American History from German Archives: With Reference to the German Soldiers in the Revolution and Franklin's Visit to Germany

128 Pages·1904·5.895 MB·English

by  J. G. Rosengarten

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERnAN SOCIETY.
BARON WILHELM VON KNYPHAUSEN, 1730-1789.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE HESSIAN AUXILLARY CORPS IN AMERICA, 1778-1782.
penne^lvanta:
THE GERMAN INFLUENCE
SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.
IN ITS
H
IFlartatixje ant> Critical Ibistori?.
PREPARED BY AUTHORITY OF
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
PART
XIII.
AMERICAN HISTORY FROM GERMAN ARCHIVES,
WITH REFERENCE TO THE
GERMAN SOLDIERS IN THE REVOLUTION
AND FRANKLIN'S VISIT TO GERMANY.
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
publication Committee.
JULIUS F. SACHSE, LITT.D.
DANIEL W. NEAD, M.D.
HENRY M. M. RICHARDS.
Hmertcan
IDietor^
FROM
(5erman Hrcbives
WITH REFERENCE TO THE
(3etman Solbiers in the IRevolutlon
AND
0etman^
jfranklin's IDisit to
ROSENGARTEN
J. G.
Part XIII. of a Narrative and Critical History
PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF
The Pennsylvania-German Society.
LANCASTER, PA.
1904

LIST OF PLATES.
Facing Page. FacingPage.
Baron Knyphausen . . frontispiece Friedrich II. of Hesse .... 40
Major Ernst v. Wilmouski ... 8 Wilhelm IX. of Hesse .... 44
AuspachBayreuthtroops i6 Madam Riedesel 48
Plan of the Battle of White- Benjamin Franklin 56
marsh 18-19 Brunswick Troops 69
Baron v. Lossberg 24 Hessian Dragoon 80
GOerndeerraolfRiDeudkeeselof Brunswick . . 3374 LoogneCrasbin..bu.ilt.b.y.H.es.sian P.r.is.- 88
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page. Page.
Head Piece i AufFremden Boden, Silhouette. 36
Seal of Society 1 Head Piece, Ornate 37
Tail Piece, Sweet Peas 3 Brunswick Arms 37
Head Piece, Arms of Penn and Safe Conduct by Donop. . • . 39
Germany 5 Tail Piece, Silhouette 42
Electorateof Hesse Arms. ... 5 HeadPiece, Social Hour .... 43
Hesse-Nassau Arms 8 Anspach Arms 43
Great Britain and Ireland Arms. 10 Bavarian Arms 49
Head Piece, War and Peace. . . 10 Head Piece, Franklin 50
Lieguitz Arms 12 Franklin Arms 50
Bayreuth Arms 15 Professor Matthias Sprengel,
Recruit 1776, Silhouette 17 Portrait 57
Head Piece, Auxiliaries 18 Schlozer's Briefwechsel Title . . 59
WaldeckArms 18 Bavarian Arms 60
Hessian Parole, MS 21 Tail Piece 61
Hessian Safe Conduct, MS. ... 24 Head Piece, Ceramics 62
MS. return of Prisonersat Sara- Zerbst Arms 62
toga 29 Tail Piece, Virgil and Cicero 68
. .
Veteran 1826, Silhouette . . . .31 Head Piece, Achenwall 69
Head Piece, Conscription.... 32 Anhalt Arms 69
Zweybruck Arms 32 Achenwall'sAumerkungen Title 70
Autograph, Carl Von Stein ... 34 Head Piece 91
Autograph, v. Mengen 35 The End 93

PREFATORY NOTE.
-^^HE following pages are a con-
^^ tribution to abetterknowledge
oftheGermanAlliedTroops serving
under the British flag in the war of
American Independence. Printed
in various journals and at different
times, they are now for the first time
brought together for the use of the
Pennsylvania-German Society. The successive volumes
of its publications have received the hearty praise of stu-
dents of American history, and much light has been thrown
on the hitherto neglected sources of our early German
settlements, so large a factor in the successful growth of
our own Commonwealth. This paper in its present form
owes much of anyvalue and interest it may possess, to the
illustrations to the text, gathered and reproduced by Mr.
Julius F. Sachse, whose artistic skill and historical knowl-
edge have done so much for Pennsylvania history. It is
to be hoped that the Pennsylvania-German Society will
lend its help to secure copies of the great collection of
original papers in German Archives, throwing new light
on the successive phases of Germany's share in American
history, alike in peace and in war, for at all times Ger-
(I)
;
2 The Pennsylvania-German Society.
many was a fostering mother for her children in America
to the infant colonies, and especially to Pennsylvania, it
supplied sturdy farmers, industrious mechanics, intelligent
teachers, learned clergj'men, educated physicians, univer-
sity graduates and trained soldiers. Many of them are
now famous in our history, but some are still buried in ob-
scurity, and to reveal their services, search must be made
in the forgotten archives of Germany, where are kept the
letters between the German Church authorities and their
representatives in this country, as well as the military rec-
ords particularly referred to in the following pages. The
Pennsylvania-German Society has wisely devoted most of
its contributions to the peaceful side of our history, to the
emigration that made Pennsylvania prosperous, and to the
steady and sturdy growth of the German settlers in Penn-
sylvania. It may not be without interest to point to the
other side of the picture, to the sources of a bet.er knowl-
edge of the part played by the German Allied Troops in
the American Revolution, for to their familiar letters home
this country, no doubt, owed much of its increased impor-
tance in the eyes of Germany, and after Independence was
secured, many Germans who had served here as soldiers on
the British side, came to the United States, some as travel-
lers, many as settlers, and thus opened the way for that
steady flow of German immigration that still continues to
fill our borders. These pages may find a modest place
among the many valuable contributions that have given to
the Pennsylvania-German Society so distinguished a posi-
tion among similar societies in this country.
There is still another phase of the relation of the German
Allied Troops and America not found in the official ar-
chives of either country, but still of interest. There were
a good many marriages of German officers and soldiers to
Americans. In Rhode Island there was a case where two
Prefatory Note.
3
sisters of an excellent Newport family married two of the
Hessian officers, and to this day the tie of relationship is
kept alive by exchange of letters and visits, for a period
now of over a hundred and twenty-five years. There are
other such cases in Maryland and Virginia and South
Carolina, noteworthy among which may be quoted the
case of the father of Rev. John Gottlieb Morris of
Maryland, who became a distinguished surgeon in the
Revolutionary army. Still more frequent were the mar-
riages of non-commissioned officers and enlisted men,
both during their period of service and after their dis-
charge. There is in Philadelphia more than one note-
worthy family sprung from such international marriages,
and in one case at least, in spite of a translation
of the good old German name to one nearer English
style, the American descendants have renewed relations
with their German kinsfolk and traced thesefar and wide.
Hardly an old Pennsylvania or Maryland town or village,
where Hessians and other German allied troops were
quartered during their long imprisonment after Saratoga
and Trenton and Yorktown, that there is not a family
descended from a Hessian ancestor. Could it not be pos-
sible to collect the details of these marriages, and form
among the descendants, anothersort of patriotic society, in
which Americans descended from German soldiers should
alone be enrolled? No doubt many of these families have
letters and papers that would be of interest.