KarensNewBlog: SATURDAY JULY 3, 2021

SATURDAY JULY 3, 2021 - SATURDAY STORY

Today’s story is written by Karl Bauer (not really!!)

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Guten Morgen. Ich heiße Karl Bauer.

Oops - I need to write in English. I just said “Good Morning, I am called Karl Bauer” - or really, I am Karl Bauer. (For those of you without a German background, the last name “Bauer” literally translates as “farmer”).

I am from Hesse-Cassel, a little German state about halfway between Cologne on the Rhine River and Berlin. (Editor note - this was before the unification of Germany).

My little state is mostly agricultural - and I have three older brothers who really are farmers - but my eldest brother inherited the family farm. So, agriculture was not going to be my livelihood. But, Hesse-Cassel found a way to keep taxes low - and keep employment high - they rented out my services and those of many of my friends as “peace-keepers”. Of course, you might have heard the term “Hessians” in regards to the American Revolution - and I guess that is me - and my colleagues.

I’ve been trained to be a soldier since age seven. While you modern American boys might go through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, my friends and I went to similar events - but making us into soldiers. We camped out, we built fires, we learned to climb trees, shoot guns, and be soldiers. But, we were well educated - in math, sciences, foreign languages (I am not quite fluent in four languages - German, English, French, and Polish, but can get by), and warfare tactics.

Actually it was a good life. One year of renting us out to the British crown brought in enough revenue to run our little state for about thirteen years. That kept our taxes low and kept Friedrich II as our governor for many years. And, with some pride, our farmers grew barley and hops and brewed the best beer in Germany. (Or so I thought).

So, in 1774, my troop was rented out to the English and sent to America. You Americans called us “mercenaries” - but we thought of it like just another job - making the world be at peace.

A few of my colleagues had girlfriends or wives, but like most, I deferred that option until after my years as a soldier. So, off we went from Bremen harbour to America (oops - another problem, I learned British English, not American English - so, I will change that to “Bremen harbor” for you Yankees).

We had been hired by the British. The British had an excellent naval fleet - generally manned by their own people, so an army frequently had foreign soldiers like me - as the army was less important than the navy in England.

My companions and I sailed to New York. We were to be stationed across the Hudson River in Weehawken New Jersey. On the ship, every day we had a half-hour of worship, then calisthenics, followed by English lessons. Then an hour of map reading of the colonies. After lunch and a break, our lessons continued with warfare tactics, more physical fitness and squad activities. I was in a company of 200 men that was divided into ten squads of twenty men each. Our squad was led by Kommander Jakob Koch, and our company was led by Major Wilhelm Koenig. We all had guns (single load with black powder)that had bayonets. This was not an idle ocean cruise!!

Arriving at Weehawken harbor on the morning of August 3, 1776, we were scorned by the local peoples. Some threw rocks at us (too bad for them - as my squad took out two of the rock throwers - teenagers about 15 or 16). There were some military barracks that would be our basecamp, but we did have our field materials of tents, cooking pots and materials for fighting on the American turf.

On the third day in the colonies, we crossed the Hudson River and went to Brooklyn. It seemed like Brooklyn was a hotbed of uprising. We joined forces with some British troops and two other Hessian Companies. I knew a few of the other Hessians. We engaged a small American group of about one hundred. We killed maybe eight or ten of them, and only lost three of our men before the Americans fled into houses, alleys, and down streets. We had been trained for field combat, not guerrilla warfare. We didn’t know if we followed the Americans that we might be led into dead end traps. We took our dead back to Weehawken and gave them an appropriate burial. In the past, those tough decisions on where to bury our dead on foreign soil had been decided to bury them in that foreign land. God would know where to find them when the last trumpet sounded.

For the next few weeks, we had scrimmages with the Americans. We heard that General George Washington was the commander of the American troops. My colleagues laughed at a “General” who had served as a surveyor in the French and Indian Wars.

Our big day is known now as the Battle of Brooklyn Heights on August 27, 1776. We won an overwhelming victory over the rebels. Washington evacuated his men from Brooklyn across the bay to Manhattan - a move that probably saved the American cause. Better to run away and see another day!!

With that, the British forces (mostly Hessians) took control of the main port city of New York. With the British navy patrolling the waters, and our troops on the ground, we effectively divided the young colonies into two parts - the north (Boston and New England), and the south (Philadelphia to the Carolinas). Yes, there were some scrimmages - such as the Battle of White Plains - but the rebels continued to be outnumbered and out fought.

Our days became slower as New York was under our control. Our company was sent to Trenton, New Jersey. We were to oversee the Delaware river so food and other supplies couldn’t be shipped down that river to the Americans in Philadelphia.

BUT, we made a mistake. We became complacent. The war was going our way (that is, the British way). On Christmas Eve 1776, George Washington led a raiding party that surprised us, and overran our troops. Some of my colleagues died, and many were captured - including myself). The Americans were able to raid our stores and got food and goods to keep their army going. With some mixed loyalties, for the next two years we became farmers - yes - a “Bauer” (farmer) was going to farm!! Under American supervision we tilled, planted, and helped harvest crops. I had to laugh at myself - here I was some 4000 miles away from home milking cows and harvesting beets, potatoes, wheat and barley. I tried to convince the people to let us plant some hops and we could make good German bier (beer), but alas, we didn’t get to make beer.

We stayed in that area while the war went on in other places. There were some attempts to rescue us, but without our weapons we just seemed to adapt to the farming life.

So, we stayed there. Our families back home still got our stipends, the Hesse-Cassel region got its payments, and we farmed.

Okay, I have to tell a side story. I worked on a farm owned by Dutch immigrants. And, the family had a beautiful daughter, Sophie, that I fell for. For a long time, I could just say “Hallo” to her, and she would ignore me, but eventually she would speak back, and after longer periods of time (where I had been a very productive farmer and really a ‘trustee’), she and I would converse for longer times.

After the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 (four years into my captivity), the British admitted defeat. Our troops were to be sent back to Hesse-Cassel, but as that day came, many of us defected to the American side. Sophie and I were wed in a Dutch Reformed church (almost all of us Hessian were Lutheran) and I became an American. I had few reasons to go back to Hesse-Cassel, I loved Sophie, and I loved farming.

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Epilogue

Karl and Sophie were married 46 years until she died. They had six children. Some of them stayed in New Jersey, but some moved west into the Ohio valley in this new nation - The United States of America. If you trace your American family heritage back far enough, you might find Karl and Sophie as one of your ancestors. One of their descendents became a President and famous in his own right as Chester A. Arthur.

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Okay - a Pollyanna Karen story pertaining to the founding of America.

Some sources:

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/hessians/ - Hessians in the war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landgraviate_of_Hesse-Kassel - Hesse- Cassel information

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/brooklyn - battle of Brooklyn Heights

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown_(1781) - Battle of Yorktown