Born in 1808, he studied law in Heidelberg, Jena, and Munich, took part in the April 1833 attempt to overthrow the German Confederation, and immigrated to the United States with his father and several of his siblings after the attack's failure. He made his way to St. Clair County, Illinois, and became one of the leaders of the German community there. He maintained a correspondence with his sister Margarethe Engelmann Hilgard (1803-1882), who remained in Germany with her husband Friedrich Hilgard and their family.  He died in Illinois in 1889.

Source: Gertrud Baecker and Fritz Engelmann, Die Kurpfalzischen Familien Engelmann und Hilgard (Ludwigshafen am Rhein: Richard Louis Verlag, 1958) 

Emigrated to the United States in 1833 with his parents and several siblings.