USA > Virginia > History of the German element in Virginia, Vol I > Part 13
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Chamberlain : "Yes, my lady, why did you go bear-hunt- ing with our Duke, when the alarm was given ? You ought not have missed the sight, when the shrill clang of drums an- nounced that the time to part had come; and crying orphans followed their yet living fathers,-a mother in despair tried to spear her baby to a bayonet,-bride and bridegroom were rudely
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separated, and white-bearded men looked on in distraction, throwing their.crutches to the boys to take them along also to the New World ! And again the drums were beaten, that the all-knowing God might not hear our prayers. At the town-gate they turned around once more and shouted : "The Lord protect you, women and children ! God save the prince! At the day of judgment we will meet again !"
Vis-a-vis to the moral indignation of the German people, as demonstrated by its best men, neither the victims, nor the tyran- nized German nation, can be blamed for a bargain, which the English Government had effected with some covetous and profli- gate German princes. The Americans had still less cause for their spiteful conduct, and for making the Hessians a degrading byword, for belonging to the allied French forces were also Ger- man subsidiary troops, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Continental Army. It was altogether unreasonable to abuse the disinterested German-Americans, who proved faithful to the American cause during the war even unto death !
The German allied troops, who served in Virginia under the French General : de Rochambeau, were, according to H. A. Rattermann's careful researches 133) :
1. Regiment "Royal Allemand de Deux-Ponts." (Koenig- liches deutsches Regiment Zweibruecken.) Officers known :
Colonel Prince Christian, of Zweibruecken-Birkenfeld, Lieut. Colonel Prince Wilhelm, of Zweibruecken-Birkenfeld, Major Freiherr Eberhard von Eisebeck, and Capt. Haake.
2. One battalion of "Kur-Triersche Grenadiere," as "Detache- ment du regiment La Sarre," incorporated in the regiment "Saintonge," and commanded by Colonel Adam Philipp Graf (count) von Custine, of Lorraine.
3. Some rifle companies from Alsace and Lorraine, attached to the regiments "Bourbonnais" and "Soissonnais."
4. A large portion of the mounted Legion of the Duc de Lauzun. A muster roll of this Legion is preserved in the ar- chives at Harrisburg, Pa.
133.) "Der deutsche Pionier," Jahrgang XIII, Seite 317, 360 un 1 430. 1881.
Cincinnati ,
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Numerous German officers occupied prominent positions in Marquis de Rochambeau's army. Count von Wittgenstein com- manded the second division.134) Count Axel von Fersen, of Swedish-Pommeranian nobility, chief of staff, - Baron Ludwig von Closen-Haydenburg, born near Wissingen in Bavaria, Adju- tant of Gen. de Rochambeau, - Count von Holzendorf, a Saxon, - Baron von Exbech, - Capt. Gau, chief of artillery, - Count von Stedingk, born at Greifswalde,-Paul Friedr. Jul. v. Gambs, Adjutant of Baron de Viosmenil, born at Johannesberg, Bohe- mia,-Capt. Nortmann of Lauzun's mounted Legion,-and Prof. Lutz, of Strassburg, interpreter at headquarters. 135)
Taking an impartial view-the character of the serviceable position of the French-German allied troops fighting under Gen- eral Washington, must be commented exactly the same as that of the "cursed Hessians" on the opposing side.
Furthermore it is to be remembered that a large number of deserters of the English-German troops, from Hessen-Cassel, Brunswick, Hessen-Hanau, Waldeck, Ansbach-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst, joined the American army, and that the Ameri- can Commander-in-chief as well as Congress encouraged the de- sertion of Germans from the British ranks. In 1778, Congress passed a resolution to organize a corps of German deserters, and in Virginia the officers of the German prisoners of war were sep- arated from their men, that the latter might be more readily per- suaded to enter the American service. Recruiting officers136) came into the camps, going into the barracks, promised thirty Spanish dollars hard money, of which eight dollars were paid down, and, even carried with them musicians, loose women and liquor to help them to induce the men to leave their colors. These facts show that the soldierly qualification of the German prisoners and their brave and good conduct, were fully known to the American authorities.
The Anglo-Virginians, at least those of better judgment, soon valued these men and also recognized their qualification
134.) "The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States," by J. G. Rosengar- ten, p. 115. Philadelphia, 1890.
135 ) "Der deutsche Pionier," Jahrgang XIII, Seite 319 und 320. Cincinnati, 1881. 136. "The German Allied Troops," by Max von Eelking, and translated by J. G. Rosengarten, p. 212. Albany, N. Y., 1893.
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to become desirable colonists. General Washington owned large estates in western Virginia, and he wished, as stated previously, to settle his lands by Germans. After the close of the war a large number of German prisoners of war helped him to realize this plan. They drove the murderous In- dians wholly from the Virginian soil, and opened the wil- derness of the Alleghanies to the Ohio, and farther. The author met during the war of secession many farmers in Green- brier, Fayette, Nicholas, and Pocahontas counties, whose fathers or grandfathers had been captured at Trenton or Saratoga, and one of his fellow-officers in Company D, Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry, organized at Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, was a descendant of a Hessian.
The "Winchester Times" said about the German prisoners confined in and near Winchester, 137) "they were skilled workers in leather, stone and iron-work, and the stone fences and com- fortable stone-houses were built by them. They also acquainted the pioneer-settlers with the progress made in agriculture, etc."
Some of the private soldiers were at once allowed to go to work on the neighboring farms. Many of the owners were of German descent, and German speech and friendly hospitality gave their unfortunate countrymen great comfort. Several of them fell in love with the daughters of the old farmers, and married. These were allowed to ransom themselves for a fixed sum of eighty Spanish dollars138) and those who could not raise the amount and had no friends or relatives in the country to help them, usually found Americans to advance the money and agreed to labor for it a certain length of time. These were called "Redemptioners," and their bargains had a sort of legal sanction, they were made public at church and generally ac- knowledged as binding.
When the war was over Congress offered the German sol- diers every advantage in case they remained in America, and the German princes, desirous to reduce their standing armies, gladly gave their men and officers leave to stay.
137.) "The Winchester Times," copied 1890 from "Daily Commercial," Memphis, Tenn., the report of an old Navy Officer born at Winchester, Va.
138.) "The German Alleid Troops," by Max von Eelking, translated by J. G. Rosen- garten, p. 217. Albany, N. Y., 1893.
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In many respects the long and weary imprisonment was a time of suffering and hardship to the captives. At Winchester the quarters gave no hope, as von Eelking reports, of a comfortable winter, - wretched huts of wood and canvass, roofless, without doors and windows, and located in a heavy forest growth, were assigned to them. The men were crowded close together twenty to thirty in a hut, and even the food was scanty and poor. The men confined near Staunton had similar hardships to endure, and the pres- ence of a large number of captive British soldiers added to their discomfort. Staunton was at that time a small town of only thirty ordinary houses, and the prisoners had little inter- course with the inhabitants, as the barracks were some miles distant. These barracks were in an unfinished state when the Hessian and Brunswick troops arrived, and afforded no protec- tion from cold and heat. The German captives repaired them, laid out gardens and chicken-yards, and the Virginians came to look at their arrangements and to make purchases. Good fighting-cocks were in special demand and ten to thirteen shil- lings were paid for them. Thus circumstances were improved, but the men complained of the big prices of all staples, that they could exchange their money only with a heavy loss of about 40 per cent. and that they heard and saw nothing of the world.
Baroness von Riedesel, who had accompanied her husband, General Friedrich Adolph von Riedesel, and about eighteen hundred men taken at Saratoga to Charlottesville, wrote to a friend in Germany : "The prisoners had at first to bear many trials. They lived in little log-houses without doors and win- dows, but they soon built better dwellings surrounded by gar- dens, and by their labor the place gained the appearance of a pretty little town." - Further reports von Eelking139): "They surrounded themselves with such comfort as could be provided, and occupied the time by building a church to which was an- nexed a graveyard, fitted up a theatre, had constant visitors fron far and near, and brought new life into a desolate little country village." - General von Riedesel lived at Charlottes- ville like a native farmer. He built a block-house with furni-
139.) "The German Allied Troops," by Max von Eelking, translated by J. G. Rosen- garten, pp. 149 and 152. Albany, N. Y., 1893.
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ture made on the spot, worked in his garden, had horses and cows, and his wife made a capital housekeeper. Anburey, one of the British officers quartered here with the Saratoga troops, writes 140): "This famous place we had heard so much of, con- sisted only of a courthouse, one tavern and about a dozen houses, all of which were crowded with officers. The soldiers camped in a wood near the town." - The road leading out of Char- lottesville to the northwest, is to this day called "the Old Bar- rack's Road."
It is significant that Governor Thomas Jefferson took pleas- ure in associating with the German officers at Charlottesville and inviting them to his country-seat, Monticello. They were well educated men, and the Governor offered them the use of his library. In the evening he frequently indulged in music with those of musical efficiency. "His diposition to the arts of peace," says E. A. Duyckinck 141), "in mitigation of the calami- ties of war, had been shown in his treatment of the Saratoga prisoners of war, who were quartered in the neighborhood, near Charlottesville. He added to the comforts of the men and en- tertained the officers at his table."
On the 8th of Deceniber, 1777, Congress granted the Hes- sian officers at Winchester their request to go to Fredericks- burg, Va. They had gained the confidence of the Americans, so that each was allowed to choose his own time to move there. On the 13th they were all in Fredericksburg, and as there could not be found quarters for the whole number, some went to Fal- mouth, an attractive village on the other side of the Rappahan- nock river. They admired the stream and its shores, and their relations to the most distinguished families in the neighbor- hood were very pleasant. Lieutenant Wiederhold wrote in his diary142): "The ladies of the neighborhood showed us much kindness, they are lovely, polite, modest and of natural grace. Sixteen of them, and the most prominent ones, arranged a 'surprise party,' and 'surprised' the captain in his quarters
140.) "Albemarle," by W. H. Seamon, pp. 9 to 10. Charlottesville, Va., 1888.
141 ) "Thomas Jefferson," Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women, by E. A. Duyckinck, Vol. I, p. 280. New York, N. Y.
142.) "Lord Fairfax," by A. Simon, published in "Der Westen," Chicago, Ills , June 19th, 1892.
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after he had been notified of it. The beautiful Virginia ladies had intended to stay only an hour, but they extended their visit from four o'clock in the afternoon to ten o'clock at night. Among the agreeable visitors were a sister and a niece of Gen- eral Washington, and also one of his brothers. The German officers entertained their welcome guests with musical exercises, which the ladies sometimes accompanied by singing. Tea, chocolate, coffee, claret and cake were at hand." Wiederhold writes in addition: "In Europe we would not have earned much praise by our musical performance, but here we were admired like virtuosos. Sobbe played the flute, Surgeon Oliva the vio- lin, and I the guitar. I think the Virginia gentlemen were a little jealous, that we were treated with so much amiability."
Finally the German prisoners were released, "and then," says Rosengarten, "they began to laugh at their recent experi- ences, to talk about the theatre, which had helped to shorten the weary hours of their exile and imprisonment." The scat- tered troops, including those in Virginia, were collected and gradually returned to Germany.
An abundance of books on the American war and the country were written by German soldiers of all grades and illustrated the resources and advantages America offers to settlers. Dr. Johann David Schoepf, surgeon of the Anspach-Baireuth troops, published, as mentioned before, a very instructive work about his travels in the South, es- pecially Virginia. 1 4 3) These publications attracted wide- spread attention throughout Germany and thus the very men, who had been sent across the ocean to help conquer the rebellious colonies, assisted to increase immigration and to ad- vance the development of the new republic. An era of pros- perity followed. Virginia, possessing the finest climate of the North American continent, with thousands of acres of broad, fertile, unoccupied lands awaiting the tiller's toil, thousands of acres of timber awaiting the woodman's axe, and thousands of veins of most valuable ores and coal only awaiting enterprise and capital, received its share of German industrious citizens. The large number of German prisoners, who stayed there after
143.) "Reise durch einige der mittlern und südlichen Staaten in 1783 und 1784." - im Auszug wieder veröffentlicht in "Der Süden," Jahrgang I. Richmond, Va., 1891.
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the close of hostilities, were soon joined by new comers from the old fatherland, giving the Old Dominion many families of note and of useful citizens. Hessia, the native State of the much abused "mercenaries," took in Virginia the lead of a growing tide of valuable German immigrants.
The large number of desirable citizens America received from the subsidiary troops is shown by the following figures :
The Brunswick contingent counted during the war 5,723 men and officers, and out of this number 1,200 men, 27 officers and chaplain Melsheimer remained in America. It is stated that of the troops of Hessen-Cassel, Hessen-Hanau, Waldeck, An- spach, Baireuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst, about 7,000 made Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey their permanent home. The official reports say that the total number of the German con- tingents was 29,166 men and that 11,853 were counted as lost.
CHAPTER X.
THE INDIAN HUNTERS AND THE GERMAN-VIRGINIAN EMIGRATION TO THE WEST.
HE barbarous warfare of the Indians had highly excited the peaceful German frontiermen and made several of them merciless avengers. History calls these sworn enemies of the natives: "Indian Hunters." A rifle over the shoulder, a tomahawk and a scalping knife in the belt, they rambled through the woods, and no savage, who came near them, was spared. Wild and bloody was their revenge, not consistent with humanity and law, and yet the enraged and suffering people sympathized with them. Tradition has surrounded them with a mist of romance. The following names of German Virginians, who figured in the border history as the most suc- cessful Indian hunters, are : Ludwig Wetzel, Georg Ruffner, Col. Peter Nieswanger, Jacob Weiser, Karl Bilderbach, and Johann Waerth; and in the Cumberland mountains in Ken- tucky and Tennessee: Michael Steiner, the ancestor of the Stoners, and Kaspar Mausher, afterwards colonel of the mili- tia-force at the border. The most famous of the Indian hun- ters in the West was Ludwig (Lewis) Wetzel, whose name is perpetuated in Wetzel county, West Virginia. The German- American poet, Friedrich Albert Schmitt, (he died at Cincin- nati, O.,) has sung his fame in several songs. He represented him as taking the following oath 14+) :
144.) "Ludwig Wetzel, der Indianerjäger," von Friedrich Albert Schmitt. - "Deut- scher Pionier," Band I, Seite 41. Cincinnati, 1876.
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"Fuer den Erschlagenen Rache! Wir machen wieder gut, Was uns gethan die Wilden : in ihrem eignen Blut ! Sei jede Rothhaut fuerder geweiht dem sich'ren Tod, So wahr in gluehen Flammen dies Haus emporgeloht !
Am Grab des Vaters schwoeren wir Jenen Untergang ! Du Himmel, wollst es hoeren : es soll der Schlachtgesang Den hier die Indianer geheult, um Rache schrein, --- Er soll ein grimmer Mahner zur ew'gen Rache sein !"
Ludwig Wetzel was the son of Johann Wetzel from the Palatinate, who was one of the first settlers on Big Wheeling Creek. When Ludwig was a boy of thirteen years, in 1787, the Indians burned down the log-house of his parents and killed his father, and Ludwig, with a gun-wound in his breast, was carried off prisoner together with his brother Jacob. The two boys succeeded in escaping and trained by their father in the use of arms, they devoted themselves to avenging his death. Ludwig especially inspired the red men with terror. "In all he took over thirty scalps of warriors," says de Haas145) "thus killing more Indians than were slain by either one of the two large armies of Braddock or St. Clair during their disastrous campaigns." - After the conclusion of peace with the savages he still continued his murderous work of revenge, and was consequently pursued and imprisoned at Fort Wash- ington, near Cincinnati, - but the people sided with him and he was released. He went to Louisiana, where he was again arrested, but by means of deceit and with the assistance of his friends he escaped. He feigned to have suddenly· fallen sick, was represented as having died, placed in a coffin and carried to a vault, from where he effected his flight the next night. He finally died in Texas.
A similar life full of adventures and hair-breadth escapes was led by all the Indian hunters, and yet they were admired by the people exposed to the murderous treachery of the na- tives. They were feared by the red men, - their mere pres- ence was a protection - and thus they frustrated many a massacre.
145.) "History of the Early Settlement and Indian Wars of Western Virginia," by Wills de Haas, p. 344. Wheeling and Philadelphia, 1851.
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The repeated incursions of hostile Indians not only aroused the bloody avengers, the Indian hunters,-they also induced many German Virginians to emigrate further west. The dis- trust and animosity of the slave-holders, and the spiteful per- secution of all dissenters by the English High Church, made life in Virginia unbearable to many. The German poet, Emil Rittershaus, very truly says :
"Die Heimath ist, wo man Dich gern erscheinen und ungern wandern sieht," -
and Virginia had not offered such dear homes to those pioneers.
Enticing descriptions of the fertility of the soil in Ken- tucky, Ohio and Indiana helped to induce many desirable set- tlers to leave the Old Dominion. As early as the middle of the eighteenth century some German Virginians, either volun- tarily or against their own free will, came to Kentucky. Col- lins146) relates, that the first white women who came to Ken- tucky, were Mrs. Maria Engels, from Virginia, with her chil- dren and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Draper, who had been taken prisoners and carried off by the Shawanees. The same his- torian also reports, that Mrs. Engel and the other German woman managed to escape, after the children had been sepa- rated from them, - and that they reached the Kanawha river in Virginia, encountering many accidents and troubles. Mrs. Engel afterwards returned to Kentucky with her husband and settled in Boone county, - others followed, - but principally during the War of Independence the German immigration in- creased. Many of the revolutionary soldiers found homes there. - In 1773 a society headed by one Robert McAfee,- among its members were several Germans,-Jeft Botetourt county, Va., and wandered to Kentucky (Kain-tuck-ee.) Only one German name of those pioneers is preserved : Herrmann. Other German Virginians, who settled in Kentucky at the same time, were: Abraham Hite, Joseph and Jacob Sadowsky, Cap- tain A. Schoeplein (anglicized : Chapline), etc. It was a life of privation and danger which these emissaries of European civilization had to endure. They held the frontier outposts against Indian barbarity. The U. S. Educational Report for
146.) Compare : Collins "History of Kentucky."
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1895-96 says, Vol. I, page 317, with reference to them: "The settlers were not indifferent to the importance of schooling their own children, and went about the work in the rough- and-ready way only possible to their provincial life. Each of the fortified villages, which were the only places of safety from the depredations of the savages, set up its school. More than one of the brave pioneer schoolmasters met his death about his work; all taught amid an environment of difficulty and peril, that make the career of each a special romance. They took their meagre pay in tobacco and the produce of the country."
We previously mentioned the name of the speaker or preacher of a Tunker congregation, Johann Tanner, who left Virginia with his followers and emigrated to Pennsylvania. There he met with intolerance - and in 1785 he went and settled in Kentucky. The loss of his sons, Johannes and Eduard, who had been carried off by the Indians, caused him to move still further west and to make his home near New Madrid, in Missouri, which was a Spanish colony at the time. Several German families had accompanied him to Kentucky and settled at Farmers' Station, now Bullitsburg, as: the Dewees, the Matheus and Schmidt147), whose German names are varied to Mathews and Smith. New additions came from the Old German colony at Madison, Va. Ludwig Rausch, about 1800, had ventured through the dark virgin woods as far as Florence county, Ky., where he found very fertile lands. He returned to Virginia and praised the "Charming West," saying that he would make it his home. He departed again, built a log-house, tilled the land, and in 1804 he went to Madison for his betrothed wife. His success caused much ex- citement in the old German colony and the next year fourteen men with their families started for Boone county, Kentucky, namely: Solomon Hoffman and his wife, Elizabeth, with two children ; Georg Rause and wife; Ephraim Tanner and wife Susanna; Johannes Haus and wife Emilie; Fried. Zimmermann and his wife Rosa; Johannes Rause and his wife Nancy; Ben- jamin Ayler, Simon Tanner, Johannes Biemann, Michael
147.) "Deutscher Pionier," Band XII, Seite 68. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1880.
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Rausch, Jacob Rausch, Fried. Tanner, Josua Zimmermann and Jeremias Carpenter, i. e. Zimmermann. In the year 1806 they organized an ecclesiastical community and erected a church, which they called "the Hopeful," and in 1813 they induced the pastor : Wm. Carpenter, of the "Hebron Church" at Madi- son (as reported in Chapter IV) to remove there. Rev. Car- penter had studied theology and the classics under the tutor- ship of the Lutheran pastor Christian Streit, at Winchester, Va., after serving in the War of Independence in General Muehlenberg's division. More Germans arrived in northern Kentucky, and they founded the cities of: Frankfort, Lexing- ton, Florence, Louisville, etc. The diocese of the Rev. Car- penter soon extended over all these settlements and into Ohio. Until 1824 he preached only in German,-the instruction in the schools was given in both English and German. His suc- cessor, Jacob Crigler (1834), who also came from Madison, Va., preached mostly in German and when urged to use the Eng- lish language exclusively, because a number of English fami- lies had settled in Boone county, he resigned his office and accepted the pastorate of a German parish in Ohio. The Eng- lish idiom soon made rapid progress among the Germans, and the American born reverends were the chief promoters of the change. The German descendants however preserved a faith- ful remembrance for the land and nation of their ancestors. Rev. Harbough wrote: "As a community we descend of the venerable parish on the Rapidan. We are therefore of Ger- man origin and we are proud of it. Our ancestors came from the land of Luther - and that gives us great satisfaction. We are not the ungrateful son who disowns and slights his mother."
It has already been said that the revolutionary soldiers furnished a large contingent of settlers to Kentucky and Ohio, this territory belonged at that time still to Virginia. The State of Virginia had presented the patriots with land and consequently there was about the year 1788 a heavy German influx to the "Virginia Military Lands" in Kentucky and Ohio. - "Woodford county in Kentucky," writes Collins, "was prin- cipally settled by emigrants from eastern and western Vir- ginia." - Daniel Weissiger, who had lived at Norfolk and la-
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