Louis Yoerg was born in Gundelfingen, Landkreis, Bavaria. His Uncle was Anthony Yoerg, who in 1848 started his eponymous brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1857 Louis's family emigrated to America and joined uncle Anthony in St. Paul, living and working at the brewery. He enlisted in the Union Army at 14 years of age and fought in the Fifth Minnesota Regiment.

In 1871 36-year-old Louis took his brewing skills to Hudson, Wisconsin and opened up his own brewery. He ran it until he died on May 22nd, 1891 at the young age of 46. The Hudson brewery was purchased by George Riedel and then by Joseph A. Casanova, who ran it until it was closed by National prohibition on January 16th, 1920.

The president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis orders his general P. G. T. Beauregard to bombard Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor, marking the beginning of the Civil War.

Many German immigrants in America who were driven out of Europe in the aftermath of a failed reformist revolution of 1848 signed up for the Union cause.  In fact the Republican abolitionists scrapped the temperance plank in their platform to prevent alienating the Germans.