USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania-German in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 > Part 5
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half an hour, when we observed them coming down on us with all their force. We immediately prepared to receive them, not firing a shot until they were within fifty yards of us, when we gave them such a warm reception, that they found themselves under the necessity of retreat- ing a second time to the wood. In this attempt they left forty dead on the field, but their wounded they carried off to the wood. In all these engagements we lost not a man, but our brave Colonel seeing a party of our men engaged in a field in our rear, we went to aid them, and became engaged with a company of Grenadiers near half an hour, while our brigade crossed at the mill-dam and got in, and we made them give way and incline to their right along a thick hedge. We kept engaged until a force of Hessians came down their left and attempted to sur- round us, when our Colonel ordered a party of Flying Camp riflemen of Col. Lutz's Battalion to join us and break through their lines, which we could easily have done if they had joined us, but they refused and would not come up, until we were obliged to retreat back in the wood. Here the Colonel called a council of the officers he had with him, to consider what was best to be done. Before we decided, the Hessians gave us a heavy fire from the edge of the wood, which caused us to disperse and every one make the best way he could to save him- self. Col. Atlee, Ensign Henderson and myself kept together in the wood, then inclined to our left until we collected about twenty men of different battalions and decided to attempt to break through their lines. Coming up a hill out of the wood we saw a Highlander coming toward us. We called to him that if he would surrender, we would give him good quarters, which he did and de- livered up his arms to our Colonel. We then proceeded
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about fifty yards, and around the corner of a wood, came unexpectedly on a large party of Flessians, as they turned out to be; for we were deceived by their uniforms of blue and red, and taking them for our own people, allowed them to advance within fifty yards, when they fired a volley, fortunately not killing or wounding any of us. Being superior in numbers our Colonel decided not to make a stand. About one hundred and fifty yards dis- tant we crossed a hedge, but no sooner were we over when we saw a Battalion of Highlanders drawn up with their backs to our left. Although within eighty yards, they did not see us at first, but they faced about and fired on us, and inclining to the right, we gained the point of a wood which covered us from their fire. We then ran through the wood, to the lowland, where another strong party of Hes- sians fired upon us, and one of them was so bold as to run into the center of our party, when one of my men fired and killed him. Finding we were pursued, we ran across a swamp where the water and mud was up to our knees, when we took up a rising piece of wood, where we were fired upon from our right. We then inclined a little to the left and still kept making for the Jamaica road, hoping that if we could cross it, we would get around the right of their lines. Advancing farther we were joined by Col. Lutz, of the Flying Camp, with a small party of his men. We now numbered twenty-five men and for half an hour lay concealed in the wood, where we held a council as to what was to be done. The Hessians were observed coming through the wood to surround us, and there being no way to retreat, we determined to push out before the Hessians and deliver ourselves up to the first British troops we met. On clearing the wood, we saw two Battalions of Highlanders drawn up on our front, and
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the Hessians firing at us all the way, we club'd our fire- locks, followed our Colonel, and received good quarters from the Colonel of the Highlanders. We were sent
Wappen D. heffen ((3. 5).).
under guard to head-quarters, about one mile from our lines on the Jamaica road, where we delivered up our arms and were put in the Provost Guard, where the British officers and soldiers insulted us. Here we con- tinued until the 29th inst .- twenty-three officers in all- in one house, our rations consisting of Pork and Biscuit with Grog.
" August 29 .- We were sent under a strong guard to a small town four miles down the island, called Flat Bush, and were turned over to a battalion of Hessians, who used us very well.
" August 31 .- The Highlanders relieved the Hessians and took charge of us. Sent all our private soldiers to Gravesend, where they were lodged in two churches.
" September 3 .- Under guard we went on board the snow Mentor, Capt. Davis, and were placed on short allowance, 1/2 lb. Pork and 10 ounces of Bread per man daily.
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" September 5 .- Our men were placed on the transports Wooly and Rochford, where we lay until
" September 22, when we passed the Narrows and anchored between Governor's and Gallows islands.
" September 29 .- Sailed up the North River and dropped anchor opposite Powl's Hook.
" October 7 .- We were landed in New York and signed a second parole. The New York and New Eng- land officers were put in a house together on the Holy Ground; the Marylanders, Delewarians and Pennsylvan- ians were lodged in the house of Mr. Mariner, on William street, except the field officers, who had the liberty of hiring a house for themselves.
" October 9 .- Tonight I was insulted by a number of Highland officers, who rushed into the house, abused us with bad language, and struck Lieut. Carnaghan of the Right Battalion and Ensign Farnandaz, of the Maryland Battalion, and forced them away to the guard house that night. Here they were treated very civil by the sergeant, and the next morning released by order of Gen. Robertson. We heard during the day heavy cannonading in the direc- tion of Forts Washington and Lee.
"November 16 .- Fort Washington was taken.
"November 18 .- The prisoners taken at Fort Wash- ington were brought to New York; the officers lay in the Baptist meeting house that night."
It is to be regretted that the Revolutionary rolls and records are so incomplete, or entirely lacking, as to prevent any intelligible statement as to existing conditions of regimental or company membership, losses, etc. Espe- cially is this the case with regard to Long Island and Fort Washington. Fortunately, there has been preserved
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what seems to be a complete roster of the company of Captain Arndt, of Northampton County, in Col. Kichlein's Battalion, together with an account of its losses. While the record does not specifically say which were the killed, which wounded and which prisoners, yet the whole is so interesting as to make it deserving of insertion at this point as a sample of the experiences of all the Pennsyl- vania-Germans there engaged. The company was mus- tered into service on July 9, 1776.
CAPTAIN ARNDT'S COMPANY. Captain.
*John Arndt, of Easton.
First Lieutenant.
1Joseph Martin, of Mount Bethel Township.
Second Lieutenant.
Peter Kechlein, of Easton.
Third Lieutenant.
Isaac Shimer, of Hanover.
Sergeanis.
Robert Scott; moved to Northumberland County in 1790; died in Rush Township, April 27, 1838, aged 84 years.
* Andrew Hersher, of Easton. Philip Arndt, of Easton.
*Andrew Kiefer, of Mount Bethel Township.
* Killed, wounded or missing at Long Island
+ Killed, wounded or missing at Fort Washington.
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Corporals.
Jacob Kechlein, of Easton. George Edelman. Peter Righter. Elijah Crawford, of Mount Bethel Township.
Drummer.
+John Arndt, Jr., of Easton.
Fifer.
+Henry Alshouse, of Easton.
Privates.
+Jacob Andrew.
+Henry Fretz. *Anthony Frutchy.
| Isaac Berlin.
*Peter Beyer.
+Conrad Bittenbender.
*George Fry. Michael Gress.
+Adam Bortz.
*John Harple.
+Jacob Brider (or Kreidler). +Christopher Harple, Ist.
*Henry Bush, Sr. +Christopher Harple, 2d.
+Henry Bush, Jr. +James Hyndshaw.
+John Bush. *Philip Bosh.
*Peter Kern. John Kepler.
tJoseph Chass.
+Lewis Collins. Michael Kochler.
+Samuel Curry. Michael Kress (Gress) .
Benjamin Depue.
HIsaac Kuhn.
*Martin Derr. Nicholas Diehl.
*Peter Lahr.
Daniel Lewis.
Robert Lyle. Daniel Saylor.
Samuel McCracken.
Henry Siegel.
* Killed, wounded or missing at Long Island.
+ Killed, wounded or missing at Fort Washington.
+Joseph Keller.
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John McFarren.
Conrad Metz.
John Middugh.
*Barnhardt Miller.
Jacob Miller.
|Joseph Miriem ( or Minem)
* Richard Overfield.
*Matthias Stidinger. James Simonton. Christian Stout.
*Abraham Peter. George Raymond.
+Frederick Reager.
* Joseph Stout.
+Paul Reaser. Philip Reaser.
*Thomas Sybert. Alexander Syllyman.
+Christian Roth.
Henry Unangst.
+John Ross.
* Jacob Dofferd.
Frederick Wagoner. Jacob Wagoner.
Jost Dornblaeser.
William Warrand.
| George Edinger.
+Adam Weidknecht.
1Jacob Engler.
+Henry Weidknecht.
* Lawrence Erb.
* Jacob Weidknecht.
George Essigh.
| Frederick Wilhelm.
Adam Everets.
tJohn Wolf. ¡Henry Wolf, Sr.
James Farrell.
John Falstick.
Henry Wolf, Jr.
Henry Fatzinger.
|Jacob Fraunfelter.
John Yent. Valentine Yent.
*Peter Freas.
Adam Yohe.
Thirty-three of this company, including the Captain and Second Lieutenant, rallied at Elizabethtown, N. J., after the battle of Fort Washington. This company was discharged December 1, 1776, having served four months and twenty-two days.
* Killed, wounded or missing at Long Island.
i Killed, wounded or missing at Fort Washington.
George Shiblin. Isaac Shoemaker.
+John Shook. +Henry Shoup ( or Stroup) . John Smith. Conrad Smith.
CHAPTER V.
THE PRISON SHIPS.
ADDED to the terrible ex- periences which befell the Pennsylvania-German troops at Long Island, many of them, who survived, were un- fortunate enough to be amongst those who, through another blunder, became "cooped up" Mappen Don Großbritannien u. Jrland. at Fort Washington, where, after a useless engagement, they were forced to capitulate, on November 16, 1776, and were sent to swell the large num- ber of their wretched comrades who, captured on August 27, at Long Island, were already snftering the misery of prison life in New York.
If the Pennsylvania-Germans were not entitled to one word of praise, from their countrymen of all generations, for deeds performed during the Revolutionary War, they deserve untold commendation and heartfelt thanks for the unswerving loyalty with which, uncomplainingly, they suffered and died in British prisons. To many of us
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the awful story of these prisons is an unheard tale, to others a shadowy dream, but, to the few who know some- what of it, a horrible nightmare, to which it is difficult for the brain to give credence.
After years and generations of neglect the Long Island Society, Daughters of the Revolution, have, somewhat recently, undertaken to gather together the poor bones of these martyrs to their country's cause, and to erect over them a suitable monument. Alice Morse Earle, of their number, has eloquently written about them in the fol- lowing words :
" The victory of the British army at the battle of Brooklyn in August, 1776, and the capture of Fort Wash- ington in the following November, placed nearly 4,000 American prisoners in the possession of the British. This number was increased by the arrest of many private citizens suspected of complicity with the rebels, and by the capture of many American privateers, until the pris- oners numbered 5,000 at the end of the year. New York was then in the power of the British. The only prisons at that time in the city were the 'new ' jail, which still stands, though much altered, as the Hall of Records, and the Bridewell, which was in the space between the present City Hall and Broadway. These edifices prov- ing entirely inadequate to hold this large number of cap- tives, the British were compelled to turn their large buildings, such as the sugar houses, several of the churches, the hospital, and Columbia College, into tem- porary prisons. All were soon crowded to overflowing by daily accessions of patriot prisoners, who sometimes found in their jails not even space to lie down upon the hard and filthy floors. Denied the light and air of heaven; scantily fed on the poorest and sometimes even
عن
.
BATTLE OF BROOKLYN,
A
FA R C E
OF
TWO
A C T S:
AS IT WAS PERFORMED ON
LONG ISLAND,
On TUESDAY the 27th Day of AUGUST, 1776.
By the REPRESENTATIVES Of the TYRANTS Of A M E R I
C A ASSEMBLED AT PHILADELPHIA.
For as a Flea, Ibas ques to bed Lies with his tail above his head So in this mongrel State of wars, The rubble are the Supreme per'na ; Who've bors'd us on their backs, to hewas A jadips trick, or laf, and throw is). HUDIBRAS.
NEW-YORK; PRINTED for J RIVINGTON, in the Year of the REBELLION. 1776. BRITISH SATYRE ON THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND.
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uncooked food; obliged to endure the companionship of the most abandoned criminals, and those sick with in- fectious diseases ; worn out by the groans of their suffer- ing fellow prisoners, and subjected to every conceivable insult and indignity by their hardened keepers, hundreds of American patriots sickened and died. Still, great as was the suffering of those incarcerated within the prisons of the city, their misery was exceeded by the wretchedness of the unfortunate prisoners who languished in naval prisons, the 'Prison Ships of the Wallebought.' These ships were originally transport vessels in which cattle and other supplies of the British army had been brought to America in 1776. They had been anchored in Gravesend bay, and to them were sent at first the prisoners taken in the battle of Brooklyn. But these soldiers were after- wards transferred to the prisons on shore, and the trans- ports were devoted more especially to marine prisoners, where numbers rapidly increased owing to the frequent capture of American privateers by the King's cruisers. At first these transports were anchored in the Hudson and East rivers, and one named the I'hitby, was the first prison ship anchored in the Wallabout, about October 20, 1776 [ the snow Mentor was another, which preceded it, also the transports D'ooly and Rochford .- Ed.]. She lay near Remsen's mill, and was soon crowded with prisoners. Many landsmen were captives on board of this vessel. Scant and poor rations of bad provisions and foul water were dealt to them. As no medical men attended the sick, disease reigned unrelieved, and hun- dreds died from horrible pestilential diseases, or were even starved on board."
General Jeremiah Johnson, an eye witness of some aspects of these horrors, thus wrote:
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" I saw the sand-beach, between the ravine in the hill and Mr. Remsen's dock, become filled with graves in the course of two months; and before May 1, 1777, the ravine alluded to was itself occupied in the same way. In the month of May, 1777, two large ships were an- chored in the Wallabout, when the prisoners were trans- ferred from the Whitby to them. These vessels were also very sickly, from the causes before stated. Although many prisoners were sent on board of them, and none exchanged, death made room for all. On a Saturday afternoon, about the middle of October, 1777, one of the prison ships was burned; the prisoners, except a few, who, it is said, were burned in the vessel, were removed to the remaining ship. It was reported at the time that the prisoners had fired their prison, which, if true, proves that they preferred death, even by fire, to the lingering sufferings of pestilence and starvation. In the month of February, 1778, the remaining prison ship was burned at night, when the prisoners were removed from her to the ships then wintering in the Wallabout."
Among the numerous vessels used, from time to time, as prisons, the names of the following have been pre- served: Mentor, Wooly, Rockford, Prince of Wales, Good Hope, Stromboli, Scorpion, Hunter, Jersey, John, Falmouth, Chatham, Kitty, Frederick, Glasgow, Wood- lands, Scheldt, Clyde.
Of all these the old Jersey, or the " Hell," as she was termed-and properly termed, from the terrible suffer- ings her thousands of occupants endured-won the most infamous notoriety.
The writer, previously mentioned, adds :
" This Jersey was an old sixty-four-gun battle ship.
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THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
I. Signal staff.
Ladder for ship officers.
2. Tent for guard.
6. Sailors' quarters.
3. Quarter deck.
7. Cook's room.
4. Ship officers' quarters. 8. Sutler's room.
9. Spar deck.
10. Gangway for prisoners.
II. Derrick.
12. The galley.
13. Gun room.
14. Hatchway to prison.
15. Hatchway to prison.
16. Foot of gang plank.
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When she was anchored in the Wallabout, about 300 yards from shore, she was dismantled, even her figure- head was removed; her bowsprit was left as a derrick. Her portholes were nailed close, and four small holes twenty inches square were eut for what was, with cruel satire, termed ventilation, and were securely grated with iron eross bars. She was 'an old unsightly hulk whose dark and filthy external appearance fitly represented the death and despair that reigned within.' By day the prisoners were permitted to remain for a time on deek, but at sunset all were ordered below; the incredible suf- ferings at night during the summer months bore plentiful results. The brutal cry of the British soldiers down the hold each morning 'Bring up the dead,' never failed to secure active and plentiful response. The men died like rotten sheep, were carelessly sewed in blankets, and buried on the shore by their wretched survivors. Even the relief of sexton's work was so great to those miserable, pent-up creatures, that they contended eagerly for the privilege of going ashore to dig the graves.
" At the expiration of the war, the wretched prisoners who had lived and dragged through the horrors of the old Jersey, were liberated, and the old hulk, within whose vile walls so many had suffered and died, was abandoned where she lay. The dread of contagion prevented every one from venturing on board, and even from approaching her polluted frame. But ministers of destruction were at work. Her planks were soon filled with worms that ceased not from their labor until they had penetrated her decaying bottom with holes, through which the water rushed in, until she sank. With her went down the names of thousands of our Revolutionary patriots, for her inner planks and sheathing were literally covered with
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names; for few of her inmates had neglected to add their carved autograph or initials to the almost innumerable catalogue of sufferers. Could these be known, some correct estimate might be made of the whole number who were there immured. But the vessel was consigned to eternal oblivion, and the precise number of the martyrs who perished in the prison ships and who were buried in the loose sands of the lonely Wallabout, can never be accurately known. It was estimated shortly after the close of the war, when the data were more easily obtain- able than now, that the monstrous horror of eleven thou- sand died in the Jersey alone. This appalling statement was never denied, either officially or by any persons then resident in New York, who, from their connection with the British commissary department, had opportunities of knowing the truth. Certainly that estimate cannot be exaggerated if applied to the mortality, not of the Jersey alone, but of all the prison ships."
CHAPTER VI.
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN CONTINENTALS.
'T is probable that there will never be given to the public a full and complete record of the services of the Pennsylvania-Ger- SOCIETY. mans during the Revolutionary ISUNÝ War. The task of collecting such data is made extremely difficult PEN from the fact that so many of them were scattered, as individ- uals, throughout all the various regiments and battalions of the army, including those which, because of the pre- ponderance of men of other nationalities, could hardly be ranked as German, either in whole or any material part.
The troops, named in this chapter, are those of the Regular Service which contained a reasonably large repre- sentation of men of Pennsylvania-German blood, suffi- ciently so, at least, to entitle them to be considered in connection with our subject.
Paradoxical as it may seem, the first of these Pennsyl- vania-German troops, to whom we desire to call attention, were Virginians. In the earlier part of the eighteenth
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century there was quite a considerable emigration of the German element of Pennsylvania into Virginia, resulting · in large settlements in Loudoun County, Dunmore County, the Shenandoah Valley, and the mountain districts in gen- eral. These Germans were intensely loyal, and promptly volunteered to aid in establishing the independence of their adopted country.
EIGHTH VIRGINIA CONTINENTAL REGIMENT.
This excellent regiment was recruited by Col. Peter Muhlenberg from amongst his parishioners in Dunmore County, Virginia, in January, 1776, and was entirely German. Its first campaigns were in Georgia and South Carolina, where it behaved most gallantly at the battle of Sullivan's Island, June 29, 1776. Having been ordered north in February, 1777, it bore the brunt of the action at Brandywine, September 11, 1777, and, at German- town, October 8, it was advanced farther into the town than any other of the troops. In 1778 it was at the , battle of Monmouth, and in the reserves at the storming of Stony Point in 1779; when Leslie invaded Virginia, in 1780, the regiment operated against him, and took part in the siege of Yorktown when Cornwallis sur- rendered.
Its officers were :
Col. Peter Muhlenberg.
Lieut. Col. Abraham Bowman. Major P. Helfenstein.
They were commissioned by the Colony of Virginia in December, 1775, and in the Continental service on February 13, 1776.
:
THE PENNSYLVANIA GRAMAS SOCIETY
GUN. DANH L MORGAN سا
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MORGAN'S RIFLEMEN.
In the chapter treating of the "First Defenders " at- tention has already been called to the resolution of Con- gress, on June 14, 1775, calling for the formation of ten companies of rifle sharpshooters, of which six were ap- pointed to Pennsylvania, two to Maryland and two to Virginia. On June 22, by additional resolution, Penn- sylvania was directed to raise two more of these com- panies, and when, on July 11, information was received that Lancaster County, filled with patriotism, had recruited two companies instead of its quota of one, it was decided to form a battalion out of the nine companies from Pennsylvania, the command of which was given to Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle, and which body, known as " Thompson's Rifle Battalion, or Regiment," became one of the finest organizations in the Continental army, rendering most distinguished service, as appears else- where in this narrative.
The two Maryland companies, thus called into ex- istence, were commanded, respectively, by Thomas Price, who rose to the rank of colonel and whose first lieutenant, Otho Holland Williams, became a brigadier general, and by Thomas Cresap, a famous border fighter. Although stricken with a mortal ailment when his commission reached him, Cresap promptly gathered his men together, and led them to Washington's army at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, where he died soon after.
Both of these Maryland companies were enlisted from Frederick County, which was settled almost exclusively by Germans who emigrated thence from Pennsylvania. They were animated by the same spirit which, in 1864, moved one of their descendants, Barbara (Hauer)
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Fritchie, to keep flying the flag of her country in the face of the approaching Confederate invaders.
One of the Virginia companies was commanded by Captain Ericson, of whom but little is known; the other was led by Daniel Morgan, destined to become a brilliant general of the war and a personal favorite of Washing- ton. The men were recruited from the mountaineers who resided in the vicinity of Martinsburg, and, like those of Maryland, were largely of German blood.
Familiar as most of us are with the fact that these troops were organized as a special body of sharpshooters because of the rifles they used so expertly, an arm intro- duced into Pennsylvania about 1700 by Palatine and Swiss immigrants and as yet unknown, save by reputation, to the rest of the colonies, it is well, however, that this same fact should be placed on record, in order that the world may not forget that the dreaded riflemen of the Revolution were mostly German mountaineers of Penn- sylvania derivation whose weapon was of the same nation- ality although greatly improved in cheir own Pennsylvania- German workshops.
In like manner, it is well to describe, somewhat fully, the costume worn by these Pennsylvania-German back- woods riflemen, which was so well adapted to the warfare in which they were engaged, and which, more than once, has been suggested as a distinctively American uniform for an American army, and whose general characteristics are even now shown in our latest so-called " Khaki " uniform.
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