St. Marys Twp. -
AUGUST WILLICH.  St. Mary's will long be memorable as the last home and final resting place of that old hero.  On his monument is the extraordinary record:  "Born Nov. 19, 1810, in Braunsberg, Prussia; died Jan. 22, 1878, at St. Mary's Ohio.  Commanding army of the Rebolution in Germany, 1849; private 9th Regt. O. V. I.; Colonel 32d Regt. Ind. Vol. Inf.; Brigadier Gen. U. S. Vol. July, 1862; Brevet Maj. Gen. U. S. Vol. Oct. 21, 1865."
     A friend in St. Mary's who lived him as a brother thus outlines for these pages the story of his heroic and noble life.
     General August Willich was born in Braunsberg, Prussia, Nov. 19, 1910.  When twelve years of age he was appointed a cadet at the military school in Potsdam, and three years later he entered the military academy in Berlin, whence in 1828 he was commissioned a lieutenant and assigned to the artillery.
     Democratic sentiments were prevalent amongst the officers of this corps, and many were transferred to other commands Willich, then a captain, was sent to Fort Kalberg in 1846; he resigned his commission, which a year later was accepted.  Thereafter he became a conspicuous leader of the revolutionary and working classes assuming the trade and garb of a carpenter.
     In March, 1848, he commanded the popular assault and capture of the Town Hall in Cologne; a month later the Republic was declared in Baden, and Willich was tendered the command of all the revolutionary forces; on Apr. 20, 1848, this force was attacked by an overwhelming force of the government troops, defeating and scattering them.  Willich, with over a thousand of his followers, sought and found refuge in France.
     The next year, 1849, Willich again crossed the boundary and besieged the Fortress of Landau, until it was relieved by an army under the Prince of Prussia, now Emperor of Germany.  After several other exploits, all revolutionary forces were defeated, and on July 11th the last column under Willich crossed the border to Switzerland.
     Crossing France on his way to England, Willich was arrested in Lyons by order of the then president, Louis Napoleon, to be surrendered to Prussia, but released in consequence of public demonstrations in his favor.
     In 1853 he came to the United States, and found employment on the coast survey from Hilton Head to South Carolina, under Captain Moffitt, later commander of the rebel cruiser "Florida."  In 1858 he was called to Cincinnati to assume the editorial chair of the German Republican, the organ of the workingmen.
     On the breaking out of the war he joined the Ninth Regiment, O. V. I., and as private, adjutant and major organized and drilled it.  After the battle of Rich Mountain he was commissioned a colonel by Governor Morton, of Indiana, and organized the Thirty-second Regiment Indiana V. I., with which he entered the field and participated in the battle at Mumfordsville, Ky., of the regiment with the Texas Rangers at Green River, under Colonel Terry, who was killed, and totally routed.
     General Willich's history thereafter is part of the history of the Army of the Cumberland.  His memorable exploit at Shiloh was followed by a commission as brigadier-general.  At Stone River, by the unfortunate fall of his horse, he was taken prisoner.  At the battle of Chickamauga he held the right of Thomas' line, and with his brigade covered the rear of our forces on its retreat to Rossville.  At Missionary Ridge his brigade was among the first to storm the rebel works, resulting in the rout of the enemy.  His career in the Atlanta campaign was cut short by the serious wound in the shoulder, received at Rasaca, Ga.
     He was then placed in command of the post at Cincinnati until March, 1865, when he assumed command of his brigade and accompanied it to Texas, until its return and muster out, as brevet major-general.
     In 1867 he was elected auditor of Hamilton county; after the expiration of his term in 1869 he revisited Germany, and again took up the studies of his youth, philosophy, at the University of Berlin.  His request to enter the army in the French-German war of 1870 was not granted, and he returned to his adopted country, making his home in St. Mary's, Ohio, with his old friend, Major Charles Hipp, and many other pleasant and congenial friends.
     In those few years he was a prominent figure in all social circles, hailed by every child in town, and died Jan. 23, 1878, from paralysis of the heart, followed to his grave in the beautiful Elmwood Cemetery by three companies of State militia, delegations from the Ninth Ohio and Thirty-second Indiana Volunteers, the children of the schools, and a vast concourse of sorrowing friends.
     In his "Ohio in the War," Whitelaw Reid gives Willich extraordinary commendation.  He says:  "In the opening of Rosecrans' campaign against Bragg in 1863, General Willich took Liberty Gap with his brigade, supported by two retiments from another command.  Rosecrans characterizes this as the finest fighting he witnessed in the war.  The manoeuvering of the brigade was by bugle signals, and the precision of the movements was equal to a parade.
     "His brilliant execution of his order to take the enemy's works at the foot of Mission Ridge was one of the greatest featss of the war.  His services at Chickamauga, also, under the direction of Thomas, were gallant in the extreme.  He was finally left to cover the retreat and maintained his position until the whole army arrived safely at Chattanooga."  (From Howe's History of Ohio)
Source: History of Western Ohio & Auglaize County -  by C. W. Williamson - Columbus, Ohio - Press of W. M. Linn & Sons - 1905 - Page 685