Captain Louis Ernest von Trebra, 32nd Indiana
By Michael A. Peake

Louis von Trebra was born the second son of Gustav and Louise in Lübben, Prussia, on November 28, 1841. The nineteen year-old Louis mustered into Company “C,” the Aurora Company, as a private on September 20, 1861. On May 19, 1862, just over a month after the battle of Shiloh, Louis von Trebra was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of Company “A,” and formed a close bond with tent mate Adolph Metzner. While the army lay under siege at Chattanooga following the loss at Chickamauga, Louis took command as captain of Company “E.” He led the company for the remainder of the regiment’s three-year term of service, and At Pickett’s Mill, Georgia on May 27, 1864, Captain von Trebra numbered among the numerous wounded when a Rebel musket ball entered two inches above the outer left ankle, ranged upward lacerating muscles and fracturing bones before exiting the back of the leg on the inside. He returned to life as a farmer in Arcola, Illinois and became an American citizen on October 12, 1864. On June 18, 1865, at Arcola, he married his brother's widow, Janet von Trebra. The family relocated to the region around Manhattan, Kansas, where Louis and Janet raised a family of four sons, including Henry’s son Henry Carl, and four daughters. The old veteran was laid to rest at Chetopa, Kansas, on July 5, 1911.

For Full Bio Click Here

Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-123947