settled largely by Germans and German descendants in the 1800s, it has a “rich architectural history,” including numerous stone houses and buildings built with rocks from the local creek.2
They had settled in this area because of its “close proximity to Cincinnati and the Ohio river immigration route.”3
When these 48ers and others began moving to the United States, this “rising tide of German immigration” and the spreading of foreign residents of all backgrounds throughout the nation “was followed by the emergence of the Know-Nothing Movement.”4
This movement, a nativist ideology using the names of the Know-Nothing Party or American Party, strongly opposed immigration and Catholicism. Its popularity lasted through the first half of the 1850s, but increasing tension over slavery helped lead to its demise by 1857.5
As this party was fading away, another one was growing in size and influence - the Republicans, who won the Presidential election of 1860 with their candidate Abraham Lincoln and a platform of stopping the spread of slavery.
Johannes (John) Weinel was one such immigrant-soldier.
John had been born on May 25, 1843, in Germany, and in 1850 lived in Newport with his family, including his parents Peter and Catherine, and three siblings.
Ten years later, the family had moved south to Alexandria, just a few miles up the road from Camp Springs, and John now had two younger sisters and two younger brothers living with him and their parents.
Once the Civil War started, John did not immediately join the war effort, but a few months later decided to do so. He traveled to Camp Webster in Jamestown, Campbell County, (now part of the town of Dayton) where other men from the area also joined. The recruits from this camp soon mustered into companies H, I, and K of the 15th Kentucky Infantry, with John in company I.
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| From findagrave memorial 149804062 |
On May 2, 1862, as the 15th Kentucky was on duty in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee, Confederates captured John at Pulaski, Tennessee, and paroled him the same day. He was not a prisoner but had given his word of honor not to fight again until he was officially exchanged for a soldier of similar rank.
His forms provide conflicting dates and information for where he was (and when) in the following months, but he apparently was initially sent to Louisville, followed by a stint at Camp Parole, Maryland, after which he went to and remained in a hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for several weeks, though no mention of any specific injury or illness exists.
After recovering, he was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, joining other Union soldiers awaiting their official exchange. He was a member of company A of the 1st Regiment Paroled Prisoners, U.S. Army. This unit of soldiers awaiting their official exchange was created "for duty compatible with their parole" according to a pre-printed form in his file. They may have included tasks like working in a hospital or guarding Confederate and/or political prisoners. Soldiers in this group returned to their units as their exchanges took place.
John's exchange eventually went through, and John was finally back with the 15th Kentucky in July of 1863. He then was detailed for duty with Battery G of the 1st Ohio Artillery on September 22, 1863, immediately after the Battle of Chickamauga, the bloodiest fight in the war's western theater.
After that assignment, he again rejoined the 15th and served on picket duty in July of 1864. A few months later, he mustered out with the regiment on January 14, 1865, in Louisville.
He had been through some tough experiences and a variety of military camps and bases but had managed to survive the conflict.
During the war, he had used the alias “John Weindell.” No reason is known, though it is not unusual. Other soldiers used assumed names to hide from their parents if they were underage, while some were bounty jumpers who used different monikers while trying to collect bounty money from multiple regiments or states. Some German natives also changed their foreign-sounding names because of the lingering remnants of the Know-Nothing party. That was likely the main factor in John’s decision, especially since he used “John” instead of “Johannes.”
He did manage to return to his life in Campbell County, though unfortunately not for a terribly long time. On July 31, 1867, he married Mary Smith in Alexandria and by 1870 the couple lived in that same town, now with a pair of daughters.
John supported his young family by farming. In July of 1870, a taxation report showed that he owned 49 acres of land - 23 improved (with structures like his house and perhaps a barn or other outbuildings), and 26 of woodland. The farm was valued at $1,800, and John also had $100 of farm tools and equipment.
His livestock included two milk cows, one other cow, two horses, and eight pigs, for a total value of $200. His farm had also yielded a fertile supply of crops as well, producing 20 bushels of wheat, 10 bushels of rye, 35 bushels of corn, and 40 bushels of barley.
Life on the farm with his family may have been happy but sadly did not last even a decade past the war, as John passed away in Claryville on June 30, 1872, just 29 years old. He was buried in the Weinel Family Cemetery, an immigrant-turned-Campbell County citizen and patriot to his new homeland.
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