Captain Philip H. Monninger, 32nd Indiana
By Michael A. Peake

Philip H. Monninger was born September 14, 1831, in Albersweiler (Ahrweiler), Rhine Province of the Palatinate, Germany, and at the age of sixteen years, attended the Berlin Military Academy, during a time of a growing political storm in Germany. In 1849, eighteen-year-old Philip Monninger received promotion to captain in the regular army on the eve of the revolutionary upheaval that engulfed the region, but the young army officer found his allegiance with the revolutionists against the superior Imperial forces of Hesse and Prussia.

Monninger served with a force that managed to fight through to escape into exile near Strasburg, in July 1849 and later that year he arrived in America. He stated a destination of Cincinnati, Ohio, but he relocated to Madison, Indiana, then Indianapolis and finally settled on Terre Haute in 1852. Soon after arriving, Monninger purchased the White Hall that he managed for the next nine years, until revolution again. On August 9, 1861, he began recruiting a company from the German citizens of Vigo County. Thirteen days later, Monninger mustered his men in as Company “E,” 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, the 1st Indiana German Regiment. On December 24, 1861, Captain Monninger received a late night injury on the picket line that resulted in permanent disability. He resigned January 7, 1862, and returned to Terre Haute to create one of Indiana’s finest wineries on thirty acres purchased in 1868. Philip Monninger died in Terre Haute on July 2, 1907, survived by eleven children from two marriages.

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Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129648