Hessians in the Rev. War - Chapters XIX-XXI



CHAPTER XIX.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF NEW YORK, 1777 TO 1779.

The history of the Revolutionary War is principally the history of a 
series of important expeditions, conducted with varied success, against 
various parts of North America. The contending armies appeared, fought, 
and disappeared again. But the city of New York was occupied from the 
summer of 1776 to the autumn of 1783 by the British troops. In the 
country, within a short march of Manhattan Island, hostilities were ever 
recurring. At no time during the first five years could the inhabitants of 
the villages of central New Jersey or southwestern Connecticut feel 
themselves safe. The forts on the Hudson were taken and retaken.

It may not be uninteresting, in this connection, to look at a description 
of New York as seen by Hessian eyes at the time of the British occupation. 
The following extract is taken from a letter written by an officer who 
came over with reinforcements in the summer of 1777, and gives his first 
impressions:

"Now to give you an idea of America, or rather, of the little piece of 
America that we have become acquainted with. I cannot help saying that it 
is a beautiful, pleasant, and level country, and New York, although the 
part nearest the sea is burned down, one of the finest and most pleasing 
seaports that I have yet seen. For the houses are not only all built in 
English fashion, regular and handsome, and most of them like palaces, but 
are also all papered and very expensively furnished. It is, therefore, a 
pity that this country, which is also very fruitful, is inhabited by such 
wretches, who in their luxury and wantonness have not known what to do 
with themselves, and who have only their pride to thank for their fall. 
Every one at home who takes their side, and thinks they had a reasonable 
ground for rebellion, should, for a punishment, live awhile among them, 
and so understand the condition of things here (for the worst man here, if 
he will only do something, can live like the richest at home). Whoever 
would do this would soon change his tone, and understand that not poverty, 
but crime and luxury, are the cause of the whole rebellion. For although 
most of them are descended from runaway vagabonds who were driven out from 
other places, yet they are so arrogant, and live in such state in all 
parts of the country, and especially in New York, as I hardly believe to 
be practised anywhere else in the world. For instance, the women, who are 
almost all handsome, be they the wives of shoemakers, tailors, or day-
laborers (which last, however, are but few, for almost every soul here has 
a few black slaves to wait on him), go daily in mantles of silk or muslin. 
This luxury increases daily, for they receive much money from the troops, 
and do not have to give so much as a grain of salt for nothing. Nothing 
is, indeed, more annoying than that people who after all are no more than 
rebels, must, by express order of the king, be treated by the soldiers 
with the greatest politeness; and, as I said above, not a grain of salt 
can be demanded of them gratis. So the poor soldiers would have to die of 
hunger if they did not receive threepence worth of ships' provisions every 
day, consisting of a pound of biscuit, salt pork hardly fit to eat, a few 
mouldy beans, a little oat-meal, and a little rum; on which they must 
live, though many of them lose their health." (Schlozer's "Briefwechsel," 
vol. iii. pp. 32, 33.)

In the skirmishes and smaller expeditions about New York the Hessians 
generally took part; and it may be worth while to glance at a few of these 
events before turning to the more important operations in the Southern 
States, by which the fate of the country was finally decided.

In the latter part of August, 1778, the Jager Corps was posted on the Spyt 
den Duyvel Hills, near Courtland's Plantation. Early in the morning of the 
31st, a captain with one hundred and fifteen chasseurs, of whom fifteen 
were mounted, was sent out on a scouting expedition towards the Phillips 
House. They had marched less than half an hour when they were surprised by 
a party of Americans and Indians under the Chevalier Armand, who had been 
in ambush in a ravine on the right hand side of the road. Sixteen 
chasseurs were killed, wounded, or taken, and the others ran away. Colonel 
von Wurmb, who commanded the Jager Corps, hastened to the assistance of 
his detachment as soon as he heard the firing, but the Chevalier Armand 
retired with his prisoners, and crossed the Phillips Manor towards East 
Chester, where Lieutenant-colonels Cathcart, Simcoe, and Emmerich were 
posted with their light troops.

The lieutenant-colonels heard of Armand's approach, and immediately 
prepared an ambuscade. Simcoe and Cathcart drew off their infantry into 
the woods, on the right and left, and so placed themselves as to command a 
defile through which the Americans and Indians had to pass. Emmerich's 
infantry was drawn up to await the attack, with orders to fall back before 
the enemy. Emmerich posted himself with the cavalry behind a hill, ready 
to charge on the attacking party as soon as it should have been drawn into 
the open. Captain Ewald, with two companies of chasseurs, was sent by 
Lieutenant-colonel von Wurmb to the support of Emmerich's infantry.

The plan of the lieutenant-colonels was successfully carried out. About 
four in the afternoon the Americans and Indians appeared on the field of 
battle. Emmerich's skirmishers retreated before them, and drew them into a 
field of Indian corn, where they were suddenly attacked in front and rear 
and upon both flanks. All the Indians were killed except one, who was left 
to tell the tale. They belonged to the Stockbridge tribe, and were led by 
Sachem Neham. About fifty Americans were taken prisoners, but Armand and 
some others escaped through the bushes.

Eelking remarks on this story that it is a proof that the Americans did 
not disdain to use Indian allies in this war, as well as the British. A 
distinction is surely to be drawn between leading Indians against British 
and German soldiers, as was here done by the Americans, and sending them 
against the inmates of lonely farm-houses and unprotected hamlets, as was 
constantly done by the king's servants. The Stockbridge tribe are said to 
have been in so far destroyed and so completely discouraged in this 
expedition that they took no further part in the war (Eelking's 
"Hulfstruppen, "vol. ii. p. 17 and note; Ewald's "Belehrungen," vol. ii. 
pp. 312-318. I can find no other account of this skirmish either in German 
journals or in Washington's correspondence, which at this time is almost 
entirely devoted to events on Rhode Island. Ewald was an eye-witness, 
however, and he is very trustworthy as to the main facts of his stories, 
though they generally lose nothing in his telling.)

Ewald does not confine himself to stories that tell to the glory of his 
own side. Besides accounts of Trenton, Redbank, and other important 
actions in which Hessians or Englishmen were defeated, he has a chapter on 
the bold and lucky strokes made by small parties of Americans. Thus, he 
tells how, in the spring of 1777, the British had collected a large 
quantity of forage at Sag Harbor, on Long Island, and how Colonel Meigs 
started from Guilford, in Connecticut, with less than two hundred men, in 
whale-boats. They crossed the Sound on a stormy night, dragged their boats 
over the land, launched them again, landed near Sag Harbor, surprised the 
guard, destroyed the provisions, burned several vessels, took a number of 
English prisoners, got into their boats again, and reached Guilford 
safely. A similar descent was made at Cow Bay in broad daylight in 
November, 1780. In 1781 a Brunswick major was kidnapped from his quarters 
on the north side of Long Island. Indeed, it was the custom for small 
bands of Americans to land on the island, dodge the English and German 
soldiers, and plunder the Tories. These expeditions were conducted with 
great boldness, and are a complete answer, according to Ewald, to the 
accusations of want of courage sometimes made against the Americans in 
this war. "He who has served against this nation," says he, "will be 
convinced of the contrary, and will not be able to speak of them with 
contempt." (Ewald's "Belehrungen," vol. ii. pp.247, 248.)

Ewald relates, with great admiration, the gallant taking of Stony Point by 
the Americans, under Anthony Wayne, on the 16th Of July, 1779. "Do not 
these men deserve to be admired?" cries he, "who, but a few years before, 
had been lawyers, doctors, ministers, or farmers, and who, in so short a 
time, made themselves excellent officers, putting to shame so many of our 
profession who have grown gray under arms, but who would have been in a 
frightful state of mind if they had been commissioned to carry out such a 
plan. I shall perhaps be told that these men were endowed by nature with a 
great talent for war. This may be the case with one or another of them, 
but, on the whole, nature is not so extravagant with her favors. Allow me 
to say it, these people did not choose military service as a refuge, as 
the nobility generally does, nor as a house of correction for an illbred 
son who would not learn anything at the academies, as is often the case 
among the middle classes, but they chose this profession with the firm 
resolution of being zealous in every way, of serving their country 
usefully, and of pushing themselves forward by their merits. I was 
sometimes astonished when American baggage fell into our hands during that 
war to see how every wretched knapsack, in which were only a few shirts 
and a pair of torn breeches, would be filled up with military books. For 
instance, the 'Instructions of the King of Prussia to his Generals,' 
Thielke's 'Field Engineer,' the partisans 'Jenny' and 'Grandmaison,' and 
other similar books, which had all been translated into English, came into 
my hands a hundred times through our soldiers. This was a true indication 
that the officers of this army studied the art of war while in camp, which 
was not the case with the opponents of the Americans, whose portmanteaus 
were rather filled with bags of hair-powder, boxes of sweet-smelling 
pomatum, cards (instead of maps), and then often, on top of all, some 
novels or stage plays." (Ewald's "Belehrungen," vol. i pp. 284-293.)

The British kept permanent possession of two or three places on the 
western side of the Hudson. One of these places was Paulus Hook, now 
Jersey City. The Hook was a peninsula made up of steep, rocky hills, and 
surrounded in part by the Hudson and in part by a marsh intersected by 
creeks and ditches.

The position, strong in itself, was fortified with palisades, block-
houses, and redoubts. It was occupied by a battalion of New Jersey Tories, 
under Lieutenant-colonel Bushkirk.


PAULUS HOOK
(FROM THE LIBRARY AT CASSEL)

[begin image caption: PLAN
of the surprise of an English post at Paulus Hook, in the Province of 
Jersey, at half-past two in the night of the 18th-19th of October, 1779.
A. Approach and position of the rebels on the heights of Bergen, to cover 
the retreat.
B. Attack on the bridge and the blockhouses 1, 2, and 3, and on the fort 
C, which mounted seven 6-pounders. These did not succeed in firing.
D. Barracks in which the English garrison, one hundred and ten strong, 
were taken prisoners.
E. Work which a Hessian captain and one officer with twenty-five men 
occupied; whereupon the rebels retired at daybreak, with their prisoners.
end image caption]

On the 18th of August, 1779, a party of forty Hessians, with two officers, 
were brought over to reinforce the garrison of Paulus Hook, and at nine in 
the evening of that day Bushkirk started on an expedition towards the new 
bridge over the Hackensack, some fourteen miles distant. Meanwhile, Major 
Henry Lee, of Virginia, with about three hundred men, supported by Lord 
Stirling with about five hundred more, approached the new bridge in the 
opposite direction, under pretence of foraging. Here Stirling halted, but 
Lee during the night came near Paulus Hook, having passed Bushkirk 
unperceived. On approaching the fort, Lee sent an officer, with a small 
party, forward to reconnoitre. The officer reported that the garrison were 
not on the alert. Lee then advanced with his command. They forded the 
ditches, entered the fort, and surprised a number of Provincials, sleeping 
in a block-house. They then approached a second blockhouse, occupied by a 
small party of Hessians. "Wer da?" cried the sentry. "Stony Point!" 
answered the Americans. The sentry fired, and thus gave the alarm, but the 
under-officer in command of the block-house surrendered with ten or 
fifteen men. Lee next surprised and took possession of the principal 
redoubt, and the whole of Paulus Hook seemed his. Fortunately for 
themselves, however, some twenty-five Hessians had their wits about them. 
They threw themselves into a small redoubt, where they were joined by 
their captain and by Major Sutherland, commanding the post, and refused to 
yield. Lee, who had not known that any Hessians were in the fort, and who 
probably overrated their numbers, made off before morning without even 
spiking the cannon or destroying the war material. He took with him about 
one hundred and fifty prisoners. Lee had received orders not to attempt to 
hold the place, and a rapid retreat was necessary to prevent his being cut 
off; but the twenty-five Hessians, by their gallant conduct, had probably 
prevented the capture or destruction of the stores and buildings in the 
fort, and had certainly saved their side from the appearance of a complete 
and shameful disaster (Marshall, vol. iv. pp. 87-92; Washington, vol. vi. 
pp. 317, 326, 332, 333, 336, 376; Bancroft, vol. x. p. 229; Ewald's 
"Belehrungen," vol. ii. pp. 295-299; MSS journals of Chasseur Corps, 
Regiment von Lossberg (Piel and Heuser), Wiederhold's Diary. See also the 
"Life of General Henry Lee," by General Robert E. Lee, prefixed to Lee's 
"Memoirs of the War," etc. General R. E. Lee says that Paulus Hook was 
entered by a stratagem, but this statement is not confirmed by any German 
account, nor by Marshall.)



CHAPTER XX.
WIEDERHOLD'S VOYAGE - AN EPISODE - SEPTEMBER, 1779.

On the 4th of September, 1779, the Regiments von Knyphausen and von 
Lossberg received orders to make ready to embark with all their baggage, 
and with such of their sick as could support a journey. Their destination 
was Quebec, though the men did not know it at the time. The Knyphausen and 
Lossberg regiments were two of those which had been captured at Trenton. 
The prisoners taken on that occasion had been exchanged, and the 
regiments, which had at one time formed part of a combined battalion, were 
now acting independently again.

Wiederhold had received a commission as captain in the Regiment von 
Knyphausen. The two regiments were embarked on the 8th of September on six 
vessels. Wiederhold's quarters were on the Triton, a brig armed with six 
small cannon and two swivels. The brig was crowded and uncomfortable, and 
had at first a crew of only seven men, counting the captain, cook, and 
steward. The Hessians on board were a lieutenant-colonel, who was sick, 
two captains, a lieutenant, an ensign, and a surgeon, and nearly two 
companies of infantry.

The brig put to sea on the evening of the 8th of September, but ran 
immediately into a gale of wind, and was separated from the fleet. The 
master, having received no orders as to his destination, was obliged to 
put back towards Sandy Hook on the morning of the 10th. On that day a 
vessel was made out ahead, and preparations were made to meet her in case 
she should be an American privateer. The cannons were cleaned and loaded, 
and a non-commissioned officer and six men ordered to take charge of each 
of them. The vessel, however, turned out to be a friend, a transport ship 
with part of the Forty-fourth English regiment on board. The Triton kept 
in company with this ship, and on the morning of the 11th fell in with the 
convoy, consisting of twenty-three transports and trading sloops, 
protected by two small vessels of twenty and fourteen guns. From one of 
these vessels the Triton obtained two additional sailors - young, 
inexperienced fellows.

The fleet sailed immediately on the arrival of the Triton, and during the 
11th and 12th all went well. On the 13th, however, the weather began to be 
stormy, and on the 14th it was the same. On the 15th the wind was rising, 
and in the evening it blew a hurricane. The fleet was completely 
scattered, and the night was pitch dark. About nine o'clock in the evening 
the mainmast broke off below the main yard, and before the wreckage was 
entirely cleared away the foremast went overboard, breaking just above the 
deck. The brig was now tossed about at the mercy of the waves, and was 
sometimes on her beam-ends. While the captain was nailing up a dark-light, 
and Wiederhold standing by with a candle to help him, the sea burst in and 
threw them both head over heels in the cabin.

Presently a new peril arose. One after another the cannons on the deck 
broke away from their fastenings, rolled hither and thither, and burst 
through the bulwarks into the sea. Four of them in succession were lost in 
this way, carrying with them the great iron kettle, which was large enough 
to cook for the whole ship's company and passengers at once. The fifth 
cannon, in rolling about, loosened the hatch, then broke away from its own 
carriage, and fell through on to the lower deck, where it alighted on a 
large chest belonging to Captain Wiederhold, and containing wine, spirits, 
mustard, vinegar, and the like. The chest and its contents flew into a 
thousand pieces, but the fall of the gun was broken, and the hull of the 
brig escaped injury.

The sixth cannon, however, was still running about the after-deck just 
over the cabin. It had already smashed the wheel and everything else that 
came in its way. Four of the sailors could or would work no longer, and 
lay helpless in their bunks. None of the others would go near the cannon, 
for fear of being crushed. The soldiers were lying about sighing, weeping, 
or praying. The lieutenant-colonel was too sick to do anything. Wiederhold 
tried to encourage the men, and told them that God, who had brought them 
into this great danger, could also bring them out of it, if they would do 
their part, and try in the first place to get the cannon overboard, and 
then work at the pumps and keep the ship afloat until morning; when, 
perhaps, Heaven would lend them aid, and either give them better weather 
or send a ship to their assistance.

Wiederhold's entreaties were useless at first. Some of the soldiers were 
stunned or stupid with fright; others said they were sick. Wiederhold 
reminded them that he had himself been suffering for four weeks from a 
fever, but as there was no one else to render any help, he had tried to do 
something for the common safety. He did not doubt, he said, that there 
were some men there who were stronger than he, and who had enough 
affection for him to follow him and to do what he should tell them. He 
promised to stay on deck with them, lend a hand to their work, and share 
their fate, hoping to save the ship and all on board. No one would come, 
until at last Wiederhold cried out, "Is there no under-officer who is in 
health, and has ambition and a Hessian heart, who will follow and help 
me?" Hereupon a sergeant and two corporals started up, and were followed 
by fifteen or twenty men. "Well, then," said Wiederhold, "come along! Let 
us first try to pitch the cannon into the sea." After several attempts, 
during which they were in constant danger of being crushed, or of being 
carried overboard with the gun, they succeeded in mastering it, and pushed 
it over the side. In doing this a soldier had his arm broken in two 
places, and Wiederhold's little finger was crushed.

Now they went to work at the pump, in relays of four men. Each relay could 
only work for six or eight minutes at a time, and the men had to be tied, 
or cling to the stump of the mainmast, not to be washed away. About three 
or four o'clock in the morning the pump broke, and could not be mended in 
the dark, so they fell to bailing, which they kept up until daylight, when 
they managed to repair the pump.

While the men were working in the darkness a soldier fell overboard, but 
succeeded in seizing a rope, and called and shrieked for help. No one 
could see him, or knew just where he was. "Where are you?" asked 
Wiederhold. "Hanging on to the ship," answered the soldier; "I can't hold 
on much longer. Help me quickly, or I shall fall into the sea and drown." 
His comrades tried to get to him, but before they could reach him a wave 
was quicker than they, and washed him aboard again; and, says Wiederhold, 
in his narrative, "he's alive and healthy yet."

While the work was going on, Wiederhold noticed the master and some of the 
sailors, with a lantern, moving about the boats which were fastened to the 
ship, and, as he thought, preparing to launch one of them. Wiederhold 
asked the master what he was doing. "Oh, nothing," answered the master; "I 
am only seeing if they are fast enough." Wiederhold then asked for the 
lantern, on a pretext, and when he had got it and given it to one of his 
soldiers, he took the master by the arm, led him down to the cabin, and 
put him under arrest, in charge of two officers. This was done for fear 
the master should abandon the brig with his sailors, and leave the 
soldiers to their fate. When morning broke the boats were found to be past 
service. They were thrown overboard, and the master was released.

During the 16th of September the storm was abating, and the 17th was a 
clear day. The observation taken at noon showed 37° 19' north latitude, so 
that the brig had drifted nearly as far south as the capes of Virginia. Of 
the longitude they had no idea.

The wreckage of the masts and bulwarks was now cleared away, and the hull 
of the brig examined, but no leak found. The soldiers came on deck and 
dried their clothes, for there was not a dry stitch on the brig, even in 
the knapsacks, but everything had been soaked in salt water and slime. The 
sailors rigged a jury-mast on the stump of the mainmast, and on the 
following day another on that of the foremast.

On the 19th prayers were offered by the Hessian soldiers, to thank God for 
their deliverance in the storm. A hymn was sung and the 107th Psalm was 
read. Even the sailors, who could not understand a word of what was said 
by the Germans, showed much reverence and seemed to be praying themselves.

The Triton now slowly made her way to the northward, meeting with 
tolerable weather. Several vessels were seen, but none came to her 
assistance. Wiederhold elaborated a plan of action by which, in his hardly 
manageable hulk, he was to resist any privateer that should attack him. He 
proposed to hide his men, decoy a boat-load of Americans on board the 
Triton, and capture them. The privateer would now be unwilling to fire 
into the brig for fear of hurting her own men, and could not board it, on 
account of the superior numbers of the Hessians. It was, perhaps, 
fortunate for Wiederhold and his party that circumstances prevented them 
from trying to put this ingenious scheme in action.

On the morning of the 25th of September the capes of Delaware were in 
sight. Knowing now exactly where they were, the crew of the Triton put out 
to sea again, to keep out of the way of privateers. The wind was fair, and 
the Hessians hoped to see Sandy Hook in forty-eight hours. The morning of 
the 26th was fine. At daybreak two sails were seen in the distance. 
Wiederhold sprang joyfully into the cabin and reported the sight to the 
lieutenant-colonel and the other officers. All dressed and hurried on 
deck, hoping that these were ships sent out from New York to cruise before 
the harbor, or to assist vessels injured in the late storm. The strange 
sail, which were to windward, bore down on the Triton, and proved to be a 
schooner and a sloop. "But oh! how were our hopes betrayed!" cries 
Wiederhold; "for when they came near and hoisted their flags of thirteen 
stripes, our joy was turned into sorrow."

The schooner carried fourteen guns and was called the Mars. The sloop, 
named the Comet, carried ten guns, and was commanded by Captain Decatur. 
By eight o'clock in the morning they were alongside of the Triton. They 
ordered the master of the latter to lower one sail and bind the helm to 
starboard. Then each privateer sent an officer and five men aboard, and 
the Mars took the Triton in tow, and brought her into Barnegat Inlet, 
where she was anchored. The Mars, which had taken on board the master and 
several seamen from the Triton, presently got among the breakers and 
capsized. Only two of her crew were drowned, but all had to swim for it. 
This happened within two gun-shots of the place where the Triton lay at 
anchor. The captain of the Mars had previously ordered the Hessian 
lieutenant-colonel to come on board of that vessel, but had fortunately 
excused him from doing so on account of his sickness.

On the 29th of September the Triton was brought into Little Egg Harbor. 
Here the prisoners were disembarked. They passed through Philadelphia and 
were at last quartered at Reading. The officers were exchanged and 
returned to New York in December, 1780.

Of the six vessels in which the Knyphausen and Lossberg regiments were 
embarked, one returned safely to New York with her passengers; the fate of 
one I have not been able to trace with certainty; one was lost at sea with 
all hands; two were disabled in the storm and afterwards taken by American 
privateers.

The remaining vessel, the Badger, with part of the Lossberg regiment, lost 
her fore and main masts in the storm. She was afterwards attacked by two 
small privateers, which followed her for two days and fired at her, but 
drew off on account of the determined attitude of the Hessians. On the 9th 
of October, however, a privateer mounting twelve guns attacked the Badger, 
and the latter, having no cannon, was obliged to surrender. A lieutenant, 
three ensigns, and twenty men were taken on board the privateer, together 
with the equipment of the remaining Hessians. The privateer seems, 
moreover, to have retained at first some hold on the Badger herself, on 
which a Hessian captain, who was sick, with a surgeon and most of the 
privates, still remained; for it is stated in the journals that the 
frigate Solebay, on the following day, freed the Badger from the 
privateer, and subsequently brought her safely to New York (MSS. 
Wiederhold's Diary, journals of the Regiment von Lossberg (Heuser and 
Piel), of the Jager Corps, and of the Grenadier Battalion von Platte.)



CHAPTER XXI.
SAVANNAH, CHARLESTON, AND PENSACOLA, 1778 TO 1781.

The alliance between France and the United States increased the 
probability of the final independence of the latter. It therefore became 
important to diminish the amount of territory held by the Americans, even 
if their main army could not be destroyed. Lord George Germaine hoped that 
the thinly inhabited southern provinces might speedily be reduced to 
obedience, and the royal authority established from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Susquehanna River (Bancroft, vol. x. p. 284.)

There was a further advantage to be gained by occupying at once the 
Northern and the Southern States. The summer and autumn were the season of 
activity in the former, the winter and spring in the latter. The British 
general, who could move his troops by sea, might thus leave each 
department with only soldiers enough to act on the defensive when the 
weather limited the operations that could be conducted, and maintain a 
superiority in each, when such a superiority was most important.

On the 6th of November, 1778, about thirty-five hundred men, under 
Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, were embarked at New York. Two Hessian 
regiments were in the expedition. The transports, delayed by bad weather, 
did not clear Sandy Hook until the 27th, and arrived in the Savannah River 
on the 24th of December, after a stormy passage. The party landed on the 
29th, and put to flight some eight hundred Americans who attempted to 
oppose them, killing and wounding about eighty, and taking four hundred 
prisoners. Nearly fifty cannon, a considerable quantity of stores, and 
several ships fell into the hands of the British, whose loss, including 
Hessians and Tories, was twenty men killed and wounded.

The town of Savannah was composed of about six hundred lightly built 
houses. Most of the inhabitants had run away with the rebels, taking with 
them such valuables as they could carry. Mahogany furniture was lying 
about broken in the streets - a sad sight to see. The Hessians are said 
not to have plundered, like the other invading troops. They were quartered 
in the fine barracks of the town (Schlozer's "Briefwechsel," vol. v. p. i 
et seq.; MS journal of Regiment von Wissenbach. See, also, a description 
of the State of Georgia in 1776, Sparks's "Correspondence," vol. i. pp. 
148-151. Many of the troops with the expedition were Tories, the least 
disciplined soldiers in the British army.)

In January General Prevost arrived from St. Augustine to take command of 
the army. Then began the interminable series of marches that distinguished 
these southern campaigns. Augusta was occupied, then abandoned. General 
Lincoln, with an American army, marched towards Augusta, and General 
Prevost gave him the slip and threatened Charleston. Lincoln returned from 
Georgia, and Prevost withdrew to John's Island, on the coast of South 
Carolina. At last Beaufort was occupied and John's Island abandoned by the 
British, and their main army returned to Savannah.

One or two incidents occurred during this campaign which especially 
concerned the Hessians. At a place called Stono Ferry a small 
fortification had been erected, originally as a tete de pont. It was 
separated by an inlet from John's Island, and the bridge which it once 
protected had been removed. The fortification was occupied by the Hessian 
Regiment von Trumbach and by one battalion of Highlanders, in all about 
five hundred men. This post was attacked on the 19th of June, 1779, by 
Lincoln's army. The Hessians at first gave way, but were supported by the 
Highlanders. They then rallied and renewed the battle. The Americans 
retreated before the arrival of German and Scotch reinforcements (Stedman, 
vol. ii. pp. 115-119; Lee's "Memoirs," pp. 130,131; Eelking's 
"Hulfstruppen," vol. i. pp. 26-28; MS journal of the Regiment von 
Wissenbach.)

It was about this time that two different engagements occurred in the 
inlets about John's Island between Hessians, using their field-pieces, and 
small vessels or galleys of the enemy. On each occasion the Hessians were 
successful, and caused the retreat or destruction of the vessels engaged. 
It is said that on one of these, named the Rattlesnake, were retaken 
sundry cannon and flags which had been captured at Trenton with Rall's 
brigade. How these trophies came to be in South Carolina is not mentioned 
(Eelking's "Hulfstruppen" vol. ii. p. 28, where the diary of the 
noncommissioned officer Reuber is given as authority. The story told by 
Eelking does not agree as to dates, etc., with the journal of the Regiment 
von Wissenbach. The Regiment von Trumbach, which fought at Stono Ferry, 
was Rall's old regiment.)

On the 4th of September, 1779, the French fleet, under Count d'Estaing, 
appeared suddenly off the mouth of the Savannah River. Immediately all the 
outlying detachments of the British army were called into Savannah. On the 
23d Lincoln and his men joined the French from Charleston, and volunteers 
from South Carolina flocked into their camp. But while d'Estaing was 
opening regular approaches, the soldiers of the garrison and the negroes 
of the town were busily strengthening the fortifications. It was too late 
in the season for the French fleet to remain with safety on the coast. 
D'Estaing determined to try an assault. This should have been done 
earlier, before reinforcements had been received by the British from 
Beaufort, and before their works had been strengthened, or it should have 
been postponed until those works had been crippled. The assault was 
undertaken on the 9th of October. Both Frenchmen and Americans behaved 
with spirit, and planted their banners on the parapets of Savannah, but 
both were repulsed with great slaughter. Colonel von Porbeck, of the 
Regiment von Wissenbach, was complimented in Prevost's report. A week 
later the French sailed away, while some of the Americans returned with 
Lincoln to Charleston, and others dispersed to their homes (According to 
the "Histoire de la Derniere Guerre," 101 n., the French and American army 
numbered five thousand five hundred and twenty-four. The British had white 
men, three thousand and eighty-five; Indians, eighty; negroes, four 
thousand. Stedman (vol. ii. p. 127) gives the number of the garrison at 
less than twenty-five hundred white men. The French loss was about seven 
hundred; the American loss not far from two hundred and fifty. The journal 
of the Regiment von Wissenbach gives the British loss, killed and wounded, 
at fifty-six; about one half of the number usually given.)

In the summer of 1779, Sir Henry Clinton planned an expedition against 
Charleston. The execution of the design was postponed on account of the 
neighborhood of the French fleet, but when this had sailed for Europe a 
corps of about eighty-five hundred men was prepared in New York. This 
corps was made up of Englishmen, Tories, and Hessians. The Hessians chosen 
were the four battalions of grenadiers, a regiment of infantry, and about 
two hundred and fifty chasseurs. With the last-mentioned were Captain 
Ewald and Lieutenant Hinrichs. Lieutenant-general von Knyphausen was left 
in command at New York. Sir Henry Clinton commanded the expedition in 
person. The soldiers were embarked about the 19th of December, but on 
account of the weather they did not put to sea until the 29th. The voyage 
was a very stormy one, and when, in the first days of February, 1780, the 
main body of the fleet arrived in the mouth of the Savannah River, many 
transport ships were missing. A bark, the Anna, containing thirty Hessian 
and Anspach chasseurs, and other soldiers, had been dismasted early in 
January and taken in tow by a man-of-war. In a subsequent storm the tow-
line snapped, and the Anna, a sheer hulk, was left to the fury of the 
waves. For eight weeks this bark, with two hundred and fifty souls on 
board, was driven before the westerly gales. She was provisioned only for 
a month and for a hundred men, and famine presently set in. The dogs were 
eaten; bones were ground up and boiled with shavings from salt-beef 
barrels.

The master proposed that the crew and passengers should feed on each 
other, beginning with the women. This inhuman proposal was rejected with 
disgust. At last the Irish coast came in sight. The vessel grazed on a 
rock and sprang a leak. It was noticed that the master was putting out to 
sea, and, on inquiry, it was discovered that he was afraid of having to 
pay thirty guineas for a pilot. The master was thereupon sent below and 
the boatswain took command of the bark. He brought her to St. Ives in 
Cornwall, where, in answer to her signals of distress, two boats with a 
pilot and a carpenter put out to her assistance. The carpenter was so 
frightened at the sight of the famished Hessians that he started off again 
for the shore as fast as his oars would take him. The pilot succeeded in 
beaching the bark just as she was about to sink, and the crew and 
passengers were saved at last (The above particulars are taken from 
Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. ii. pp. 63, 64. As usual, Eelking gives no 
reference. Bancroft, however, gives the outlines of the story, and there 
are various contemporary authorities for the fact that the ship was 
separated from the fleet and driven to England.)

The English fleet waited at Tybee Island until the 9th of February, 1780, 
for the scattered transports to reassemble. It then put out to sea again, 
and on the 11th all but the heavy men-of-war entered the mouth of the 
North Edisto River, and the troops were disembarked on Simon's Island. For 
a month the soldiers were busily landing stores and artillery, making good 
their footing, and advancing over the sandy islands southwest of 
Charleston Harbor. It was not until the 12th of March that fire was opened 
on the town from Wappoo Neck, and only on the 29th did the British army 
cross the Ashley River. Meanwhile fortifications had been springing up 
like mushrooms in the Charleston sand.

No serious opposition was offered to the landing, nor to the advance of 
the army. Yet the opportunities for resisting or, at least, for annoying 
the British, must have been such as to have tempted a more able and 
energetic commander than Lincoln. The invaders were landing from a long 
and exhausting voyage, and were without horses to drag their cannon and 
stores. Lincoln's true course would probably have been to imitate 
Washington in the campaign before Philadelphia. He might have risked a 
battle, and, if defeated, have abandoned Charleston and preserved his army 
for the protection of the Southern States. Those states were now to be 
given up to plunder and blood. The war in the Carolinas and Virginia was 
marked by a degree of barbarity which had no parallel in the Eastern and 
Middle States, except in the small plundering expeditions in the 
neighborhood of New York. Already in the preceding year Prevost's soldiers 
had begun this barbarous style of warfare. The marks of their plundering 
were visible in every house on the islands they had occupied near 
Charleston.

While Lincoln was throwing up his sand-works in the town, the English were 
receiving reinforcements from Savannah. The men-of-war, all but the 
heaviest, were lightened, brought over the bar and refitted. Fort 
Moultrie, however, still defended the town, and the American and French 
ships in the harbor, and between it and Charleston the besieged had sunk 
vessels to impede further navigation. Small parties of Americans watched 
the movements of the British. On the 26th of March Sir Henry Clinton and 
several of the generals rode out to meet Colonel Patterson, who was 
bringing reinforcements from Savannah. They returned safe, though without 
an escort; but a Tory colonel and a hospital inspector, who rode a short 
way behind them, were taken prisoners (Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," vol. ii. 
pp. 67,68; Lee's "Memoirs," p. 146.)

Ewald tells with glee how, at John's Island, in South Carolina, in the 
spring of 1780, he reconnoitred a position by calmly lounging up to an 
outpost of the enemy, taking off his hat, and falling into conversation 
with the officer in command. The outpost was made up from Pulaski's 
Legion, which was officered by Poles and Frenchmen, in whose gallantry the 
German captain confided - a kind of gallantry which the native Americans 
either could not or would not understand (Pulaski himself had been killed 
at the siege of Savannah.)

On the 30th of March, 1780, the English army was encamped some three 
thousand yards from the lines of Charleston. Towards evening the Hessian 
chasseurs on the picket line stood about a mile from the city. Before them 
lay a flat, sandy plain, unbroken by a house, tree, or bush. The only 
possible shelter consisted in a few ditches. On the night of the 31st of 
March the first parallel was opened. The next morning the inhabitants 
began to move off their families and their valuables, going in boats up 
the Cooper River, the only way left open. Down this river, on the 7th of 
April, came seven hundred Virginian Continentals to reinforce the 
garrison. They were received with ringing of bells and with salvoes of 
artillery. Night by night the work on the trenches continued. The 
artillery of the city tried in vain to stop it.

The afternoon of the 8th of April was cloudy, the tide was on the flood, 
and a strong breeze was blowing from the south. Nine men-of-war and a 
transport ship approached Fort Moultrie, sailing in line, one behind the 
other. Before them all came Admiral Arbuthnot, in a jolly-boat, with the 
lead in his hand, piloting the fleet. The fire from the fort was terrific. 
The Roebuck, leading the line, sailed close to the works, gave a 
broadside, and passed on into the harbor, uninjured. The second ship lost 
apiece of her foremast. Another luffed before the fort and kept up a 
continuous fire, so that the whole ship seemed like a long flash of 
lightning. The whole squadron entered the harbor except the transport 
ship, which ran aground and was set on fire. The beautiful sight was 
watched by thousands of deeply interested spectators. The Americans 
covered the ramparts of the town. The Englishmen and Germans leaped on 
their siege-works. So absorbing was the interest of the operations in the 
bay, that fighting on land ceased for the time. As soon as the second ship 
had passed the fort, the Americans disappeared from the walls of 
Charleston, and presently a crowd of small boats was seen on the Cooper 
River, carrying off the more timid,of the inhabitants (See the MS journals 
of the Jager Corps (this part by Lieutenant Heinrichs) and of the 
Grenadier Battalions von Minnigerode and von Platte. A singular 
discrepancy exists in the original accounts as to the day on which the 
British fleet passed Fort Moultrie. For the 8th of April we have Clinton's 
official report, Lincoln to Washington, Laurens to Washington, and the MS 
journals above quoted. For the 9th of April we have Admiral Arbuthnot's 
official report, Tarleton, Ewald, and Stedman. See Tarleton, pp. 11, 39, 
49; Sparks's "Correspondence," vol. ii. pp. 434, 436; Ewald's
"Belehrungen," vol. iii. P. 252; Stedman, vol. ii. p. 180.)

Communication between Fort Moultrie and Charleston was now cut off. The 
British fleet, however, found its progress further barred by a line of 
sunken hulks, and could not sail up the Cooper River and take the American 
works in their rear. As some of the ships in that river interfered with 
the operations of the besiegers, several large row-boats were hauled 
overland to operate on it, the vehicle used for this purpose being dragged 
by one hundred and thirty-four negroes. Work on the approaches went on 
unceasingly, but the siege was somewhat delayed by the fact that some of 
the heavy artillery and most of the horses had been lost at sea. The place 
of the siege-train was supplied by cannon from the ships, brought with 
great labor overland from James Island. On the 13th of April hot shot were 
fired by the Hessian artillery, and several houses caught fire. Sir Henry 
Clinton ordered his batteries to slacken their fire, that the flames might 
be extinguished. On the following night the second parallel was opened, 
and soon after this counter-approaches were begun by the Americans, so 
that not only artillery, but musket-balls, could be brought to bear. On 
the 20th, however, the siege-works had so far advanced that the chasseurs 
were able to pick men off in the embrasures of the fortifications, and 
render the service of the guns very dangerous. The third parallel was 
opened in the following night, and on the 21st, Lincoln, who had refused 
to surrender on the day after Fort Moultrie had been passed by the fleet, 
offered to capitulate. Hostilities were suspended for six hours, but at 
the end of that time they were renewed, as the generals had not agreed on 
terms. On the 24th the Americans made a sortie, and penetrated in some 
places as far as the second parallel, but were presently driven back into 
the town. On the 26th the British took possession of a fort commanding the 
Cooper River, and the besieged were completely shut up in Charleston.

On the night of the 3d of May, a party of men from the besieging camp 
rowed silently up to a three-masted vessel lying close to the town. They 
climbed on to the deck, which they found undefended, cast off the 
moorings, and took back the ship within the British lines. Next morning 
they examined their prize, and on going below found her to be a hospital-
ship, full of small-pox patients (Journal of the Grenadier Battalion von 
Platte.)

The end of the siege was approaching. On the night of the 7th of May, 
1780, Fort Moultrie was taken by sailors from the fleet. On the 8th, 
negotiations for a surrender of the town were renewed and again broken 
off; but on the 11th, Clinton's terms were agreed to. These were that the 
garrison should march out with colors cased and bands playing, but not an 
English or Hessian tune, and lay down their arms outside the town. The 
Continentals were to be prisoners of war, the militia were to return to 
their homes on parole. In consequence of this capitulation the 
Continentals marched out on the 12th, the bands playing a Turkish march. 
The officers were allowed to retain their swords, but were deprived of 
them a few days later, on the pretext that they were making "disorders" in 
the town. The garrison had been reduced to a very ragged and pitiable 
condition. They were not much more than half as numerous as the besiegers, 
even counting the American militia. Of the Continentals there were about 
twenty-five hundred, and the English army can hardly have numbered less 
than twelve thousand men. The town was defended only by earthworks, and 
was a fortified camp rather than a fortress. The loss of the besiegers, in 
killed and wounded, is set down in a Hessian journal at two hundred and 
sixty-five men.

The town of Charleston contained about fifteen thousand inhabitants, and 
had been one of the richest and gayest towns in North America. The large 
and handsome houses were not set close together as in other towns, but 
much free space was left for the circulation of air. They were well 
furnished with mahogany and silver-ware, and great attention was bestowed 
on keeping them clean. The streets were unpaved and sandy, but had a 
narrow foot-path at the sides. Even in May, the dust was intolerable. Most 
of the rich families had fled at the approach of the British. There were 
many Germans and German Jews in the town, and many doctors, on account of 
the unhealthy climate. The women, at least most of those that remained, 
were sallow and ugly. The place, of course, was full of negroes, who 
formed quite half of its population.

The negroes had been accumulating in the British camp. Two companies of 
them had been brought from Savannah at the end of February. The slaves of 
rebels had been confiscated. These slaves, in South Carolina, were the 
most degraded on the continent, and had been the worst treated by their 
former masters. The field hands among them, according to a Hessian 
journal, usually received a quart of rice or Indian corn a day. This they 
ate half-cooked, finding it more nourishing in that condition than if 
fully boiled. Many of them had hardly a rag to cover their nakedness. Few 
could understand English (MS journal of the Grenadier Battalion von 
Platte.) On the 31st of May ten slaves were given to each regiment 
starting for New York. The negroes formed a part of the booty of the 
campaign, and thousands of them were shipped to the West Indies to be sold.

Early in June, Sir Henry Clinton sailed for New York. With him went the 
Hessian grenadiers and chasseurs, but some of the Hessian regiments 
remained behind.

The expeditions to Savannah and Charleston were not the most distant in 
which the German auxiliaries were engaged. In the autumn of 1778 about 
twelve hundred men, Waldeckers and Provincials, under Major-general John 
Campbell, were sent to reinforce the garrisons of West Florida. Sailing 
early in November and touching at Jamaica, these troops were landed at 
Pensacola at the end of January, 1779. Pensacola was then a town of about 
two hundred wooden houses, defended by forts built of logs and sand. It 
stood in a sandy desert, surrounded by thick and interminable forests. It 
was a four weeks' journey overland to Georgia by the old trading path. The 
woods were infested by Indians, who received three pounds sterling from 
the British for every hostile scalp. Among the Indians the Waldeckers 
found a countryman of their own, one Brandenstein, who had deserted in his 
youth from the Waldeck service, and after many adventures had assumed the 
manners and the costume of an Indian warrior.

The garrison of Pensacola was at first occupied in fortifying the town. 
Lieutenant-colonel Dickson, an English officer, held Baton Rouge. In the 
course of the summer of 1779 three companies of Waldeckers were sent to 
reinforce him. Meanwhile war had broken out between England and Spain. Don 
Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor at New Orleans, was young and 
energetic. He seized several small vessels in the Mississippi and the 
waters near its mouth. In September fifty-three Waldeckers were taken 
prisoners on Lake Pontchartrain. The Spaniards advanced against Baton 
Rouge, and after two attempts to carry the works by assault began a 
regular siege. Dickson capitulated, and the garrison marched out of the 
fort with all the honors of war. They numbered over four hundred, and the 
besiegers under Galvez between fourteen hundred and two thousand men. 
Nearly one half of the capitulating garrison were Waldeckers, and more 
than thirty of the regiment had been killed or wounded.

The news of Dickson's surrender reached Pensacola on the 20th of October, 
but was at first received with incredulity. "Is not this a cursed country 
to make war in?" writes the Waldeck chaplain, "where the greater part of a 
corps may be prisoners for five weeks, and twelve hundred miles of country 
taken by the enemy, and the commanding-general not know it with certainty."

In March, 1780, a part of the garrison of Pensacola marched to the relief 
of Mobile, but arrived too late to save the latter place. Soon after the 
return of the troops to Pensacola, a Spanish fleet of twenty-one sail was 
seen off the harbor, but three days afterwards it disappeared again. The 
Spaniards held the country as far as the Pertido River, and once crossed 
it in April, but were driven back by the Indians. The latter, however, 
were but unruly auxiliaries. The remainder of the year 1780 passed without 
any important occurrence in Florida.

Early in January, 1781, Colonel von Hanxleden, with one hundred and 
fifteen white men and three hundred Choctaws, made an expedition against 
French Village. They met with a determined resistance, and were repulsed. 
The number of killed and wounded on the English side was considerable, and 
among the killed was Colonel von Hanxleden.

On the 9th of March a Spanish fleet of thirty-eight sail appeared before 
Pensacola, and during the night following that day a body of troops was 
landed on the island of Santa Rosa, which lies at the mouth of the harbor. 
From this time the siege of the place went on steadily. On the 19th the 
fleet, profiting by a favorable wind, ran past the fortifications into the 
bay. Reinforcements were received by the Spaniards from time to time. On 
the 25th of April a deserter reported that Galvez had ten thousand men 
with him. The writer of the Waldeck journal speaks of this force as being 
fifteen times superior to that in Pensacola, whence we may infer that 
General Campbell commanded between six and seven hundred white men. The 
Indians, though drunken, barbarous, and undisciplined, were useful to the 
British. At last, on the morning of the 8th of May, a shell exploded in 
the powder-magazine of one of the redoubts, killing many of the 
Pennsylvania Tories who occupied the work, and causing great confusion. 
The Spaniards thereupon increased the fury of their fire, and in the 
afternoon of the same day General Campbell hung out the white flag, and 
surrendered on terms in accordance with which the garrison were all 
shipped to New York on condition of not serving against Spain, or her 
allies, until exchanged. As the United States were not at the time allied 
with Spain, the Waldeckers could be immediately employed against the 
Americans (For the Waldeckers in Florida, see Eelking's "Hulfstruppen," 
vol. ii. pp. 135-153. Eelking had access to two MSS The MS now in the 
library of the Prince of Waldeck at Arolsen is a fragment beginning April 
11th, 1780. See, also, Schlozer's "Briefwechsel," vol. v. p. 112, and an 
article by George W. Cable in the Century Magazine for February, 1883.)