Arrest of Atzerodt

[Bill Richter]

My father came here from Germany via Latin America in 1930. He spoke English, but British English. He came in time to speak American English, but he never got rid of his German accent. Unlike some immigrants who basically adapted to this country so much as to "forget" their native tongue, my father prided himself in his ability to speak German to the day he died. But he never really understood the United States. It was his adopted home but never his real home, culturally speaking.

How much Adzerodt "learned" English is problematical. I had him speak heavily accented English with a German grammar base in Last Confederate Heroes. I also wondered if he really understood what was going on around him while in the hands of the authorities. He obviously had some difficulty expressing himself in English. I thought that had a German-speaking officer or lawyer spoken with him his story about the assassination would have made more sense. Those who took notes as he confessed obviously had trouble understanding him.

He was viewed by the authorities as a dumb Dutchman, as they called all Germans incorrectly. He was also viewed as corrupted by Southern society and slavery, as most Yankees believed the average Southerner was in those days. George could be eager to adopt English to get along, but have you-all ever spoken to a native speaker in a foreign country? I have and it can be a formidable barrier, I can guarantee you. Besides not everybody can pick up a foreign language. Take a beginning Spanish class and see.

I have seen people married to Hispanics who would love to communicate with their Hispanic relatives and cannot learn enough Spanish to do so no matter how hard they try. I have taken German (we did not speak it at home since we lived in an English speaking country) and Spanish. I once could think in German, but I never have been able to do that in Spanish and I actually use that in everyday living in Arizona and used it in business. BTEW I took only 16 hours of German in college and 28 hours of Spanish and several refresher courses since.

So George can speak as one likes to believe he can IMO. It is 6 of one and a half dozen of another. But I can say, wearing a cowboy hat rolled Southwestern style, being blond haired and blue eyed and speaking some Spanish will get you really far with Latin women!