Heros von Borcke

Heros von Borcke
Heros von Borcke in his Major's uniform, CSA; he was conspicuous on the battlefield for his large height and girth and the extremely large sword he wielded, became known as the "German giant in gray."
Birth name	Johann August Heinrich Heros von Borcke
Birth date	23 July 1835(1835-07-23)
Place of birth	Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation
Death date	10 May 1895 (aged 59)
Place of death	Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Resting place	Mausoleum von Borcke in the Old Cemetery at Giesenbrügge, Province of Brandenburg (52°56′28.1″N 15°00′05.2″E)
Allegiance	Kingdom of Prussia German Confederation Confederate States of America
Service/branch	Prussian Army Confederate States Army
Years of service	1853–1862 (Prussia) 1862–1865 (C.S.) 1866–1867 (Prussia)
Rank	2nd Lieutenant (Prussia) Lieutenant-Colonel (C.S.) Rittmeister (Prussia)
Unit	Brandenburgisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 2 Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Neumärkisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 3
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Seven Pines Battle of Mechanicsville Battle of Gaines' Mill Second Battle of Manassas]] Maryland Campaign Battle of Harpers Ferry Battle of Crampton's Gap Battle of Sharpsburg Battle of Kelly's Ford Pennsylvania Expedition Battle of Brandy Station Battle of Middleburg (WIA) Battle of Yellow Tavern German War of Brothers Battle of Königgrätz
Awards	Red Eagle Order Prussian Crown Order
Relations	∞ 16 September 1867 Madalene Honig (1845–1883) ∞ 31 July 1885 Tony Honig (1849–1928)

Johann August Heinrich Heros von Borcke (23 July 1835 – 10 May 1895) was a German cavalry officer and writer. Today, he is best known for his two years' service (1862–1864) as a Confederate cavalry officer in the Army of Northern Virginia, during the American Civil War.

Life

Coat of Arms

Stuart’s Confederate cavalry clash with General Buford’s Federal cavalry division near Middleburg, Virginia on 19 June 1863. During the battle, Major von Borcke was severely wounded in the neck. At the time, the wound was thought to be mortal.

Nomination and appointment of Major von Borcke to Lieutenant Colonel (CSA), 15 December 1864

Family life and father of four children

Early life

Heros was the son of lord of the manor 2nd Lieutenant (ret.) Theodor Otto Heros von Borcke (1805–1878), who had served with the West Prussian 19. Infanterie-Regiment at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress until 1935, and his wife Maria Theresia, née Adloff (1815–1847). His grandfather, who lived in Berlin but visited every autumn, was Lieutenant Colonel Christian Heinrich von Borcke (1775–1854), a veteran of the Franco-German War, who was severely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo and earned the Iron Cross, 2nd Class. His maternal grandfather, Privy Councilor Adloff, had also earned the Iron Cross.

On his parents' estate (since 1837) Giesenbrügge (Kreis Soldin), Heros, together with his four other siblings, the brothers Bernhard Theodor Arthur (1838–1917) and Otto Philipp (1845–1890) as well as the sisters Maria "Marie" (1839–1920) and Anastasia "Anna" (1842–1904), enjoyed a happy childhood (the youngest sister Martha died before she had turned two) until the stroke of fate when the mother died while still so young. Heros received his first horse on 23 July 1845 as a birthday present, but also a crossbow.

After initial education at home and at the local village school of Barnimslow near Stettin (as of spring 1846), Heros received his schooling at the Cologne Gymnasium (Köllnisches Gymnasium) in Berlin (as of October 1847). In Prussia's capital he was a direct eyewitness to the events in the revolutionary year of 1848. His impressions of street meetings and tumults among Berlin citizens, of barricades and bloody street fights during the Prussian March Revolution as well as of unrest in the Neumark, point to a time of political, social and economic upheaval in which the traditional power and social structure was coming to an end. Heros spent his remaining school years at the Franckesche Anstalten pedagogy in Halle an der Saale.

Prussian cavalry

Von Borcke became a Prussian cavalry officer candidate (Avantageur) in 1853, served with the 4th Squadron of the Guards Cuirassiers (Garde-Kürassier-Regiment) and was commissioned as a Sekondeleutnant (2nd Lieutenant) in 1855. After promotion, the young officers had to be presented to the King of Prussia as Chef of the Guard Cuirassier Regiment. He resigned for studies in 1858. In order to broaden his horizon and improve his knowledge of the French language, his father sent him to Paris.

As a reserve officer with the 2. Garde-Landwehr-Kavallerieregiment, he was mobilized during the Second Italian War of Independence. After demobilization in July 1859, he returned to active duty from 1859 to 1862 in the 5th Squadron of the 2d Brandenburg Dragoons (Brandenburgisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 2). In 1861, he learned of the Civil War and traveled across the Atlantic to fight for the Southern cause in 1862.

Confederate States of America

He was a large man (perhaps 6' 4" tall) from an "old Prussian military family of the titled nobility", and was serving in the 2nd Brandenburg Regiment of Dragoons as the American Civil War began. He left his Regiment and arrived, through the Federal blockade, at Charleston, SC in May 1862. He joined J.E.B. Stuart as Captain, PACS on 1 June 1862. General Stuart was greatly impressed by von Borke, reporting: "Captain Heros von Borcke, a Prussian cavalry officer, who lately ran the blockade, assigned me by the honorable Secretary of War, joined in the charge of the First Squadron in gallant style, and subsequently, by his energy, skill, and activity, won the praise and admiration of all". Von Borcke's 8 August 1862 appointment as Major was confirmed by the Confederate Congress on 19 September 1862. Later in the month, Stuart again cited him in an after-action report: "[...] near Brandy Station, Va, 20 Aug 1862. Major Heros von Borcke, my adjutant-general, was conspicuous in the charge, and led an important flank attack at the critical moment of the engagement [...]"

Wounded and close to death

During the summer campaign of 1863, a sniper's bullet near Middleburg would ultimately end von Borcke's American military career. It was 19 June 1863. Together with General James Ewell Brown Stuart (who affectionately addressed von Borcke only as "Von") and his staff, he was in an exposed position visible to the Yakees of the Union Army, and this is where the misfortune occurred. Von Borcke later wrote:

As I was dressed exactly like the general, in a short jacket and gray hat with a flowing ostrich feather, and riding my beautiful new horse, I was mistaken for him, and my tall figure soon attracted their very particular attention, for the bullets buzzed around me like a swarm of bees. A bullet had just grazed the gold braid on my trousers and I said to the general, who was riding a little ahead of me on my left: "General, these Yankees are making me very keen on your account," when suddenly I felt a violent, dull thud, as if someone had hit me in the neck with their fist; fiery sparks danced before my eyes and an enormous weight seemed to pull me from my horse. After a few moments of unconsciousness, I opened my eyes again and found myself lying on the ground, my horse standing next to me, and many people and officers crowding around me, eager to pick me up. My left arm hung stiff and lifeless, the blood oozing from a large wound on the side of my neck and pouring out of the wound with every breath.

The helpers managed to take Heros von Borcke from the battle to a doctor, who found that the bullet had penetrated the lower part of the neck, injured the windpipe and had sunk to the lungs. "My dear friend, your wound is fatal and I have little hope that you will live to see the morning." That was the final medical report. Friends rushed to the seriously wounded man's bedside to say goodbye. At last General Stuart came, bent over him and said with tears: "Poor friend, your fate is a sad one, and it was for me that you received this mortal wound."

The northern newspapers were already triumphant that the gigantic Prussian rebel, Stuart's right arm, had fallen. But despite the doctor's prognosis, Heros von Borcke survived. However, after a strenuous transport, he had to spend several months in Richmond Hospital. The recovery process was repeatedly interrupted by hemorrhages and attacks of suffocation. He received frequent messages from Stuart and his comrades, and received letters from them full of affection and friendship. In one of the last ones the general wrote:

"My dear Von, my camp seems lonely and sad to me since you left me. I don't know what to do on the battlefield without you, I feel as if I were deprived of my right arm."

This is how von Borcke describes his slowly improving state of health:

"However, my healing progressed only slowly, although my strength increased daily and I gradually regained the use of my left arm, the revival of which was accompanied by very severe nervous pain. [...]"

The bullet in his chest, which had not been removed, had gradually encapsulated and he was able to return to light duty in the summer of 1864. But hemorrhages and suffocation attacks continued to occur from time to time. Deployment to the front was therefore no longer an option, he was appointed Inspector General of the Army of Virginia Cavalry. While the defensive battles were raging outside Richmond in May 1864, von Borcke received the sad news that Stuart had been seriously wounded. The general received him at his sickbed with the words:

"I'm glad you came, my dear Von. You see, they finally got me, but don't worry, I don't think I was so badly wounded as you, I hope I get through it like you did."

This hope was not to be confirmed. The end soon became apparent. Von Borcke was the last to sit at Stuart's bedside until his death. Stuart said his last goodbye:

"My dear Von, it's quickly coming to an end for me, but before I die, I wish you to know that I have never loved a man as much as you. I pray that your life may be long and happy. Look after my family when I go home and be as loyal a friend to my wife and children as you were to me."

The death of the great cavalry general in Richmond at the home of his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Brewer, ended this short but intense soldier friendship. His wife, Flora (sister of Brigadier General John Rogers Cooke), missed being at his bedside by three hours.

Honorary commemoration

Stuart's proposal to promote Heros von Borcke to brigadier general was not followed by the government in Richmond. It seemed that they did mot want a foreigner to rise in rank so quickly. However, both houses of the Confederate Congress passed by a joint resolution that Heros von Borcke should be honored in the same words as those used to honor the achievements of the French General Lafayette in the American Revolutionary War. Since the President was officially commissioned by Congress to carry out the honor personally, von Borcke became the most highly decorated non-American on American soil to date:

"Since Major Heros von Borcke of Prussia, Adjutant and Inspector General of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, left his own fatherland to help us preserve the independence of ours, and since by his personal bravery in the field he has earned the admiration of his comrades and his commanding general, all of whom share in his present suffering as a result of wounds received on the battlefield, the Congress of the Confederate States of North America resolved that Major Heros von Borcke, named herein, deserves the thanks of Congress for his self-denying devotion to our Confederacy and his distinguished service in supporting our cause; that a copy of this resolution be delivered to Major Heros von Borcke by the President of the Confederate States."

Promotion and farewell

In December 1864, President Jefferson Davis sent von Borcke to England on a secret diplomatic mission. Upon receiving his instructions and powers, the President also handed him the certificate of promotion to lieutenant colonel. While the thunder of cannons announced the great battle for Fort Fisher, which covered the port of Wilmington, he set off for England on Christmas Eve 1864 on the war steamer "Talahassee". He left Wilmington and his beloved Southern States with tears in his eyes. This is how he later described this farewell. In England he received the news of General Robert E. Lee's surrender which ended the Civil War. With these words Heros concluded his American adventure:

"Lee's glorious army is no more! The brave men who made it up, after unspeakable suffering and privations, had to surrender to the superior forces of the enemy in order to now go about their peaceful business again, scattered all over the south. Many of them however, have fallen and did not live to see the bitter end. However, those who survived the mighty struggle for independence can look back with justifiable pride on a series of battles and victories that have few parallels in history. Each of us who wore the gray uniform of the South will always speak with pride and satisfaction of the time that he was a soldier in General Lee's army. I myself am still suffering. I still have the bullet in the chest. Carrying it around with me often causes me pain and often shakes my otherwise robust health. But every renewal of my suffering reminds me of the past. My pain is then amply outweighed by the joy with which I remember that time when I fought side by side with those good men. At all times and for the rest of my life I will be proud to have wielded my sword for the brave people of the American Confederacy and for a just cause."

German War of Brothers

When the mobilization for the German War of Brothers was ordered, Heros von Borcke reported voluntarily and was commanded to the 4th Squadron of the Neumärkisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 3, he was promoted to Premierleunant (1st Lieutenant) à la suite. On 10 August 1867, he retired with the rank of Rittmeister and the right to wear the uniform of the army. Some sources even state, he was at some point granted the rank of honorary Prussian Major, but this is not documented.

Retirement

He retired for health reasons stemming from his 1863 wounds to the estate Zychze, which he bought, near Konitz in West Prussia in 1867, then he inherited estate (Rittergut) of Giesenbrügge from his father. It was reportedly "his delight to fly the Confederate flag from its battlements". In Giesenbrügge he also showed Stuart's hat and Saber, which he had received as a gift at the general's death bed, to the visitors of the estate.

On 26 August 1883 (another source states 28 August) in Heringsdorf, von Borcke's beloved wife Madalene (b. 13 July 1845 at Gut Gralow) died, and two years later, he married her sister Tony who would raise her three nephews, now step-sons, with utmost love and care. They named their daughter Caroline Virginia Magdalene (b. 31 July 1885 at Rittergut Giesenbrügge) in honor of Borcke's adopted state and his first wife, who had always wanted a daughter.

Return to Virginia

In between, in 1884, he sailed back to revisit the Southern United States and was reunited with many former comrades and friends, including Wade Hampton, William H. F. Lee, and Matthew C. Butler. In Richmond, his first visit was to the Price family, who had cared for him during his recovery. He then went to the grave of his former commander and friend J.E.B. Stuart at Hollywood Cemetery.

Receptions and celebrations with old war comrades followed in his honor. One of the highlights of the trip was a feast given to him by the old Stuart horsemen in Richmond. Here it happened that the hall doors flew open and a young man entered and handed him his pallasch, his admired and feared saber. It was the Price family's son who recovered the piece, glowing but safe, from the ashes of the house burned down by the Federals. Heros von Borcke had left the saber at his foster family's house in his haste to return home.

He was asked by his fellow soldiers to entrust them with the saber as a memento of the brother in arms they revered. The Virginia Senate later adopted the saber as a "relic" of the great war. Today it is on display in the Confederate Museum in Richmond. When General Williams Carter Wickham handed it over to the Senate, he said:

"This is the sword of Heros von Borcke. You see, he was not a child who carried this saber. I still remember when he came to us, a youth, to reap fame and his fate of our states. I well remember the many battles when he wielded that mighty saber as if it were of great lightness. I well remember how this man did his duty again and again, always the first to attack, always the last to retreat. No soldier in the Confederate Army did his service more conscientiously than Heros von Borcke."

Particularly important to Heros von Borcke was a visit to Mrs. Flora Stuart (1836–1923), the widow of his war friend, who was headmistress of a girls' school (Virginia Female Institute, one of the state's oldest Episcopal schools and the oldest college preparatory school for girls in Virginia) in Staunton. When he got there it was school holidays. The school was festively decorated with Confederate and Imperial German flags. Mrs. Stuart received von Borcke together with her daughter Virginia Pelham Stuart (1863–1898). There was great joy on all sides. Memories were exchanged, during which the figure of the great cavalry general, husband, father and friend came to life again.

When Heros boarded the ship for Germany again on 16 August 1884, he did so with a grateful heart for the affection and friendship of his old brothers in arms, who had not forgotten him despite his 20-year absence.

Death

He died in Berlin in 1895 due to a sepsis caused by the remaining projectile which had wounded him in the Battle of Middleburg on 19 June 1863. His headstone over his grave in Giesenbrügge was destroyed by the Red Army during World War II. The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) purchased a new headstone, which was reinstalled in 2008.

A few weeks before his sixtieth birthday, on 10 May 1895, Heros died of blood poisoning in Berlin. The Yankee bullet that was fired at him 30 years ago, which could not be removed from his chest, repeatedly caused hemorrhages despite being encapsulated and gradually poisoned his blood, led to the death of this man, who through his American adventure and his printed Memories of his life have remained unforgotten to this day. He was buried next to his parents in the mausoleum in Giesenbrügge. The burial site was looted at the end of the last war and is now largely destroyed. We learn from Hero's nephew Kurt von Borcke that Giesenbrügge had already run into economic difficulties under his father Theodor, who was not a farmer, and that Hero, who wanted to transfer the completely different American conditions to Giesenbrügge, went bankrupt as a result. The estate was taken over by his brother-in-law Lebrecht von Klitzing auf Dieckow, later came into the possession of the von Treskow family and was parceled out in 1928 for farmers to settle there. The manor house, converted into a school after 1928, was destroyed after the last war. Only the remains of a boundary wall remain. The mausoleum, the grave site of Heros von Borcke and his parents, is falling into disrepair. The zinc coffins were looted and the gravestones broken. In 2004, the remains of the broken gravestones were recovered.

Awards and decorations

• Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class with Swords
• Commemorative Cross for the Campaign of 1866 (Erinnerungs-Kreuz für den Feldzug von 1866)
• Prussian Order of the Crown (Preußischer Kronenorden), 3rd Class

Writings

• Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, Edinburgh 1866
  • Volume I
  • Volume II
  • Complete in one Volume, with a Map, 1867
  • Several reprints, among them New York 1938, Sanders & Co., 1999 and 2002
• Zwei Jahre im Sattel und am Feinde. Erinnerung aus dem Unabhängigkeitskriege der Konföderierten. Mit einem Bildniss des Generals Stuart und einer Karte des Kriegsschauplatzes, Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn, 2 Volumes, Berlin 1877 and 1898; Volume 1, Volume 2
• Die große Reiterschlacht bei Brandy Station 9. Juni 1863, (with Justus Scheibert), Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1893
• Mit Prinz Friedrich Karl. Kriegs- und Jagdfahrten und am häuslichen Herd, Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1893
• Junges Blut. Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1895
• Auf dem Kriegspfade. Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1895
• An des Grabes Rande. Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1895
• Ein Reis von altem Stamm. Roman aus dem Leben, Verlag Paul Kittel, Berlin 1895–96
  • Reprint: LTR-Verlag, Buchholz-Sprötze 1993

Further reading

• Stephen W. Sears: The Civil War. A Treasury of Art & Literature, Beaux Arts Edition, New York 1992
• Robert J. Trout: They Followed the Plume – The Story of J.E.B. Stuart and His Staff, 2003

External links

• History of the ‚von Borcke‘ family
• Members of the von Borcke family with the rank of general
• Heros von Borcke – Cross Marking Ceremony, Giesenbrügge (Gyzin), 3 September 2008