Nicholas J. Rusch

Nicholas Johann Rusch ( born February 16, 1822 in Saint Michaelisdonn, Duchy of Holstein, † September 22, 1864 in Vicksburg, Mississippi ) was an American politician. Between 1860 and 1862 he was Deputy Governor of the State of Iowa.

Career

Nicholas Rusch attended the common schools and then studied at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel. In 1847 he emigrated to America, where he settled on a farm in Scott County, Iowa. In the 1850s he became a member of the newly formed Republican Party. In 1857 he was elected to the Senate of Iowa, where he took care of all about the alcohol legislation and the needs of German immigrants.

In 1860, Rusch was elected to the side of Samuel Jordan Kirkwood for Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. This post he held 1860-1862. Yet he was Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Senate. He was then appointed by the Governor to the immigration officer of the state. In this capacity he was ten months in New York City, where he advertising for the State of Iowa for operation especially among German immigrants, with the aim of as many as possible to move to a relocation. Because of the Civil War, the wave of immigration was temporarily by Rusch and returned to Iowa.

He joined as a captain in the Union army, and served in the summer of 1864 in Vicksburg. There he developed a strategy to protect the Union ships on the Mississippi River from attacks by the Confederates. To this end, armed loggers should be stationed along the river, on the one hand provide the steamboats with fuel and simultaneously attacks on vessels should repel. Rusch again went to New York to hire loggers for this purpose. Shortly after his return to Vicksburg he died on 22 September 1864, surprisingly, without that his plan could be realized.