Willich to be featured on Facebook live
Local attorney Kraig Noble will interview author of new book on county resident
The Auglaize County Historical Society will host August Willich: Radical Warrior as a Facebook event on Thursday, October 15, 7 pm, on the Historical Society’s Facebook page. The event is free and open to the public.
Local attorney and historian and St. Marys resident Kraig Noble interviews historian David Dixon, the author of a new book chronicling the life of August Willich, one of Auglaize County’s most celebrated residents. Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General ( University of Tennessee Press, 2020) is the biography of a Prussian army officer who renounced his nobility and joined in the failed European revolutions of 1848. Willich emigrated to America, edited a daily labor newspaper in Cincinnati, and became one of the most accomplished generals in the Union Army. His story sheds new light on the contributions of more than 200,000 German- Americans who fought for the Union in the Civil War. At the urging of his close friend and St. Marys resident Charles Hipp, Willich spent his twilight years in St. Marys. At Willich’s funeral in 1878, many thousands of mourners overwhelmed the little town.
To access the event, simply go to the Auglaize County Historical Society’s Facebook page ( also accessible via https://www.facebook.com/Auglaizecountyhistory) a little before 7 pm on October 15. The program will appear as the most current post on the page. Make sure you adjust your volume ( on the screen), if needed. Following the broadcast of the interview, David Dixon will answer questions about Willich and the new biography.
About David Dixon:
David Dixon earned his M. A. in history from the University of Massachusetts in 2003. His first book, The Lost Gettysburg Address, told the unusual life story of Texas slaveholder Charles Anderson, whose speech followed Lincoln’s at Gettysburg, but was never published. It turned up 140 years later in a cardboard box in Wyoming.
David spoke at Gettysburg National Military Park’s Sacred Trust Talks, appeared on Civil War Talk Radio and has presented to more than sixty Civil War Round Tables from coast to coast. He hosts B- List History, a website that features obscure characters and their compelling stories at www.davidtdixon.com.
Founded in 1963, the Auglaize County Historical Society collects, preserves, interprets, and shares the history of Auglaize County, enriching lives by connecting people and communities to the past and to each other. For more information about the event, please contact auglaizecountyhistory@bright.net or 419/ 7389328.