John Mautte's grandfather, Johaan Ludwig Mautte, a miller by trade, was a Frenchman who came from Marseille, France and settled down in Durrwangen, Germany. There, he met and married a German woman, Anna Eisele, who later bore him a son and daughter, Andreas and ??? (John expressed in a letter that there was just one daughter. According to familysearch.org, they had 9 children). Andreas' sister later married a cousin in the Warrenberger family. When Johaan Ludwig's wife died young, he and his two children were left to mourn her death.
Now Andreas, being very well educated, left for America to enlist in the United States Army at the time of the Mexican War. Upon his return to Germany, he married his second wife, Katharina (Katie) Schwiezer, who bore him a son named John, having been born in Durrwangen, County of Balingen, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, the 18th of September, 1847. Sometime in 1848, Andreas took command of a rebel regiment with the rank of Colonel against the government during the time of the Revolution.
Revolution of 1848 in the German States
When the rebellion failed, he, along with all rebel officers above the rank of Captain was ordered to leave the country inside 48 hours. Andreas had no time to make arrangements for his wife and son, so he took passage for American alone and joined the regular army of the United States expecting later to send for his family. Andreas was, however, ordered to the frontier for Indian warfare and was killed with a comrade while reconnoitering in that same year, 1848.
So young John Mautte and his widowed mother lived in Durrwangen for an additional 10 years where she met and married Jacob Ringwald. The had a daughter, Christina in 1855.
In 1859, Jacob moved his new family, along with John, to New Haven, Connecticut to start a new life. John was then 12 years old.
Now when the war broke out, the family had been in New Haven two years. Louis enlisted in the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers around July/August 1861 (John's brother, according to his account in a newspaper article). Jacob Ringwald enlisted in the Sixth Connecticut in early September. John, his mother's right hand man after the departure of his brother and stepfather, was selling newspapers. John made his stand at the old railroad station as he watched the entrainment and departure of troops, stirring his blood, just like it once did for his father who you recall died in the regular service.
When Sumter was fired on, April 12, 1861, John caught the fever of patriotism with which the business center of the city was teeming. When the federal army was routed at Bull Run, the last straw was added and John, of large stature for a lad of 14, succeeded in enlisting in the Ninth Connecticut Regiment at the recruiting barracks on the central green. Now when his mother saw John's name among the enlisted men, she secured an attorney, proved his age, and had the army officers discharge him.
One day, an officer in the German company of volunteers, being recruited in Hartford, was standing in the railway station in New Haven when John heard him say in German, "We need a drummer boy." John stepped forward and said in just as good German, "I'm your boy." John had no money to get to Hartford, so he gave his papers to a comrade and set out on foot for the city of Hartford up state. After walking all the way, he reached the recruiting office and enlisted as a regimental guide, instead of a drummer in the 11th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers - Company C.
News of John's enlistment reached his mother, of course, and she sent John Liefeld up to Hartford to bring John home. Liefeld was a young man himself and when he reached Hartford, the military fever got into his veins. Instead of persuading John to return home, John persuaded his mother's messenger to enlist with him in the German company. They went through the entire war together and eventually became the last two survivors of that company.