"Pennsylvania German-American Tricentennial Project of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, Inc. with assistance from the Historical Society of York County (Pa.)."
Bibliography: p. 67-68.
Summary
Drawings of German men who had been soldiers for the British in the American Revolution and then remained in America after the war. Mr Miller knew of these men and made drawings of them. Biographical information accompanies the drawings.
"Johann Michael Lindenmuth has left us one of the better day-to-day journals of the French & Indian War as well as a brief journal of his service in the Revolutionary War...When Lindenmuth was discharged in December 1759, he had fought through a multitude of the battles, skirmishes, and ambushes in western Pennsylvania. In a laconic, direct, and simple style he tells of what happened, who did it, and why. Amid the tales of scalping, looting, murder, mayhem, and of boredom, fatigue, huger, and desparir, Lindemuth also tells us of his family and friends, his ancestors, and his children and grandchildren." [from the back cover]
A project in American Studies submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree in American Studies, The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, The Capital College, July 10, 1988.
Bibliography: p. 233-238.
Summary
Lewis Miller was an artist in York, PA. He made sketches of 22 Hessian soldiers who fought for the British during the American revolution and stayed in the York area after its conclusion. The author's book is based on those Hessians. In the introduction, the author states, "The purpose of this paper is to consider the individual soldiers, their families,their lives, and their involvement in the York community in which they settled. What happened to these men after the Revolution ? Why did they choose the communities in which they settled. Were they accepted by the Americans ? Did they experience financial success ? What was the nature of their family life ? Did their families suffer the stigma of having a 'Hessian' patriarch."
This essay provides contextual information concerning how the English actually hired the soldiers and why the German princes, and not other nations who were asked, were willing to sell their men to English. It also discusses how the English and German public reacted to the hiring of German soldiers.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-359) and index.
Contents
German soldiers in British service -- Subsidy treaties -- Recruitment patterns -- Social composition -- Into captivity -- Prisoners of war in western warfare -- Capture and surrender -- Prisoners of war -- The first prisoners of war in revolutionary hands, 1775-1776 -- German prisoners of war, 1776-1778 -- Provisions and exchange, 1778 -- The Convention Army, 1777-1781 -- Continuity and change, 1779-1783 -- Release and return -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Common German soldiers taken prisoner.
Summary
"Some 37,000 soldiers from six German principalities, collectively remembered as Hessians, entered service as British auxiliaries in the American War of Independence. At times, they constituted a third of the British army in North America, and thousands of them were imprisoned by the Americans. Despite the importance of Germans in the British war effort, historians have largely overlooked these men. Drawing on research in German military records and common soldiers' letters and diaries, Daniel Krebs places the prisoners on center stage in A Generous and Merciful Enemy, portraying them as individuals rather than simply as numbers in casualty lists. Setting his account in the context of British and European politics and warfare, Krebs explains the motivations of the German states that provided contract soldiers for the British army. We think of the Hessians as mercenaries, but, as he shows, many were conscripts. Some were new recruits; others, veterans. Some wanted to stay in the New World after the war. Krebs further describes how the Germans were made prisoners, either through capture or surrender, and brings to life their experiences in captivity from New England to Havana, Cuba. Krebs discusses prison conditions in detail, addressing both the American approach to war prisoners and the prisoners' responses to their experience. He assesses American efforts as a "generous and merciful enemy" to use the prisoners as economic, military, and propagandistic assets. In the process, he never loses sight of the impact of imprisonment on the POWs themselves. Adding new dimensions to an important but often neglected topic in military history, Krebs probes the origins of the modern treatment of POWs. An epilogue describes an almost-forgotten 1785 treaty between the United States and Prussia, the first in western legal history to regulate the treatment of prisoners of war."--Publisher's website.
Hessian soldiers in the American Revolution : records of their marriages and baptisms of their children, in America, performed by the Rev. G.C. Coster, 1776-1783, chaplain of two Hessian regiments
"Reprinted from Notes and queries, Harrisburg daily telegraph."
"Rolls of prisoners": p. 14-20.
Bound with other pamphlets by the author: The Catholic Church at Lancaster, Penn'a (1894, 52 p.) -- Historical sketch of the ancient parish of St. Mary's, Lancaster, Pa. (n. d., 12 p) -- Additional historical notes in reference to St. Mary's at Lancaster (n. d., 5 p.) -- Some Lancaster Catholics, adn other historical notes (n.d ., 6 p.) -- Very Rev. Bernard Keenan, V. G. Sketch of one of the pioneer priest's [sic] of Pennsylvania (n. d. 10 p.) -- The Acadians in Lancaster County, Paper read before Lancaster County Historical Society, September 4, 1896 (1896, 8 p.) -- Simon S. Rathvon, Ph.D: Lancaster's oldest living devotee of science (n. d. 8 p.) -- Old time heroes of the War of the Revolution and War of 182-14 (1895, 11 p.) -- The Lancaster barracks where the British and Hesian prisoners were detained during the Revolution (1895, 20 p.
"Emphasis is upon the Hessian regiment von Knyphausen and it's part in the American Revolution. Johannes was in the Leibkompanie of that regiment. He was one of the thousands whose observation of American freedom led them to change allegiance and remain here. Also emphasized is Die Schwalm, the district in the valley of the Schwalm River from which Johannes and many of his comrades came. Its art and customs are reflected in the areas where they made their new home. The book lists most of his descendants in the United States and and relatives that remained in Germany. It also contains short genealogical records of the related families, Bobb, Stein, Klinger,and Schmeltz " [from the book jacket]
Records of the revolutionary war: containing the military and financial correspondence of distinguished officers; names of the officers and privates of regiments, companies, and corps, with the dates of their commissions and enlistments; general orders of Washington, Lee, and Greene, at Germantown and Valley Forge; with a list of distinguished prisoners of war; the time of their capture, exchange, etc. To which is added the half-pay acts of the Continental Congress; the revolutionary pension laws; and a list of the officers of the Continental Army who acquired the right to half-pay, commutation, and lands
In: Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, v.2, no.3 (1983).
Summary
Philipp Waldeck was chaplain for a group of German soldiers that was sent to the American colonies to fight for the British in the American Revolution.The diary recounts that experience.
