Johann August Heinrich Heros Von Borcke

German-American Day was first recognised by "yankee" President Reagan on 6 October 1983.

http://www.germanheritage.com/Publications/Jamestown/first.html

Therefore, Germans were present at the creation of this nation. The Germans who came to Jamestown in 1608 and subsequently in 1620 were the forerunners of the largest nationality to immigrate to the united States since its founding in 1776.

It is a day to honour the contributions, life, heritage and culture of Germans in America,  "and of course their contributions as they joined the Southland to fight the yankee invaders." Below are just a few of the many: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Southern side of the War Between the States, surely one of the most interesting German figures was JEB Stuart's aide, Major Johann August Heinrich Heros Von Borcke. A tall, handsome blond young man in the German ideal, Von Borcke came from an old Prussian military family of the titled nobility. Serving in the Second Brandenburg Regiment of Dragoons at the time the Civil War began, either from boredom with garrison duty or due to an argument with his father, young Heros departed for the Confederacy, landing in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1862. Introduced to JEB Stuart by Confederate Secretary of War George Randolph, Von Borcke quickly became a dear friend of the equally young Confederate cavalier, and from then on the Prussian was rarely far from Stuart's side. Despite a regrettable tendency to ascribe to himself a number of exploits which were actually the actions of others, Von Borcke's writings about his year on Stuart's staff and subsequent adventures in Virginia following his near-fatal wounding in June 1863 are entertaining and fill in a number of historical gaps. He was beloved and admired by his Confederate comrades.
        Von Borcke returned to Prussia and served his native land in a war with Austria in 1866; to his amusement and pleasure, the famous Austrian military genius Helmuth von Moltke greeted him with the words, "Are you not the American?" Forced to an early retirement in 1867 due to a Yankee bullet he still carried in his lung, Von Borcke married and had three sons. When he inherited a castle and estate at Giesenbrugge, it was his delight to fly the Confederate flag from its battlements. He died in 1895, reminiscing fondly about his days as a Confederate right up to the end.
Source: The Civil War Society's "Encyclopedia of the Civil War."