Frederick Knefler-Cedar Herald Index

Frederick Knefler (April 12, 1824 – June 14, 1901) served in the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War, joining as a first lieutenant in May 1861. He served as a staff officer and as colonel of the 79th Indiana Infantry Regiment and an acting brigade commander. In 1866, he was nominated and confirmed for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865.

Early life

Frederick Knefler (Knoepfler Frigyes) was born in Arad, Hungary, son of Nathan Knoepfler, a Hungarian Jew and a physician. He enlisted with his father in the revolutionary forces during the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Liberation. After the revolutionary forces were defeated, the entire Knoepfler family fled to the United States, first to New York, then to Indianapolis, Indiana. As one of the earliest Jewish families settling in Indianapolis, Dr. Knoepfler was one of the original founders of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation.

Frederick Knefler

Knefler trained as a carpenter in New York, a trade he continued in Indianapolis as he studied law. He became assistant to the clerk of Marion County, Indiana, in which position he became acquainted with Lew Wallace.

Frederick Knefler

Civil War service

11th Indiana Infantry

Upon President Lincoln's proclamation calling for the raising of 75,000 troops after the firing on Fort Sumter, Governor Oliver Morton appointed Lew Wallace Adjutant-General with the task of raising Indiana's quota. Wallace, in turn, appointed Knefler as his principal assistant. After raising five regiments, Wallace requested and received command of the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment, commissioning Knefler as a first lieutenant in it; he was promoted to captain on June 5, 1861.

Frederick Knefler

The 11th Indiana Infantry was sent to the Washington, D.C., area, participated in several skirmishes, but missed the first battle of Bull Run. Their 3-month term of enlistment expired, the regiment was shipped back to Indianapolis and mustered out. When Wallace then formed a new 11th Indiana Infantry in August 1861, Knefler was commissioned a captain in it. Soon after, however, Wallace became a brigadier general and Knefler went with him as his assistant adjutant general.

Aide to General Lew Wallace

Wallace's brigade was part of Grant's force in the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, playing a key part in preventing the Confederate forces from forcing an escape from Fort Donelson through the Union lines. Wallace's report of the battle stated that Knefler's “prompt and efficient service in the field” and his “courage and fidelity have earned my lasting gratitude.”

Knefler was also with Wallace in the Battle of Shiloh, and his loss of the messenger's written transcription of Grant's oral order during the battle probably prevented resolution of the dispute between the two generals over whether the ambiguity of the order or Wallace's actions caused his failure to reach the battle on the first day.

Colonel of 79th Indiana Infantry

After Wallace's removal from active service, Indiana governor Oliver Morton appointed Knefler the commanding colonel of the newly formed 79th Indiana Infantry Regiment in August 1862. Sent to join Buell's Army of the Ohio, his regiment, as part of the brigade led by Brigadier General Samuel Beatty, became involved in the battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. At Stones River, Knefler reported his regiment lost one-third of its 341 men, including one-half of its commissioned officers. The 79th Indiana captured a key battery during the first day of Chickamauga, but was cut in half in the Confederate breakthrough on the second day, Knefler's half attempting to regroup Beatty's brigade until withdrawn, the other half helping hold Snodgrass Hill until the Confederate charge was finally repulsed. In the battle of Missionary Ridge, Knefler was in command of the combined 79th Indiana and 86th Indiana infantry regiments that led the unexpected charge up the center of the ridge. General Beatty's report after the battle complimented Knefler for the charging of Missionary Ridge, and fellow colonel George Dick wrote that he “richly merits a commission as brigadier-general for his gallantry displayed in the charging and taking of Missionary Ridge.”

According to the Jewish-American History Foundation in recognition of the services rendered by the regiment at Chickamauga, the state of Indiana erected a monument on the battlefield after the war. The tablet of the monument reads: