USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume II > Part 48
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It will be impossible in these pages to do justice to the great number of German soldiers who fought with distinction during the Revolutionary War. The Order of the Cincinnati, consisting of officers who were engaged on the patriots' side in the Revolution, had among its membership a very large number of Germans.
The Germans were not only able soldiers, but they also supplied the Revolutionary army with the best master-workmen and engineers. The sapper and mining corps and the artillery were recruited mainly from the Germans. But probably only a few are acquainted with the fact that a German manufactured the first wrought-iron cannon which was ever made.
In the iron-works of Middlesex, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, there worked, at the beginning of the War of Independence, a Westphalian journeyman-smith, William Döning, by name. He made the proposal to his employer to make wrought-iron cannons for the army, and he actually completed two splendid field cannons, one of which fell into the hands of the British at the battle of Brandywine. It is kept at present in the Tower of London, as the first wrought-iron cannon ever made. In the Mount Holly iron-works Döning began to make a third cannon of heavier calibre, but, as he could find no assistant who could bear the heat, it remained uncompleted. It is said that the heat was so great that the lead buttons in his clothes were melted. The unfinished cannon remained for a time at Holly Forge and was brought later to the Carlisle barracks. No one knows where it finally remained. The English offered Döning a large gratuity, if he would instruct them in the art of manufacturing this excellent cannon, but the patriotic German smith could by no means be persuaded to become disloyal to his adopted Fatherland. He and his fellow-journeyman, Michael Engel, entered as master-smiths into the "Artificers' Troop" of Captain Nichols and served until the end of the war. Döning received a pension under the law of 1812, and died at Mifflin, Pennsylvania, at the age of 94.
A great deal of the unfriendliness, even open animosity, against which the German immigrants of the nineteenth century had to contend was unquestionably caused by those unfortunate Hessians who were brought here by the English during the War of Independence. Hessians! How they have been hated by the Jersey people-the very name is still spoken by many with a prolonged hiss! Time ought to be allowed to heal the wounds that Hessian bayonets once inflicted; the lover of his country should under-
10 Bancroft, vol. v, pp. 388-359.
11 The Maryland regiment of Gist was a German regiment. - Rosengarten, p. 144.
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stand before casting judgment. The Hessians were the victims of the tyranny of their rulers, who sold the lives and services of their subjects to the highest bidder. Most of these unfortunate soldiers wore the uniform very much against their wish. Impressing was a favorite means of filling the required ranks. Convicts and vagabonds were put into uniform, strangers as well as citizens were in danger of being arrested and sent off to a regiment about to be shipped to America, before their friends could hear of their jeopardy, and no one was safe from the grip of the recruiting officer. Not one of those men came here voluntarily; they were all of them compelled to go, or in case of their refusal, to run the risk of being shot on the spot. Germany's despotic princes needed the money for the extravagance of their courts and their courtesans. An estimate of the returns derived by several of the princes is as follows:
Pounds.
Landgraf of Hessen, in eight years.
2,959,800
Herzog of Brunswick, in eight years.
750,000
Prince of Hesse-Hanau, in eight years.
343,150
Prince of Waldeck, in eight years.
140,000
Prince of Anspach-Bayreuth, in seven years.
282,400
Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, in six years. .
109,120
Frederick Kapp estimated that, all told, the expense for England for the mercenary troops was at least £7,000,000 sterling, the equivalent at present of $150,000,000.12
Frederick Kapp furnishes a careful tabulation of the number of Ger- man auxiliary troops in the English service, giving the number that arrived in America and returned to Europe, as follows:
Number sent.
Returned. 10,482
Lost.
Hessen Cassel.
16,992
3,015
Hessen Hanau
2,422
1,441
981
Brunswick
5,723
2,708
3,015
Anspach-Bayreuth
2,353
1,183
1,170
Waldeck
1,225
505
720
Anhalt Zerbst
1,160
984
176
29,875
17,313
9,077
One-half of the number that were reported as lost were deserters and can be counted as settlers within the precincts of the United States. If they were all like those of whom we have records, they made good citizens of their adopted country.
Just here it would seem eminently proper to say a few words in vindi- cation of many of those over-maligned Hessians. It is quite time that the name of the German auxiliaries of the English army in America was severed from the odium attached to it for over a century past. Most of the bar- barities and cruelties practiced upon the citizens of New Jersey by the entire British forces have been charged against the so-called Hessian troops, and it is only within a few years that some disposition has been shown to deal justly with the records of the conduct of these men. It is not intended to
22 This estimate is found on page 212 of Frederick Kapp's authoritative work, "Der Solddtenhanded Deutscher Fürsten nach Amerika" (Berlin, 1874; reviewed by the New York "Nation," Sept. 18, 1874. Kapp estimated 120 to 150 million thalers; according to the present value of money we may estimate dollars at least.
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absolve the Hessians from all charges of brutality and cruelty. In those raids upon the New Jersey coast which were so frequently undertaken by the Knyphausen participated. They committed many acts of brutality and crime, English in 1779 and 1780 from Staten Island, the Hessians under Colonel particularly on Connecticut farms and before the battle of Springfield, but not more than the English, and, perhaps, not as many. Many of these were kindly souls, and probably the best abused people of the times. The great majority of the rank and file no doubt objected as strongly to being on American soil fighting against liberty, as did their opponents to have them there. For some mysterious reason these German soldiers were looked upon with great dread by the inhabitants. The terror they inspired disappeared, however, on better acquaintance; as the private soldiers were found to be, with, of course, individual exceptions, simple-minded souls. Mr. Onder- donk, in his "Revolutionary Incidents," speaks of them as a kind, peaceable people, inordinately fond of smoking and of pea coffee; their offences were of the sly kind, such as stealing at night, while the British and new-raised corps were indolent, domineering, and inclined to violence and bloodshed.
Gouverneur Morris in 1777 was ordered by the convention of the State of New York to prepare a narrative of the conduct of the British toward American prisoners. Among the papers submitted was the affidavit of Lieu- tenant Troop, of the militia, which recited "he and other officers confined on Long Island were much abused by nearly all the British officers and in their presence by soldiers; they were insulted and called rebels, scoundrels, vil- lains and robbers"; that when imprisoned at Flatbush they were given so short an allowance of biscuits and salt pork that, to use his own words, "several of the Hessian soldiers took pity on their situation and gave them some apples, and at one time some fresh beef, which much relieved them."
The following extract is from a letter written by Washington at Morris- town, on the 5th of February, 1777, to Samuel Chase, one of a committee of seven appointed by Congress to inquire into the conduct of the British and Hessian officers toward American soldiers and toward the citizens of New York and New Jersey: "I shall employ some proper person to take depositions of people in the different parts of the province of New Jersey, who have been plundered after having taken protection and subscribed to the Declaration. 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. The barbarities at Princeton were all committed by the British, no flessians being there."
In the "Personal Recollections of the American Revolution," edited by Sidney Barclay, there appears the journal of a lady who made her home with her father, a clergyman, in the centre of Long Island, while her hus- band was with Washington's army. An entry of January, 1777, recites: "The soldiers (Hessians) took so much notice of the children that I fear lest they should contract evil, especially Charles. They have taught them to speak their language, and he understands nearly all their conversation. They make pretty willow baskets for Marcia and Grace, and tell them of their own little ones at home over the stormy ocean. The children are fond of them and they feel no enmity towards them. What is more melancholy than the trade of a hired soldier!" This little domestic scene hardly pic- tures the Germans in the guise of wicked marauders. The same diarist, in writing in 1783 of the evacuation of the island by the Hessians, says further:
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"Many of the poor creatures have formed attachments, and the ties of kindness and gratitude are hard to break. Many of them begged to remain in some menial capacity, but the ties of kindred prevailed with the greater part."
fThe journal of Captain Pausch, chief of the Hesse-Hanau artillery dur- ing the Burgoyne campaign, thus speaks of the behavior of the privates of that command: "They never failed after reveille and tattoo to make their offerings to their God by singing morning and evening hymns."
Did space permit, much further interest could be drawn from the jour- nal of John Charles Philip von Krafft, corporal in Lieutenant-Colonel Hoister's company in von Donop's regiment of Hessen-Cassel musketeers. It can be found in the collections of the New York Historical Society.
Revolutionary literature teems with testimony as to the courtesy and good breeding of the German officers, and numerous instances could be given going to show that they often endeared themselves to the people that they were here ostensibly to subdue. Among those of leading rank von Heister, von Riedesel, von Donop, von Knyphausen left on the community most agreeable impressions.13 As to the Hessian officers of lesser rank equally good tidings have come down to us. Mr. De Lancy, in his paper on Mount Washington and its capture, published in the first volume of the "Magazine of American History," says that the Hessian officers in America were polite, courteous and almost without exception well educated. He recites that as far as birth was concerned the English officers of Howe's army were much inferior in social rank to those of the Germans. Any rich man in England could make his boy a gentleman by buying him a commission, but in Germany it was necessary for a youth to be one by birth, if he aspired to be an officer.
The bitter feeling evinced by the people toward the subsidiary troops of the English army was probably engendered by their conduct at the battle of Long Island. Although Professor John Fiske's latest historical contribu- tions have completely disproved the stories of a wholesale butchery by the Hessians, there is no doubt that during that engagement the German troops were guilty of some unnecessary cruelties. But any fair-minded person familiar with all the facts must admit that the circumstances of ignorance and false teaching palliate to a certain extent their behaviour on that occasion. The Long Island Historical Society in their account of the battle publishes a letter of an officer in Fraser's Scotch battalion, from which the following is an extract:
"The Hessians and our brave Highlanders gave no quarter, and it was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the rebels with bayonets, after we had surrounded them, so that they could not resist. We took care to tell the Hessians that the rebels had resolved to give no quar- ter to them in particular, which made them fight desperately, and put all to death who fell into their hands."
The statement of this bloodthirsty Highland officer is corroborated by the historian Max von Eelking; he records: "That the Hessians were very much exasperated and furious, is not to be denied; the course pursued by the Hessians was urged upon them by the British." Colonel von Heeringen says on the subject in his letter to Colonel von Lossburg: "The English soldiers did not give much quarter and certainly urged our men to follow their example."
13 "The Story of an Old Farm," by Andrew D. Mellick, Jr., p. 359.
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In spite of the natural bitterness over the fact that these strangers to whom the Americans had done no harm, made more difficult the gaining of their independence, no one was so unreasonable as to hold the victims of the avarice of petty princes responsible for their involuntary military service; they were, as they deserved to be, an object of pity rather than of hatred. When, after the battle of Trenton, the 1,000 captured Hessians came to Philadelphia, the Committee of Public Safety issued, at Washington's request, a proclamation which begins as follows:
"Yesterday there arrived in our city almost 1,000 Hessian prisoners who had fallen into the hands of his Excellency, General Washington, dur- ing his fortunate and successful expedition in New Jersey. The General has recommended to this council to find suitable quarters for them, and it is hls earnest wish that they be well treated and that during their imprisonment they have such experiences as shall open the eyes of their countrymen in the service of the king of Great Britain. These wretched creatures now excite our just pity. They cherish no enmity toward us. In accordance with the arbitrary practice of despotic German princes, they were torn from their Fatherland, without any regard for their inclinations and without even being informed, etc."
The ignominous condition of the Hessian mercenaries concerned the Germans so much the more directly, because they were their own country- men, and they would gladly have transformed them from enemies into friends and comrades in arms. Clergymen like Weyberg and Helfenstein preached to them in this vein, when the opportunity offered itself. More- over, it is told of Baker Ludwig, that he said: "Just bring the captured Hessians to Philadelphia, show them our beautiful German churches, let them taste our roast beef and see our furniture; then send them back to their own people, and you shall see how many of them will flock to us."
We are further told concerning this bold patriot that, with the knowl- edge and consent of the commanding general, he had once gone as an ostensible deserter into the Hessian camp on Staten Island, and had given his countrymen such a glowing description of the life of the Germans in Pennsylvania, that hundreds, seized with longing for the flesh pots of Pennsylvania and the blessings of freedom, had taken leave of their com- panions at the first opportunity. A letter written by Franklin to General Gates, discusses a plan for inducing the Hessians on Long Island to desert, and that, too, by means of German circulars which should have on one side a tobacco trade-mark, so that they might serve as packages for tobacco and thus be brought to the men.
The temper of the Germans with reference to the Hessians is most clearly manifested in a little book by Carl Lift, which appeared in Phila- delphia in 1783, under the title: "Truth and Good Advice to the Inhabitants of Germany, Especially the Hessians." In it there are to be found passages like the following:
"He, who, contrary to the dictates of conscience and reason, has let himself be brought into this barbarous trade of murder, truly does not desire to be a man.
"You certainly need not be concerned about the fact that the leaving of Hessian slavery is a sin. No, It is rather a virtue of the noblest type. Hesse, since it sold you to England, must naturally renounce all claim to submission."
It is not commonly known, though a fact, that the French troops under the Marquis de Rochambeau, who were sent out to aid the American cause, contained a large number of German soldiers. These German-French
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auxiliary troops were as follows: The regiment Royal Allemand de Deux- Ponts, the Regiment of Zwei-Brücken, Commander Prince Christian of Zwei- Brücken-Birkenfeld. A battalion of grenadiers of Kur-Trier of the regiment La Salle, under the command of Colonel Count Custine of Lottringen. Several parts of the regiments Bourbonnais, Soissonnais and Saintonge, a large part of the "Independent Horse" under the Duke of Lanzun. About one-quarter of the French troops were Germans! These German regiments rendered conspicuous service in the final campaign, which culminated in the siege and capture of Yorktown. They stormed a large redoubt under the command of Prince William of Zwei-Brücken." On this occasion commands were given in the German language on either side,15 showing that German regi- ments in the French service were attacking and Hessians were defending the fortification.10 The Marquis de Rochambeau rewarded the soldiers who had taken part in the storming of the redoubt with five days' extra pay. Wash- ington presented them with two of the brass cannon they had taken.
The result of an impartial examination of the historical data with reference to the attitude taken by the Germans in 1776, is, to sum it all up in a few words, neither indefinite nor doubtful. The German Immigrants had broken the bonds which joined them to their native land, to seek free- dom and independence in a new Fatherland, and when the call to arms went forth to protect this freedom with a permanent bulwark against the encroachments of English usurpation so as to establish in this land an inde- pendent republic, they did not waver; unhesitatingly and resolutely they placed themselves on the side of the Revolutionary Congress and bravely followed the banners of Washington.
CHAPTER IV.
THE IMMIGRATION OF THE GERMAN REVOLUTIONISTS OF THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES.
HANS ALBERS PERHAPS THE FIRST GERMAN IN NEWARK-ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN EUROPE CAUSED NEW EXODUS TO THE NEW WORLD -THE POLITICAL REFUGEES OF THE REVOLUTION OF THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES-THE DIFFERENCES OF THE GRAYS AND THE GREENS-BURNING DESIRE TO REFORM EVERYTHING-THE WHEELING CONGRESS OF 1852- PREPARATIONS FOR THE OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHIES IN EUROPE-THE GERMAN ARTILLERY COMPANY-THE NEWARK FORTY-EIGHTERS.
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It is doubtful when the first German settled in Newark, but there is a possibility that the first one was among the founders of our city. He was Hans Albers,' who lived at Milford, in Connecticut, the colony from which all the first settlers hailed. All that history tells of him is that he was a tanner, and, like Hugh Roberts, also a tanner, located near a stream in
14 Bancroft, vol. v, p. 519.
15 Cf. The diary of Johann Conrad Dorhla in Zell "Marsch-route und Beschrei- bung der merkwürdigen Begebenheiten in und aus Amerika," 1811. Cf. Der Deutsche Pionier, vol. xiii, p. 422. Also Kapp Life of Steuben, p. 859.
16 Nelking was evidently in error when he spoke of the use of German com- mands as "eine Kriegslist." He wrote from the Hessian point of view. Max von Belking "Die Deutschen Hiefstruppen in den Nord-Amerika inschen Revolu- tions. Kriege, 1776-83," two volumes, is a work giving a very complete account of the campaigns of the Hessian soldiers in the United States. The work was translated: The German Allied Troops in the North American War of Indepen- denee, 1776-83, by Rosengarten, (Albany 1893).
1 Genealogical notices of the first settlers of Newark, by Sam. Il. Congar.
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Newark. In November, 1706, Johannes, his son and heir, and Anna, widow it, still more so the name of his son, "Johannes," which means John. If that It is possible that this Hans Albers was a German; his name would indicate of Hans, "lately dec." sold meadow. There is no trace of any descendants. assumption be correct, then this Hans Albers was the first German that set- tled in Newark. If any Germans lived in Newark before the War of Independence their number was very small. The town government did not take kindly to strangers, and the immigrants who came into New Jersey from New York or Philadelphia preferred to settle amongst their own people, wherever they had taken a foothold and where they were welcome. The French Revolution, and still more, the Napoleonic wars, made it almost impossible to leave the Continent for a long time. It is, however, clear that there must have been some immigration between 1812 and 1820, because it attracted sufficient attention to cause an official accounting to be instituted at the seaports. In 1812 there were 968 Germans who arrived at American ports, and this number grew rapidly, but, during the year 1817, when all Europe had a famine, caused by a complete failure of the crops, it was increased to a broad stream. The chief impetus which set and kept this stream in motion long before 1817 was stern necessity. To escape hunger and misery Germany's sons and daughters fled from the land where their cradle had stood, in order, if possible, to better their lot in a foreign land. with which they were unfamiliar. Only great and just causes can persuade a German to leave his Fatherland, to which he clings with filial devotion.
A portion of this immigration settled here in Newark, but reliable data as to its strength are not obtainable. When Joseph Atkinson prepared his "History of Newark" the older people whom he had questioned about the early immigration named the following Germans as having been prom- inont in the early thirties: Gotthard Schmidt, George Rothe, Balthasar and Philip J. Krummeich, William Bauer, Johann Jacob Krauer, Michael Kiesele, Gustav Beckmeyer, Rochus Heinisch, Philip Helminger, Jacob Hundertpfund, Andrew Schlecht, Jacob Widmer and Jacob Dennecker. The latter came to America as early as 1817, but not until eighteen or nineteen years later did they come to Newark. Mr. Dennecker was an Alsatian, but reared in Switzerland; was a gardener by profession and cultivated three and one-half acres in East Newark. on the very ground where Hauck's Brewery now stands. Later he bought some property near Broad and Orange streets. Gotthard Schmidt and his brother George had served under Napoleon I. and always found attentive listeners when they related the various events of the war and camp life. The family of Philip Krummeich lived in Canal street on their own property, which they had bought of the postmaster, Pruden Alling. William Bauer lived in a little house near the northeast corner of the present Rector street. He is said to have been the first person who sold small-beer (brewed in New York and a poor substitute for lager beer). Here, in Bauer's beer-house many Germans used to meet on Sundays for a chat, a smoke and a glass of beer. William Bauer was, presumably, the first one who brewed "Smalbeer" in Newark, on William street, on a lot later owned by Dr. Christopher Eyrich. Bauer removed his brewery later, from William street to Walnut street.
It was after the unsuccessful revolutionary movements of the "thirties," started by the July Revolution in France in 1830, that the immigration from Germany began to assume larger proportions. While in the year 1831 only 2,395 Germans came to the United States, their number increased in 1832 to 10,168; in 1834 to 17,654, and during 1837 to 23,036. It romained at
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this level until the end of the "thirties" and the beginning of the "forties,' rising to an enormous figure from 1845 on, and reaching its highest point in 1854, when (in the port of New York alone) 176,986 individuals dis- embarked.
There were various causes for this exodus from Germany, such as over- population, over-production, over-crowding in the farming districts and the ruin of the small hand industries in competition with the new factory system, which was created and developed by the perfection of the steam engine and the modern machine. Thousands of artisans, who were brought up in the old master system, in which each man made the whole article, were now left destitute, because of the cheaper goods manufactured in factories. Finally, the growing dissatisfaction with political conditions in Germany compelled them to leave their native land. The indirect effect of measures for the repression of a popular movement are often of far greater importance than the direct ones, and, moreover, are apt to be of a character quite unexpected by the promoters.
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