Freie Presse fuÌˆr Texas. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1865-1945, 1916-10-13

from D6TkS SUUHly. OAuGOo Va
American .rifemen tramped six
hundred miles from Virginia and
Massachusetts to help throw the
British out of American colonies.
1t seems that they did not succeed
in throwing all of them out, and
a few more squads should go up to
Boston and finish the job.
When a conspiracy against
Washington's life was discovered,
it became necessary to provide
him with a bodyguard that could
be trusted absolutely. Where was
such a body-guard to be found?
Where but among the Germans OF
Berks and Lancaster counties,
Pennsylvania? Their captain was
Major Bartholomaeus 0 Heer,
a Prussian. If any n had come
to George Washington, the friend
of Heer and Steuben, and told him
it was necessary to crush the Prus-
slams, George Washington would
have had the Tory scoundrel
locked in the guard-house.
1t was not only the hundred and
fifty stalwart men of Washing
tons body-guard that showed how
the Germans stood during the war
of the Rebellion. When Congress
ordered Pennsylvania to furnish
six companies, our hyphenated
states furnished nine, four of
them entirely German. A German
manufacturer furnished most of
the cannon and rifles for Washing
tons army, and when the soldiers
were starving nine Germans dona-
ted 100000 to buy provisions.
When Congress vas at the point
of refusing more money for the
purchase of arms, n man got up
and said: Il am only a poor GIN
ger-bread baker, but write my
name down for two hundred
pounds" His name vas Christoph
Ludwig, and he was a hyphenate.
| have often wondered whether
he was related to the heroine
Molly Pitcher, wo was also a n.y.
phonated American. Molly's mai
den name was Marie Ludwig, lest
we forget!
The German bakers played a
considerate role at this time. Frau
| Marguerite Greider for several
months provided the American
soldiers with bread, refusing to
accept payment, and in addition
| she subscribed 1900 guineas for
the American cause.
To tell Of Johann Won Ka1b, who
died at Camden, would require an
epic. His death was no less heroic
than that Of Nathan Hale. This
is nothing" were his last words,
III am dying the death have
longed for. | am dying for a coun-
try fighting for justice and liber-
ty." Yet, he was only a Barbarian,
only a Hun, like Baron von Steu-
ben, who came from the armies of
Frederic the Great to drill the ar
mics Of Washington. Steuben
found at ValleyForge an un-
trained mob, ready to disband in
| desperation. Some officers were
in gowns made of bedspreads. 1t
took $500 to buy a pair of boots.
Steuben changed all this. From
the time, when he came upon the
| scene, there was an American ar
my. At Yorktown the last British
army on American soil surren-
dered to this Prussian. So the
Germans drove the British from
| America. All, would that Much
1enberg and Herkimer, Kalb and
Steuben could come back today!
No names in American history
shine more radiantly than those
ofMuehlenberg andHerkimer. See
Muehlenberg in his pulpit, preach
ing his last serman! There is a
time for praying. But there is al
SO a time for fighting. That time
has now Gomez He throws off his
clerical cassock and beneath it is
the uniform of Washington's Con-
tinentals. Several hundred men,
bers of his congregation enlisted
in his regiment.
That other hero, Herkimer, paid
with his life for the victory of Or
iskany, which sealed the fate of
Burgoyne's army. Smoking his
pipe and reading the 38th Psalm,
his spirit passed into the realm of
shadows, to walk beside Leonidas
and Winkelried.
Do you know that Armistead,
.I1 Lafa.Gad Eort McIopry