The contribution of German Americans on the war is a topic I’d like to explore in more depth. They got a bad rap in the East, with the failures of the Fights mit Sigel divisions, but they were a significant population within the Union Armies, and, with Carl Schurz and Karl Marx among them, they had a lot of political influence as well.

This article discussed a Western unit and the translation of that regimental history from the original German.

They were a formidable group of soldiers. Some of them had fought in the German Revolution of 1848 and emigrated to the United States after the revolution failed. Others were sons of German revolutionary soldiers.
Virtually all of them were members of the Cincinnati Turner Society, an organization that emphasized the development of the body and the mind. They were physically fit, mentally tough and fully prepared to endure the hardships of war.

The 9th Ohio Regiment, trained locally at Camp Harrison and Camp Dennison, fought so efficiently and ferociously during its three years in the Civil War that the Confederates called them the “Dutch Devils,” and the “Bloody Dutch.”

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/ourhistory/2010/10/15/german-civil-war-soldiers/