I would have hated to encounter those two gentlemen on the battlefield when they were in their prime. The “Dutch” they referred to were German immigrants concentrated in Saint Louis who were pro-Union. The General Lyons mentioned was a hot tempered Yankee regular Army officer who was responsible both for holding Missouri for the Union, and sparking a vicious guerilla war that consumed Missouri during the War and for years thereafter.
In the Union army, it was the German and Irish Brigades that often saved the day in many engagements. Both coming from monarchies that had rather different ideas of the the state and its citizens, they appreciated the difference in America.
The Irish Brigade had a fine reputation. Not so much the German regiments. Thirteen of them were concentrated in the hard luck XI corps, which was beaten like a drum at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
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Concur about the 11th Corps…although Germans bore the brunt of the ire for the Chancellorsville Races, the Anglo units broke just as fast. The Germans held better at Gettysburg, but were again flanked and poorly positioned, proving Howard a mediocre commander, at best. Keller wrote a couple of good studies of the German regiments that highlight the cultural and anti-Catholic bias of men like Howard.