Brigadier General William George Mank, 32nd Indiana
By Michael A. Peake

William George Mank was born in 1833 to William and Henrietta (von Hinckel) Mank in the Hessen university town of Giessen, Germany. He enlisted in 1861, and served on the Upper Potomac with Colonel Lew Wallace’s three-month 11th Regiment of Indiana Zouaves. Mank collaborated with Frank Erdelmeyer, another former 11th Indiana soldier, in organizing a German company that would become Company “A,” 32nd Indiana. He served on recruiting duty throughout his service with the 32nd Indiana and was responsible for signing hundreds of recruits for the German Regiment. Despite that duty, he managed to be in the ranks through the many major battles the regiment experienced, rising in rank from 1st lieutenant to major. Mank went on to become lieutenant colonel of the 8th U. S. Veteran Volunteer Infantry in March 1865, and in December, he was brevetted brigadier general "for faithful and meritorious service." He died at age 56 on March 21, 1887, in a rooming house at 126 Forsyth Street in Brooklyn, New York, survived by two daughters living in Evansville, Indiana, and his second wife Carrie who resided in New York. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Section A, Lot 14529 of the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, in Middle Village, and for one hundred and eleven years, he lay at rest with no marker until members of the Oliver Tilden Camp #26 Sons of Union Veterans of New York City endeavored to dedicate a proper headstone to this German immigrant in October 1998.

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Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129697

Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129700

Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129696