The Battle of White Sulphur Springs (23 page)

The von Königs mostly married within the nobility of the surrounding regions and thus became part of the gentry of the Guelph countries of Brunswick and Hanover. As was customary in a patrimonial society, the elder son inherited the familial estate, while the other children were paid a stipend that was insufficient to live on. Consequently, the other sons took positions at the royal court or in the military service, mostly in the Duchy Brunswick–Wolfenbüttel or in the electorate of Hanover (which was in Personal Union with the Kingdom of Great Britain; King George III of England was a Hanoverian). However, this was not an exclusive arrangement and did not exclude service in other German countries. Consequently, the von König family proudly boasts a long history of military service.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von König was born at the family estate in Vienenburg on March 3, 1800. In 1828, he married Pauline Bornemann, the daughter of an affluent merchant family from Hamburg. They had eight children:

Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von König, born on January 30, 1830 (who served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army)

Alma, born on April 1, 1832 (whose husband was a Hanoverian colonel) Valesca, born on February 21, 1835

Edmund Robert August Moritz Freiherr von König, born May 13, 1837

Paul Albert Hermann Freiherr von König, born in 1837

Carl August Robert Freiherr von König, born on June 3, 1841

Maria Emma Adeline Helene, born on May 12, 1843 (whose husband was a Prussian colonel)

Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich Götz Freiherr von König, born on March 13, 1849
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The family lived the life of the aristocracy, but military service became its principal means of employment.

Paul's oldest brother, Friedrich Wilhelm, remembered his younger brother as “a rather wild rider” who had ruined several of their father's horses and misbehaved while in school. The boy was fearless. Baron von König escorted his son to Hamburg and permitted Paul to sign on as a ship's boy on a merchant ship. After the second long voyage to China and Japan, where the ship had barely escaped one typhoon, young Paul found himself face to face with a terrible tempest. Two young ship's boys were stuck on the bowsprit and were unable to return to the deck due to the violence of the typhoon. The captain of the ship offered a reward for the rescue of the boys, but none of the sailors budged. Paul tore off his jacket and shoes, climbed the bowsprit, grabbed the collar of the first boy by the teeth, crawled back on all fours and threw the boy before the captain. He repeated this dangerous journey, rescuing the second boy, and then retreated to his bunk without collecting his reward.
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When the ship returned to Hamburg, the captain of the ship reported the boy's exploits to the ship's owner. Impressed by the lad's courage, the owner invited Paul to dine with him at his table the next day. Paul declined, insisting that “he first had to bring ashore the ship's load of rice together with the rest of the crew.” Paul returned home soon after for a couple of months, where his brother Friedrich Wilhelm taught him the necessary mathematics to obtain his mate's certificate. Paul then passed the exam and became an officer on a big merchant ship of the America Line.
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He also apparently served in the British army in Calcutta, India, and then in China and participated in the Siege of Peking during the Second Opium War (1856–1860).
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After leaving China, von König served as a mercenary in the army of General Justo José de Urquiza, the third president of Argentina, and fought in the 1861 Battle of Buenos Aires, wherein Urquiza's forces defeated a rebel army during a civil war. He then came to the United States to serve in the American Civil War.
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He was quite a character—the sort of fellow who was addicted to thrill seeking.

Paul's younger brother Carl August Robert, who went by the name Robert, had served in the Second War of Italian Independence and was badly wounded at the 1859 Battle of Solferino. Robert recovered from his wound at the family estate, and when the Civil War broke out, he and Paul set sail to find adventure in America. A fellow Union officer remembered that Paul came to the United States to study military field service.
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Unlike Paul, who spoke fluent English from his years spent working on American and British ships, Robert's English was rather broken.
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The brothers landed in New York and set about looking for a regiment to join. “The chief reason for their going in on our side is that they hate Negro slavery,” remembered a friend.
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Colonel Robert J. Betge, a German immigrant with no prior military service, received authority to recruit a regiment of infantry on July 22, 1861, in the aftermath of the disastrous defeat of the Union army at the First Battle of Bull Run the day before.
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The unit, designated the 68
^th
Infantry Regiment, New York Volunteers, was also known as the 2
^nd
German Rifles. It was recruited in New York City and consisted of men—mostly German immigrants—from New York City, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. It mustered for service in New York during the month of August 1862.
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Robert and Paul von König both enlisted in the 68
^th
New York Infantry on August 10, 1861. Paul mustered in as first sergeant of Company F and was promoted to second lieutenant of Company G two days later. On January 17, 1862, he was promoted again, this time to first lieutenant. As a result of his prior military service, Robert was immediately commissioned captain of Company F.
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The 68
^th
New York was assigned to serve in Major General John C. Frémont's Mountain Department, operating in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The regiment participated in the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, 1862, during Jackson's Valley Campaign. After Frémont's command was consolidated with the separate commands of Major General Nathaniel Banks and Major General James Shields to form the Army of Virginia under command of Major General John Pope after the end of Jackson's campaign, the 68
^th
New York served in the corps of Major General Franz Sigel, a politically influential German immigrant.

Paul von König was brave and popular with the men under his command. He reminded one officer “of a game cock forgetting all danger in the presence of enemies on the field of battle.” Another recalled him “as being inspired to personal deeds of valor in the time of battle, forgetting personal safety even beyond good judgment.”
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He quickly developed a reputation for fearlessness. “He was among the most devoted and audacious scouts,” remembered Paul's older brother Friedrich Wilhelm years later. “I still have an authentic order of General Siegel [
sic
]‚ who ordered Paul to make a long-range reconnaissance with 150 cavalrymen.”
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On another occasion, Paul led a detail of 12 enlisted men nearly forty-five miles behind enemy lines to near Culpeper Court House, Virginia, taking 2 prisoners and safely returning despite passing by a village occupied by 1,000 armed Confederate troops.
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The 68
^th
New York served throughout Pope's unsuccessful campaign in Virginia that summer, culminating with the disastrous defeat of Pope's army at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29–30, 1862. Paul had three horses shot out from under him at Second Bull Run, but the fearless baron never flinched and was not harmed himself.
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In recognition of that indomitable courage, Paul received a promotion to captain of Company D on September 22, 1862. However, he did not take command of his company because he was instead detailed to serve on the staff of Major General Carl Schurz, another politically influential German immigrant who had been a leader of the failed Baden Revolution of 1848. Schurz commanded a division in Sigel's corps.
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Paul and Robert both spent most of the fall of 1862 on duty in Washington, D.C. While there, they made the acquaintance of Brigadier General James Garfield of Ohio. The future president of the United States was in Washington to serve on the court-martial panel of Major General Fitz-John Porter, accused of insubordination by John Pope. They quickly became fast friends. Garfield described Paul as “a perfect, jolly devil-may-care sort of fellow.” Garfield reported to his wife, “Paul von Koenig, the elder, has taken quite a fancy to me and wants to be on my staff if I go to the West.”
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The two officers enjoyed each other's company throughout Paul's stay in Washington, D.C.

While enjoying his stay in Washington, Paul met secretary of the treasury Salmon P. Chase and his beautiful daughter, Kate, next to whom Paul sat at a dinner. When the dashing baron took off his gloves, his rough hands shocked her. She burst out, “But Baron von König what hands you have!” He shot back, “That is from labor,” prompting her to blush and respond, “That is most honorable.” Such was the company that Paul's contacts and noble pedigree enabled him to keep.
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On December 24, 1862, Paul's younger brother Robert resigned his commission and was discharged from the army.
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Robert apparently returned to Germany after leaving the army, leaving Paul alone in America.
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The circumstances of Robert's resignation and discharge are not known but presumably had something to do with the lingering effects of his Solferino wound. Robert's adventure in America ended quietly.

Unfortunately, Paul did not get his wish. When Garfield was ordered to join Major General William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland as chief of staff, von König did not accompany him. At first, he returned to Schurz's staff as the ordnance officer for Schurz's division, but in April 1863, he was assigned to serve on Brigadier General William Woods Averell's staff as an aide de camp and accompanied Averell on the Stoneman Raid. When Averell was relieved of command of his Second Cavalry Division and was reassigned to Wheeling, von König accompanied him. He served with Averell for the rest of his life.
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The regimental historian of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry, who met the baron when Averell took command of the Fourth Separate Brigade, recalled him as “a brave, dashing cavalryman who knew no fear, whose ambition was to be braver than the bravest of the brave men in General Averell's Division of the Army of West Virginia.”
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It comes as no surprise, then, that Averell gave the baron the most difficult assignments scouting and leading detachments of men into dangerous situations, just as he did at White Sulphur Springs.

Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs joined Averell's staff on August 12, 1863, just two weeks before Paul von König's death. “He is a very fine soldier and a friend and admirer of Sec. Chase,” reported Lieutenant Meigs in a letter to his father on August 23, 1863. Meigs also described the German baron as “a jolly Dutchman” in his letter home.
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Paul von König was killed instantly while leading the flank attack of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry late on the afternoon of August 26, 1863. Averell singled out the dead hero for special praise when he penned his report of the action, noting his gallantry in action.
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Circumstances forced Averell to leave his dead behind when he withdrew on August 27. The Confederates buried the dead where they fell on the battlefield, including von König.
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Thirty-five years later, in 1898, Captain Thomas R. Kerr of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry set out to find the baron's resting place. While he was able to locate the Union and Confederate lines of battle, he failed to find any trace of the grave and gave up. Ten years later, in 1908, Colonel James M. Schoonmaker of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry, then the wealthy and prominent president of a railroad, located the house used as a hospital where von König's body was taken. The owner of the house—a Confederate veteran of the Battle of White Sulphur Springs—had helped to bury the dead and remembered “where a German with long hair found at the rock had been buried and took Schoonmaker to the spot, just a short distance below where he had fallen.” Schoonmaker made note of the location of the grave.
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In 1913, Schoonmaker visited Europe. While there, he met Paul von König's youngest brother, Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich Götz Freiherr von König, who was by then a sixty-four-year-old lieutenant general of cavalry in Kaiser Wilhelm II's Landwehr.
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When Schoonmaker told the general that the long-lost grave of his brother had only recently been located, General von König expressed the hope that the United States government would properly mark the resting place of the lamented hero.
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