ABRAM ENGLISH BROWN
Boston, Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1897
CHAPTER XIV
The custom followed by the ruler of this German province of hiring out Hessian soldiers was one of long standing, and one which aided the finances not a little, and sometimes led to the formation of important alliances on the part of the reigning House. It is recorded that the British Government paid £3,000,000 for the services of the army of Hessians who fought against our patriotic ancestors in the Revolution. Of these, four
thousand were Brunswickers, natives of the province of Brunswick.
While I will not run the risk of confusing my readers by departing from the appellation Hessians, I desire to have it apparent that the German allies of the king were of different classes, and not all of the grade which we have sometimes contemptuously regarded them, although none of them had any honorable motive for taking up arms against the Provincials. The Brunswick army was placed under the command of Major-General Riedesel, a man of literary culture and refinement, as well as of military distinction; and the only wonder is that he could be hired to lead an army to come to America "to butcher her children."
If my reader would follow the course taken by this general and his German army from their starting-point to America, let him turn to the map of the German Empire, and find near the centre the province of Brunswick, from which their start was made. They marched across the province of Hanover to Stade, a fortified town about a mile from the mouth of the Schwinge in the Elbe, where they began their journey by water. "The
departure of the boats was one of the most beautiful spectacles that can be imagined. All was contentment and happiness." The boat which carried General Riedesel was the Pallas, the same which conveyed General Gage from America to England. The first day's journey was past beautiful villages, plainly seen from the boat on either side of the Elbe, to Fryburg, and then they were soon out to sea. Touching at Dover, they passed
through the Strait to the English Channel, halting at Portsmouth, and passing on to Plymouth, which they left on April 4 for America.
The fleet, upon leaving the coast of England, numbered thirty-six sailing-vessels. After a passage of nine weeks, they arrived at Quebec, where the general saw some of our men who had been captured, "Rebel
prisoners," he called them. From Quebec they went to Three Rivers, from which place the general wrote to his wife: "We have already conquered the whole of Canada, and shall, as soon as the boats are in readiness, force our way into New England by the way of Lake Champlain, where are all the rebels." After taking Crown Point they went into winter quarters in and near Three Rivers. Here they remained in the full enjoyment of good living, after a time of illness occasioned by the change in climate. The anticipation of a complete subjugation of the patriot army in the spring added to their winter's enjoyment. In May they were made doubly sure of success by the arrival of General John Burgoyne, with a picked army, great stores of ammunition, and the finest brass cannon yet sent over. Good plans were made, but the trouble came in carrying them out.
At first they were successful; and General Riedesel began to win laurels for himself and his army, and Burgoyne thought the way was clear before him. They repulsed Seth Warner and his "Green Mountain Boys" at Hubbardston, Vermont, captured Ticonderoga and the stores at Whitehall. But at length the Germans marched on to Bennington, where General Stark had put in an appearance with some New Hampshire militia. It was their appearance that called forth that oft-repeated remark, "There they are, boys. We shall beat them to-night, or to-morrow morning Molly Stark will be a widow." They did defeat them, and captured some brass cannon, which they could not turn to a good use until General Stark showed them how to do it.
There soon followed the conditions and experiences which Mr. Colburn described to me, and which have been already recorded in a previous chapter. The reader recalls the statement of Mr. Colburn, and wonders how the family of the Brunswick general came to be with him at the surrender of October 17. Surprising as it
may seem, it was quite the habit of these German soldiers to have their wives along with them. About
Stark eyed them as they Stood;
Few words he spake –- 'twas not a time
For moralizing mood;
'See there, the enemy, my boys –-
Now, strong in valor's might,
Beat them, or Betty Stark will sleep
In widowhood to-night!'"
meet him. She took with her three daughters, Gustava, Frederica, and Caroline, aged four years and nine months, two years, and ten weeks, respectively. She was accompanied by a retinue of servants of both sexes; which her wealth and position warranted. They made the journey overland in a coach to Calais, where they took a ship for England, landed at Dover, and were conveyed to London by coach. They arrived in London on June 1, and she immediately received the courtesy from Lord North which her position demanded.
After a few days she went to Bristol, where she met a Captain Fenton, whose wife and a daughter of fourteen years were held as prisoners in Boston, New England. The baroness spent months in making preparations for her ocean voyage, during which time she appeared at Court, and was presented to King George III. and his wife on New Year's Day, 1777. The baroness thus describes her experience at the Court of England, –-
"I found the castle very ugly, and furnished in old-fashioned style. All the ladies and gentlemen were stationed in the audience-room. Into this room came the king, preceded by three cavaliers. The queen followed him, accompanied by a lady who carried her train, and a chamberlain. The king went round to the right, and the queen to the left. Neither passed by any one without saying something. At the end of the drawing-room they met, made each other a profound bow, and then returned to the place whence they had started. I asked Lady Germaine how I should act, and whether the king, as I had heard, kissed all the ladies. ‘No,' she replied, ‘only English women and marchionesses;' and that all one had to do was to remain quietly standing in her place. When, therefore, the king came up and kissed me, I was greatly amazed, and turned red as fire, since it was so entirely unexpected."
The remarks of the king showed that he was familiar with the enterprise of General Riedesel, and of the intended journey of the baroness. She left Portsmouth for America, with her children and servants, on April 15, 1777, and arrived in the harbor of Quebec on the 11th of June. There was a booming of guns from all the ships in the harbor, firing a salute in honor of her arrival, before she realized what it all meant. Presently a boat approached the ship to carry them ashore. The boat was manned by twelve sailors dressed in white, with silver helmets and green sashes. With the boat came letters from General Reidesel, informing his wife that he had been unable to await her arrival at Quebec, and had started on the summer campaign with General
Burgoyne. Only remaining long enough at Quebec to dine with the wife of General Carleton, the baroness with her family took a boat, and proceeded up the St. Lawrence, in the hope of overtaking her husband. At midnight they landed, and took calashes for a drive across the country, riding in this way till the following afternoon, when they crossed the river, and reached the village of Three Rivers. Here the Hessians had been in winter quarters, and General Reidesel had left a house prepared for the reception of his family.
The Grand Vicar of the village, seeing the baroness's anxiety to join her husband, loaned her a covered calash, in which she immediately resumed her journey in pursuit of the advancing army. And in this manner this refined lady and her three young children and servants were driven over the rough roads of the country.
"How touching a picture is this! A delicate, refined woman, accustomed only to the comfort, luxury, and shelter of an old civilization in a circle of devoted relations and friends, encountering the hardships of the wilderness, self-reliant, courageous, persevering, not for one moment forgetting or neglecting the babes who are dependent on her tenderness, even while her whole soul is absorbed in that intensity of wifely love and
devotion that renders her regardless of fatigue, pain, and repeated disappointment. If we are moved with enthusiasm in recalling the valor and self-forgetfulness of the patriot in the service of his country on the wearying march and amid the carnage of the field, may we not be equally stirred at a manifestation of heroic endurance and self-abnegation in an exercise of the most sublime of human emotions, even though it be on the part of one who sympathizes with the enemy?"
After meeting General Riedesel, and spending a few days, it became necessary for her to return to Three Rivers with the children. They spent some weeks at the village of Three Rivers. In the meantime the British and German forces had met with their successes at Ticonderoga and elsewhere. Major Ackland had been wounded at Hubbardston in the encounter with the "Green Mountain Boys," and his wife had been allowed to join him.
On the 11th of September the army moved forward; and the little family followed them until the battle of the 19th, when the baroness and her family were obliged to remain at one place, meeting the husband and father as often as circumstances permitted. At length a house was prepared for the family near the camp; and when she was to move into it, an unexpected change took place. Said the baroness, "On my way homeward, I met many savages in their war dress armed with guns. They cried out, 'War! War!'
The burial of General Frazer, alluded to by my aged friend Mr. Colburn, is here described by the Baroness Riedesel, as she saw it from the standpoint of the enemy, whose leader he was. "Many cannon-balls also flew not far from me; but I had my eyes fixed upon the hill, where I distinctly saw my husband in the midst of the enemy's fire. The clergyman who was officiating was frequently covered with dust, which the shot threw up on all sides of him." Immediately after the funeral a retreat was ordered. Madam Riedesel, with children and servants, travelled all night in the pouring rain, and camped at Old Saratoga. The greatest consternation prevailed in the army; the provisions had failed, and the leading officers were forced from hunger to beg for a morsel from the baroness. Soon the cannonading drove them on, and the family sought refuge in a house. They were detected in entering the house by some of the Americans, who fired at them, and believing that the
house was filled with officers, continued a heavy fire. Madam Riedesel and her children escaped by hiding in the cellar, where they sat upon the floor through the entire night, while cannon-balls crashed through the walls above them. Surrounded by the dead and dying, in hourly expectation of attack, this heroic woman cared for her children when servants failed, and also acted the part of a nurse to the suffering about her. After nearly a week of this extremity, the surrender came,and the entire army were prisoners of the Americans.
After the generals of the conquered army had been received by General Gates, and the formalities of surrender had. taken place, a messenger was sent to the baroness, asking her to join her husband, who was a prisoner in the American camp. She was met by General Philip Schuyler and General Gates, and also Generals Phillips and Burgoyne of the surrendered army. General Schuyler then took the baroness and her children to his own
tent, where he showed them much hospitality, and later sent them to his home in Albany, where they remained three days, when the baroness and her children left to join the General in the trials of the long captivity. They journeyed with the captured army to Cambridge, Mass. This beautiful lady, so recently a guest of the King of England, and during her entire life in Germany surrounded by luxury, was now practically a prisoner of
war.
It was in this condition that the Hollis soldier saw the family of the Brunswick general. The station and wealth of the baroness prevented her falling into the condition of the ordinary women who followed the army, yet she was subjected to many trials that she little anticipated when leaving her home at Brunswick.
The Baroness Riedesel had the society of Lady Harriet Ackland during a portion of her camp-life in America. She had left her home of luxury in England, and accompanied her husband, Major Ackland, who was in command of the Grenadiers; but the English officer was captured before the Saratoga Convention, hence the two ladies were not companions in the prison-life in Massachusetts and Virginia.
The whole number of prisoners was 5,791. Of these 2,412 were Germans and Hessians. The munitions captured consisted of 4,647 muskets, 6,000 dozen cartridges, etc. Among the English prisoners were six members of parliament. The journey of three hundred miles was long and wearisome. There was nothing to inspire the march. On the contrary, it was prison-life for all but the officers, who had special privileges, according to the agreement between Burgoyne and Gates at the surrender.
