Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Steinwehr, Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich, Baron von
STEINWEHR, Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich, Baron von, soldier, b. in Blankenburg, duchy of Brunswick, Germany, 25 Sept., 1822; d. in Buffalo, N. Y., 25 Feb., 1877. His father was a major in the ducal service, and his grandfather a lieutenant-general in the Prussian army. Adolph was educated at the military academy in the city of Brunswick, and entered the army of the duchy as lieutenant in 1841. In 1847 he resigned and came to the United States to offer his services to the government during the Mexican war. Failing to obtain a commission in the regular army, he returned to Germany after marrying an American lady. In 1854 he again visited this country and purchased a farm near Wallingford, Conn. At the beginning of the civil war he raised a regiment, the 29th New York, which he commanded at the first battle of Bull Run, forming part of the reserve under Col. Dixon S. Miles. On 12 Oct., 1861, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers and placed at the head of the 2d brigade, Gen. Louis Blenker's division, which was attached in May, 1862, to the Mountain department under Gen. John C. Frémont. When Gen. Franz Sigel assumed command of the corps, after the organization of the Army of Virginia, Gen. Steinwehr was given the 2d division, and with it took part in the campaign on the Rapidan and Rappahannock in the following August. He also retained it when the command of the corps passed into the hands of Gen. Oliver O. Howard, and under that officer fought in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He remained with the army until the close of the war. His home for several years before his death was in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he prepared an “Eclectic Series” of school geographies that was widely circulated, and published “A Topographical Map of the United States” and “The Centennial Gazetteer” (Philadelphia, 1873).