Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-04-27

The first troops that sailed for Americ
in the pay of George Ill. were the tw
regiments furnished by the Duke of Bruins
wick. These marched on the 22d of Feb
ruary, 1776, 2,2S2 men strong, to Stade
near the mouth of the Elbe Colonel Eau
citt, the English commissioner, was no
very well pleased with their appearance
Many were young and ill-made. Tn
uniforms were deficient. The men wer
starting for Canada without overcoats
New shoes and stockings had to be pro
cured for them at Portsmouth, but tn
dealers there cheated the government, an,
when the esses were opened at sea the.
were found to contain LADIES' slippers. Th
second division of Brunswickers embarked
at the end of May-about 1000 men
They were better clad and armed than thu
first contingent, but there were many boy
and old men among them.
The first Hesslans set out from Case
early IN March, and were shipped at Bre
merlehe, near the mouth of the Weser. Tn,
second division was embarked in June
Together they numbered between IL. .O0(
and 13, 900 men, They were for the mos
part excellent troops and well equipped
for the Landgrave's little army was one OF
the best in Germany. With the first Hes
slams marched a company of $50 jagers, OIL
rif1emen. These soldiers, recruited among
the hunters and game keepers of Germany,
were afterwards in especial request by the
English generals, and many of them were
sent out both by Hesse Cassel and Hesse
Hanau. They acted as sharpshooters, and
their officers boasted that they rlvaled, OF
even surpassed, the American riflemen in
craftsmanship. The troops passed from
the territory of their own Prince into the
Hanoverian dominons of the King OF Eng
land, and these reached to the sea. The
Prince of Waldeck sent his regiment
through Cassel without trouble. The
Prince of Hesse Hanau, the Margrave OF
Anspatch Bayreuth and the Prince of An
halt ZeIbst had longer road and far more
difficulties before them.
The town Of Hanau hes above Frank
fort, on the river Nam, about thirty miles
from Mainz, where that river falls into the
Rhine. The county of which 1t was the
capital, was at this time gouerned by the
heir-apparent of the Landgrave of Hesse
Cassei, as an independent prlncipallty.
The Prince was not on good terms with his
father, and was unwilling to send his troops
through the territories of the latter for fear
of desertIon. The soldiers were, therefore,
shipped on boats and sent down the Rhine
A detachment of jagers and recruits started
from Hanau on the 9TH of March, 1777.
On the Sth the boats were stopped at
Mainz, and s men were taken from them.
The Archbishop claimed these either us his
own subjects OF as deserters from his serv-
ice. The English government refused to
interfere, and the complaints of the Prince
of Hanau were unheeded. On the 25th of
March, at S'Gravendael, in Holland. seven
men sprang overheard, and three of them
escaped with the help of sympathizing
peasants. Meanwhile two regiments of
Anspach and Bayreuth, with l01 jsgers
and A artillerymen, had marched from
Anspach on the 7th of March, and were
embarked on the Main at Ochsenfurth, a
small town On the Nam, lying far above
Hanau, and belonging to the Bishop of
Wurzburg. On account of the opposition
of Frederick of Prussia the soldiers were
stopped on their passage down the Rhine,
and after spending a month in their boats,
lying, for the most part, off the little town
of Bendorf, which belonged to the Mar
grave Of Anspach, they were finally brought
back to wiater at Hauau. Their sufferings
while crowded on board the boats in the
months of November and December, and
el -
have been great but there were but few
desertions, for Gordon of troops lined the
bank to prevent them. About $50 recruits
from Hanau lay alongside of them, slmi-
larly detained, and these suffered much
from fever. The whole party of 534 men
marched in February and March, 177S,
overland to the coast, and were shipped In
April for England and America. The
passage was long one, and these men who
had left Anspach early in November, 1777,
were moi landed In New York until Sep
tember, 1878.
The sudden refusal of Frederick the Great
to allow the passage of troops told most of
all ON the Zerbst regiment. In order to
pass round the Prussian dominions this
body was obliged 10 pass through seven
different States and free cities. the result
was disastrous. In the village of Zeulen-
rode deserter chased by corporal sought
refuge In an inn. The corporal, in his
anger aad excitement, shot after him
through the inn window and killed the inn
keepers wife, who was sitting quietly in
the room. The peasants were naturally
enraged, and riot shortly afterward oc-
CURED. in which a lieutenant was mortally
injured. Three hundred and thirty
men deserted in the course of ten days,
leaving only 494 under the banners. The
colonel succeeded, however, in enllsting
about $50 recruits to take the place of the
deserters, and 625 were thus shipped on
the 22d of April, 1873, at Stade. Making
a quick passage, they arrived before Que
bee toward the last of May; but they had
not come to the end of their troubles. The
commander of the place had received no
orders concerning them, and would not
allow them to land. For three months the
poor fellows had to lie on shipboard in the
St. Lawrence before instructions could be
received from England. Frederick the
Great has left in his memoirs his own &C
count of his reasons for his conduct on this
occasion. ''The King of England was
negotiating with all the courts of Germany
to draw out of the country the few people
it could still furnish. Germany could
already perceive the evil consequences of
sending so many of her men into distant
parts of the world, and the King of Prussia
saw with anxiety that in the event of a new
war the Empire would be deprived of Its
defenders; for in the year 1856 Lower
Saxony and Westphalia had alone set on
foot an army to stop the progress Of the
French. For this reason ne made Difficult.
ties about the troops of German Princes
allied to England when they had to pass
through Magdeburg, MInden and the dis
trict on the Lower Rhine. That was but
weak revenge for the bad attitude which
the court of London had assumed toward
him concerning the city and harbor OF
Dantzic. Moreover the king did not care
to push the thing too far, for long expert
ence had told him that one always finds {
host of enemies, without having to bring
them on ones self by arrogance"