Hessians in the Rev. War - Chapters VIII-X



CHAPTER VIII.
OPERATIONS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA

TRENTON, DECEMBER 26, 1776.

After the capture of Fort Washington Sir William Howe showed unusual 
activity. The fort had fallen on the 16th of November, 1776, and on the 
20th the British army crossed the Hudson into New Jersey. Fort Lee had 
become at once useless and incapable of defence. It was hastily evacuated, 
and artillery, tents, and provisions were abandoned with it. More than two 
thousand men, under General Greene, who had formed its garrison, barely 
escaped across the Hackensack, leaving seventy- three sick behind them. 
The condition of Washington's army was desperate. The term of service of 
many of the militia-men expired on the 30th of November. These could by no 
means be induced to re-enlist, even for a short time, nor would the New 
Jersey militia turn out to protect their own state, a brigade of them 
disbanding on the day the British entered New Brunswick. Washington had 
left a detachment under Lee on the east side of the Hudson, and Lee now 
disregarded Washington's repeated orders to join him, and grumbled instead 
of acting. About twenty-four hundred men under Lord Stirling were detached 
for the protection of Northern New Jersey, and four days afterwards 
ordered to defend the upper line of the Delaware; and the commander-in-
chief had at one time less than thirty-five hundred men with him. The 
march of the British across New Jersey was hardly opposed, though 
Washington retreated slowly before them, destroying the bridges. On the 
8th of December he retired across the Delaware, removing all the boats for 
seventy miles to his own side of the river. There was a panic in 
Philadelphia, and Congress adjourned to Baltimore. Washington felt himself 
unable, with his small force, to prevent the passage of the British over 
the river (See Washington's writings at the time, passim, and especially 
December 12th. - Washington Writings, vol. iv. p. 211.) Howe was not the 
man, however, to pursue a winter campaign with vigor. He returned to New 
York, leaving Cornwallis, and afterwards Grant, in command in New Jersey. 
Bancroft tells us that the state was given over to plunder and outrage, 
and that all attempts to restrain the Hessians were abandoned, under the 
apology that the habit of plunder prevented desertions. "They were led to 
believe," quotes he, from the official report of a British officer, 
"before they left Hesse-Cassel, that they were to come to America to 
establish their private fortunes, and hitherto they have certainly acted 
with that principle." (Bancroft, vol. ix. p. 216.) Washington, on the 
other hand, writes, on the 5th of February, 1777: "One thing I must remark 
in favor of the Hessians, and that is, that our people who have been 
prisoners generally agree that they received much kinder treatment from 
them than from the British officers and soldiers." (Washington, vol. iv. 
p. 309.)

It was the belief of Washington that active operations would speedily be 
resumed, and that the British would march on Philadelphia as soon as the 
Delaware should be frozen over. A letter intercepted a day or two before 
Christmas confirmed this opinion (Washington, vol. iv. p. 244: The idea of 
some such stroke as the surprise of Trenton is first mentioned by 
Washington on the 14th of December. In a letter to Governor Trumbull he 
says that the troops who are coming from the north, with his present 
force, and that under General Lee, may enable him "to attempt a stroke 
upon the forces of the enemy, who lie a good deal scattered, and to all 
appearance in a state of security. A lucky blow in this quarter would be 
fatal to them, and would most certainly rouse the spirits of the people, 
which are quite sunk by our late misfortunes." - Washington, vol. iv. p. 
220.) It became of the utmost importance to strike a blow before the enemy 
should be ready to move, and before the last day of December, when the 
term of service of many of his men would expire.

The disposition of troops made by General Grant, the British commander in 
New Jersey, was as follows: Princeton and New Brunswick were held by 
English detachments. Von Donop, commanding the Hessian grenadiers and the 
Forty-second Highlanders, was at Bordentown. Rall, with the brigade which 
had been for some time under his orders, fifty Hessian chasseurs, twenty 
English light dragoons, and six field-pieces, was quartered at Trenton. 
Rall's brigade was composed of three regiments of Hessians, which bore the 
names of Rall, von Knyphausen, and von Lossberg. It did not differ 
materially in quality from other Hessian brigades. The regiment von 
Lossberg had especially distinguished itself at Chatterton Hill. Regiment 
Rall was made up of bad material, being one of those raised in a hurry to 
fill the tale of soldiers furnished by the Landgrave (Kapp's 
"Soldatenhandel," p. 63), but Cornwallis long afterwards told a committee 
of the House of Commons that Rall's brigade, at Fort Washington, had won 
the admiration of the whole army.

The town of Trenton, then composed of about a hundred houses, lay on both 
sides of Assanpink Creek, near where that creek falls into the Delaware, 
the larger part of the town being on the western side of the creek. This 
was crossed by a bridge, over which the road led down the Delaware to 
Bordentown and Burlington. There were roads on both sides of the creek to 
Princeton. Of these, the one on the western side, passing through 
Maidenhead, was the shorter. There was also a road to Pennington, in a 
northwesterly direction, and two roads along the Delaware, going up 
stream, one near the bank and the other a mile or two from it. The last 
fell into the Pennington road a little way outside the town.

The regiments Rall and von Lossberg were quartered in the northern part of 
Trenton, the Knyphausen regiment in the southern part, on both sides of 
the bridge over the Assanpink. On this bridge a guard of twelve men was 
stationed. The soldiers in the town were scattered in the various houses, 
and in fine weather the guns were stacked out of doors, in charge of two 
or three sentries. Pickets were thrown out on the roads west of the creek. 
The main guard was composed of an officer and seventy men.

Colonel Rall was a dashing officer of the old school. He was said to have 
asked to be quartered at Trenton, considering it the post of danger (MS. 
journal of the Grenadier Battalion von Minnigerode. - Wiederhold's Diary.) 
He had done very well at Chatterton Hill, where the American right wing 
had been turned, and the fate of the day decided, by his brigade. He had 
taken a leading part in the storming of Fort Washington. The same 
adventurous spirit which in former years had led him to join the Russians 
under Orloff as a volunteer to fight against the Turks, served him on 
those occasions. The ease with which he had seen victories won, since he 
had come to America, had filled him with an overweening confidence. The 
ragged wretches who had been driven across New Jersey might capture a 
patrol or drive in a picket, but were, he thought, quite incapable of a 
serious attack on a Hessian brigade. "Earthworks!" said he with an oath to 
Major von Dechow, who came to advise him to fortify the town; "only let 
them come on! We'll meet them with the bayonet;" and when the same officer 
requested him to have some shoes sent from New York, he replied that that 
was all nonsense. He and his brigade would run barefoot over the ice to 
Philadelphia, and if the major did not want to share the honor, he might 
stay behind. General Grant, the English general commanding in New Jersey, 
shared Rall's contempt for the rebels, and when the latter proposed to him 
to send a detachment to Maidenhead, to keep open the communication between 
Princeton and Trenton, replied scornfully that he could bridle the jerseys 
with a corporal's guard. Von Donop, who commanded at Bordentown, sent a 
captain of engineers to Trenton to induce Rall to allow the place to be 
fortified, but the latter was obstinate. Earthworks were unnecessary, he 
said. The rebels were good-for-nothing fellows. They had landed below the 
bridge several times already, and had been allowed to get away quietly, 
but now he (Rall) had taken measures. When they came again he would drive 
them back in good fashion. He hoped that Washington would come over, too, 
and then he could take him prisoner. So dangerous did Rall's carelessness 
seem to his subordinates, that the officers of the Lossberg regiment sent 
off a letter of remonstrance to General von Heister, but too late.

Rall's contempt for his enemy led him to neglect his most elementary 
duties. He seldom visited a post, he seldom consulted with an officer. He 
refused to name a place of safety for the baggage in case of an attack. 
"Nonsense," said he, when asked to do so, "the rebels will not beat us." 
Yet the men were constantly fatigued with unnecessary guard duty and 
countermarching. On the 22d of December, two dragoons, who had been sent 
to Princeton with a letter, were fired on in a wood. One of them was 
killed, the other rode back to Trenton and reported the attack. Rall, 
thereupon, sent three officers and one hundred men, with a cannon, to 
carry his letter, much to the amusement of the English. The detachment had 
to sleep on the ground, in bad weather, and march back the next morning. A 
sergeant and fifteen men would have been amply sufficient for the service.

On the 24th of December, 1776, a reconnoissance was sent out in the 
direction of Pennington, but was recalled after a march of a few miles. 
Towards dusk on the 25th an attack was made on the pickets north of the 
town, by a small reconnoitring party of Americans. The enemy were 
repulsed, with a loss to the Germans of six men wounded. A patrol of 
thirty men, under an ensign, was sent one or two miles in pursuit of the 
retreating Americans, but failed to come up with them. The picket at the 
junction of the upper river road and the Pennington road was then 
strengthened by about ten men, under Lieutenant Wiederhold, making it up 
to a total strength of twenty-five men. Rall made up his mind that all 
danger was over. He had lately been warned that an attack was imminent, 
and he took it for granted that the skirmish in which the pickets had been 
engaged was the attack of which he had been warned. Leslie, who commanded 
at Princeton, had sent word that Washington was preparing to cross the 
Delaware, but Rall gave no serious heed. He only ordered his own regiment, 
which was "of the day," to stay in its quarters. There was, indeed, ground 
for his feeling of security. It was known to him that no large force of 
Americans was left in his part of New Jersey. Washington's army lay beyond 
the Delaware, a ragged, half-armed mob of poor devils, who had lately been 
driven from state to state and from river to river. Great cakes of ice 
floated to and fro in the Delaware, drifting with the tide, and making all 
crossing dangerous. The night was boisterous, even for December, and 
before morning sleet and snow were driving through the streets. But within 
all was bright and cheerful. It was Christmas evening. The Germans, 
comfortably housed in Trenton, could laugh at the storm, and sleep 
securely (It has frequently been said that Washington surprised the 
Hessians, still sleepy from the festivities of Christmas. In Germany it is 
always Christmas Eve that is celebrated, and the Hessians would, 
therefore, have had thirty-six hours to recover from the effects of their 
potations before eight o'clock on the morning of the 26th. Rall, himself, 
is said to have been a drinker.)

Far differently was the night passed by the American army. The troops 
under the immediate command of Washington, at his camp on the Pennsylvania 
side of the Delaware, above Trenton, numbered only twenty-four hundred men 
in condition to undertake an arduous expedition (Bancroft, vol. ix. p. 
230. "About twenty-five hundred men." - Diary of Captain Moses Brown of 
Glover's regiment, kindly communicated by Edward I. Browne, Esq.) These 
started at three o'clock on the afternoon of Christmas Day, every man 
carrying three days' rations and forty rounds. They had with them eighteen 
field-pieces. This force reached MacKonkey's Ferry at twilight. Here the 
boats were manned by Glover's sailors, from Marblehead, and between the 
cakes of floating ice the little army was rowed across the river. So 
pitiful was their condition that a messenger who had followed them had 
easily traced their route "by the blood on the snow, from the feet of the 
men who wore broken shoes."

Meanwhile, Cadwalader was to have crossed the river at Dunk's Ferry, below 
Trenton, but the ice was packed against the Jersey shore, and, though men 
on foot could get over, there was no hope for artillery. The eighteen 
hundred men destined for this part of the expedition waited in vain 
through the December night. At four in the morning, Cadwalader, sure that 
Washington, like himself, had been turned back by the difficulties of the 
expedition, ordered his half-frozen men back to their freezing camp 
(Cadwalader to Washington, Sparks's "Correspondence," vol. i. p. 309. This 
was John Cadwalader, brother to Lambert Cadwalader of the Continental 
service - Washington, vol. iv. p. 241, n.) 

[begin image caption: PLAN
of the affair which took place on the 26th of December, 1776, at Trenton, 
between a corps of six thousand rebels, commanded by General Washington, 
and a brigade of Hessians, commanded by Colonel Rall.
A. Trenton.
B. Picket of an officer and twenty-four men. (Wiederhold.)
C. Captain Altenbocum's company of the Lossberg regiment, which was 
quartered in the neighborhood, and which formed in front of the captain's 
quarters, while the picket occupied the enemy.
D. Picket of one captain, one officer, and seventy-five men.
E. One officer and fifty jagers, who immediately withdrew over the bridge. 
(Grothausen.)
F. Detachment of one officer and thirty men, which joined Donop's corps.
G. Place where the regiments stopped after leaving the town, and where 
Colonel Rall attempted to make an attack on the town with his own regiment 
and that of Lossberg, but was violently driven back to
I. and taken prisoner with the regiments; meanwhile the Regiment von 
Knyphausen should have covered the flank.
K. Place where the Regiment von Knyphausen had likewise to surrender, 
after trying to reach the bridge. The cannon of the Lossberg regiment were 
with the Knyphausen regiment, and unfortunately stuck in the marsh; and 
while they were being extricated the moment for gaining the bridge was 
lost, and the bridge strongly occupied by the enemy.
L. Cannon of the Lossberg regiment.
M. Cannon of the Knyphausen regiment, which were not with the regiment 
during the affair.
N. Cannon of Rall's regiment, dismounted in the beginning.
O. Attack of the enemy from the wood.
P. The enemy advance and surround the town.
Q. Two battalions of the enemy following the Knyphausen regiment.
R. Last manoeuvre and attack upon the Knyphausen regiment.
S. Cannon of the rebels.
T. Place where General Washington posted himself and gave his orders.
end image caption]

"The night," writes Thomas Rodney, "was as severe a night as ever I saw." 
The river was so difficult to cross and so full of ice that it was four 
o'clock on the morning of the 26th of December before the troops and 
artillery were all got over and ready to march. They had still nine miles 
to go before reaching Trenton, and the storm had set in with fearful 
violence. The shivering soldiers climbed a steep hill and descended into 
the road, where the trees of the forest might give them a little shelter 
against the northeasterly storm. At Birmingham the army was divided into 
two columns. The right, under Sullivan, marched near the river, the left, 
under Washington, by the upper road. After a while, Sullivan sent word to 
Washington by one of his aides that the powder of his party was wet. "Then 
tell your general," answered Washington, "to use the bayonet and penetrate 
into the town, for the town must be taken, and I am resolved to take it."

It was about an hour after daylight, and Lieutenant Wiederhold had drawn 
in his outer pickets. It had been a severe night with snow and sleet, but 
the enemy had not been seen. The little command huddled into a hut that 
served as a guard-house. Wiederhold happened to step to the door and look 
out. Suddenly the Americans were before him. He called to arms, and shots 
were exchanged. "The outguards made but small opposition," says 
Washington, "though, for their numbers, they behaved very well, keeping up 
a constant retreating fire from behind houses. We presently saw their main 
body formed; but, from their motions, they seemed undetermined how to 
act." Drums and bugles sounded in the streets of Trenton. Rall was still 
in bed, and sleepy in his cups. Lieutenant Biel, acting as Brigade 
Adjutant, was at first "afraid" to rouse him ("Scheut sich" (Marburg 
Archives), but hastened off to the main guard and despatched another 
lieutenant and forty men to support the pickets. As he returned to 
headquarters Rall was hanging out of the window in his night-shirt and 
crying, "What's the matter?" The adjutant, in reply, asked if he had not 
heard the firing. Rall said he would be down at once, and presently he was 
dressed and at the door. A company of the Lossberg regiment, which had 
quarters on the Pennington road, and acted as an advanced guard, had 
formed across that road, and received the flying pickets, but had 
presently fallen back into the town. Washington was pressing in by King 
and Queen Streets (now Warren and Greene Streets), and Sullivan by the 
river road into Second Street. A part of Rall's regiment presently 
succeeded in forming, and after a while Rall himself appeared, on 
horseback. Lieutenant Wiederhold reported to him, saying that the enemy 
was in force, and not only above the town but also upon the right and the 
left. Rall asked how strong the enemy was. Wiederhold answered that he 
could not say, but that he had seen four or five battalions come out of 
the woods and that three of them had fired at him before he fell back. 
Rall called out to advance, but seemed dazed, and unable to form a plan. 
His forces were still in disorder. Rall struck off to the right into an 
apple orchard east of the town, and tried to obtain command of the 
Princeton road. He was turned back by Hand's Pennsylvania regiment. He 
then determined to force his way into the town again with his own and the 
Lossberg regiments; at least, with as much of them as had been brought 
together. This he is said to have attempted in order to bring off his 
baggage, and the plunder of the preceding weeks. He was received, however, 
by a shower of lead from windows and doorways and from behind trees and 
walls. The Hessian ammunition was wet by the driving storm. The Americans 
charged again, and the Hessians were driven farther than they had come. 
Rall was mortally wounded by a bullet, and the two German regiments, 
thrown into confusion, laid down their arms.

The Knyphausen regiment fared little better. When Rall left the orchard 
and turned again towards Trenton, Major von Dechow determined to fight his 
way back over the Assanpink bridge and strike for Bordentown, where lay 
Donop's force. It was impossible to accomplish this, for Sullivan had 
already occupied the bridge. Two cannons stuck fast in a piece of boggy 
ground, and time was lost in trying to extricate them. Dechow was wounded. 
A few of the soldiers succeeded in fording the stream, but by far the 
greater number were surrounded and surrendered to Lord Stirling, reserving 
their private baggage and the swords of the officers. Those who escaped 
made their way to Princeton. The chasseurs and English dragoons also 
escaped and reached Bordentown. Lieutenant Grothausen of the chasseurs was 
accused of running away too soon. He had been posted with fifty men on the 
lower river road, and on Sullivan's approach he retreated before him over 
the Assanpink bridge. According to Bancroft, the whole number who thus got 
off was one hundred and sixty-two. Washington, in his first report to 
Congress, gives the number of those who surrendered at twenty-three 
officers and eight hundred and eighty-six men. A few more afterwards found 
in Trenton raised this number to about one thousand. "Colonel Rahl [sic], 
the commanding officer, and seven others," he writes, "were found wounded 
in the town. I do not exactly know how many were killed; but I fancy not 
above twenty or thirty; as they never made any regular stand. Our loss is 
very trifling indeed, only two officers and one or two privates wounded." 
(Washington, vol. iv. P. 247. Bancroft gives the numbers as seventeen 
Hessians killed and seventy-eight wounded.)

Washington's force being inferior in numbers to that of the English and 
Hessians to the south of him, and a strong battalion of light infantry 
being at Princeton, he thought it prudent to retire across the Delaware 
the same evening with the prisoners and artillery he had taken.

The news of the victory of the Americans was received in New York with 
grief and indignation. Old Heister, already out of favor with Sir William 
Howe, may have seen in it the omen of his own recall. He wrote on the 5th 
of January to the Landgrave's minister, Schlieffen, announcing the event. 
According to his story, Rall's brigade had been surprised by ten thousand 
men, and the disaster was caused by that colonel's rashness in advancing 
to meet this superior force, instead of retiring at once behind the 
Assanpink. Heister acknowledges the loss of fifteen stands of colors 
(Quoted in Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. i. pp. 375, 376.)

The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was very angry. He complained that such an 
event would have been impossible, had not all discipline been relaxed. He 
ordered an investigation to be made as soon as the officers, who were then 
prisoners in American hands, should have been exchanged, and threatened to 
hold those guilty of misconduct to the strictest responsibility. He 
declared that he would never restore colors to the regiments that had lost 
them until they should have taken an equal number from the enemy. He wrote 
to Knyphausen that he hoped that general, like himself, was filled with 
proper grief and shame; that it was necessary to wipe out the spot on his 
honor, and that Knyphausen must not rest until his troops had smothered 
the remembrance of this wretched affair in a crowd of famous deeds 
(Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. i. p. 377. A letter which has frequently 
been published, purporting to be written at this time by a Prince of Hesse-
Cassel to a Baron Hohendorf, or Hogendorff, commanding Hessian troops in 
America, is a clumsy forgery. - Kapp's "Soldatenhandel," 2d ed. pp. 199-
201 and 255.) The Landgrave was indiscriminate in his anger. The true 
offender against the rules of military duty died in Colonel Rall. It was 
the opinion of soldiers at the time, and has remained the opinion of those 
who have studied the matter since, that the defeat and capture of the 
Hessian brigade at Trenton might have been prevented by common military 
precautions on the part of its commander. Cornwallis afterwards told a 
committee of the House of Commons, that in Donop's opinion Rall could have 
held out until Donop could have come to his relief from Bordentown, if he 
had obeyed Sir William Howe's orders and erected redoubts. These Rall was 
repeatedly urged to build by his subordinate officers. That those under 
his command should somewhat have participated in the relaxation of 
discipline wantonly encouraged by their commander was but natural. In the 
end they all fought bravely, many of them being wounded, though the loss 
of privates was but small. That an earlier retreat might have enabled the 
Hessians to escape is possible. But soldiers should not be heavily blamed 
for trying to hold their ground when surprised, nor is Rall's error, if it 
were one, in trying to cut his way out towards Princeton, rather than 
towards Bordentown, to be laid to the score of his subordinates (The only 
dissenting voice is that of Ewald, who excuses Rall, and lays the blame on 
the officer of chasseurs (Grothausen) who should have discovered the 
enemy. Ewald also blames Donop for having been decoyed from Bordentown to 
Mount Holly, and out of supporting distance of Trenton, by false reports. 
Ewald, who was under Donop at the time, says, moreover, that this little 
affair of Trenton caused such a panic in the English army, hitherto 
regularly victorious since the opening of the campaign, that they 
continually thought they saw Washington and his soldiers, and did not get 
over their fear until they had fought again. Ewald's "Belehrungen," vol. 
ii. p. 127. Grant, Rall's immediate superior, writes on December 27: "I 
did not think that all the rebels in America would have taken that brigade 
prisoners" (Archives at Marburg). The finding of the court-martial blamed 
Rall and Dechow, both dead (ibid.). For the battle of Trenton see 
authorities quoted and Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. i. pp. 112, 132; 
(MSS.) Wiederhold's Diary, journals of the regiment von Lossberg, and 
Grenadier Battalion von Minnigerode.)

The importance of Trenton to the Americans is not to be reckoned by the 
mere numerical test of killed, wounded, and prisoners. It was a new proof 
to the unskilled and destitute colonists that they were good for something 
as soldiers, and that their cause was not hopeless. Coming after a long 
course of retreat and disaster, it inspired them with fresh courage. 
Bunker Hill had taught the Americans that British regulars could be 
resisted. Trenton proved to them in an hour of despondency that the 
dreaded Hessians could be conquered.



CHAPTER IX.
THE WINTER OF 1777.

The Hessian officers and soldiers who had been taken prisoners at Trenton 
had to march on the 26th of December, 1776, over the same cold and snowy 
road by which the Americans had advanced to the attack. We can fancy them 
shivering in their uniforms, while their tattered and bare-footed captors 
marched gayly beside them, and forgot the icy wind in the glow of victory. 
Again the Delaware was crossed amid the cakes of floating ice, and we may 
be sure that it was not the ragged Americans whose teeth chattered (It was 
not without danger that they crossed the Delaware. Wiederhold says that he 
had to wade seventy paces to get to shore, with water and ice up to his 
breast); but reaction came after so much labor and excitement, and on the 
morrow one half of the victorious army was worn out and disabled. For 
forty consecutive hours the Americans had stood to their arms, and marched 
and fought in the snow and sleet of a December storm, and nature now 
claimed a few days of rest and shelter. Only Washington was indefatigable, 
and although the term of service of a large part of his army was expiring, 
the great leader prepared to take advantage of his success.

The Hessian officers were treated with great courtesy by the American 
commanders. Washington expressed his sympathy with them immediately after 
their surrender. Stirling, who had but recently been exchanged after his 
capture on Long Island, told the officers that visited him that Heister 
had treated him like a brother, and that so would he treat them. He 
accompanied them on their visit to General Washington, and invited several 
of them to dinner (Stirling told the Hessian officers that the Americans 
at Trenton were "not stronger than six thousand men, and had fourteen 
cannon and two howitzers with them." This expression may have been used to 
mislead the Germans. The Americans at Trenton, according to Bancroft, 
numbered but twenty-four hundred men, veterans chiefly of New England, 
Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and Washington's whole army in Pennsylvania at 
the time only sixty- two hundred effective men.) Washington paid the same 
politeness to some of the others. One of his guests has left in his 
journal the record of the impression made on him by the most famous of 
Americans: "This general does not show in his face the greatness with 
which he is generally credited. His eyes have no fire, but the smiling 
character of his expression when he speaks inspires affection and respect."

Wiederhold writes: "On the 28th, as I said, I dined, as did several other 
officers, with General Washington. He did me the honor of talking a great 
deal with me, about the unlucky affair, and as I freely told him my 
opinion that our arrangements had been bad, otherwise we should not have 
fallen into his hands, he asked me if I could have made a better 
arrangement, and how. Thereupon I said yes; mentioned all the faults that 
had been committed, and showed what I should have done, and how I would 
have got out of the scrape with honor. He not only applauded this, but 
made me a complimentary speech on the subject, as also on my watchfulness, 
and the defence I had made with my few men on the picket line, on the 
morning of the attack. General Washington is a courteous and elegant man, 
but seems to be very polite and reserved, speaks little, and has a sly 
physiognomy. He is not very tall and also not short, but of medium height, 
and has a good figure." It is pleasant to imagine the scene - the 
farmhouse parlor, the fire of big logs, the guttering candles, the bowl of 
smoking punch, and General Washington discussing the art of war with his 
captive, who, though but a lieutenant, has seen foreign service, and may 
be worth listening to.

The prisoners were shortly marched off to Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
Everywhere the people flocked to see them, and if the alien invaders were 
sometimes met in their adversity with threats and curses, we must not 
blame too severely those whose sons and brothers the auxiliaries had been 
let out to slay. We shall rather find that the balance inclines to favor 
the American people, who on many occasions met their captive enemies with 
forgiveness and kindness. The prisoners' escort invariably did its duty, 
and succeeded in protecting them from anything worse than verbal insult. 
The Hessian officers and men were separated from each other, and it is 
needless to follow their wanderings in detail. The officers were in 
Philadelphia, and called on General Israel Putnam on New Year's Day. "He 
shook hands with each of us," says one, in his journal, "it and we all had 
to drink a glass of Madeira with him. This old graybeard may be a good, 
honest man, but nobody but the rebels would have made him a general." 
(journal of the Regiment von Lossberg (Piel).

After being quartered at Dumfries and in the Valley of Virginia, and 
suffering many petty annoyances, the officers were brought, in December, 
1777, to Fredericksburg, where they were treated with great hospitality 
and kindness. Wiederhold becomes really pathetic at the idea of parting 
from his friends there. The prisoners had been much favored by the ladies 
of the neighborhood, who are, says the lieutenant, "beautiful, courteous, 
kindly, modest, and withal very natural and easy." Sixteen ladies "of the 
first rank" organized a surprise party, which visited the captain in his 
quarters, and of which he had been discreetly informed beforehand. He 
tells us that they came intending to spend only an hour, but stayed from 
half-past three to ten o'clock in the evening. General Washington's 
brother, sister, and niece were among them. The German officers regaled 
their guests with tea, coffee, chocolate, claret wine, and cakes; and 
entertained them with music, both instrumental and vocal, in which the 
ladies sometimes joined. "In Europe we should not have got much honor by 
our music, but here we passed for masters. Sobbe played the flute, Surgeon 
Oliva the violin, and I the guitar. We were so overwhelmed with praise 
that we were really ashamed. Their friendship for us was too great. Some 
of the American young gentlemen were jealous."

All this kindness had its effect upon the captives. At Dumfries, nine 
months before, Wiederhold had set down in his journal that he would rather 
have a small farm in Hesse than the greatest plantation in Virginia, and 
that America was good for people who were escaping the gallows at home. 
Now he was quite sad at leaving Fredericksburg, though it was to return to 
the army at Philadelphia. For this, however, he had personal reasons. "It 
was surely a great thing to enjoy so much friendship, yes, love, I may 
say, from people whose enemies we were, and against whom we were soon 
again to act as enemies. Yet, said a fair one, who was very favorably 
inclined to me, and whom I shall always respect and honor: I would God you 
could stay here, and that I might never be so unhappy as to part from you; 
as I may have to do to-morrow, and perhaps forever. But go where duty and 
honor call you, and be ever happy!' This was magnanimity such as does not 
dwell in all rebels, for she was a good American in her feelings, 
beautiful and rich." No wonder the lieutenant counted the miles as he 
marched away from Fredericksburg.

The private soldiers reached Philadelphia a few days later than the 
officers. Of their reception by the populace one of the corporals writes 
in his diary: "Big and little, old and young, stood there to see what sort 
of mortals we might be. When we came directly in front of them they looked 
sharply at us. The old women howled dreadfully, and wanted to throttle us 
all, because we had come to America to rob them of their freedom. Some 
others, in spite of all the scolding, brought brandy and bread, and wanted 
to give them to us, but the old women would not allow it, and still wished 
to strangle us. The American guard that had us in charge had received 
orders from Washington to lead us all about the town, so that everybody 
should see us; but the people crowded in on us with great fury, and nearly 
overpowered the guard. So when we were near the barracks our commanding 
officer said: 'Dear Hessians, let us march into these barracks.' We did 
so, and the whole American detachment had to check the raging people." Why 
the American officer addressed his captives in terms of endearment does 
not appear, but a great degree of confidence seems to have been 
established between them. Eelking tells a story, hardly to be taken 
without a grain of salt, that when the party was being moved from 
Lancaster to Winchester, in the autumn of 1777, and came to the boundaries 
of Virginia, the Pennsylvania escort refused to march farther, and would 
not set foot on the sacred soil. In fact, they dispersed, and all went 
home. The escorting company which should have come to meet them from 
Winchester had not arrived. The captain who had been in command of the 
Pennsylvanians was a man of much presence of mind, and of equal confidence 
in human nature. He told the Hessians, whose affections he had won by his 
humanity, that they must march on without an escort, as he himself should 
hurry forward to Winchester. He trusted to the prisoners, promising them 
good treatment on their arrival. So he departed. The prisoners, if such 
they can be called, whom none constrained, marched on in an orderly 
manner. On the third day the old captain came back with an escort of 
Virginians, and found all the Hessians present at roll-call, though some 
unprincipled Englishmen had disappeared. The Germans were, thereupon, all 
treated to brandy, while the English captives had to take up their line of 
march without that stimulant, and the Hessians received many indulgences 
forever afterwards (Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. i. pp. 138-141.)

Washington is said to have soothed the popular feeling by pointing out 
that the Hessians had come to America against their will. The lot of the 
prisoners seems not to have been unnecessarily hard. Many of the privates 
let themselves out as farm servants, and received food and wages.

So much of Washington's little army as remained fit for service recrossed 
the Delaware in the last three days of December, and was speedily joined 
by Cadwalader's and Mifflin's commands. This raised their numbers to about 
five thousand, of whom three fifths were ignorant of military service. 
Against this small force Cornwallis advanced with a larger number of 
British and Hessian veterans. He came with his whole force from Princeton 
by Maidenhead, in spite of Donop's advice to march in two columns, on both 
sides of the Assanpink. Some skirmishing took place on the 2d of January, 
1777, and Lieutenant Grothausen of the chasseurs, who had escaped from 
Trenton seven days before, without having done his whole duty, as some 
people thought, was killed. Eelking relates that he was shot by some 
riflemen, who decoyed him under pretence of surrendering.

On the afternoon of the second of January the English and American armies 
stood face to face on opposite sides of the Assanpink River. In vain did 
several officers urge Cornwallis to attack at once. The sun was sinking, 
the bridge had been successfully defended, the English army must ford the 
stream to get at their enemy, and the event seemed doubtful. The British 
general determined to delay the attack until the following day. Washington 
did not venture to stake the fate of America on the resistance of his 
undisciplined militia. The night was cold and the roads in good condition 
for the passage of artillery. Wood was piled on the American watch-fires, 
and a guard left to replenish them. Meanwhile, the American army, passing 
round Lord Cornwallis's left flank, marched away through the clear January 
night, and at nine in the morning attacked three English regiments of foot 
and three companies of horse at Princeton. These the Americans routed, 
killing and wounding about two hundred men and taking two hundred and 
thirty prisoners, of whom fourteen were British officers. The American 
loss of men was small, but of officers heavy, owing to a check at the 
beginning of the affair. This victory at Princeton was the last engagement 
of the campaign which deserves the name of a battle. The British abandoned 
the greater part of New Jersey, retaining only New Brunswick, Amboy, and 
Paulus Hook. But the outposts of the two armies kept up a skirmishing 
warfare throughout the winter. Thus, on the 5th of January, 1777, a party 
of about fifty Waldeckers was attacked by a body of militia, "not superior 
in numbers," who killed eight or ten and made prisoners of the remainder, 
including two officers (Washington, vol iv. P. 264.)

In this skirmishing kind of warfare, the leading part, in so far as the 
Hessians were concerned, was taken by the jagers, or chasseurs, as the 
English and Americans called them. These were trained marksmen, recruited 
among the hunters and gamekeepers of Germany. One company of them had come 
to America with von Heister, in August, 1776; another, under Captain 
Ewald, with von Knyphausen in October. They were found so useful that the 
establishment was raised, by special treaty with the Landgrave, during the 
winter of 1777, to one thousand and sixty-seven men, in five companies, 
one of which was mounted. Other companies were procured from Hanau and 
Anspach. The corps, after the summer of 1777, was under the command of 
Lieutenant-colonel von Wurmb, but the companies or detached parties very 
generally acted separately. There were, indeed, few operations of any 
importance in which the chasseurs did not take part. We can easily believe 
that they made many a bold and lucky stroke, and yet shrug our shoulders a 
little when we are informed that the American militia wore broad-brimmed 
hats, which they used to draw down over their eyes for protection against 
the wind and snow, so that the chasseurs were able to slip up to them in 
broad daylight, and strike them down or disarm them before they knew it. 
Those Yankees are usually such very sleepy fellows (Eelking's 
"Hulfstruppen," vol. i. p. 182. - For the text of the treaties concerning 
chasseurs with Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Hanau, see "Parliamentary Register," 
1st series, vol. vi. p. 152, and vol. vii. p. 49. it seems probable that 
the total number of Hessian chasseurs was never reached. When organized in 
the summer Of 1777, the corps numbered six hundred chasseurs, of whom one 
hundred and five were Anspachers, and thirty grenadiers, with two three-
pounders. - Journal of the Jager Corps.)

Ewald tells us that in the early part of the year 1777 Lord Cornwallis 
determined to surprise Boundbrook, in New Jersey, which was held by one 
thousand Americans under Colonel Butler. The attack was to be made in 
three divisions. The first, under General Matthews, was to make a feint on 
the front of the American works. The second, under Cornwallis, was to pass 
to the left, by Somerset, round Butler's position, and take it in the 
rear. The third, marching to the right by Greenbrook, was to cut off the 
retreat of the enemy to Morristown. Ewald commanded the advance guard of 
the First Division. The road from Raritan Landing to Boundbrook, leading 
up the left side of the Raritan River, and about two and a half miles in 
length, ended in a causeway over a morass. Through the morass ran a brook, 
over which was a stone bridge. The Americans had built a redoubt to 
command the bridge and the causeway.

The division started about two in the morning. Half-way to Boundbrook, 
Ewald, well ahead as usual, thought he saw something stirring. In the hope 
of surprising a hostile patrol, he sent back a messenger to order the rest 
of his men to come up quietly. He was discovered, however, and challenged. 
Calling in a low voice to his soldiers, he advanced close to the enemy, 
who turned out to be about thirty strong. They fired a volley and made 
off, and Ewald after them. Contrary to orders, the chasseurs also fired a 
few shots. It would have been better, says Ewald, to follow them slowly, 
as they might have taken the chasseurs for an ordinary patrol, such as was 
to be met with on that road almost every night. Ewald hoped, however, to 
make his way over the causeway and into the redoubt with the Americans, 
but the distance was too great and day was breaking. He had followed his 
nose, he says, and forgotten to look behind him, until, coming within a 
hundred yards of the redoubt, he found himself exposed to a sharp fire, 
which wounded some of his volunteers. He then looked round and found that 
his whole force consisted of one lieutenant and seven men. With these he 
threw himself upon the bridge, hardly forty yards from the redoubt, and 
dodged behind the stone parapet. He hoped that more of his party would 
come to the rescue, but it turned out that General Matthews had commanded 
the column to halt, as he did not wish to sacrifice lives unnecessarily. 
Ewald's seven chasseurs kept firing at the embrasures of the redoubt, and 
their fire was hotly answered, but no one on their side was hit. In less 
than a quarter of an hour they had the pleasure of hearing brisk firing 
beyond the redoubt, which had been taken in its rear by Cornwallis. The 
garrison abandoned the work, and Ewald, with his lieutenant and seven men, 
proceeded to take possession, and captured twelve prisoners into the 
bargain. "But," says Ewald, "it was through my error that Lord Cornwallis 
took only one hundred and fifty prisoners and two cannon, instead of a 
thousand men. For the enemy were awakened by the firing of the redoubt, 
and got time to escape, together with General Lincoln." (Ewald's 
"Belehrungen," vol. ii. p. 122. - The date was April 13th, 1777. Lincoln 
had about five hundred men in Boundbrook. - Bancroft, vol. ix. p. 346. The 
Americans lost two lieutenants and about twenty men, and two guns. The 
British stayed about an hour and a half and then returned to Brunswick, 
and General Lincoln took his post again. - Washington, vol. iv. p. 391 n.)

Here is another of Ewald's anecdotes, concerning this campaign: "When we 
were posted at New Brunswick, in Jersey, in the beginning of the year 
1777, during the American war, I had charge of the outermost end of the 
picket line near Raritan Landing, on the Boundbrook road. This post could 
only be held through great watchfulness, and on account of the love and 
good-will of the chasseurs to myself. We were daily skirmishing with the 
Americans, for we were only about a mile apart. One morning towards 
spring, the Americans, under cover of a thick fog, crept so near to one of 
my outposts that they reached one of my pickets at the same moment with a 
patrol I had sent out, and routed it. They rushed in on me so quickly as 
to get within about two hundred yards of me. Fortunately, there was a 
sunken road between us, into which I threw myself with sixteen chasseurs, 
calling to Lieutenant Hinrichs to cover my right flank with the rest of 
the men until Captain Wreeden could come up with his company. just as I 
reached the sunken road I received the brisk fire of a regiment of light 
infantry, under Colonel Buttlar, whereupon my men, who were usually brave 
fellows, lost their heads and ran away. Astonished, as you may readily 
believe, I called after them, 'You may run to the devil, but I'll stay 
here alone.' At this moment I perceived that one man, Jager Bauer, had 
stayed by me. He answered, 'No, you shall not stay alone,' and he called 
after the chasseurs that were making off: 'Boys! stop! a scoundrel runs 
away.' After he had shouted out these words a few times they all came back 
and fought like brave fellows. The Americans, who had kept up a continual 
fire all this time, had not been aware of this frightful scrape I had been 
in. Captain Wreeden, and the light infantry of the English guard, under 
Colonel Osborn, came to our assistance, and the Americans were driven back 
with great loss and pushed nearly to Boundbrook." (Ewald's "Belehrungen," 
vol. i. p. 15.) Jager Bauer, who stood by Ewald on this occasion, was an 
insignificant-looking fellow from the Anspach district. Ewald had at first 
refused to take him into the company on account of his appearance, but had 
been persuaded to enlist him on seeing the excellence of his shooting. 
Shortly after the affair above mentioned Bauer gave another proof of his 
daring. On the morning of the 25th of May, Ewald, with a party of eleven 
chasseurs and thirty dragoons, fell into an ambuscade near Boundbrook. 
They were surrounded and in danger of being taken, and just at that moment 
Ewald's horse stumbled, and the captain lay in the road. When the 
chasseurs, who were a little way off, saw their captain's horse coming 
towards them riderless, Bauer and two others started out to bring off the 
injured officer. They carried him back amid a shower of lead, and had got 
him into a safe place, when Bauer noticed that Ewald's hat was missing. 
"We must go get it," said he, "or they will carry our captain's hat in 
triumph into Boundbrook to-morrow." So they ran back again, and actually 
brought off the hat in spite of the bullets (Eelking's "Hiilfstruppen," 
vol. i. p. 186.)

Ewald asserts that Colonel Reed visited Donop twice before the surprise of 
Trenton, on the pretext of making an exchange of prisoners, but really for 
the purpose of reconnoitring. He goes on to tell the following story: In 
the same way the two colonels, Hamilton and Schmidt (Lieutenant-colonel 
William S. Smith of New York (?)), came with a trumpeter to the post which 
I held near New Brunswick, in Jersey, in the beginning of the campaign of 
1777, after General Howe had advanced from New Brunswick to Milztown 
(Millstone, an American proper name spelled by Ewald, can often be 
considered no more than a hint), and marched back again. They had 
unimportant letters to General Grant from two English officers of his 
brigade, who had been taken prisoners the day before, through their own 
carelessness in riding about for pleasure. I let these two gentlemen, who 
were very elegant and polite men, understand that I was very well aware of 
their business, and gave them the well-meant advice to be off as quickly 
as possible, and not to visit me again in a hurry. At this they seemed 
very much astonished, but followed my advice with all speed. I would 
certainly have sent them under arrest to headquarters, with their eyes 
bound, if I had not known from experience that people would have laughed 
at such prudent measures against the Americans. The best thing to do, when 
such gentlemen come at unseasonable times with messages, is to take them 
about with one for at least half a campaign."(Ewald's "Belehrungen," vol. 
iii. p. 339)

I do not at all believe that Hamilton came to the British outposts with 
the object here attributed to him, and I am certain that if he did so it 
was without Washington's knowledge. There is no reason, however, to doubt 
that Ewald suspected him, and dismissed him as described.

It was in this winter of 1776-77 that negotiations began in consequence of 
which Lieutenant-general von Heister was recalled from the command of the 
Hessian troops, and Lieutenant-general von Knyphausen succeeded him. The 
recall was insisted on by Lord Suffolk on the ground that Sir William Howe 
was not satisfied with Heister. How far Sir William's dislike may have 
been caused by purely personal reasons, or how far the suspicion may be 
justified that Heister was too "regardful of the preservation of the 
troops under his command," it is perhaps now impossible to determine. But 
we know that Howe was dissatisfied with Heister before the affair at 
Trenton, at a time when the English losses had been decidedly heavier than 
the Hessian. Heister had, by the treaty between the King of England and 
the Landgrave, a right to the immediate command of about one half of Sir 
William Howe's army. The stipulations of the treaty were sufficiently 
indefinite to have given rise to many questions. Heister is said to have 
been unruly. At any rate, he did not get on well with his commanding 
officer. This should have been a sufficient reason for recalling him.

The English government preferred not to appear openly in the matter, and 
the recall was made by the Landgrave on the ground of Heister's health and 
age, and only "for a time." It was well understood, however, that the old 
general was going off in disgrace. To Knyphausen the Landgrave writes: 
"Nothing but the entire neglect of all order and discipline can have 
brought this shame [of Trenton] upon us. I think it very necessary to 
speak with Lieutenant-general von Heister on the subject, and his health 
is, moreover, not robust enough for the climate over there. I therefore 
write to him to come here for a while, and confer the command ad interim 
over my troops in America on yourself." Heister quite understood that he 
was in disgrace, and died within two months after reaching Cassel, of 
sorrow and disappointment (Heister did not actually leave the army until 
June 22d, 1777. For the negotiations concerning his recall, see Eelking's 
"Hulfstruppen," vol. i. pp. 388-393.)

In the early spring of 1777 the actual possessions of the King of England 
on the soil of the United States may be summed up as follows: In the State 
of New York, the islands in the harbor, and perhaps a little piece of 
Westchester County, near King's Bridge. In New Jersey, Amboy, New 
Brunswick, and Paulus Hook. In Rhode Island, the actual island. But the 
importance of these posts was out of all proportion to their extent. Sir 
William Howe commanded an army, small, indeed, as modern armies are 
reckoned, but large enough to outnumber that of Washington, and composed 
of disciplined troops, many of them veterans, while the American force was 
a shifting mass, principally made up of militia. Congress had voted, on 
one of the last days Of 1776, that Washington be allowed to raise, 
organize, and officer sixteen battalions of infantry, three thousand light 
horsemen, three regiments of artillery, and a corps of engineers. But 
these troops, the first army of the United States, as such, together with 
the eighty-eight battalions to be furnished at the same time by the 
several states, as yet existed principally on paper. On the 14th of March, 
1777, Washington writes to Congress: "From the most accurate estimate that 
I can form, the whole of our numbers in Jersey, fit for duty at this time, 
is under three thousand. These, nine hundred and eighty-one excepted, are 
militia, and stand engaged only till the last of this month. The troops 
under inoculation, including their attendants, amount to about one 
thousand." (Washington, vol. iv. p. 364.) Sir William Howe's army at this 
date can hardly have numbered less than twenty-five thousand soldiers.

The handful of men who actively upheld the cause of American freedom were 
without money, without credit, often without clothing. Against them were 
pitted the might of a great empire, the loyalty inspired by an ancient 
monarchy, an unlimited credit, incalculable resources. A second British 
army was preparing to co-operate from Canada with that under Sir William 
Howe, and by occupying the line of the Hudson, to cut the country in two. 
The Americans could not hope for foreign help until they should have shown 
their ability to help themselves. Their reliance could only be on their 
own steadfastness, and on the genius and patriotic fortitude of their 
Great Leader.



CHAPTER X.
THE BRUNSWICKERS IN CANADA, 1776.

The Brunswick contingent of the German troops hired by England to suppress 
the revolt in her North American colonies was commanded by Baron Friedrich 
Adolph von Riedesel. He was of a noble Hessian family, and was born in 
1738. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Marburg to study law, though he 
hardly knew how to write and had learned but a few scraps of Latin. A 
battalion of Hessian infantry was quartered at Marburg at the time, and 
Riedesel liked better to look at the soldiers than to listen to the 
professors of the school. The major, who had made the boy's acquaintance, 
saw the chance of a recruit. He advised Riedesel to enter his company in 
the hope of advancement, and told him, moreover, that he was well 
acquainted with his father, and would write to him to ask his consent to 
the scheme. Shortly afterwards the major told Riedesel that he had heard 
from the latter's father, who had consented to his enlistment. The boy was 
delighted at the news, and was presently mustered into the service. When 
he wrote to thank his father, however, he received a disappointing answer. 
The Baron von Riedesel had never heard of the major, and had never granted 
permission to his son to leave the profession chosen for him. Now that the 
young man had entered the service, his honor obliged him to stand by his 
colors, but he must look for no more assistance from his father. Nothing 
remained for young Riedesel but to make the best of his circumstances. The 
whole affair was but an instance of the German recruiting system of the 
time.

The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel had let out some of his regiments to 
England. Riedesel accompanied his battalion to that country with the rank 
of an ensign. He had not stayed there long enough, however, to learn the 
language perfectly, before his regiment was ordered back to Germany to 
take part in the Seven Years' War, in which England and Prussia, with 
Hanover, Brunswick, and some of the smaller German states, were opposed to 
France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden. From this time Riedesel's advancement 
was rapid. He became a favorite of Prince Ferdinand, and exchanged the 
service of Hesse for that of Brunswick. He had risen to the rank of 
colonel at the time of the outbreak of the American Revolution, and was 
appointed major-general on the day when he marched from Brunswick at the 
head of the contingent for America.

Riedesel saw nothing disgraceful in the work in which he was engaged. He 
was a soldier of a type common in the eighteenth century, and in military 
matters knew no duty but his orders. He was, moreover, a tender husband 
and father, and his wife and children were to follow him to the New World 
as soon as the health of the former would allow it. "Dearest wife," writes 
he from his first halting-place, "never have I suffered more than this 
morning as I came away. My heart was breaking, and if I could have 
returned, who knows what I might have done. But, my love, God has given me 
this calling; I must follow it; duty and honor bind me to it, and I must 
console myself and not complain." (Baroness Riedesel, p. 1.)

General Riedesel set out from Brunswick on the 22d of February, 1776, for 
Stade, on the Elbe, at the head of two thousand two hundred and eighty-two 
men. The troops were embarked between the 12th and the 17th of March, and 
got to sea on the 22d of that month. There were seventy-seven soldiers' 
wives with this division. The remainder of the Brunswick contingent 
marched to Stade in the month of May. The divisions amounted together to 
the number of forty-three hundred men. The regiment of Hesse-Hanau, six 
hundred and sixty-eight strong, joined the expedition at Portsmouth. The 
Brunswickers were reviewed and mustered into the English service by 
Colonel Faucitt, who was not pleased with the appearance of the soldiers. 
Many were too old, many were half-grown boys. The uniforms of the first 
division were so bad that the English government was obliged to advance 
£5000 to Riedesel to get his men a new outfit in Portsmouth. He was 
cheated by the English contractors, and when the cases of shoes were 
opened at sea, they were found to contain ladies' slippers. For a Canadian 
campaign no overcoats had been provided. New uniforms for the first 
division were sent after them in the course of the summer (As late as 
January, 1779, fourteen Brunswick soldiers and two soldiers' wives froze 
to death on a march in Canada, and about thirty were frost-bitten; and 
their officer excused himself on the ground that they were insufficiently 
clad - Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. 1 p. 187.)

The general was well pleased with the spirit of his troops. "I cannot 
sufficiently describe the contentment of our soldiers," writes he from 
shipboard, to his old chief, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick; "all are 
bright and in good spirits." (Eelking's "Riedesel," vol. 1 p. 18.) Soon, 
however, sea-sickness came to add to the discomfort of the crowded ships. 
"The soldiers have almost all been sick, and most of them continue so, as 
do also my servants," writes Riedesel to his wife from off Dover. "The 
poor cook is so bad that he can't work at all, nor so much as lift his 
hand. This is very uncomfortable for us, for Captain Foy and I have to do 
our own cooking. You would laugh to see us." Before the end of the voyage 
the drinking-water was foul (Baroness Riedesel, pp. 13, 22.)

The fleet of thirty sail weighed anchor at Portsmouth on the 4th of April, 
and arrived off Cape Gaspe on the 16th of May and before Quebec on the 1st 
of June. Riedesel here received the command of a separate corps made up of 
one English and two German battalions, with one hundred and fifty 
Canadians and three hundred Indians, and posted along the St.Lawrence 
between Quebec and Montreal. "This country will delight you; it is as 
beautiful as can be," writes Riedesel to his wife on the 8th of June; and 
again, on the 28th, he says: "You will find this neighborhood beautiful. 
It is only a pity that the colonies are still in their childhood, so that 
vegetables, fruit, and such other things as belong to a good table are 
very hard to find; but we have meat, poultry, and milk in profusion. The 
houses are all only of one story, but have many rooms in them, and are 
very clean. The inhabitants are very polite and obliging, and I do not 
believe that our peasants would behave so well under similar 
circumstances."

So slowly did news travel at that time, that the defeat of Montgomery and 
Arnold before Quebec, on the 31st of December, 1775, was not known in 
England when the fleet sailed thence. It was first learned by Riedesel and 
his companions on their way up the St. Lawrence River. Shortly after their 
arrival Canada was cleared of "rebel" troops as far as the northern end of 
Lake Champlain, on which lake the Americans had improvised a fleet, 
consisting of four sloops, eight "gondolas," and three row-galleys. The 
summer was spent by the British in building vessels of war and transports 
for an advance up the lake. The troops were quartered, or encamped, along 
the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, and but one considerable skirmish 
occurred to break the routine of drill, countermarching, and intrenchment 
while the boat-building was in progress.

On the 23d of June General Riedesel was present at a solemn meeting in the 
former Jesuits' Church at Montreal, between General Carleton, Governor of 
Canada, and the chiefs of the Five Nations. All the principal officers of 
the army were invited, and about three hundred Indians were present. The 
European officers were provided with chairs in the choir of the church, 
the governor sitting in the middle with his hat on. The Indians sat on 
benches in the body of the building, smoking their pipes. After speeches 
had been made and interpreted, the services of the Indians were accepted 
by the English general, and posts were assigned to them. The Indians shook 
hands with the European officers, and rebel scalps were presented to 
Generals Carleton, Burgoyne, and Phillips. What the English gentlemen did 
with these charming presents of their humane allies does not appear. At a 
later conference, held by General Carleton with Indians from farther west, 
one of them appeared wearing the uniform of General Braddock, whom he 
himself claimed to have killed.

Of Montreal Riedesel says: "This city is, indeed, somewhat finer than 
Quebec, and has about sixteen hundred houses. It is surrounded by nothing 
more than a wall, with loopholes for cannon and musketry, and what is 
called the citadel is a block-house in very bad condition. These works 
were begun in 1736. The whole island of Montreal as well as the city, 
belongs to the seminary...Near this seminary is the best garden in all 
Canada, but it is not better laid out than that of a private person at 
home. They have most sorts of European plants there."

At last, on the 9th of September, the transports were ready for an advance 
up Lake Champlain. It was necessary, however, to wait a month longer for 
the war vessels. These, when completed, exceeded those of the Americans 
more than two to one, both in numbers and in the weight of metal carried. 
They were manned by picked English sailors, while the sloops and gondolas 
under Benedict Arnold were mostly sailed and commanded by landsmen. The 
result was what might have been expected. Arnold chose, on the 10th of 
October, 1776, a disadvantageous position between Valcour Island and the 
western shore of the lake. Here he maintained an unequal fight on the 
11th, and hence he escaped on the following night by boldly slipping 
through the line of the British fleet. On the 13th he was overtaken by 
Carleton near the Island of the Four Winds. Some of the boats struck; some 
were run ashore and burned; only five escaped. Arnold and his crews 
behaved with the greatest courage throughout; but courage alone could not 
compensate for want of seamanship and for inferior numbers. Some of the 
Germans took part in the naval engagement of the 11th, and one of the 
batteaux on which were the Hanau artillery was sunk by the American fire. 
The soldiers and sailors that manned it, however, were saved by another 
boat (For a graphic account of the fight of October 11th, see the MS 
"Tagebuch vom Capit. Pausch.")

Presently, after this naval battle, Carleton occupied Crown Point without 
opposition. Scouting parties were pushed out into the neighborhood of 
Ticonderoga. Riedesel was so near that fortress on the 22d or 23d of 
October as to see it plainly from a hill. He thought it might easily be 
taken by the British army in Canada, were the whole of that army to be 
brought forward, yet he reckoned the numbers of the effective garrison 
decidedly too high. Sir Guy Carleton chose to think it too late to 
undertake further conquests that autumn. He even abandoned Crown Point and 
retired to the northern end of the lake.

The troops were ordered into winter quarters; the Germans along the 
Richelieu River and in the neighborhood of Lake St. Pierre. Riedesel's 
headquarters were at Trois Rivieres. Pains were taken that the presence of 
the soldiers should not weigh too heavily on the inhabitants, unless on 
those who had shown sympathy with the rebels. Strict discipline was 
maintained. The soldiers received rations, and cut their own firewood in 
the forest. The labor of hauling the wood when cut, and of cooking, seems 
to have been laid on the inhabitants. The soldiers were provided with long 
trousers of thick cloth, coming up high on the body, and warm mittens and 
hoods.

The second division of Brunswickers had arrived in Canada in September, 
after a long and stormy passage. Officers and men had at last been put on 
short rations of musty food. When the division, of about two thousand 
soldiers, arrived in Quebec, nineteen men had died and one hundred and 
thirty-one were sick of the scurvy.

The long Canadian winter presently set in. It was employed by Riedesel in 
drilling his troops when the weather would allow it, and especially in 
practising them in shooting. He had noticed that the Americans were better 
marksmen than the Germans, and he exerted himself to remedy this 
deficiency of his soldiers. He travelled over eighteen hundred miles in 
the course of the winter in a sleigh, visiting his scattered detachments, 
and waiting on General Carleton in Quebec and Montreal. He was at the 
former place on the 31st of December, 1776, when a solemn service was held 
in the cathedral to celebrate the deliverance of the city from Arnold and 
Montgomery on that day of the preceding year. The service was conducted by 
the bishop, and eight unfortunate Canadians had to do open penance, with 
halters round their necks, and beg pardon of God, the Church, and King 
George for having helped the Americans (Schlozer's "Briefwechsel," vol. 
iv. p. 306.)

During the latter part of the winter Riedesel gave a ball at Trois 
Rivieres every week, partly to please the inhabitants and partly to keep 
his officers out of mischief. The 20th of January, the birthday of the 
Queen of England, was celebrated with great pomp. Forty guests sat down to 
dinner. Healths were drunk in champagne, and a small cannon was fired at 
every toast, after the manner of the first act of "Hamlet." In the 
afternoon and evening was a ball, at which so many as thirty-seven ladies 
appeared. To these supper was served in the evening, and they were waited 
upon by the gentlemen. "The Demoiselle de Tonnencour," writes an eye-
witness, "increased her charms by her jewels, but poor Demoiselle R---e, 
in her shabby cotton gown, was preferred by many of us, on account of her 
natural and pleasant manners and her beautiful voice. You must know, sir, 
that the Canadian fair ones sing French and Italian songs at table, and 
that several songs have already been written and composed in honor of 
General Riedesel, and that they are often sung at Trois Rivieres." So, 
with duty and pleasure, the months wore away until the beginning of June, 
1777, when an eventful campaign was to open for the Brunswickers 
(Schlozer's "Briefwechsel," vol. iv. p. 308-9.)