Only two of our ancestors in PetersPioneers fought in the Civil War. They were brothers, Peter and Joseph Schickell, and they both were regimental band leaders.

Peter was born January 17, 1833, and was a year old when he came to America in 1834 with his parents, John Adam and Eva Maria Schickell and three sisters from Bavaria. They were from Kassel, which is 32 miles east northeast of Frankfurt. At that time, Kassel was in the Main-Kreis region in the far northwest corner of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1866, as a result of the Treaty of Prague, Kassel became part of what is now the Kinzig-Main-Kreis region in the far south of Hesse. Kassel is small village and is now part of the town of Biebergemund.

The Schickells settled in Tiffin, Ohio, and had three more children there. The last was Joseph, born on September 23, 1839.

In August 1853, the Schickells moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Joseph, 13, went with them, but Peter, 20, stayed in Tiffin.

Peter and Joseph's father, John Adam, was a music teacher, which explains why they served as regimental band leaders in the Civil War.

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln, who had declared "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free..." was elected president, the first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. On February 9, 1861, The Confederate States of America was formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as 16th President. On April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m. Confederates under Gen. Pierre Beauregard opened fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, beginning the Civil War. On April 17, 1861, Virginia seceded from the Union, followed within five weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy. On April 20, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army and accepted command of the military and naval forces of Virginia.

Joseph Schickell

Troops of the Third Michigan Infantry Regiment received this regimental flag, hand embroidered in white floss with an eagle on both sides. Source: Michigan Historical Museum.

On June 10, 1861, Joseph, 21, enlisted for three years in the U. S. Army at Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a 2nd Class Musician in the Michigan 3rd Infantry Regiment. The Third was organized at Grand Rapids and was mustered into service on June 10, 1861, with an enrollment of 1,040 officers and men. The regiment left Grand Rapids June 13, 1861, for Washington D.C. to join the Army of the Potomac, and one month afterward took part in the action at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia, on July 18, 1861. Joseph was promoted to 1st Class Musician on September 1, 1961. The Third went into winter quarters at Alexandria, Virginia, until March 1962, when it was assigned to General Berry's Brigade, Third Division, Third Corp, then entered upon the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 conducted by General McClellan. The Regiment was engaged in the battle of Williamsburg on May 5th, fought gallantly at Fair Oaks. It engaged the Confederates at Charles City Cross Roads, June 30th then at Malvern Hill July 1st. During the entire campaign, the Third was marching or constructing fortifications, when not fighting the Confederates in the historic battles on the Peninsular Campaign. The campaign ended at the battle of Malvern Hill.

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed a law that ordered the mustering out of regimental bands. The bill was approved by the President and announced in the War Department's General Order 91 of July 29, 1862. Joseph was discharged at Harrison's Landing, on the James River, south of Richmond, Virginia, on August 13, 1862, having completed 14 months of service. It so happened that when the order of disbandment reached the Army of the Potomac, the bands had seen considerable and hard service on the Peninsula, under General McClellan, and therefore the men gladly accepted their discharges.

On December 30, 1863, Joseph, 24, again enlisted in the U. S. Army as a Private in Company B of the 1st Michigan Regiment, Engineers and Mechanics. His occupation was given as carpenter. His physical description was grey eyes, brown hair, light complexion, and 5'5" tall.

On March 1, 1864, Joseph was placed on detail to regimental headquarters to play in the Band. On May 1, he was made leader of the Regimental Band. He was promoted to Artificer on November 1, 1964, and Sergeant on April 5, 1865.

The flag of the 1st Michigan Regiment, Engineers and Mechanics. Source: Civil War Re-enacting & Living History Group.

The regiment was made up primarily of engineers and mechanics. It did not function as a unit but was broken into four detachments assigned to divisions of the Army of the Ohio. These units performed engineering duty on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, the Tennessee & Alabama Railroad and the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. They re-opened the Tennessee River. They performed engineering duty on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad and the Atlantic & Western Railroad. They were ordered to Atlanta, Georgia on September 25. On the march to the sea they destroyed railroad track and bridges. They were present at the Siege of Savannah December 10-21 and went on to participate in the Carolina Campaign January to April, 1865. They were back in Tennessee to work again on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. They participated in siege of Murfreesboro, Tennesee December 5-12, 1864. They rejoined Regiment at Goldsboro, N. C., March 25, 1865 and advanced on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26. They marched to Washington, D. C., via Richmond, Virginia, April 29-May 20. They participated in the Grand Review May 24. They returned to Nashville July 1, were mustered out September 22, and were discharged at Jackson, Michigan on October 1, 1865.

Joseph was among those discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, on September 22, 1865, having completed 20 months of service. We know nothing more about Joseph except that his father's notebook, written in 1878-79, says he "participated in the war in the southern states and lies buried in Columbus, Ohio."

Peter Schickell

The battle flag of the Ohio 10th Infantry Regiment, a mostly Irish-American regiment led by William Haines Lytle. The 142-year-old flag, made of green silk, with gold embroidery and red highlights, needed extensive work to make it presentable. About 40 percent of it was missing, and the rest was in many small pieces. Source: Cincinnati Museum Center.

On September 7, 1861, Peter, 27, enlisted for three years in the U. S. Army at Cincinnati, Ohio, as a Musician in the Ohio 10th Infantry Regiment.

The 10th was organized at Cincinnati, May 7th, 1861, for three months service, and June 3d, for three years, under Colonel Wm. H. Lytle, it served in West Virginia under McClellan and Rosecrans; was transferred to Kentucky under General Mitchell in November, and took part in the battle of Perryville, in October, 1862.

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed a law that ordered the mustering out of regimental bands. The bill was approved by the President and announced in the War Department's General Order 91 of July 29, 1862. Peter was discharged as a 1st Class Musician at Nashville, Tennessee, on September 10, 1862, having completed 12 months of service.

In 1866, Bavaria, Hesse, and other German states sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia won the war. In the Treaty of Prague on August 23, 1866, Prussia acquired Hesse, and Hesse acquired three small border districts from Bavaria. One district was Orb, which included Kassel, the Schickells' home town.

In 1867, John Adam and Maria Eva's son Peter married Ann E. Cordes. They lived in Madison, Wisconsin, for a couple years, where their first two children, Anna and Cecilia, were born. By the 1870 census, however, they were back in Grand Rapids, where their third child, Eugenia, was born. Peter was shown as a retail grocer in the 1870 census and a musician in the 1880 census. In the 1889 Grand Rapids city directory, he was a partner in Shinkman and Shickell, engaged in insurance, real estate, and loans.

Advertisement for Peter C. Shickell grocery store, 1870 History and Directory of Kent County, Michigan.