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"The Baroness and The General"

    
                        THE BRIDE
            Frederika Charlotte Louise van Massow
                        as "Spring"


                       Contents
              


1. The Baroness .........................3

2. Mrs. General ........................16

3. They Point the Finger ...............28

4. Meanwhile, the General ..............41

5. The First Thrust ....................52

6. Winter in London ....................64

7. Winter in Canada ....................77

8. "Welcome to the Canadian Continent" .90

9. Second Thrust ......................103

10. Within the Walls ..................115

11. The Fall of Ticonderoga ...........128

12. The Baroness at Fort Edward .......144

13. Bennington ........................158

14. The Road to Albany ................174

15. The Battles of Saratoga ...........193

16. Mrs. General in Command ...........209

17. Troops of the Convention ..........223

18. Overland Journey ..................237

19. The Baroness in Cambridge .........251

20. Peaceful Cambridge ................266



Contents

21. Marching Orders ...................281

22. The Long Road .....................295

23. The Baroness in Virginia ..........310

24. The New Yorkers ...................323

25. Miss America ......................342

26. Progress in the American Rebellion 354

27. Return to Canada ..................366

28. The Pretty Ship ...................382

29. Mrs. General Comes Home ...........397

30. The Letters of Mrs. General .......410

Acknowledgments .......................417

Chapter Notes .........................420

Index .................................443



          Main Characters



Frederika Charlotte Luisa von Massow, Baroness von Riedesel

Baron Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel of Lauterbach, Duchy of Brunswick,
General in charge of troops rented to King George III of England by
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick

Riedesel children: Augusta, Frederika, Amerika ("Miss America"), Canada,
Charlotte, Georg Karl

Charles I and Charles II, Dukes of Brunswick, overlords of Ferdinand

Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, hero of Minden and field marshal of the
Brunswick regiments

George III, of the House of Brunswick, King of England

Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of England

George Sackville, Lord Germain, British Secretary of State for the Colonies,
director of American campaign

Sir John Burgoyne (Gentleman Johnny), General of the British Army, von
Riedesel's commander

Captain Edward Foy, commissary

Hannah Van Home Foy, his wife

Mr, and Mrs. Russell of London

Sir Guy Carleton, Governor of Canada

Lady Mary (Maria) Carleton, his wife, and Lady Anne, her sister

Lady Harriet Acland and Major Acland

Mr. and Mrs. Mich Murray of Quebec

Major General William Phillips of the British Army, second in command to
Burgoyne

Lieutenant Colonel Baum of the Brunswick dragoons

Captain Willoe, aide to General Riedesel

Rockel, chasseur, jaeger for the von Massow family, and bodyguard and
coachman for the Baroness von Riedesel on her American journey

General Philip Schuyler of the Continental Army

General Benjamin Lincoln of the Continental Army

General Horatio Gates of the Continental Army



xii           Main Characters



General Seth Warner of the Green Mountain Boys

General John Stark of the militia of New Hampshire

General William Heath of the Continental Army, stationed at Cambridge,
Mass.

Philip Mazzei, Esquire, of Charlottesville, Virginia

Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, of Charlottesville, Virginia

Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, and Mrs. Carroll

General Sir Henry Clinton, supreme commander of the British Army in
America after 1778

Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec

Also: Women; Savages; sea captains; and a knave of a cook

Illustrations



The Bride, frontispiece

Between Pages 240 and 241

General Baron von Riedesel; The Baroness von Riedesel

The Five Riedesel Daughters

George III and Family

General John Burgoyne by Sir Joshua Reynolds

General Sir Guy Carleton; General Sir Frederick Haldimand;
Major General William Phillips; The Bridegroom

General Philip Schuyler; General Horatio Gates;
General William Heath

Castle at Lauterbach; St. James's Palace Mall
Quebec

Fraser's Funeral at the "Great Redoubt" at Saratoga

Barracks of the Prisoners of Saratoga

Plan of Boston

Burgoyne's Positions at the Battles of Saratoga


End Papers    [not scanned]

Route of Burgoyne-Riedesel

March of the Surrendered Army to Cambridge, Massachusetts

March of the "Troops of the Convention" to
Charlottesville, Virginia









                     The Baroness and
                   The General









              1
              
                 The Baroness


IT WAS the year 1762, and at the Court of Charles I, Duke of
Brunswick, a military wedding was being planned to climax a
gay winter season. Professional soldiering was the chief occupation
in this small German duchy, and soldiers its most profitable
export along with cavalry horses. But the wars in which the
troops of His Most Serene Highness were hired to engage were
usually fought only during the summer months. Winter was the
time to quarter the troops in barracks, while the officers rested
upon their laurels, boasted about past and future campaigns, and
otherwise amused themselves. Everyone at Court was happy about
the prospect of wedding festivities, especially Tischbein, the
German artist who had been commissioned by the Duke to paint the
wedding party.1

Tischbein began with the bride, who sat in the artist's great
armchair looking pleased. Frederika Charlotte Luisa von Massow
was seventeen and, since symbolism was all the rage, the artist
painted her as "Spring." Her dark hair had been pinned up in a
brisk little pompadour, crowned with blue flowers and a stiff white
feather that stood up like a brush. Around her neck she wore a
blue ribbon tied in a demure bow just under her chin, although
her blue satin dress was cut extremely low. Pink flowers in a



4             The Baroness and the General

basket and a flower garland carried out the springtime theme but
the bride's youth and gaiety made such stage properties superfluous.
Her dark blue eyes were full of laughter and her smile was
one of pure delight. "Fritschen," as her family called her, looked
ready to jump down from the painter's dais and dance away
laughing, in her grown-up-lady's gown.

The time was not far off when Fritschen would be known as
"the Baroness." She would ride into a wilderness fort in a strange
sort of carriage, and British troops under Gentleman Johnny
Burgoyne would stare and ask her name. German mercenaries
would tell them that here was their German General's wife, and
to English ears it would sound as if they said her name was "Red
'azel" ("Red Hazel" with the H dropped off, cockney-fashion).
Indignantly, the troops of the Duke of Brunswick would explain
that this was the Baroness von Riedesel "Ree-day-zel," they
would repeat loudly, as to a stupid foreigner; and perhaps one of
those altercations all too common between English and German
soldiers would break out.2 But to rank and file of the English the
Baroness remained "Red 'azel" soon to be a term of admiration
and affection. Not that liberties would be taken, for the Baroness
was an aristocrat called "Mrs. General" to her face, or "Lady
Fritz." With her in the high-wheeled carriage would be her three
little girls, known as "the little ladies."

The Baroness von Riedesel would one day write a firsthand
account of her six years' adventures in America during the
Revolution. Later as a book it would need a frontispiece, and an engraver
would reproduce the Tischbein portrait to the best of his ability.
The sentimental re-drawing would only faintly resemble the gay
young girl who sat to Tischbein, or the forthright, fine-looking
woman painted in later life. "Madam Riedesel" was never
sentimental, although she was sometimes naïve and believed tall tales
about North America. She was cheerful and optimistic, making
many a grim situation bearable for her serious and rather solemn
husband. She spoke of herself as "frolicsome."



                        The Baroness                        5

It would be reasonable to suppose that in eighteenth-century
Germany the marriage of a wellborn young lady would be arranged
for her; and at least officially, Frederika's marriage was a
model of proper procedure. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, with
the approval of his brother Charles I, the reigning Duke (and
with the consent of the would-be bridegroom's father), approached
Commissary General von Massow on behalf of Baron Friedrich
Adolphus von Riedesel, who wanted to marry the commissary
general's second daughter. Riedesel was Duke Ferdinand's favorite
aide-de-camp, and this request had the force of a command which
von Massow was delighted to obey. Of course there was no record
of the future bride's being consulted. But Fritschen's marriage
was a love match just the same.

Friedrich Adolphus was twenty-one and already a captain of
cavalry when he first met the entrancing Frederika. He was a
hard-working, conscientious young man among a group of gay
young blades who frequented the von Massow house, which was
never far from the seat of war. Minden, an ancient town on the
banks of the Weser, was the von Massow home when Fritschen
met her cavalry captain. Built upon a hill with city walls and
winding streets, it was only four and a half miles from the field of the
battle where English and German military reputations were lost
and won in 1759, during the Seven Years' War. George Sackville,
the future Lord George Germain, was the coward of Minden
too drunk to advance his troops, as his court-martial appears to
show. Major General William Phillips, a captain at Minden,
was one of the heroes, if breaking four canes over the backs of
his artillery horses be proof of courage. He received a "gratuity"
of one thousand pounds. Captain Edward Foy was another on
the scene. He "commanded 4 twelve-pounders, 3 six-pounders
and 2 howitzers," collecting "a special commendation from Duke
Ferdinand" (known as the hero of Minden) and a "gratuity of
30 crowns." Years later Frederika von Massow as Baroness would
remember having met Foy before, so perhaps his field was also



6                The Baroness and the General

the von Massow drawing room. And Riedesel, an ensign when
the action began, was made captain on being sent to announce
the victory to the Landgrave of Hesse. The French and Austrians
being driven out, the von Massows took a house in Minden, where
Fritschen met many officers, heroes and otherwise, some of whom
she would meet again during the American Revolution.

Riedesel saw all he could of Fritschen and he was always a
welcome guest at her father's house. She must have been about
thirteen when she decided that just one, out of the many young
officers she knew, pleased her thoroughly. "Frederika is much
prejudiced against me and treats me like a coach-horse," one of
Riedesel's friends complained to him. "She has confessed to
Madame H that she loves you most tenderly. I congratulate
you from the bottom of my heart and hope that an early peace
will aid you in attaining the possession of so many charms."

Although Frederika had fallen in love at an early age there
was no early peace. In 1761, her captain of cavalry had time to
become even more of a hero in her eyes. Sent to command some
hussars defending a bridge on the Weser, Riedesel was so successful
that the Due de Broglie, commanding for the French, ordered
an aide to go and see why the bridge was not taken. The aide
saw a young officer in brilliant uniform, mounted on a fine horse,
directing the defense. Jumping from his own horse, Broglie's aide
took over one of the small cannon, aimed and feed it himself.
When the smoke cleared, the defending rider and his horse were
down. The attackers cheered. Then they saw a man in mud spattered,
smoke-blackened uniform struggle out from under the
dead horse, get himself another horse and mount again, a tempting
target at the head of the defenders of the bridge. Whether target
practice continued or whether chivalry prevailed is not clear, but
in any case a messenger under a flag of trace arrived at the German
camp that evening leading a horse "richly caparisoned" as a
gift for the "brave officer." Only then did Captain Riedesel
discover that the marksman on the other side of the bridge had



                        The Baroness                         7

been his own brother, enlisted under the French. It was very
much the custom for an officer to take service under any
command that paid well and offered a chance for advancement.
Young officers were like modem professional athletes, pleased by
the compliment of being traded to a winning team.

It was understandable, none the less, that Baron Johann Wilhelm
von Riedesel wanted only one son in military service. He
had decided on the law for Friedrich. The boy was tutored by a
clergyman in Frischborn, near the ancestral castle at Lauterbach,
and then packed off to Marburg to study at the university.
Apparently the only thing in mediaeval Marburg that appealed to
young Riedesel was the castle, with its parade ground where a
Hessian infantry battalion drilled daily. He soon struck up a
friendship with the officers, but there was no use in his thinking
about an army career when his father had chosen otherwise. A
Hessian major offered to write to the Baron, however, and in due
course announced that he had received permission for Friedrich
to enter the battalion as "vice ensign" The boy wrote home
joyfully to thank his father, only to learn that no letter had ever
been received from the major and no permission granted. "Since
you, as a nobleman, have taken the oath, you must get along the
best you can without help from me," Fredrich's father decreed
and this was disaster indeed. Without an allowance from home,
the boy, "aged about fourteen" could hardly pay for the
relatively small amount of gold braid on a vice ensign's coat. Young
Riedesel determined to work hard and rise in rank. He did; and
eventually his father forgave him.3

Born June 3, 1738, Friedrich von Riedesel was about eighteen
when he first went to England with a German regiment in the
service of George II. He spoke French with a strong German
accent as evidenced by his phonetic spelling. His written French
emerged with German sentence structure; but French was the
language of diplomacy, and he wrote it to the best of his ability in



8                The Baroness and the General

most of his letters. English was an entirely new language to him.
Thirty years later and after considerable further experience,
Riedesel was forced to confess: "I am obliged to write in French
as I cannot compose two lines in English. I can, however, read
English and thoroughly understand it."

At the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Riedesel with his
Hessian regiment was ordered back to Germany. It was the
ambition of most young officers to join the staff or "family" of a
prominent general, so Riedesel felt fortunate now on being
appointed to the staff of Duke Ferdinand, while still serving
officially as captain under the Landgrave of Hesse.

Duke Ferdinand's star was rising, and, after Minden, Riedesel
withdrew from Hessian service, where he felt he was not getting
ahead, to enter the service of the Duke of Brunswick.
Unquestionably, Riedesel had both charm and tact. Soon the reigning
Duke, Charles I of Brunswick, was signing letters to him
"Affectionately". Riedesel also became the friend of Prince Charles
William later Charles II of Brunswick who married a sister of
George III of England. But it was Duke Ferdinand, his own general
and the victor at Minden, whom Riedesel really loved; and it
was Duke Ferdinand who gave Riedesel the military wedding at
the little town of Neuhaus, near his headquarters at Wolfenbüttel.

Of course Tischbein was painting Friedrich now as a bridegroom.
Round of face, with earnest eyes and plump pink cheeks,
there stood Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel on the artist's dais.
Tischbein was going to need a lot of crimson and gold paint
Riedesel's hair was powdered white, gold braid covered him from
shoulder to ample waistline which was wrapped in a scarlet sash.
Red also were his pantaloons, although what could be seen of his
coat was blue, and sky-blue was the cape slung over his shoulder.
Ornamenting the cape was still more gold braid with a border of
white fur.

The groom's uniform probably outshone the bride's dress when



                        The Baroness                         9

December 2 came at last. But Frederika's vivid blue eyes and her
look of happiness upon her wedding day would be a match for
anything a military tailor could devise.

Carriages full of petty nobility from Brunswick, seven miles
away, filled the streets of Neuhaus and Wolfenbüttel. Towns-
people and country people gathered to see the sight, and it is
reasonable to suppose that the populace were not forgotten when
good things to eat and drink were passed around. After all, of
what use is a general, or a lieutenant colonel for that matter,
without recruits? Many men had to be forced into the armies of
some German hereditary princes, but Brunswickers had a reputation
for willing service. They felt genuine affection for their
leaders, which was reciprocated.

There was dancing in the streets and dancing in the houses of
the landed gentry. No Brunswick regiment ever set out on a
campaign without musicians; and when they were in garrison, as now,
there was music everywhere. As the good beer flowed from casks
set up in street and courtyard, there was singing: new songs
composed in honor of the bride and groom; old songs sung from time
immemorial.

Then suddenly the festivities were over. Frederika could be
called the Baroness von Riedesel, but her husband must remain
in service in Wolfenbüttel while she went home to her parents.
After every summer's campaign, however, young Riedesel could
usually depend upon returning to Wolfenbüttel, and eventually
he bought a home there. But meanwhile Fritschen discovered that
being a married daughter living with her parents was not much
fun. On the grounds that she needed experience, she was given a
great deal of work to do, with servants to help her of course,
in her father's large and complicated household. She ordered
provisions, kept accounts, managed servants. But her mother was
fond of authority, delegating only responsibility and meting out
praise in small measure. There were other daughters in the family
who now had first priority when it came to entertaining guests.



10                The Baroness and the General

They must marry at their social level if possible, for if they
stepped above it this would cost their father extra money for a
dowry. Frederika had already done just this. But that the other
girls should marry beneath their station was also unthinkable, and
eligible young army officers continued to be cordially received.
Frederika loved her husband, but she had always been the popular
one at home and now she must remember to sit with the dowagers
after dinner and let her sisters play the harpsichord or sing the
Italian arias which all the girls had learned to do so well.

Three years went by. Fritschen had at least a temporary home
of her own in Berlin by the time her first child was born
January 6, 1766. To her great joy, it was a son. Giving him all
the names an eldest son could possibly need to gain favor
throughout life, the boy's parents began with the ruling house of
Brunswick and ended with family friends. The child was called
Christian Charles Louis Ferdinand Henry William Herman Valentine.
He lived to the enchanting age of thirteen months and died
February 2, 1767. The happy-hearted young Baroness learned the
meaning of grief in her twenty-second year.

Frederika waited a long four years for her second child, a girl
this time, whom they named Philippina. She was born on March
29, 1770, and died on that same fatal date of February 2, in the
year 1771. Frederika had been brought up as a strict Lutheran and
believed that the death of her children was the will of God, fore-
ordained before the world began. But resignation does not put an
end to sorrow.

At the time of her first little girl's death, Frederika was
expecting another child. Augusta, they named her. She was born
August 3, 1771, and this time it was the will of God that she
would live to maturity. The next child, born May 12, 1774, also
a girl, was named for her mother; she too survived infancy to
face still further hazards in a strange land. Each girl in due course
became a Countess.



                        The Baroness                         11

If the Baroness's passionate desire for a son was not quite in
keeping with her fatalistic belief, this was perfectly understandable.
Most of her husband's property was entailed and could not
be inherited by a woman. The castle at Lauterbach, other real
estate and buildings, much income, all family silver and jewels,
must go to a brother or a nephew of her husband's unless von
Riedesel had a male heir. With succeeding pregnancies, Frederika
prayed earnestly for a boy, felt certain her prayers would be
answered and then loved the baby girl with all her heart.

In the year 1776, the Riedesels were at last living in a home
of their own in Wolfenbüttel. They loved the place, even though
they took for granted its many half-timbered houses, winding
streets, and the ducal castle rising grim and authoritative in the
Schlossplatz. Stone walls, with ramparts and gates of oak and iron
protected the town, while the River Oker, like a moat, flowed out-
side the walls. As long as cannon remained a clumsy invention, as
long as primitive gunpowder proved an inefficient means of
destruction, Wolfenbüttel would be a fortress a safe place to look
upon as home.

A state of peace is the most desirable of situations in this world.
But to a man like Riedesel, now almost thirty-eight years old and
a colonel of carabineers, peace presented nothing but problems.
No one permanently in charge of the garrison at Wolfenbüttel
could hope to rise in rank. Family estates, however large, could
never produce enough income to satisfy the needs of all the sons in
the family and of course there was no gainful occupation, such
as gunsmithing or innkeeping, that a member of the aristocracy
could consider. But no one ever looked askance at the sharing-out
of booty among officers, according to rank, at the end of a
successful campaign: what Riedesel needed was a good, active, not too
long or dangerous war where he could be on the winning side.

How fortunate, then, that George III should be having a little
trouble with a few rebellious subjects in his provinces of North



12                The Baroness and the General

America! Prosperous Hanover, Brunswick's neighbor to the north-
ward, belonged to the King of England personally, and so he
sent five battalions of his Hanoverians to Gibraltar and to
Minorca, calling home the British garrisons at those posts. In
the early autumn of 1775 he negotiated with Russia for twenty
thousand men, but the deal fell through. Colonel William Fawcitt,
British commissioner, agreed to sound out a few German
princes about the price of troops for hire. Some of these absolute
rulers wanted money to pay for extravagant living in imitation of
the French court; others were actually interested in building back
an inheritance after the destruction of the Seven Years' War; but
whatever the reasons, they all wanted money, and Brunswick was
the first to come to terms with George III.

On January 9, 1776, Charles, Duke of Brunswick (brother and
overlord of Duke Ferdinand), promised His Britannic Majesty a
corps of 3936 infantrymen and 336 unmounted dragoons. The
men were to be equipped by the Duke, except that he was not
to supply horses. This was curious, because Brunswick was famous
for the raising of fine horses; but perhaps the Duke had hoped
to sell rather than to rent them, since the King of England seemed
ready to open his purse.

There were clauses in the agreement that would benefit rank
and file. George III was to pay and feed the German troops
exactly as his own men were paid and provisioned. They were to
have equal hospital care and, if unable to continue to serve
because of wounds, they were to be sent by Great Britain to some
port in Europe, on the Elbe or the Weser.

"Levy money" was to be paid, at the rate of seven pounds,
four shillings and four and a half pence for each recruit; and as
men dropped out, either killed or wounded, the Duke promised
to train new recruits for the same price, equip and send them in
to British service. But if a whole regiment, a battalion or a
company should be lost at sea on the voyage to America, or wiped



                        The Baroness                         13

out in battle or by an uncommon epidemic of sickness, His Britannic
Majesty must bear all expense of new recruits and make good
in cash, the loss of the Duke's men. For every man killed, the
King of England would owe the Duke of Brunswick thirty thalers
(or about $22.50). For the maimed, the Duke would receive about
half that sum, but he must replace at his own expense those who
died of sickness or who deserted.

From the day the treaty was signed, the King of England agreed
to pay an annual subsidy of 11,517 pounds, 17 shillings, 1½ pence.
Double that amount would be due each year for the next two
years after the Duke's men had come home again.4 This sounds
like a stiff bargain, but the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel got more
than twice as much per man. Hesse-Hanau, also, stood out for
more money. These two principalities between them sent 8145
men, as against Brunswick's final total of 5723. It is not surprising,
then, that in America all of King George's German troops were
called "Hessians," no matter where they came from. Riedesel's
Brunswickers resented this.

As far as the Baron Riedesel was concerned, one clause of the
treaty interested him more than the others. Duke Charles was to
nominate the officers to serve under a British high command, and
it was written into the agreement that these officers should be of
"high caliber" Who then would be sent? The Riedesels did not
have long to wait for the answer. On January 10, 1776, the day
after the treaty with Great Britain was signed, Colonel Riedesel
was appointed commander of the first contingent from Brunswick.

Madam the Baroness now announced that she was going to
America with her husband, and that she would take the children.
This is not as surprising as it might seem. After all, Commissary
von Massow had followed the Brunswick army taking his wife and
family with him and establishing them near the field of action, as
at Minden. Frederika was used to war, at least at a reasonably safe
distance.

This following of the troops was not just a German custom. In



14                The Baroness and the General

England, Lady Maria Carleton was preparing to join her husband
in Canada, and Lady Harriet Acland5 was going to America with
Major Acland, as were the wives of sundry other officers. Then
there were the generals that Madam Riedesel would call "rebels"
Washington, Greene, Gates, for example; they too would have
their wives with them from time to time, and young "Master St.
Clair" would be with his father at Ticonderoga, sent home when
the action began.

Perhaps it was Colonel Riedesel who reminded his wife that
since she was expecting their fifth child in March, a son ought to
be born in his fatherland. Probably Frederika burst into tears. She
admitted that she wept upon occasion but always recovered
rapidly. Very well, she would wait until her son was born, and
then bring the two girls and the baby to America as soon as she
was able to travel. Colonel Riedesel consented to this plan,
admiring his wife for her courage, yet not quite believing that she
would actually attempt such a journey.

On the sixteenth of February the Brunswick troops were ready
to march. They paraded in the courtyard of the ducal palace, and
in the streets of Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel, with regimental
flags flying, for all the world to watch and applaud. At their head
rode Colonel Riedesel in his most brilliant uniform, mounted on
his finest horse. There were 2282 men in this first contingent.

Walking behind the baggage wagons, as the troops left
Brunswick, were seventy-seven women "camp followers" They were not
harlots but wives of soldiers, because the chaplains were strict
and a woman was either sent packing or married to the man she
followed if her status was unclear. They carried pots and pans,
bedding and supplies and babies. They led children ("not
counted") by the hand, and they were entitled to one half a man's
ration, the children to a quarter. Of course only the fittest
survived, but these were amazingly tough and strong. They were



                        The Baroness                         15

women, not ladies, as Madam Riedesel would in due course make
clear.6

Out marched the Duke of Brunswick's troops and then back
they marched again. The boats which were to carry them down
the river to the sea had not arrived. A week went by before they
finally marched away.


              2
              
                  Mrs. General



The Baroness Riedesel received the first letters from her
husband headed "Liefert, February 22, 1776." "Dearest Wife" he
began: "Never have I suffered more than when I left you this
morning. My heart was broken. If I could have gone back, who
knows what I would have done! But, my darling, God has placed
me in my present calling and I must follow it."

Riedesel asked anxiously about the health of his wife, whose
"approaching confinement" caused him great anxiety. And she
must "guard most preciously the two little girls," for he loved
them fondly. But he had saved some good news for the end of his
letter. On leaving the city of Brunswick he had been given sealed
orders which he had now opened and read. "I have this evening
been raised to the rank of major general. Therefore, my own Mrs.
General, take good care of your health so that you can follow me
as soon as possible after a happy delivery."

It was pleasant to be a Baroness. Frederika frankly enjoyed the
rights and privileges to which her birth and marriage entitled her.
She believed in the divine right of Kings and Queens, Dukes and
Duchesses, on down the line. Military rank was another matter.
Her husband had earned his promotion himself, and she could
not help feeling especially pleased to be called "Mrs. General."

16



                       Mrs. General                    17

Riedesel was marching northward across country toward the
Elbe with four regiments of infantry, a battalion of grenadiers and
a battalion of jaegers (riflemen).1 They covered thirty miles a day
and at night various towns and villages had the doubtful pleasure
of receiving about forty-three hundred uninvited guests. Riedesel
was anxious to acquit himself well in this new command and he
remembered that deserters would not be paid for. Much was to be
written about the passage of troops across the various small
German principalities at this time. Johann Gottfried Seume, a
theological student at Leipzig, would tell of false arrest, of being
recruited by force and shipped to North America after imprisonment
for attempted escape. But this was done by the Landgrave
of Cassel, "the great broker of men" as he put it, and Seume did
not reach America until the war was almost over.2 General
Riedesel was able to report to Duke Ferdinand on February 24,
1776: "Our march has progressed better than I expected. We have
not had a single desertion ..."

Twelve days later, the Brunswick troops were at Stade, quartered
on the town and in the surrounding villages, and Colonel Fawcitt,
King George's commissioner, began his inspection. He was pleased
with the dragoons, Riedesel said. But Fawcitt complained that the
men in the battalion of grenadiers were not tall enough and that
some of them were too old. General Riedesel was able to talk the
King's representative out of these objections. The reviewing of
regiments continued with questions raised and answered until
March 12, when "ships arrival to the number of seven". Colonel
Fawcitt said that he had never seen an embarkation of troops that
was so quiet and orderly: "Not a single man was drunk!"

Six more ships arrived at Stade to accommodate the Brunswick
troops, and five days went by, full of intense activity. Horses
belonging to the officers were lifted in slings and set down on the
deck of the last riverboat a procedure most of them took exception
to. But "the same order prevailed" There had been no angry
complaints from villagers on the march, nor in the area of Stade.



18                The Baroness and the General

"Everyone was joyful and in good spirits" Riedesel wrote. And
once more he could report "no desertions." Fawcitt had insisted
upon counting the Brunswick troops twice, which was not according
to contract. Riedesel was annoyed but allowed it, "because my
conscience is clear," he said.

The official account sent to Duke Ferdinand sounded calm and
almost casual, just as the newly-made General meant it to be.
Only to his own Mrs. General did he confide that he had been
unable to sleep, night after night. He was a good executive officer,
attentive to every detail, but he was a perfectionist and he
suffered agonies lest the least thing go wrong.

"I hope you will soon be in marching trim," he wrote to his
wife, realizing how much he needed her cheerful, optimistic
presence.

Mrs. General could hardly wait for the son she so confidently
expected. But the baby took its own good time, and when it came
it was a girl. It was hard for her to write the letter announcing this
disappointment. There was still no future heir to the castle at
Lauterbach. But the baby's mother felt that there could hardly
be a sweeter little girl than her Caroline. If only her husband
would not feel too badly! Duke Ferdinand sent the letter to
General Riedesel by special courier, for the troops were just about
to sail for England. And back by courier came the answer. "Come
to Portsmouth as soon as your health and that of our newly born
little daughter Caroline will permit.... Be not impatient
Embrace our dear, dear children for me. The ship awaits me.
Love me always. Take care of your precious health and be assured
I am wholly yours"

The ship Pallas did not leave Stade at once, however, because
of contrary winds. And when the vessel finally got under way
there were many miles of river sailing ahead of the Pallas before
she could reach the North Sea. General Riedesel described his



                       Mrs. General                    19

routine aboard ship to amuse and reassure his wife. "I rise about
seven in the morning after having said my prayers in bed. We
dress ourselves quickly and breakfast after the English fashion
upon tea and bread and butter. Then I go on deck and smoke my
pipe. After that I write, read, drink my coffee, walk up and down
the deck with both Englishmen and, with one or two more pipes,
pass the time until two o'clock, when we have dinner." One of
the two Englishmen mentioned was Captain Edmonston, appointed
as English-speaking adjutant to Riedesel and soon to become
his devoted friend. The other was Captain Edward Foy, a
British artillery officer, now appointed commissary to the German
troops in Canada. "You will remember Captain Foy from
Minden," General Riedesel reminded the Baroness. Madam Riedesel
was to hear more of him and eventually she would wish that
she had never met his wife, the former Hannah Van Home of
New York.

Dinner was the high point of the day on board ship. "We have
nine people at table, have three courses and eat for nearly an
hour," Riedesel wrote. When the cloth was cleared away they
spent "half or three quarters of an hour drinking healths." First
came that of the King His Majesty George III of England;
"second, the Duke; third, yours and the children's; fourth Captain
Foy's wife; fifth a good sea voyage; and sixth a successful
campaign in America. At four o'clock dinner is over. We consume
four bottles of wine a day along with half a bottle of arrack [a
liqueur from the East Indies] for punch. Afterwards I drink coffee
with the Englishmen."

At the time of writing the fleet was still becalmed in the Elbe,
so Riedesel spoke of visiting other vessels "after coffee." In the
evening he played a rubber of whist and "at half past eight cold
meat is brought on also wine for anyone that wants it, and beer,
and at ten o'clock all of us go to bed."

This was how things went, day after day, the General assured
his wife. Now that the responsibility of marching the troops over-



20                The Baroness and the General

land was ended, he was sleeping well and enjoying life. All that
was lacking was Mrs. General to keep him company, and he was
confident she would soon set out. Couriers galloping across
country still carried letters to Brunswick and returned with
packets for the General from the reigning Duke Charles, from
Duke Ferdinand and from the Baroness. But on the twenty-
second of March, "Here we are upon the open sea," the General
wrote. "The pilots are leaving and I will give them my last letter
from the outermost border of Germany. Fear nothing. We are all
very well and I hope we shall make the entire passage to Spithead
safely and, once accustomed to open ocean, reach America in
perfect health."

General Riedesel proved to be a remarkably good sailor, but
his account of the North Sea crossing, written to amuse his wife,
was pathetic as well as funny. For a man accustomed to a great
deal of personal service, he was a good sport and it would seem
that he was also a good cook. His account was headed Dover,
March 26, 1776.

"Sunday morning we had had a heavy fog, then the sea grew
rough. Two guns were fired from our ship to indicate our course.
The fog lifted, the wind and waves rose although there was
actually no storm. Now everyone was seasick. The cook could not
cook. Müller could not dress me. Valentine could find nothing.
To sum up, great lamentations and great blundering on all sides.
I was starved but had nothing to eat Finally, Captain Foy and I
cooked a pea soup in the ship's galley and ate cold roast beef,
which made up our whole dinner. The sailors ate nothing at all.

"Monday, the weather was somewhat milder; some people felt
better, but the majority were still sick. Captain Foy and I made
bouillon, cooked a cod with anchovy sauce, a ragout of beef and
roast veal with potatoes.

"On Tuesday we had beautiful weather and more people recovered.
The soldiers cooked for themselves but the cook could
still do nothing. So Foy and I did the cooking again. We had rice



                       Mrs. General                    21

soup, yellow turnips with beef, codfish with anchovy sauce and a
ragout of lamb."

It is to be hoped that the officers entitled to sit at Riedesel's
table were sufficiently grateful to the commissary and the General
for being such accomplished chefs. They sighted land on Tuesday,
and on Wednesday they were "opposite Dover" with Captain
Foy going ashore, carrying letters.

This would seem to be General Riedesel's first sea voyage and
he was more than ever anxious about his wife, soon to be traveling
alone. "Remember, dearest Angel, everyone may be sick upon the
water," he told her. "You might have very little help from your
servants so you must choose the shortest route to England. I think
the best one will be by way of Calais."

On reaching Dover, Riedesel had expected to get news of the
progress of the war between England and her rebellious colonies.
He mentioned that the Pallas had been the ship to bring
General Gage back to England after a rather unfortunate affair
in Boston. People were saying that the Battle of Bunker Hill had
been "more bloody than Minden" but doubtless the rebels had
learned their lesson. Quebec had been under siege. Captain Foy
told Riedesel that "if Quebec is still ours and there is no American
army this side of Montreal" he was going to have his wife join
him, and General Carleton would do the same.

In view of his experience on the North Sea, General Riedesel
decided that the Baroness "must positively not leave England
before Lady Maria Carleton and Mrs. Foy. Then you can go with
them and travel more safely," he said. This was about the worst
advice he could have given, and he underestimated his "own Mrs.
General." But she would do her best to obey his orders.

The German transports left the vicinity of Dover on March 26
and arrived off Spithead three days later. Riedesel had himself
rowed ashore to call on British Commodore Sir Charles Douglas
(later Admiral) whose headquarters were in Portsmouth. For the
Atlantic crossing, transportation aboard a man-of-war had been



22                The Baroness and the General

promised to General Riedesel. After the usual civilities had
been exchanged, he asked Commodore Douglas the name of the
frigate assigned to him. But "other generals bound for America"
had reached Portsmouth first and just now all space was taken.
General John Burgoyne had the best cabin aboard the Blonde,
a frigate of thirty-six guns, whose name must have pleased
"Gentleman Johnny" noted for his taste in pretty women.

Also sailing on the Blonde was Major General William Phillips,
eventually to be appointed second in command to Burgoyne. A
captain when Riedesel had known him at Minden, Phillips had
an exalted opinion of his own importance, although he was major
general in America only. Later, and because of Madam Riedesel's
charm and tact, he would become a very good friend. But right
now it was evident that there was no room aboard the Blonde for
another high-ranking officer.

So back to the Pallas went the commander of the Brunswick
troops. Douglas was aware that a touchy situation could develop,
as indicated by the exertions he made in Riedesel's behalf. Thirty
carpenters were sent aboard the Pallas to tear out partitions and
build a large private cabin for the General and better quarters
for his aides. Meanwhile, Riedesel was given quarters on shore
with a guard of honor before his door. He dined on shore with
Sir Charles on the night after his arrival in Portsmouth and two
days later the commodore gave a dinner for him on board the
flagship when Riedesel was piped aboard.

Douglas gave a dinner for Burgoyne also, aboard the flagship, to
which Riedesel was invited. He entertained all the frigate
captains and they reciprocated with breakfasts and dinners. For seven
days there was a continual round of festivities; then on April 4,
1776, at eleven o'clock in the morning, the fleet sailed. They had
a prosperous voyage of only forty-four days before land was
sighted.

For the Baroness, there was no such smooth sailing, but she
organized her own affairs with efficiency. First of all came the



                       Mrs. General                    23

matter of her mother. Madam von Massow was determined that
no daughter of hers was going to the dreadful wilds of North
America, even after the expected grandchild was born. Madam
von Massow was coming to Wolfenbüttel herself to take charge of
everything. "It is the duty of a wife to leave all and follow her
husband" Frederika wrote, knowing there was no answer to this
argument. The threat of an impending visit was a little harder to
handle. "In spite of the happiness of seeing you at my house ..."
Frederika was definitely not inviting her mother to come, because
"the parting afterwards" would be "too hard to bear." Mrs.
General proved to be a good strategist but nearly a month went by
before she could write, "How rejoiced I am that you begin to be
more reconciled to my journey."

Friends at Wolfenbüttel and at the Court in Brunswick proved
almost as much of a problem. They told the Baroness Riedesel
that North American Indians were all cannibals and that she
and the children would be eaten alive. It was also a well-known
fact, they assured her, that the English in North America ate
horsemeat and likewise cats. The Baroness believed these tales,
as she afterwards admitted. But she said the stories frightened her
less than the thought of going into a country where she could
not speak the language. She knew she had a faculty for making
friends but how do you persuade a cannibal not to eat you when
he can't understand a word you say? And how do you say "No
thank you, no roast cat," in English? Madam Riedesel spoke only
French and German.

As soon as Mrs. General received her husband's orders to go
by way of Calais and Dover, she began to plan her route. She was
a little disappointed not to see the Elbe because her husband had
described "beautiful villages" on the banks of the river and castles
on nearby hills. But maps were brought out and the Post Road
through Brussels chosen. Post-horses would be used, but the
Baroness would travel in her own carriage.



24                The Baroness and the General

Mrs. General had a carriage built to her specifications. It was
high off the ground, with big wheels because there would be
deeply rutted roads, and it had steps to let down so that she could
climb in. Since there was sure to be bad weather, the carriage
was covered with oilcloth with gay designs painted on it. There
was a high seat in front for the coachman and another at the back
for the footman, with a musket strapped firmly under each seat.
Luggage was also carried outside. Within, there was room for
Madam Riedesel, her two women servants and the children.
Augusta had reached the advanced age of four years and nine
months, while Frederika was two. Their mother carried and
nursed the baby Caroline, who was ten weeks old.3

"Rockel" was the coachman's name. He had served under
General Riedesel as a chasseur, or light infantryman, but had been
retired for some years. The word chasseur ("huntsman") came
from the days when huntsmen or jaegers were the most trusted
servants on a lord's domain. They supplied venison for the
table, showed no mercy to poachers, and would protect their
master and his family with their lives if necessary, Rockel was
at this time a huntsman for Madam Riedesel's father, but
he "dropped everything to go with her" the Baroness said. He
was utterly devoted to his lady and her children, and for the next
eight years he served as a sort of non-commissioned officer with
footmen and postilions under him in Mrs. General's little army.

"Get all the letters of introduction you can, especially to people
in England," General Riedesel had advised his wife. So she
collected all sorts of documents, and her friends were anxious to help
her since it was clear that their horrible tales of America were
not going to keep her at home.

Then there was the matter of clothes. A French general might
lose a battle at Minden, but French dressmakers ruled the fashion
world at the court of the Duke of Brunswick. The Baroness
ordered a new-style material called "chintz" (from the Hindu word
for "spotted" or patterned India cotton) and she had pretty,



                       Mrs. General                    25

full-skirted dresses, decidedly low at the neck, made for herself and
her girls. This was the style favored by the young queen, Marie
Antoinette, the dressmaker said. The children's hats were round
and flat, their petticoats were many. Madam the Baroness was
extremely style-conscious, and she never worried about how raffles
would be washed and ironed in the North American wilderness
among the cannibals.

The date of departure had been set for the thirteenth of May,
and on the fourteenth at five in the morning Mrs. General's
carriage rumbled over the cobblestones of Wolfenbüttel and out
the city gate. She would never meet a general who came so close
to setting out on time.

Capacious pockets inside the carriage were stuffed with
provisions, but at noon they stopped to change the post-horses and
Madam the Baroness ordered some beer soup.4 This was a hearty
snack much appreciated in Germany, and at this inn it was
probably good, because Mrs. General made no complaint But when
the innkeeper charged her ten grochen, or about thirty cents, she
complained bitterly. The man told her she would have to pay six
times. as much farther down the road, and the Baroness replied
with spirit that he was being uncivil. If she didn't like it she
should have stayed at home, he said; and suddenly, army child
though she had been, the Baroness realized that she had lived a
sheltered life. She had always been surrounded by officers under
her father's command or aides of her husband's or servants to do
her bidding. Now she was on her own. She would have to overlook
rudeness, and she did so. 6

At the next post, where the horses were changed, the Baroness
heard news that made a little incivility seem a mere trifle. There
were highway robbers on the road ahead. "One hundred and thirty
had been executed during the last fortnight, most of them by
hanging." This would seem like mass execution, but Madam
Riedesel was told that three times as many more "were still at
large." "This news threw me into a great fright," she admitted.



26                The Baroness and the General

She had money which her husband had left for her, and she
planned "to live very frugally" to make it last. She also had a
little store of personal jewels. They were not really important
compared to the pearls and diamonds unscrupulous ladies were
constantly collecting from grateful princes, but they were pretty
trinkets of sentimental value. Mrs. General was prepared to sell
them if necessary, but she would keep them for her daughters if
she could and she was certainly not going to have them or her
money stolen. She ordered Rockel to whip up the horses and
have his musket ready.

The horses supplied at the last post were worn out and
incapable of that "post-haste" travel the Baroness had a right to
expect. Twilight came just as the road entered a forest. In Mrs.
General's own words, "Suddenly, some object hanging in the air
struck me through the open window of my carriage. I seized it
and felt something hard and rough. It was the body of a hanged
man." She had "seized" the leg, which had a woollen stocking on it.

On they drove, and within a few minutes came to a sinister-
looking house standing alone in the forest. The postilions the
posthouse had supplied were so frightened that they refused to go
a step farther and a man "of a suspicious appearance" came out
who said he would put up the Baroness and her party for the
night. He led Madam Riedesel with the children and her maid-
servants "into a remote room with only one bed." The room was
deathly cold and the man agreed to have a fire built in the fire-
place, but he had no food to offer except tea and black bread.

Before long the "faithful Rockel" came to Madam's door with
"a very anxious face, and said, 'Things are not right in this place;
there is a room full of guns.' "He thought they had picked the
headquarters of a robber band in which to spend the night but that
the robbers themselves were out marauding. " I shall sit at the
door of your room all night with my gun in my hand,' "Rockel
promised. He would "sell his life dear." The other manservant he
had posted in the carriage with the other gun.



                       Mrs. General                    27

Mrs. General put her little children to bed, praised the older
servingwoman for keeping calm and scolded the younger one for
shedding tears. If the children cried, their mother never
mentioned it. They had been told to remember that their father was
a general and that therefore they must be brave. Their mother
sat on a stool and leaned her head against the bed, and to her
surprise she finally slept. At four in the morning came a knock
on the door. It was Rockel, to say that the horses were harnessed,
the postilions ready to start.

"I put my head out of the window," said the Baroness, "and
saw in the wood where we were a great number of nightingales,
who, by their sweet singing, made me forget all my fears."



              3
              

                  They Point the Finger


Mrs. General described the rest of her European journey as
"very prosperous" She passed through Brussels, Tournai
and St. Omer, in what is now Belgium. In 1776, Brussels belonged
to Austria, Tournai to the Netherlands and St. Omer to France.
Passports and visas were not a part of the Baroness Riedesel's
problems, but her letters of introduction proved important, for at
every city gate guards wanted to know who she was and where
she was going with those three little children in that canvas-
covered carriage.

There was time for sight-seeing, but Mrs. General paid little or
no attention to city walls and battlements or cathedrals, no matter
how many centuries old. She had never seen a city entirely without
walls and, as a loyal Lutheran, she could not approve of
eleventh-century basilicas or medieval Gothic vaulting. She did,
however, "visit a mountain" all of 485 feet high. From the summit,
she could see "thirty-two towns exclusive of hamlets."

On the first day of June, in 1776, the British convoy and the
transports of German troops reached Quebec. On that same day,
Mrs. General was in Calais, preparing for her first sea voyage
across the English Channel. The weather was stormy. She put up

28




                They Point the Finger                       29

at a well-recommended inn "and immediately sent for a ship's
captain" Friends had advised her to hire "a packet boat," and a
captain presented himself whom she liked and whose terms were
favorable.

But the innkeeper was not a man to be trusted and Mrs. General
took too much of his advice. First of all, he told her to leave
her carriage "in his care" If she took it aboard the boat she would
have to pay a high duty on it in Dover. This was an argument
which won over the thrifty Baroness, much as she hated to part
with the coach, which had been home to her and the children for
a month and a half. Probably she thought she would be coming
back through Calais before long. But there was the matter of
packing up all the belongings that had been so neatly stowed
inside. Boxes had to be acquired, and cord, and Madam Riedesel
and her maids worked feverishly. When all was packed and stowed
aboard the packet freight charges came to an alarming sum.

The innkeeper had a second suggestion. "He advised me to take
with us a trusty man for our protection, without whom I would
run great risk. He therefore pretended to take great pains to find
me such a one and at length brought me an extremely well-dressed
man, whom he introduced to me as a nobleman and a very good
friend of his" The English nobleman said he would with great
pleasure accompany the Baroness Riedesel to London. He had
elegant manners and somehow he made it seem quite natural that
the Baroness should pay his expenses, since he was temporarily
out of funds. Frederika was now "escorted" by a confidence man.

Now winds were contrary, Boxes had been packed in great haste
and taken to the ship, but for two days there was nothing to do
but stay at the inn and wait for the wind to change. It was nerve-
racking, because the Baroness was afraid of the water and so were
the children. "In order to increase their courage" their mother
told them that they would see their father as soon as the voyage
was over. She neglected to say -which voyage, and so there was
trouble later, as she knew there would be.



30                The Baroness and the General

At last both wind and tide were right. The Baroness rode down
to the quay with the servants following on foot. Caroline, now
three months old, was in her mother's arms, but when they got to
the water the two little girls scrambled out of the carriage, a
sailor picked them up, "and when I looked around me for the
children ... to my great surprise they were already on board the
boat, playing with the crew!" Frederika had been "pretending to
be courageous to dispel their fears," but now she was terrified. "I
had the little one also lifted on board, and now, my heart having
a magnet, I found it not so hard as I had imagined," she said. "A
plank was thrown across from the shore to the ship over which
I walked with firm steps."

"The ship was handsome and clean, which at once relieved me
of all fear," the Baroness commented. Cleanliness came next to
godliness with her always, stormy seas and treacherous reefs a far
lesser evil than dirt. "I had a love of a cabin in which there were
eight beds. All the furniture was mahogany and brass, polished
like a mirror." Mrs. General had been told that she and the
children must lie down at once. "But there was no air in the
cabin," so they came on deck "and ate and drank with excellent
appetite." This time, Frederika followed her own instincts instead
of taking advice and she did exactly the right thing. She and the
children proved to be good sailors, and "although the wind was
pretty strong" they had the time of their lives.

Members of the crew played with the children. "Husband, your
arm," said little Frederika, to one of the sailors, and he solemnly
escorted her up and down the deck. One "large, brown-complexioned
fellow" picked up the baby Caroline and "it was droll
to see him carrying her about and taking care of her while she
laughed up at him."

The gay voyage was over all too soon. The captain said he had
rarely had so favorable a crossing it took only five hours. But
next came retribution for the children's mother. The children
"were now determined to have their father, which troubled me



                   They Point the Finger             31

greatly" she confessed. "I beguiled them by saying that we must
embark once more but they teased me continually."

At Dover there was a crowd of men sent to solicit customers
for various inns. Mrs. General chose a French inn, which proved
"magnificent" with "everything about it remarkably clean" Then
came the customs man to search the baggage "which is very
troublesome, but I had letters addressed to him," she said. "As.
soon as he heard that I was following my husband to America he
was very gallant and said that it would be cruel to worry the wife
of a general who had gone to America in the King's service."

The Baroness said not a word about her "titled" English
escort while they were on board the packet ship, and it is to be
hoped that he was seasick for his sins. The baggage which the
customs had just cleared contained all sorts of goods belonging to
the Calais innkeeper and to this confidence man. Madam Riedesel
had just unwittingly become the accomplice of smugglers.

This adventurer now took seats for himself and Madam
Riedesel's party in the stagecoach for London and then handed
her a bill for luggage carried on the coach top, much of it his
own, and "charged for by the pound." The Baroness made her
children sit on narrow seats, their backs to the horses, so that the
English gentleman would have a comfortable seat for himself in
the coach. At stopovers for meals, he ate with her at table, "giving
himself the airs of a man of consequence." But she noticed that
the servants at the inns along the road acted rather as if they
were old cronies of his. At times it almost seemed as if they shared
a private joke with the English "milord."

In London, the Baroness went to an inn which friends back in
Brunswick had recommended. She had been told that it was
delightful, so she was surprised when the landlord showed her "a
very wretched apartment on the fourth floor," up under the roof,
but she assumed that the inn was full and that she would have
better rooms later. She told the landlord to look after her gentle-



32                The Baroness and the General

man escort, although now that the traveling was over she did not
wish him to share her meals. Then she sent messengers with
letters to friends living in London.

Next day the calls of ceremony began. "General Schieffen, three
ladies to whom the Duchess of Brunswick had written, and many
others, arrived. They were surprised to find me in such miserable
quarters" the Baroness said, and before long the innkeeper came
to her. Who was the man she had brought with her from Calais?
he wanted to know.

"A nobleman" the Baroness explained, and told how the landlord
at Calais had arranged that this English gentleman "would
be so courteous as to escort" her on her "journey."

"This is another of his tricks!" exclaimed the London innkeeper.
The so-called English gentleman was a former valet who
had been dismissed doubtless for good reason. He now lived by
his wits, imitating the manners of former masters with
considerable success. His reputation as a swindler was pretty well
known in London, however, so that the landlord, seeing a lady
ride up with him, had assumed that she was no better than she
should be. When this lady announced that she was the Baroness
von Riedesel, the landlord never believed a word of it. But when
callers of quality arrived, he began to have second thoughts.

The London innkeeper was now very much distressed. He gave
the Baroness "splendid rooms" for which he charged no more
than for the "wretched" ones and "entreated her forgiveness."
She asked him to get rid of the crook for her, but the confidence
man, not in the least abashed, demanded "five or six guineas for
his escort."

The Baroness next discovered that the Calais innkeeper had
persuaded her to leave her carriage behind so that he could rent
it out himself. She wrote directly to Lord North, Prime Minister
of England. Lord North ordered the carriage brought over duty
free and driven to London without cost to the Baroness. But it
all took time, and Frederika, who had supposed she would be in



                   They Point the Finger             33

London only two days, waited eight days for her carriage to come.
It worried her to be in an expensive hostelry in Suffolk Street
close to St. James's, Palace, so she sent for her bill. Sure enough,
it was high. Of course the innkeeper urged her to stay on, assuring
her that he knew her husband would pay. But she was determined
not to waste money. As soon as her carriage arrived, she would go
to the seaport town of Bristol and take ship from there to Canada.
It was what her husband advised, the Baroness said.

Meanwhile there was no harm in a little sight-seeing, and St.
James's Park was "a lovely place for walking." In Brunswick,
Germany, it was the custom to stroll about without hat or coat
in summer and it was now early June. But her English friends
warned the Baroness that such informality would not do in
London. She must "wear a cloak and hat." Obediently, she did so,
and set out, early one afternoon, with Madam von Hinüber, wife
of the Hanoverian Minister. Augusta, now almost five years old,
went along, "dressed in a little hooped skirt and a pretty round
hat."

They had not walked far before the Baroness saw that "people
pointed at us with the finger." It was a strange sensation. Soon
"almost everyone was doing it" and Frederika felt her face grow
hot. She asked Madam von Hinüber what the matter was and
the lady from Hanover explained one did not carry a fan while
wearing a hat. Hastily, the Baroness closed and tried to conceal
her fan in the folds of her skirt, but people continued to point
and she heard them say, "French woman. Pretty girl." (These
words she wrote down in English in the journal in which she
recorded, in German, the events of her journey.) There was
evidently still something wrong, and Madam von Hinüber thought
the little girl's hoopskirt might be too fancy and her mother's
dress "too formal." Madam von Hinüber realized that it was the
French fashion to wear low-cut dresses at almost any hour of the
day, but "the French were not very popular in London," she said
putting it mildly.



34                The Baroness and the General

Next day, when the Baroness and her children went walking in
St. James's Park, "we were all of us dressed throughout in the
English fashion" she said. "Now we thought we would not be
specially noticed." It was all the more embarrassing to hear the
same words, "'French woman. Pretty girl'" Her friends had
found an English manservant for her and she asked him what
people were staring at this time. He said it was because she "had
put ribbons on" her children. She "tore them off' and put them
in her pocket, Augusta and Frederika apparently making no
protest. But their mother was almost ready to cry. It seemed also
"that the children's hats were differently shaped" from the hats
the English children wore. "I learned from this," she said, "the
necessity of conforming to the fashions of the country if one
would live pleasantly, for a mob is soon collected and if you
engage in an argument, you may be insulted." This last the Baroness
wrote long afterward, perhaps for the information of her fellow
countrywomen who might travel abroad. For the present, she
tried hard to "conform," only to remain conspicuous one way or
another.

Friends in London urged the Baroness to stay in the city
because it was headquarters for news and she would be sure to know
when the next convoy would sail for America, But Mrs. Foy, wife
of Captain Foy the commissary, was in Bristol, and General
Riedesel had designated her as his wife's traveling companion.
The Baroness accordingly wrote to Mrs. Foy, asking her to engage
lodgings in Bristol. Captain Foy's family were Bristol merchants
and his uncle, now an alderman, was formerly the mayor.1

Mrs. Foy herself, the former Hannah Van Home, was the
daughter of John Van Home, merchant, of New York and Kill's
Hall a manor on the Raritan River in New Jersey. Most of the
Van Homes were Tories, but there were "five well bred and
beautiful Van Home daughters who were the much admired
toasts of both armies." Some of these "bright-eyed girls who



                   They Point the Finger             35

welcomed friend and foe alike" were Hannah's sisters, and some
her cousins; for her uncle, Philip Van Home lived nearby at
"Phil's Hill" also known as "Convivial Hall." Hannah had
captured the heart of Captain Foy when he came to New York as
secretary to the Earl of Dunmore, British Governor of New York
Province. The bewitching Hannah married Captain Foy on July
26, 1772.2

Captain Foy sailed for England around 1775 with his wife and
a sister-in-law, and left them in Bristol with his uncle. He obtained
the job of commissary to the troops in America. He had been
exploiting the colonists under Lord Dunmore, and for a man of
his talents, the new post was sure to turn out well both for
himself and his relatives. To be sure, a few accidents happened.
General Riedesel, on opening packing-cases supposed to contain British
boots for Brunswick troops, found them full of ladies' slippers.
But Riedesel forgave the man who had proved such a good cook's
helper aboard the Pallas.

Mrs. General, as her strange-looking German carriage rumbled
into the outskirts of Bristol, dispatched a messenger to Mrs. Foy's
uncle-in-law, "the Mayor of the City."3 According to the records
he was mayor no longer, but she thought he was, and she took
it for granted that he would direct her personally to the lodgings
provided for her. In due course her carriage pulled up at the inn
on the city square. A crowd gathered. "They stared at the strange
appearance of my coach and at the two muskets fastened on
top," the Baroness said. "They raised the oilcloth cover of my
carriage to see how it was painted." This was too much for the
faithful Rockel, who had sworn to protect his Baroness with his
life. He spoke only a few words of English but he shouted at
the crowd telling them to get away and he "called them names."
They returned the compliment.

"Upon this," wrote the Baroness, "Rockel lost all control of
himself and knocked one of them down with a blow under the



36                The Baroness and the General

ear" The crowd swarmed in upon him. There was no telling
what might have happened except that "the Mayor of Bristol
arrived on the scene in the nick of time."

Order was restored, but Mrs. Foy had to be sent for before the
"mayor" could find out who the very pretty but somewhat
imperious German lady was and what she wanted. Mrs. Foy "could
converse a little in French." She got into Madam Riedesel's
carriage and they drove to "fine and spacious apartments." But the
Baroness Frederika stayed here only a short time, because the
landlady refused to allow her to have the children's clothes
washed and because the apartments were extremely expensive.
She went house-hunting for herself and found rooms from which
she "had a most delightful view." They "overlooked the whole
College Green, a promenade filled with trees in the midst of clean
grass and paths where men, women and children were in the
habit of walking." It was a place where her own children "ran and
played" on the grass among the flower beds and borders.

Bristol was a fine old city with half-timbered houses reminiscent
of Wolfenbüttel with Gothic churches, a cathedral and much
wealth derived in part from trade with America, But there was
another unhappy ordeal in store for the Baroness. She was
wearing one of the new dresses made for her back in Germany, a
"calico trimmed with green taffeta." Mrs. Foy had come for her
and they went out walking, when "more than a hundred sailors
gathered around us and pointed at me with their fingers, at the
same time crying out, Trench whore!' " Just barely managing to
keep from bursting into tears, the Baroness ran into a shop and
"pretended to examine the merchandise and, shortly after, the
crowd dispersed." When she got home, she cried bitterly and
gave away the dress.

The children asked constantly for the ship that was to take
them to their father, but no fleet bound for America was setting
out. The servants "lost heart" in this strange land where no one



                   They Point the Finger             37

spoke their language. Mrs. General did her best to appear cheerful
so as to encourage her little army, but in her journal she
confessed that "she wept for hours in secret in her lonely room" And
then she "took courage" The thing to do was to learn English.
In six weeks she could read the English newspapers and she could
order whatever she wanted to eat and ask for merchandise in the
shops.

Plenty of ships, though not in convoy, sailed out of Bristol.
Again and again the Baroness went to Mrs. Foy to see if there
wasn't one they could engage passage on. But Mrs. Foy said she
was waiting for letters from her husband.

Hannah Foy lived in "a pretty and well-furnished house where
she did a great deal of entertaining." At first, the Baroness
assumed that the parties, much frequented by ships' officers, were
for the sister, Miss Van Home. But gradually it became clear that
Mrs. Foy had no great desire to join her husband. "At last the
long-expected letter" from Captain Foy came to hand, and "upon
this, my impatience showed itself and also the irresolution of
Madam Foy," the Baroness wrote. "Finally I persuaded her to
consent to our departure."

Frederika had already written to Lord Germain and he had
"answered her very politely" But Mrs. General had asked for
orders and she did not get them. "It was indeed true that winter
was drawing near and that I must ... wish to embark, especially
since my husband had written for me. But since he had, at the
same time, imposed the condition that I must travel with Madam
Foy ..." Germain "did not know what advice to give." Lord
George was confidently directing a war against far-distant
colonials, but he left it to Mrs. General Riedesel to persuade Mrs. Foy
to go to America, promising "passage on a packet ship" if this
could be accomplished.

The Baroness finally got Mrs. Foy's reluctant consent. She
again wrote to Lord Germain, who replied that he "owned a
packet ship" about to sail from Portsmouth. The Baroness could



38                The Baroness and the General

have free passage and all provisions and Mrs. Foy "could share
with me if I so desired," Frederika said. Lord George ordered a
cow put on board so the Riedesel children could have milk.

"In proportion as the moment for our departure approached,
the more irresolute Madame Foy became" but they all set out
for Portsmouth. "Here Madam Foy and her sister found many
officers who were old acquaintances. They passed a very gay
evening." First Madam Riedesel put her children to bed and then she
went to join the company. She found the officers telling Mrs. Foy
and her sister that "it was a thousand pities that such pretty ladies
should expose themselves to such a risk" as taking passage to
America so late in the year. They said other things to the pretty
ladies which Frederika, "not being a sufficient mistress of the
English language" could not understand very well. But she
gathered that if Mrs. Foy and Miss Van Home should spend the
coming winter in England, they would not be lonely. Madam
Riedesel went back to her own room.

Sometime in the night, Mrs. Foy came to the Baroness and
announced that she was not going to sail. "I urgently besought
her not to decide so hastily," Frederika said, and Mrs. Foy
"returned to her company. At eight next morning, Mrs. Foy and her
sister appeared and informed me that we must start back. I wept,
but all in vain, for she well knew that my husband had laid it
upon me not to undertake the voyage without her." The baggage
had already been sent along the road to Bristol by Mrs. Foy's
orders. The carriage was at the door.

But on the road to Bristol, Mrs. General saw a wagon going
toward Portsmouth under armed escort. She had an English maid
by this time, who had agreed to go to America, and she asked
this girl why the cart was guarded. It was a money chest going
aboard the packet with gold and silver to pay the troops in
Canada, the girl said.

"If they risk so much money, it can't be too late to attempt
the voyage," Mrs. General exclaimed.



                   They Point the Finger             39

"Go ahead, then," said Hannah Foy, laughing.

"But you sent our baggage back to Bristol without telling me."

And to this, Mrs. Foy replied "in a bantering tone" that, since
Mrs. General was so brave, why shouldn't she go aboard ship
with the clothes she was wearing and just her hand luggage?

Madam Riedesel had been altogether too patient with Hannah
Foy. Now she lost her temper, and back to Bristol she went. She
sent Rockel to catch up with the baggage cart and bring back the
general's wine she had bought for him, the fresh limes they
needed to prevent scurvy on the voyage, the bedding, and the
warm clothes. "Fortunately the cartman understood a little
German," she said, for the ship "was expected every moment."

Three weeks went by and no packet ship owned by Lord
George Germain arrived in Portsmouth. This was heartbreaking,
because with every day lost winter came closer and the St.
Lawrence River might be closed to navigation. Madam Riedesel
made friends in Portsmouth, however, and the family of
Commodore Douglas was particularly nice to her.

"I often dined at the Douglas mansion," Frederika wrote. But
she still suffered from embarrassment because of being in a
foreign land. At table, for instance, "each person in turn honored
me by offering me a glass of wine. I had heard of this custom
and that it was considered an insult to refuse. But I was nursing
my little daughter Caroline and therefore dared not take any
wine at all. The first day I lacked courage to refuse," she
confessed, "but I feared it would injure my child, so the next day I
asked if it would be all right if I drank water." Everybody smiled
and reassured the Baroness. Only "people in low life" would
dream of being insulted, they told her.

At first the Baroness was also worried because she "could not
bring" herself "to eat vegetables boiled after the English fashion,
merely in water," But she observed that they "sometimes poured
an excellent sauce of butter over them" and after that she liked



40                The Baroness and the General

English boiled cabbage with melted butter almost as well as
sauerkraut.

Portsmouth, England, was a beautiful city, the Baroness said.
She and the children took daily walks upon the walls and
ramparts to watch the ships sailing in and out of the harbor. With
every incoming sail they wondered, "Is this the packet?" At night
they heard a gun which was fired in salute to each arrival and
early in the morning they eagerly asked, "Did Lord George
Germain's ship come in?" The answer was always no.

Now Madam Riedesel's money began to run low, no matter
how frugal she tried to be. At this point, however, a Captain
Young and his wife arrived from Tobago. Captain Young had
been Adjutant to Duke Ferdinand during the Seven Years' War
and knew General Riedesel well. He was on his way to London
and it was known that Lord Germain's packet was tied up in the
Thames. Captain Young suggested that Madam Riedesel go to
London where she could share the expenses of a modest lodging
with him and his wife. She could get in touch with the Riedesel's
English banker and board the packet when it left London.

This seemed good advice. Mrs. General marshaled her little
army and set out When she arrived in London, the packet ship
had sailed and she had missed it.





              4
              
          Meanwhile, the General ...



General Riedesel arrived off the city of Quebec on the
first day of June, 1776, at six o'clock in the evening. There
was still plenty of daylight and he could see the broad St.
Lawrence stretching onward into endless forest. On a great cliff
overlooking the city his practiced eye caught a glimpse of iron
howitzers on a wall built of wood. There were wooden houses
beyond the wall and down on a narrow shelf on land close to
the river there was another wooden town.

The General "lost no time" but jumped into a strange-looking
two-wheeled vehicle and told the driver to take him to the
Governor's palace. The driver of the calash, who sat on a "narrow
board in front with his feet on the shafts" shouted and cracked
his whip and the little horse sprang up a steep and winding road.
Riedesel hung on to the sides of his boxlike seat for dear life,
then leaned forward with a jerk as the horse slowed to a crawl.
They passed through a narrow, fortified gate and, with more
cracking of the whip and shouting, they drew up at a barrack like
building. After a brief but violent colloquy, in German French
on Riedesel's part and Canadian French on the part of the
driver, the General strode into the building "to pay his respects
to Sir Guy Carleton, Governor of the Province of Canada"1

Carleton was tall, thin, austere. "Put a black wig on him and

41



42                The Baroness and the General

a long black gown and he would be the image of the Abbé of
Jerusalem" tutor to the Hereditary Prince Charles William of
Brunswick, General Riedesel thought. "He has the same way of
walking the same tone of voice." After polite formalities had
been exchanged, Sir Guy invited the General to come to dinner
next day.

The American rebels still held Montreal, Sir Guy Carleton told
Riedesel, but they had nothing that could be called an army.
With the reinforcements brought by Burgoyne, they would soon
be defeated. Only five months previously, Sir Guy himself,
disguised as a Canadian voyageur, had barely escaped from the rebels
by slipping down the St. Lawrence from Montreal in a canoe.
But now the tables were turning. He had just taken Three Rivers
from the Americans, and had left a British garrison at that
important little city and trading post halfway between Quebec and
Montreal.

June 3, 1776, was General Riedesel's birthday. He was thirty-
eight years old and his military advancement had been rapid,
which should have given him satisfaction. But he spent the day
aboard the Pallas writing letters, packing to disembark, and
feeling morose. Orders had already come from Carleton to leave the
"Regiment Prince Frederick" and the dragoons under Lieutenant
Colonel Baum to garrison Quebec and Levis, across the St.
Lawrence. A general is anything but pleased to have troops taken
from his command; Riedesel confided in a letter to his wife that
he did not think Carleton was fair.

The next day was the birthday of George III. The city of
Quebec was "illuminated" in the evening by means of lighted
candles set in every window. It was well known that a good many
French people living in Quebec had hoped that the Americans
would win.2 Yet it seemed that in all of Quebec's fifteen hundred
houses, everyone was joyously burning candles in honor of the



               Meanwhile, the General ...           43

King of England. The reason for this was soon apparent, however.
Soldiers were going about heaving rocks through any unlighted
windows.

Quebec was "for the most part on a high mountain," General Riedesel
said. The "whole west side is fortified, but the fortifications
are in a bad state of repair although they worked hard last
winter and are still feverishly at work to rebuild them" Mortars
had been hauled out of old frigates and mounted on the walls
and there were eighty-one iron cannon. Riedesel concluded that
the American rebels "must be a miserable lot of soldiers,"
because, if those wood and mud fortifications had been in
Germany, "four to eight cannon would make such a hole in them
in a few hours that half a battalion could march through it."

General Riedesel went to visit "the memorable mountain"
which the English General Wolfe climbed when he took the
city from Montcalm in 1759. Then he went to see the place
where the American General Montgomery had been killed on
December 3, 1775. And General Carleton "passed in review some
600 American prisoners of war" taken after Montgomery's failure
to capture Quebec. The German Baron Riedesel was shocked
to learn that "among the so-called colonels and other officers
captured from the rebel army, many were tailors, shoemakers and
base mechanics."

Riedesel was given "command of a corps," and this, he said,
"surprised everyone." He was especially fond of "Regiment
Riedesel," named in his honor, and this was given to him along
with Breymann's Grenadier battalion, a British battalion of 150
Canadians and 300 Indians.

After his conferences with Carleton, Riedesel felt that the plan
of campaign for the summer of 1776 was a simple one. All they
had to do was, first, drive the American rebels out of Canada; then,
after pursuing them into the British colonies to the southward



44                The Baroness and the General

Carleton, with Riedesel's help of course, would quickly subdue
them and the American rebellion would be over.

The first lesson General Riedesel needed to learn concerned
the vast distances in North America and the primitive condition
of all so-called "roads" He was proud of the Brunswick-bred
horses he had brought with him on the ship Martha. They would
have carried a man in armor, and they were trained not to bolt
from the flash and roar of cannon but lead a charge against an
enemy as steadily as they led a parade. His horses, General
Carleton now told Riedesel, would at present be of no use to him
because the army must "cross little rivers where there are no
bridges." They were to march to the northern end of Lake Champlain,
and "thither I shall go on foot, like the rest of the army."
Such a thing could not happen to a general in Europe. "I hope
I shall set a good example to my men," Riedesel said.

Without waiting to unload baggage, Carleton planned to send
the fleet which had just arrived from Great Britain up the St.
Lawrence to recover Montreal, still held by Americans. But the
wind came whirling down the river in the wrong direction. News
traveled faster than the fleet.

"The small-pox has broke out in such a manner that [the
American Army] is almost ruined," wrote Benedict Arnold, who
was in command after the death of Montgomery. He began his
retreat.3

"The chiefs of the wild nations" met in Quebec at noon on the
seventh of June, and on that same day "orders suddenly came
that the wind was right and the fleet was to weigh anchor at four
in the afternoon." General Riedesel went back to the Pallas and
the fleet left Quebec for Three Rivers, making three leagues, or
between nine and ten miles that day and anchoring off Cap
Rouge for the night. Riedesel, although still regretting the horse
he had left behind, was not yet required to set an example to his



               Meanwhile, the General ...           45

troops by slogging along on foot. Getting under way again at
eight next morning, the fleet made over thirty miles by two in the
afternoon. Riedesel admired the "beautiful landscape" on both
banks of the St. Lawrence where "woodland and cultivated fields
were interspersed with many neat settlements." They anchored off
Cap L'Oiseau to take on river pilots.

Anchored all around them in the river were the frigates Triton
and Blonde and "many transports with British infantry." When
no pilots appeared, Riedesel had himself rowed over to the Triton
to see what was the matter. There were many more ships than
pilots, he was told. Nothing could be done while they waited
for French Canadian river men to see them past the Richelieu
Rapids.

At ten o'clock on the morning of June 9 the fleet set out
again with a favorable wind. Every ship flew a blue flag in honor
of the captain of the Blonde, who was commodore. The Laurentian
Mountains rose on the north shore and at the foot of a cliff
they saw the wreck of "a rebel ship." They cast anchor at ten at
night, having sailed over forty miles. News reached them that
"an engagement at Three Rivers" was still in progress. But a small
force of Americans had already been defeated. General Riedesel
had missed it and he was very much annoyed.

On the morning of the tenth of June, Riedesel reached Three
Rivers, where he interviewed some of the American prisoners. To
his astonishment, "most of them were Germans from the Province
of Pennsylvania." He had believed, on setting out, that this
rebellion which he had come to help suppress consisted of a rabble
of peasants who had seized whatever crude weapons came to
hand, being "deluded by unprincipled leaders." He still thought
so, and was the more puzzled because "judging by their uniforms
the Germans were soldiers."4

General Burgoyne, already in Three Rivers, treated the captured
American officers with extreme politeness, ordering food for



46               The Baroness and the General

them and "serving them himself." Burgoyne never missed an
opportunity to be dramatic, and in this account of his excessive
civility there is more than a hint of the sardonic.

The thing to do now was to follow up their advantage as
quickly as possible, but contrary winds kept Carleton and his
fleet anchored in front of Three Rivers for two days. On the
morning of June 12, a breeze served to move the ships as far as
Lake St. Peter, where they were becalmed. Fog swept in over this
twenty-five-mile section of the St. Lawrence, where the river is
nine miles wide. Orders were to load all guns, decks were to be
manned by soldiers under arms, and ships must hail each other
every fifteen minutes. Boats from the frigates patrolled "around
the ships constantly to keep everybody alert" while "savages
and also Canadians patrolled the shores." The Blonde and the
Triton returned to Quebec, the river being too shallow for them.
General Carleton went aboard the "ship-of-war Martin, fourteen
guns" and on June 14 they "cautiously continued their voyage,
the Martin leading the way in a light breeze." Canoes filled with
"savages" and Canadians went close to shore, and from time to
time news was brought from patrols on land: The Americans were
making a stand.... They were fortifying Sorel....

Carleton ordered all troops to be ready to disembark. Small
frigates could approach close to the little town of Sorel with its
square, its church, its few wooden houses. Artillery could make
short work of whatever log and mud ramparts the Americans had
thrown up. But now word came that the Americans had retreated
up the Richelieu River to Chambly one of the few well built
stone fortresses on the overland route to the Hudson. General
Riedesel was still aboard the Pallas, the ship which had
carried him across the Atlantic. It was small enough to sail on
Lake St. Peter!

Orders to disembark and draw four days' rations were given



               Meanwhile, the General ...           47

at three in the afternoon. Although the ships were opposite Sorel,
bateaux were needed to get the men ashore. Rain began to come
down, steadily, pitilessly such rain as Brunswickers assumed
could fall only in short showers. The sodden German troops were
told that no baggage wagons would be supplied and they must
carry their blankets, "which grew heavier every moment by the
rain." It took three hours to disembark, and then they marched
along a rough road in the gathering darkness. The Americans had
made no stand at Sorel they had gone, but Carleton was after
them.

"We marched about fourteen miles in six days" General
Riedesel reported to the Duke of Brunswick. He referred to
German miles; the distance covered was about sixty-five miles English
measurement. "During the whole of this journey, I and the other
officers were obliged to go on foot. This is the seventh day that
I have worn the same shirt and stockings." What a novel experience
for the Baron General Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel!

Carleton was bitterly disappointed to find that the Americans
had also evacuated Chambly before he got there. Only the stone
shell of the fort remained. Inside, soldiers' quarters, galleries,
staircases all were a heap of still smoking embers. According to
the Americans' own account, their rear guard left just as the
British advance guard was seen coming down the road.

All the previous day and night, the Americans had been
frantically loading their sick and wounded into bateaux. They could
spare only two able-bodied men to each boat and these men
could barely make headway against the swift Richelieu as it
swept down the long miles from Lake Champlain. They paused
at St. Johns, then camped briefly twelve miles farther south at
Isle aux Noix, men dying along the way from wounds, from
dysentery and from smallpox. At last Sullivan with men from Sorel
reached Crown Point on Lake Champlain, as did Arnold with his
men from Montreal. Here were gathered about 5200 Americans,



48                The Baroness and the General

nearly 2000 of them too ill to move. Their only food was raw
pork, hard bread and unbaked flour.

General Riedesel's estimate of the American army, at this point,
was hasty but understandable. "Their soldiers are not what they
were thought to be in Germany," he wrote his overlord. "They
are a miserable race of men with poor officers. They have no
money, only paper ..." and Riedesel thought the "confederation
of provinces" to the southward could not last long. If Howe
"lands safely, captures New York and gains a footing, we can
cross the lake with a few brigades, one after the other." Then the
American Revolution would be over, "this winter" of 1776-1777.

General Riedesel was posted at "La Prairie" or Laprairie, a
town midway between Chambly and Montreal on the south bank
of the St. Lawrence and commanding the portage at the Lachine
Rapids. This was an important post, having a road leading to
Chambly and waterways in several directions. "We are at this
place masters of the whole Province of Canada," he wrote to
Duke Ferdinand on July 25. "If we had ships and sloops of war
in which to cross Lake Champlain, we would soon be in the rear
of the colonies. But all our vessels are yet to be built and this
delay will cost us three weeks."

Riedesel spent most of his time traveling from town to town,
getting an idea of the lay of the land, urging on the work crews
who were repairing forts at Sorel, Chambly, St. Johns and Isle aux
Noix. The terrain of England's North American provinces did not
please the German General. "Aside from a few cultivated regions
on the rivers, all the hills are covered with woods," he complained.
You could not choose a good spot to have a battle. All you could
do was to build forts and "go with the Indians through primeval
forests." Riedesel had come to the conclusion that "in the whole
of America, there is no spot where six battalions could be placed
in a good position."

Things were not going well with the Prince Frederick Regiment,



               Meanwhile, the General ...           49

under Riedesel but left back in Quebec. They had scurvy
and were on the point of mutiny. Instead of ordering floggings,
Riedesel went to Quebec to listen to complaints. He found that
the commissary had been feeding the men salt beef, and he went
straight to Carleton who ordered that fresh meat and vegetables,
be supplied at once. Riedesel's first thought must have been that
his old friend Captain Foy, as commissary, had been cheating the
troops. But he found that Foy, after being offered the post of
barrack master without rise in rank, had refused it and was now
secretary to Carleton. This was certainly a position to which his
experience entitled him, and Foy already knew that it could be
made financially worthwhile. He had made a fortune as Secretary
to Lord Dunmore in New York Province and in Virginia.

On returning to his post at Laprairie, Riedesel found his troops
were accused of pillaging. But they were not a conquering army in
enemy territory, as Riedesel was well aware, and he made strict
rules. He established a market day at Sorel when the French
Canadian peasants (he called all farmers "peasants") were to
bring in produce for which his deputy commissaries were to pay
cash. Of course the inhabitants were required to bring in fresh
meat, fish and vegetables, whether they wanted to or not. And of
course they hid food and sold it at black market prices whenever
they got a chance. But the new system worked well on the
whole.

More than three hundred men came down with dysentery.
General Riedesel seems to have had a pretty good idea that this
disease was caused by filth, and his orders concerning sanitation
were strict. Latrines must be dug and soldiers must use them. It
was understood that any army camp smelled to high heaven, but
latrines must be filled and new ones dug at stated intervals, before
the stench' became overpowering.

Aside from the statement that the seventy-seven women were
with the Brunswick troops, these poor souls rarely appeared in



50                           The Baroness and the General

general orders, in journals or in orderly books. Captain Georg
Pausch, in charge of the Hanau artillery, and a journal writer of
note, observed of accommodations on shipboard: "The married
men and women occupy beds ... six in number, very narrow
and arranged in two tiers, one above the other and separated ...
to prevent misbehavior as much as possible." A child was born
aboard a ship in the St. Lawrence and named "Lorenz." The
German women's costumes caused comment, as Madam Riedesel
was to discover.

But one of the functions of women camp followers was to
forage, and as soon as the Brunswickers encamped a few orders
concerning women began to appear in the orderly books of the
various officers. Women were to stop trading with the Indians.
Above all, they were to stop giving rum to the Indians as a
medium of exchange. Rum was served out to soldiers, those on
fatigue duty getting more than others and those in hospital
receiving special rations. Sutlers and traders hung around the camp
with rum for sale, and it was a dull woman who could not set
herself up in business and acquire fresh deer meat from the
Indians to supplement her half-ration, or moccasins for herself and
her children and extra blankets as nights grew cold all with rum
for money. Indians "walked freely through our camp, came into
our tents without ceremony wanting rum or brandy" was the
report, and control was next to impossible.5 Riedesel insisted that
his German women camp followers were above ram selling, but
investigation proved otherwise.

Boatbuilding went slowly, it seemed to Riedesel, who wanted
to get on with the campaign and perhaps spend a pleasant winter
in New York. At Sorel, at St. Johns, "carpenters from all the
ships were ordered" to report along with "artificers" from the
different regiments.6 Most of the Canadians in the area were
"building roads through the woods, bringing up cannon, provisions
and all kinds of stores...." The Canadians who had



               Meanwhile, the General ...           51

greeted General Sullivan at Sorel with enthusiasm either fled
with the retreating army or now "worked in irons on the roads."

There was a portage of about seven miles between Chambly
and St. Johns. Boats and bateaux were pulled along the road
beside the rapids here "by a great number of horses" all
requisitioned from the "Inhabitants." But two sloops of war "were
attempted to be brought up" in vain. Their guns were taken out
of them, loaded on creaking wains and hauled laboriously. The
sloops were dismasted and hauled overland piecemeal. At St.
Johns, they were building the Carleton, a twelve-gun schooner,
the. Inflexible, a twenty-eight-gun frigate and "a floating battery
of great strength carrying mortars, shells and twenty-four-
pounders." The weather was extremely hot, for it was mid-July.

"We have already conquered the whole of Canada and shall,
as soon as our boats are ready, force our way into New England,"
General Riedesel wrote to his wife with understandable optimism.
He expected to see her soon, for surely she was on the ocean by
now. The war would be over in a few more weeks. Then "I will
try to manage to take you comfortably home in my ship," he
promised.



              5
              
                The First Thrust



IN JULY General Riedesel went to Montreal to see the city.
It was "somewhat handsomer than Quebec" he thought, but
"its wall is nothing more than an apology for a wall with loop-
holes for cannon and firearms. What is called the citadel is only
a log house in poor condition." Riedesel attended another
"meeting of wild men."

Chiefs from all the tribes of the Iroquois nation had been invited
to gather at a church built by the Jesuits but no longer in
use because the Jesuits had withdrawn from Montreal. Holy
images and symbols had been taken down and in the choir, once
murmurous with Latin prayers and responses, rugs were spread and
stools lined up on either side. In the center was an armchair and
behind, in place of the high altar, there was a table. Down the
main aisle were rows of stools, three hundred in all

Governor Carleton marched into the church, followed by his
high command - Generals Burgoyne, Phillips, Riedesel. Behind
the officers came Carleton's secretaries Captain Foy, and Captain
Christopher Carleton,1 nephew and brother-in-law of the
Governor who seated themselves at the table, prepared to take
notes. Governor Carleton sat in the armchair. He seems to have
been the only person with a reasonably comfortable seat, but
what impressed Riedesel was that Carleton kept his hat on
during the whole proceedings. The nave of the church was filled with

52



                    The First Thrust           53

Indian chiefs, who lighted their ceremonial pipes and sat on their
stools, pipe in mouth.2

Each tribe spoke, through its chief and its French interpreter
who acted as orator. Carleton had his own interpreter, just to
check, and his nephew was also competent in the Iroquois language.
The Indians said they knew that revolt had arisen against
the King of England. They praised the valor of General Carleton
in chasing the rebels out of Montreal and explained that those
tribes living near Laprairie who had remained neutral had been
misled. An old man, not present, had told them lies. They were
now ready to hire themselves out for a year to General Carleton.

Next came the "gifts." Powder and ball, over and above that
needed to kill the English settlers to the southward, was agreed
upon. The Indians had grown dependent upon the white man's
weapons for the hunt, to procure food as well as furs. Kettles,
blankets, all sorts of civilized luxuries had become necessities and
Carleton was adept at promising enough but not too much. He
never paid everything at one time but doled out "gifts" on the
installment plan, after receiving services.

When the first day's conference was over, the chiefs filed past
Governor Carleton and shook hands. "They had brought with
them a few scalps of rebels whom they had killed and with which
they honored Generals Carleton, Burgoyne and Phillips," General
Riedesel wrote. Apparently, he didn't get one.

Next came the "feasting." Rum was given out to seal the bargain,
and another conference was called for the following day, but
by then the chiefs were too drunk to stand up and the meeting
was postponed. As soon as negotiations were over, Governor
Carleton had himself paddled down the St. Lawrence in his
Indian war canoe, leaving Burgoyne in charge of British and
Brunswick forces poised on the southern border of Canada. General
Riedesel went back to Laprairie, and he was embarrassed to have
to report to his Duke as to what happened next.

"With an army in Germany it would scarcely be possible for



54              The Baroness and the General

an enemy to steal into a cantonment," he said. "But here, with
the way the armies are posted, it is easier." And with grudging
admiration, Riedesel added: "The only wonder is how the rebels
could make this long march of forty leagues through deserts and
dense woods and carry, at the same time, rations for fifteen days
on their backs." Brigadier General Patrick Gordon, in command
of the British First Brigade, had been shot at by an American
rebel while riding along the road from St. Johns to Laprairie.
Gordon had put spurs to his horse and escaped with two musket
balls in his shoulder. He reached St. Johns, but fainted from loss
of blood on arrival, recovered consciousness long enough to tell
what had happened, and then died of his wounds. "I have gone
over that road myself more than thirty times," Riedesel exclaimed.
He would no longer ride alone.

This small affair was a jolt to the "Masters of Canada."
Burgoyne, in his general orders, let himself go in his best
bombastic style: "The Rebel Runaways not having dared to show
their Faces as Soldiers, have now taken the part of the vilest
Assassins and are lurking in small Parties to murder, if any single
or unarmed Officer or Soldier may be passing the Roads, near the
Woodside." Carleton offered a reward of fifty guineas to any
inhabitant who would capture or betray the American scouts or,
in Burgoyne's words, "these infamous Skulkers."

General Riedesel wrote that "the person who commanded the
party which attacked General Gordon" was known to be "Whitcomb
of Connecticut calling himself Lieutenant." And in Burgoyne's
general orders was a description: "He is between 30 and
40 years of age, to appearance near 6 feet high, rather thin than
otherwise, light brown hair tied behind, rough face, not sure
whether occasioned by small-pox or not. He wears a kind of
under Jacket without Sleeves, slash Pockets, leather Breeches,
grey woolen or yarn Stockings and Shoes. Hat flapped, a gold
Cord tied round it. He had a Firelock, Blanket, Pouch and
Powder Horn."



                    The First Thrust 55

The American Lieutenant Benjamin Whitcomb wrote his own
laconic report of what happened: "Twenty-third, early in the
morning, I returned to my former place of abode, stood there the
whole day, saw twenty-three carts laden with barrels and tents
going to St. Johns. Twenty-fourth, staid at the same place till
about twelve o'clock, then fired on an officer, and moved
immediately into Chambly road ... finding myself discovered was
obliged to conceal myself in the brush till dark. The 25th instant,
on which I made my escape by the guards, I saw upwards of 40
carts preparing to go to St. Johns and I judge there were lying
at that place and on the road about one full regiment of regulars"
Far from being at the head of an expedition, Lieutenant Whitcomb
had come alone from Fort Ticonderoga to get information
about British preparations and if possible to bring back a prisoner.
He had tried to capture Brigadier Gordon had fired to stop him
and was unaware that Gordon was wounded.

On August 13, Whitcomb was back again with two men,
"disguised as countrymen." He stationed himself on the road as
before, observed "seventy-two Indians, armed, returning from St.
Johns for Montreal." Then along came two men, "found to be
the enemy. I immediately stepped out and told them they were my
prisoners.... They were sure I was no soldier. I told them, soldier
or not, they must go with me to Ticonderoga... , They offered
me money to let them go. I told them I would not, for all the
money King George was worth." Whitcomb and his two fellow
scouts carried off Quartermaster Alexander Saunders and an
ensign. Saunders had a loaded fusee and a brace of pistols and had
boasted that he would like to meet Whitcomb and claim the
reward. After what was to the Englishmen "a terrifying journey"
through the forest to Ticonderoga, they were "forwarded" to
Congress under guard, and Lieutenant Whitcomb's rank was
raised to major.3

Riedesel never ceased to protest because some of his Brunswickers
were kept at Quebec when old men and soldiers just out



56              The Baroness and the General

of hospital could have garrisoned the city just as well. Finally, the
dragoons were released to him. Germans worked at tasks far
beneath their dignity as soldiers when they built blockhouses and
barracks and repaired the walls at St. Johns. Riedesel's men had
to learn to row a boat and most of them had never done such a
thing before. But he praised them and said they learned quickly.
Lacking Burgoyne's dash and fire that made his men cheer at the
sight of him, Riedesel was nonetheless loved by the Brunswickers,
who trusted him to look after them the best he could.

It was the ninth of October 1776 when the fleet (built or
reassembled) was finally set afloat on Lake Champlain. On the
tenth Captain Carleton, in Indian dress and in full war paint,
set out along the lake shore with four hundred Indians in canoes.
The next day the Brunswick brigade was ordered to embark
seventy-six men from each company the remainder to stay in
camp. Riedesel was ordered to Isle aux Noix. "Am I forever to
bring up the rear!" he exclaimed.

Isle aux Noix, eight and seven tenths miles north of the present
Canadian border, was a small, marshy island long occupied and
lightly fortified as an Indian trading post. It was extremely
unhealthy. Orders for digging latrines were all well and good, but
water seeped into any hole, filled it and overflowed. In case of
rain, soldiers' quarters were always flooded. The American army
had retreated, but the mosquitoes had not their forces were
nightly reinforced, their weapons always ready. General Riedesel
hated this post and with good reason, but it was the depot for
provisions for the fleet now about to cross Lake Champlain.

Carleton advanced into the lake with the Inflexible, carrying
eighteen twelve-pounders. She had been completed just eight
days previously. Next came the Lady Mary (or Maria), named in
honor of Carleton's wife, a schooner with fourteen six-pounders.
The schooner Carleton carried twelve six-pounders and the
"radeau," or raft, was a floating battery armed with six twenty-
four-pounders, six twelve-pounders and two howitzers. Much was



                    The First Thrust 57

expected of the radeau when it came to breaching the walls of
Fort Ticonderoga. Then there were ten gunboats each carrying
three cannon which had just arrived from England, and there
were two twelve-gun vessels captured from the Americans.
Various parties had reconnoitred the northern part of the lake and
had seen no sign of Americans and it was concluded that the
newly-built British fleet could sail without opposition.

The fleet headed along the west coast of Champlain in the
direction of Grand Isle. They passed the northern channel
between a long, heavily wooded island and the western mainland
without seeing a sail but they were seen. During the summer
months, the Americans had also been building a fleet. General
Benedict Arnold had been allowed to take it out into the lake, but
Horatio Gates (briefly in command) had warned him not to sail
too far from Ticonderoga. Arnold, however, was anchored
between Valcour Island and the mainland, more than fifty miles
north of the fort. Arnold was tremendously outnumbered and
outgunned, but his position in a channel only three quarters of
a mile wide would prevent the whole British fleet from
attacking him at once. He ordered the schooner Royal Savage to show
herself at the southern entrance to the channel and he sent four
armed galleys, to work with the Royd Savage like dogs with a
hunter.

When the British caught sight of "a frigate slipping behind
an island" the Carleton was sent in pursuit but could not catch
her. The water shoaled off, and the Carleton had to give up the
chase, but the Inflexible hit the Royal Savage three times, which
so confused the crew (Arnold said) that they grounded her. She
was by no means out of commission, however, and her crew
continued to fire her guns until she had to be abandoned.

Lieutenant Georg Pausch, in his journal, told of the Battle of
Valcour Island as it looked to him from the deck of what was
probably one of the ten English gunboats.4 Pausch knew by five



58              The Baroness and the General

o'clock in the morning of October 11 that there was an engagement
going on, but his gunboat sailed slowly. It was half past
ten before he heard the sound of artillery.

The first thing Pausch saw was "a frigate of the enemy stuck
fast on a stone cliff and abandoned" But "soon after, we saw
two other frigates sending forth a lively fire. Besides this they
[the Americans] had several armed gondolas which, one after the
other, emerged from a small bay of the island firing rapidly and
effectively. Every once in a while they would vanish in order to
get breath, and suddenly reappear.

"Our attack, with about 27 bateaux armed with 24 12- and 6-
pound cannon and a few howitzers, became very animated. But
now our frigates approached. One of them, the Maria, having His
Excellency von Carleton on board, advanced and opened a lively
cannonade. This one was replaced by the frigate Carleton and, as
she in turn retreated, the Inflexible took her place, only to retreat
as the others had done. One of the enemy's frigates ... began to
careen over on one side but in spite of this continued her fire.
The cannon of the rebels were well served; for I saw afterwards
that our ships were pretty well mended and patched with boards
and stoppers.

"Close to one o'clock in the afternoon, this naval battle began
to get very serious. Lt. Dufais came very near perishing with all
his men for a cannon-ball going through his powder magazine, it
blew up.... Dufais's bateau came back burning and I hurried to
it to save, if possible, the lieutenant and his men. All who could,
jumped on board my bateau, which, being thus overloaded, came
near sinking...."

Pausch had "nine cannoneers and nine sailors" added to his
own force of "10 cannoneers, 1 drummer, 1 sergeant, 1 boy and
10 sailors; in all 48 persons." He noted that the radeau had
proved so unmanageable that it never arrived on the scene till
dusk and never got a shot at Arnold's fleet.

Carleton was certain now that he had but to wait for morning



                    The First Thrust           59

to polish off the Americans. As Pausch told it, "This night a chain
was formed of all the bateaux; and everyone had to be wide awake
and on the alert. The captain's frigate, which had run aground,
was set on fire by the orders of His Excellency and her ammunition
blowing up caused a fine fire lasting all night."

Next morning Arnold was gone! It was a masterly retreat, executed
in black darkness and in complete silence. Carefully shielded
lanterns were hung at the stern of each ship to show the way.
There must have been a gap in the "chain of bateaux," or a weak
link, and the fire from the frigate must have burned to embers.
"Landlubbers," Arnold had called his crew, but they rowed
without a splash or creak of oars.

"Carleton was in a rage," General Riedesel said. He was so
excited that he set out in pursuit forgetting to give any orders
to his land forces. The Americans were only twelve miles away,
however, having limped as far as Schuyler's Island where they
were trying to repair their fleet. Carleton might have pulverized
them and marooned their crews except for "the violence of the
wind and a great swell" which made his ships rock as though
in mid ocean. He came about and returned to Valcour Island,
where he anchored. Towards evening the weather moderated and
he set out again, "the boats using their oars to make headway
against the wind."5

Having completed repairs, Arnold and his Americans started
for Crown Point, where there was a fort, a small garrison and a
harbor in which to make a stand. But the "wind proved fair"
for the British and they overtook the Americans about noon.
The Americans were outranged by the British guns, and now
there was no channel where they could force a close engagement,
but only the great open lake all around them. After using up
their ammunition and seeing their iron balls fall uselessly into
the water while British well-aimed shot came aboard, the "three
stern-most vessels struck their colors."



60              The Baroness and the General

Arnold ran his ship Congress aground and blew her up. Afterwards,
the British General Phillips told Riedesel that he heard the
groans and cries of wounded men abandoned by Arnold in the
flaming hull. Five vessels were burned, the crews escaping to
Ticonderoga. Once more Carleton was angry because his Indians,
swarming ashore from their canoes, were supposed to have been
harvesting scalps, letting no one get away.

It was a sad story or a triumphant one, all depending on the
point of view. But, once more, General Riedesel had missed
an engagement. He had been at Isle aux Noix, industriously
gathering provisions and drilling his men, just as he had been
doing for the last three months. He gave "a great dinner of thirty-
six covers [for General Carleton] and the principal officers of the
army," he wrote his wife, and assured her that he "had made
friends with everyone" and thought he "stood well with all officers
and men." But he was too good at detail to be spared from routine
tasks. Finally, he asked for and received an invitation aboard ship.

"On Board the Washington, a prize taken from the Rebels"
Riedesel put at the top of a letter dated October 26, 1776. "I am
here as a volunteer for six days. We have sailed close to Fort
Carillon [the French name for Ticonderoga]." He had observed
the arm of Lake Champlain leading toward Skenesborough. At
"Buttonmole Bay," where Arnold's ships were burned,6 Riedesel
watched the British raising guns. They salvaged thirty within a
few days. But Carleton was again angry. The Americans had dismantled
the fort at Crown Point in order to get guns to arm their
fleet, and they had done nothing at all to repair the place! He
had expected to find it in good shape, so that he could use it
himself.

At Crown Point there was nothing and no one. Once there
had been a French fort all of cut stone with medieval keep,
battlements, moat and portcullis. The Americans had found it in a
ruinous condition, but containing a treasure nonetheless. One
Lieutenant Job Cook, writing in phonetic style to his Commander



                    The First Thrust           61

in Chief, Philip Schuyler, in January, 1776, tells of what went on:
"Sir as I have Received your Honours orders to imploy the Men
under my charge in Digging in the old fort for Led But the Men
that I have inlisted are all most neaked and the weather very
Cold; ... if it is your Honours plesuer that I should Eopen that
tresuer, I will set as many men to work as have clothes
Surfissant ..."7

It was indeed His Honor's "plesuer," and Job Cook soon found
six hundred pounds of lead. This was a scarce commodity among
the colonists, who had been melting down everything from George
the Third's statue to pewter plates in order to make bullets. Ten
days later, Job Cook reported the discovery of six hundred and
fifty pounds more of lead, a cache perhaps dating from the days
of the French and Indian wars. Job's mission at the fort was now
about over. He made another report:

A RETURN OF FIREARMS IN STORE

Servisable NONE
Unservisable ELEVEN

General Riedesel had received an outline of British strategy
before he left Portsmouth, England, and this had been enlarged
upon since his arrival in Canada. For the benefit of the Duke of
Brunswick, he set it all down: "Howe, after leaving 200 men at
Boston, will rendezvous on Long Island and make that the base
of future operations. His army will go up the Hudson, mostly by
water, and thus operate against Crown Point...."8

It was not in the cards that Howe should leave "200 men at
Boston." He had evacuated Boston March 17, 1776, assisted to
this decision by guns taken from the British and brought overland
from Ticonderoga. Riedesel heard about it only after Howe
arrived in Halifax, a detour not on his original schedule. Hessian
soldiers, sent direct to Halifax, then taken to Long Island, had
much to do with Howe's brilliant victory and the British



62              The Baroness and the General

occupation of New York. Howe should, now, have been at
Crown Point, according to those plans which looked so well on
paper. It was unfortunate, perhaps, that, in evacuating Boston,
Howe had taken the beautiful Mrs. Loring with him to Halifax
and then had brought her to New York. She did not care for
wilderness forts; she liked cities.

Carleton decided that it was too late in the season to continue
the campaign. The Americans could easily be finished off in the
spring. But there were wheels within wheels, and General
Riedesel set to work to explain matters to the Duke of Brunswick,
writing in French and marking his letter "to be put into cypher":

"There comes upon us a new political season. General Howe
has been appointed Chief in New England. If Carleton, an officer
with seniority, should cross the Lake to join the other army, he
would have to put himself under the orders of Lord Howe, a
thing which the former would not like to do, if I know him."
In an undated but earlier letter, probably written in August,
Riedesel had already suggested that there were difficulties between
Howe and Carleton. Carleton was "haughty and taciturn by
nature," while Howe was "proud, and intoxicated with being so
much in the good graces of the King and the Ministry, so that he
wants to carry off all the honors himself." Riedesel hoped that
this incompatibility between the two generals "would not have a
bad effect upon the common cause."

There was a bit of interesting advice which General Riedesel
gave the Duke of Brunswick, with many polite apologies for
presuming to do so. He thought the Duke should try to see that
the British did not get in arrears in their payments for the
Brunswick soldiers. If possible the Duke "should get payment
in advance," because British accounts were in a hopeless muddle.
And the "commissary is still in the greatest confusion."

Riedesel's letters to his wife were of the sort to reassure her, for
he knew that she loved him dearly. "If this war is carried on like
this next year," he wrote after describing how he missed taking



                    The First Thrust           63

part in the Battle of Valcour Island, "I shall be more sure of my
life here in the midst of it than upon the parade grounds of
Wolfenbüttel and Brunswick." The men were now going into
winter quarters, and he had been assigned to Three Rivers. It
was going to be "very quiet, and I should be able to live entirely
for you," he said.

In another letter "The nights are beginning to be a little
cold," Riedesel wrote; "we already speak and think of winter.
What a comfort it would be for me, if I could quietly enjoy the
society of you and the children. Truly that would be worth more
to me than all else. But where may you now be? Perhaps on the
broad sea, perhaps in great peril. Night after night my mind is
filled with anxiety for your safety. I hope that God will soon end
my anguish and grant me the joy of seeing you in my arms." The
General's most recent letters from his wife had been dated April
and May 1776, although she wrote him regularly.



              6
              
               Winter in London



WHEN the Baroness von Riedesel arrived in London in
September 1776, to discover that her ship had sailed without
her, she needed all her courage to conceal her grief from her
children and the servants. Everyone told her that it was already
too late in the season to attempt a voyage to Quebec but this
was only a mildly comforting thought. Eventually the news came
that Lord George Germain's packet had arrived safely and that
the captain had made General Riedesel pay for that cow put
aboard to supply the children with milk. For the thrifty Baroness,
this was almost the last straw. But another ship, which sailed at
the same time, had been crushed in the ice.

Life in London was pleasant at first. Captain and Mrs. Young
from Tobago urged Mrs. General Riedesel to live with them and
she agreed on condition that she share expenses. They lived in
great style, however, and the Baroness began to feel anxious
about her share of the cost. The Youngs insisted that she owed
them nothing they just wanted her as their guest. "I thought
they must be immensely wealthy," Frederika said. But of course
she could not accept largesse from anyone. She had some small
diamonds in the little bag of family ornaments she had brought
with her and so she had her portrait painted in miniature, then



                    Winter in London                    65

framed in gold, surrounded by the diamonds and mounted in a
bracelet for Mrs. Young. It must have been a charming ornament.

"I was tolerably happy," Mrs. General said. But the friendship
with the Youngs did not prosper. "Madam Young ... bought
gowns and headdresses by the dozen, kept the house full of
milliners and mantua-makers," and when she had a whole new
wardrobe assembled she announced that she and the Baroness
were going out in society. They would visit "public resorts" and
go to all sorts of private parties. Captain Young, who was much
older than his wife, had little use for gadding, but it would be
all right Madam von Riedesel could be the chaperone for the
giddy Mrs. Young.

"I excused myself," the Baroness wrote. She could not leave the
baby, whom she was still nursing, nor would she entrust the older
children to servants in a strange land. "I was too sad and uneasy
on account of my absent husband," she added and there was
also "the great expense."

Mrs. Young took all this very badly. She was "almost rude"
and rarely did anyone dare to go that far with Madam Riedesel.
"To make matters worse," her husband applauded Mrs. General's
stand and held her up as an example his wife ought to follow.
Although Frederika understood perfectly that Captain Young
was not helping matters, she was unprepared when Mrs. Young
came to her and asked her if she had found any other lodgings
yet! She quickly assured the lady that she was ready to go any
time. "Mrs. Young said she knew of a place and would go" with
her to see it.

They set out in the Youngs' carriage and after many twistings
and turnings they came to "a truly mean house" in a narrow
alley of doubtful appearance. She must have "respectable
lodgings" because she had "letters of introduction to several ladies of
quality and planned to receive them in a manner befitting their
station," the Baroness said. Mrs. Young "answered spitefully"
that she had supposed this miserable rooming house would be just



66              The Baroness and the General

the thing for someone who was "such a good housewife" and
"loved to be so retired"

As they were driving back, Frederika "noticed an advertisement
on a corner house in a very good neighborhood." The Baroness
told the coachman to pull up and she went into the house to
inquire. It was "a small dwelling although clean and respectable."
But alas the price! Four pounds a week would be out of the
question, and Mrs. General employed strategy. "I always have
my door closed and locked by ten o'clock at night," she remarked.
The little girls, docile and polite, had come with her and the
landlady, who was childless, loved them at sight and so did her
husband. A bargain was struck for three pounds a week, "furniture,
kitchen utensils and clothes-washing facilities included."

"I was not only comfortably lodged but my landlord and land-
lady, whose name was Russell, became my warmest friends," the
Baroness said. She told them frankly that all she had in the world,
at the moment, was ten guineas, and that money from Germany
was not due for six weeks. Besides being owners of property for
rent, the Russells were in the provision business and they promised
to market for the German family at wholesale. "You can pay at
your own convenience," they said.

"They both taught my children English," the Baroness wrote.
Mr. Russell became so fond of little Caroline that he offered to
adopt her and promised to leave her "his entire fortune." Both
the Russells were always buying little presents for the children
and searching food markets for special items which might please
them and their mother.

The Baroness Frederika had perfect faith in Providence, and
she "thanked God for the Russells and all the more so" when she
heard what happened to the Youngs after she left them. Mrs.
Young continued to live extravagantly until she was threatened
with arrest for debt. "Milliners, tailors and mantua-makers seized
some of her belongings," and Captain Young finally fled the



                    Winter in London                    67

country to avoid a debtor's prison. His wife was "supported by
friends."

Among the belongings that Mrs. Young would have been
willing to part with was the bracelet with a miniature set in
diamonds. Perhaps now, in some museum or private collection,
the Baroness Frederika von Riedesel, painted in London at the
age of thirty-one, smiles from her setting. She would have had
herself painted smiling, for the loneliness she suffered she kept
to herself. She was unusually pretty, and the painter, whose name
she did not mention, would have done justice to lovely white
shoulders and sparkling blue eyes. Perhaps the portrait bears a
label, "Unknown young woman, Georgian period," or some such
sad indication that Frederika's portrait has become a mere
"collector's item"

The year 1776 was almost over when Frederika's friends persuaded
her to be presented at court. She had a "court dress" made
and Lady Germain was her sponsor. At this time, no one was in
higher favor with the King than Lord Germain. His disgrace at
Minden was forgotten, his court-martial verdict of guilty having
been ordered reversed by George III while still Prince George. "The
former George Sackville had even changed his name on inheriting
"a vast fortune" from Lady Betty, wife of Sir John Germain. He
neglected nothing for his own advancement and had married
Lady Diana, an heiress.1

"I found the castle very ugly and furnished in an old-fashioned
style," wrote Madam Riedesel. She was talking about St. James's
Palace, built by Henry the Eighth and said to have been designed
by Holbein. The initials H. A. carved above the fireplace in the
Presence Chamber meant nothing to the German Baroness, but
she would have shuddered if she had realized that they stood for
Henry VIII and the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. Squared-off Tudor
windows with leaded diamond-shaped panes served to keep out
rather than let in the light, while the portraits of a long line



68              The Baroness and the General

of kings and the carved oak and tapestries all depressed Frederika.
She liked white walls ornamented in plaster relief with gilded
shells and scrolls. Delicate gilded furniture with bright brocaded
cushions pleased her although this taste of Fritschen's was to
undergo a change.

"All the ladies and gentlemen were standing in their allotted
places" in the audience room. Then the King entered, "preceded
by three cavaliers." George III was at this time thirty-eight years
old, somewhat red-faced with full cheeks and heavy-lidded eyes.
He was by no means as fat as cartoonists liked to pretend, and
sometimes fasted to avoid obesity, but at other times he did full
justice to the enormous meals it was the custom to set before
royalty. He had suffered one period of insanity and would end
his days totally blind and deaf, an old man with a long white
beard, suffering from hallucinations. In 1776 he was as sane as
he ever would be. Although the first of the Georges to be born
in England, George III looked German, which must have pleased
the Baroness. She whispered to Lady Germain: Was it true that
the King always kissed all the ladies?

"Oh, no" said Lady Diana. "Only Englishwomen and Marchionesses."

The Queen entered the Presence Chamber right behind the
King. A chamberlain preceded her and a lady-in-waiting carried
her train. Queen Charlotte had been a Princess of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz. Seventeen at the time of her marriage, she was now
thirty-three. She had never been pretty; her mouth was heavy,
with an undershot lower lip, but she had fine, dark eyes and, at
the time of her marriage, a slim figure. She was now the mother
of eleven children, and the Baroness von Riedesel was being
presented to her at one of the rare intervals when Her Majesty
was not pregnant. Eventually, she was the mother of fifteen.

At the door of the Presence Chamber, the King turned to the
right and the Queen to the left. They circled the room and spoke



                    Winter in London                    69

a word or several words to each person "stationed" around the
walls, while anxious eyes followed them to see who might be
honored by more attention than another. When the King and
Queen met at the end of the room they "made each other a
profound bow" and proceeded with their solemn, slow circuit

The Baroness must have been on the right side, for scarcely
had she whispered her anxious inquiry when George III of
England came up and kissed her. "I turned red as fire," Frederika
declared.

The King asked her if she had any letters from her husband
and she recovered sufficiently to tell him that the last letters had
arrived November 22. His Majesty graciously remarked that he
had asked about General Riedesel specifically and that "everybody
is satisfied with him." The King hoped the cold in Canada would
not injure the General's health.

"Oh, no, Your Majesty, he was born in a cold climate," replied
the Baroness. This was a comparatively long conversation, and
there must have been envious glances. But the Queen, who "soon
came up," had even more to say. How long had the Baroness
been in London? Frederika said it was now two months. The
Queen had thought it was longer. "I have been seven months in
England," the Baroness explained and the Queen asked her if
she didn't fear an ocean voyage. The Queen hated the sea,
herself, she said, perhaps remembering an ocean voyage to marry
a man she had never met and who loved someone else, as she
would soon enough be told.

"I do not like the sea," confessed the Baroness, "but as it is the
only way I can see my husband again, I shall joyfully set sail"

"I admire your courage, especially with three children," Her
Majesty said in parting, and Mrs. General was pleased because
she had not told the Queen about the children: someone at court
must have given Queen Charlotte information which really
interested her.



70              The Baroness and the General

"During the reception I saw all the royal children except one
who was ill," Frederika said. "They were ten in number and
all beautiful as pictures."

This cordial reception at court pleased the Baroness, and she
was still more pleased to be asked to return informally. She
"visited the Queen several times afterward," and when spring
came at last and plans were completed for Frederika's voyage to
America she went to bid Queen Charlotte good-by. Once more,
the Queen spoke of the terrors of an ocean voyage. "They wrote
me that you take this journey unknown to your husband," the
Queen remarked. Frederika was indignant. "Your Majesty is a
German Princess and therefore you know that I could not possibly
have come here without my husband's consent," she cried. "For
one thing, no one would have given me the money necessary for
the journey." That a married woman would never have money
of her own, even though she might be an heiress, was something
Queen Charlotte understood perfectly well.

"What is the name of your ship?" the Queen asked. "I shall
often inquire about you."

"She kept her word," Frederika said. "She often asked about
me, and frequently sent her remembrances." The Queen of
England might easily have envied the Baroness Riedesel. The Queen
would never long for the sight of her husband, and she would
never joyfully brave the perils of the sea to go to him. 2

General Burgoyne was now in London, having left the quartering
of the troops in Canada in Riedesel's competent hands. He
carried letters to the Baroness, and "had promised my husband
that we should travel together," when he returned to Canada in
the spring. She was both innocent and naïve to put it that way,
as time would show.

Burgoyne's star was in the ascendant in London. He was seen
riding in St. James's Park with the King! Together he and Lord
George Germain pored over maps of the English colonies in
North America those delightfully simplified affairs that made it



                    Winter in London                    71

seem but an easy step from Quebec to Albany and from Albany
to New York. Great waterways the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu,
Lake Champlain, the Hudson seemed provided by a special
Providence for the convenient transportation of a British army
with ships, guns and mercenaries. A short and glorious campaign,
a triumphant meeting between Burgoyne and Sir William Howe
at Albany and the rebellion would collapse.

But what to do about Mrs. General Riedesel, her three little
girls and several servants? Burgoyne would be aboard a man-of-
war, naturally. Nothing less would suit his dignity. In response
to Frederika's question, Lord George Germain told her that he
didn't think a man-of-war would be very comfortable. He said,
however, that Mr. Watson, a very wealthy London banker and,
like Dick Whittington, "thrice Lord Mayor of London," would
let Mrs. General Riedesel "have his ship." He happened to be the
Riedesel's family banker in London, and Mrs. General knew him
well already, so she went to see him again. She described him as
"a worthy man who had one foot bitten off by a shark in the
West Indies." Madam the Baroness made sure that she was
getting passage at a low cost, could have accommodations to suit
her and could pay on arrival in Quebec. (If she drowned let him
just try to collect!)

Lord Germain gave Mr. Watson a letter of marque for his
merchant ship and two officers with sixty men to protect her. In
other words, the vessel became a privateer and Lord Germain
assured Madam Riedesel that this made everything much safer
for her. The owner promptly bought up the most valuable cargo
he could lay hands on, for here was a venture almost sure to make
money. He was so pleased to have his merchantman armed that
he took the Baroness on a tour of the ship, which was "large and
spacious," and he "immediately arranged everything just as I
wished," she said. Mr. Watson summoned Captain Arbuthnot
and crew and told them that "whoever should offend me might
expect the same punishment as though he had offended the



72              The Baroness and the General

owner." Anyone she complained of would be fired. This was very
flattering, but it did not please the captain overmuch.

In a glow of pleasure over her good fortune, Madam Riedesel
wrote to Mrs. Foy and invited her to share the voyage. "I knew
it would please my husband" she said. "She accepted and all
past misunderstandings were forgiven and forgotten. We met at
Portsmouth and on the 15th of April we went on board of our
ship."

Mrs. General had a long list of articles her husband had asked
her to buy and bring to him. First in importance of course were
the wines. He required the best Madeira and bought it by the
pipe, which was a cask containing about 126 gallons. Banker
Watson was very helpful in seeing about this. Then there were
the limes to eat so that she and the children should not have
scurvy. Mr. Watson provisioned his ship unusually well and this
was great good fortune, because the Baroness had heard horrible
tales of "officers" actually running short of food and having to
eat soldiers' or sailors' rations. "Unpacking, setting the cabin to
rights," trying to make sure that everything she or the children
might want, on the voyage could be found easily, Frederika was
"very busy the entire evening before the ship set sail."

The man-of-war Blonde was in charge of the convoy, but Burgoyne
was not on board. He had sailed earlier, on the Apollo. This
second convoy left Portsmouth April 16 with thirty sail. They
headed for St. Helena to rendezvous with the man-of-war Porpoise
for additional protection, because although no one had told the
Baroness the Americans were all too successful at sea, their
privateersmen playing havoc with British shipping. At first everyone
was seasick and it surprised Mrs. General to discover that she
felt worse while the ship was tossing at anchor, waiting for a
favorable wind, than when actually under sail.

By the nineteenth of April, 1777, "we passed Plymouth under
a fine breeze," Mrs. General said. "Everyone was well again and



                    Winter in London                    73

we danced on deck." In her capacity as owner's representative,
she had discovered and commandeered from among the soldiers
or the crew "a capital fifer and three drummers." But the breeze
blew into a gale, winds were "contrary," and seas ran high for
the next four days.

"I believe there is nothing better for seasickness than to be
right busy," said the Baroness. Her servants were "nearly the
sickest of all," and, as she could not bear to see her children
"without care," she staggered out of her berth, "washed and
dressed them, afterwards, myself," and went out on deck. The
fresh air was of course the best antidote, the ship's cook seems
to have been a good sailor, and "every day we had four and often
five and six dishes that were right well prepared."

So many people had talked to the Baroness about the terrors
of an Atlantic voyage that she felt almost guilty when she found
herself enjoying it. "I know not whether it was the hope of so
soon seeing my husband that gave me good spirits but I had not
the least repentance of having undertaken the journey," she said.
Her servants were frightened and she would have sent them back
if she could, but when she asked the children if they wanted to go
back they said, " 'Oh, no. We will cheerfully be sick if we can
only reach our father."

There was a church service on deck on the twenty-seventh of
April and it touched Frederika's heart to see "the entire ship's
crew kneel down" and to hear the fervency with which they
prayed." By evening she knew why they had prayed so hard. The
wind shifted and the "ship staggered so dreadfully" that she
"often fell down." The following Sunday the seas ran so high
that there was no church service and the crew were kept
constantly at work handling the sails.

Somehow the convoy managed to stay together, and when there
was calm weather "all were delighted and paid visits to the
different ships." One hundred and thirty-four German reinforcements
were aboard the Henry, which sailed alongside and dipped



74              The Baroness and the General

her colors to the Baroness Riedesel Men lined her rail and
shouted "Long live the General's wife! Long live the General!"
At which Mrs. General was so delighted that she held up the
children for the men to see and cried "Long live all of you!"
The men shouted, "Hurrah, hurrah!"

Now the German chaplain led the men in a glorious Lutheran
hymn. "My whole heart stirred within me" said the Baroness.

The man-of-war Porpoise came alongside almost every day to
inquire for the health of Mrs. General. The captain had been a
lieutenant on the Pallas when General Riedesel sailed on her the
previous year. The General had promised to speak a good word
for him and here he was, with the command.

Wind freshened or turned slack, wind was contrary or rose to
gale strength as day after day went by. When fog blew in "it was
necessary in the night to blow trumpets." It rained, and by the
middle of May it was cold most of the time. The captain of the
Blonde, a new one evidently, "had never been in this region
before" and discovered that "he had run too far northerly by some
five hundred sea miles." They would have to "wait for a north
wind" to take them to the banks of Newfoundland.

The ship Silver Eel lost her mainmast and "in the night of May
23 the man-of-war Porpoise separated" from them. At St. Helena,
where the convoy had waited for the Porpoise, there must have
been some transfer of cargo because the Baroness worried over
the missing ship: "My entire baggage and my husband's wine and
regimentals were on board that ship," she said. But both the
Silver Eel and the Porpoise caught up with the convoy on May 30.

They "arrived without mishap" off the Grand Banks and the
ship's cook caught a big cod. Everyone was hungry for fresh food
by this time, and the cook made a great ceremony of preparing
to present his codfish to the Baroness Riedesel. Tempers had worn
thin, however, and the captain of the vessel actually so far forgot
himself as to snatch the fish out of the cook's hands and throw



                    Winter in London                    75

it into the sea. It seems he had wanted that cod to give to Mrs.
Foy,

"I gave the good man a guinea for his kind intention" said
Frederika. Everyone not on duty was fishing from the deck by
now, but no more cod were caught

Apparently the Porpoise had been sailing so close that the
captain's childish performance had been observed. "I had my
triumph" said Frederika, "when, soon after, the captain of the
Porpoise sent me four codfish bound on a board, to which someone
had fastened a string for safety in case our captain should
throw them overboard. I treated the whole ship's crew to them,
as if nothing had happened." Coals of fire were her favorite
weapon on many occasions, and this time the captain "seemed
ashamed of his rudeness." Before long, codfish, though still
esteemed a delicacy, were in good supply. On May 29 the Blonde
caught "one hundred fish, a large proportion of them cod"

The Baroness was already sorry that she had invited Hannah
Foy to share the voyage. Madam Foy's conduct with the ship's
captain amazed and shocked the virtuous Mrs. General, who,
nevertheless, seemed to think that Hannah's reasons for it made
sense. Because of "her old intimacy with the captain of our ship,
Mrs. Foy dared not refuse him those liberties to which he had
formerly been accustomed," Frederika said.

That Hannah Foy had again become the captain's mistress was
bad enough. But Hannah's maid was "a most beautiful creature"
who came along "solely for the sake of leaving a country where
she was already too well known and in order to find among the
sailors such licentious friends as she was best pleased with."

The voyage had not long been in progress when it was
discovered that someone was stealing the captain's wine. "My poor
jaeger, Rockel, was accused of it," Madam Riedesel said, and she
"felt deeply for this honest man." But "the true culprit was


76              The Baroness and the General

discovered one night when the ship gave a sudden lurch" which
knocked down Nancy, Mrs. Foy's maid, who was carrying off two
bottles. The bottles crashed; the girl gave "a loud scream which
brought every one to her on the run"

There was an outer cabin, just beyond Madam Riedesel's cabin
door, "where the maid and her lover were conducting themselves
wantonly" one night. The helmsman and "other under officers"
broke up the party and then came to the Baroness. They promised
to post a guard over the outer cabin "every Saturday night a
time when "it was the ship's fashion to spend the evening
drinking healths to wives and sweethearts."

The "helmsman and under officers" had wives and children
with them aboard ship, and the Baroness had shared her meals
with these women and children. She thought this was the reason
that the men had rallied to protect her.

The convoy of thirty ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence
on the third day of June. "It was the birthday of my husband,"
wrote Frederika. "My heart was filled with a mixture of joy and
sadness and with a longing to see him, to hold him in my arms
and to deliver over to him our dear children."



              7
              
                Winter in Canada



GENTLEMAN Johnny Burgoyne doubtless gave plausible
reasons for going back to London other than the real one,
which was to cut the ground out from under Carleton. Certainly
the winter quartering of the troops in Canada was beneath
Burgoyne's notice, but Riedesel was just the man for the job. He
marched and countermarched the troops according to Carleton's
orders, seeing that they were provisioned on their way and
sheltered on arrival. The arrangements were more for the benefit of
the inhabitants than the soldiers, Riedesel saw, but he realized
that Carleton had a problem. Many people had sympathized with
the Americans and there was no harm in winning them back by
kindness, although force would be used if necessary.

The Brunswickers finally settled down in small villages along
the Richelieu River between Chambly and Sorel, or along the
south shore of the St. Lawrence in the direction of Quebec, the
Regiment Riedesel being across the St. Lawrence at Three Rivers.
Captain Pausch, artillerist, went to Montreal with his gunners.

Wherever possible, Riedesel commandeered public buildings in
a village and made them into barracks. This was so that no
private family should have more than four soldiers quartered with
them, but families suspected of having helped the Americans got
extra German soldiers.



77



78              The Baroness and the General

Village or parish government was something new to Germans
and they wrote letters home describing this remarkable system.
Each town had a captain of militia, and a large town might have
two. But the part the Germans found hard to understand was
that these captains "have no advantage over their fellows ...
they work like the rest, dress the same" and receive their office
by election. "Their office is more burdensome than lucrative"
because militia captains must "provide quarters for soldiers
marching through, get vehicles required by the passing regiments, draft
inhabitants who may be requisitioned by the generals for labor
or teaming, look out for delivery of supplies requisitioned, see
that letters of one general to another pass from parish to parish.
... The government relies on these captains of militia ... and
holds them responsible for whatever happens in their parishes....
If there are many refractory people in a parish, their cattle are
taken away, their fires quenched and the roofs of their houses
torn down a very severe punishment, because the inhabitants
usually have large families which they love dearly.... The houses
of several rebels who are at present with the hostile army may
be utterly demolished pretty soon...."

In front of the captain's house there was always "a tall, peeled
pine tree" set up "with a little flag at the top." A German officer
with troops to quarter went right to the house with the flag in
front and every kind of help was efficiently forthcoming. Yet it
surprised the Germans that "Governors do not hesitate to ask
these men to their table." Here was a strange idea! How could
the election of a man by his fellow townsmen change him so
that, although born "a peasant," dressing like his friends and
working with neighbors, he was elevated to such a pinnacle that
he could eat with a "Governor"?

General Riedesel was quick to see the advantages of the system.
He treated captains of militia with the respect due their position,
and at Three Rivers during the winter he invited them to his
parties.



                     Winter in Canada                79

Canadians had the right to serve under their own officers and
this annoyed the British sent over to Canada to crush the
American rebellion. The "inhabitants," especially in Riedesel's area,
had no enthusiasm for going to war at all: they wanted to stay
home and cultivate their fields. When the recruiting officer came
along, he often found that there were no men at home. "Gone
hunting," the women would say. But there were severe measures
to be taken. Men might come home from hunting rather fast if
the roof were on fire if they happened to be hiding in the loft
under it.

General Riedesel had anticipated a grim winter, long, lonely
and cold. But the winter of 1776-1777 was so unusually warm
that it was known as "the winter of the Germans" Snow did not
come till the twenty-fourth of November. After that it snowed
hard and often, although rarely for more than twelve hours at a
time. There was snow and ice "four or five feet deep," but the sun
seemed "far warmer in Canada" than in Brunswick or Hesse-Hanau.

On the last day of December, Riedesel was invited to attend
the first anniversary of the raising of the Siege of Quebec. Several
Canadians convicted of collaborating with Americans were
marched to the cathedral with ropes around their necks. They
attended a solemn High Mass and were required to ask forgiveness
of the King, the Church and God, the alternative being that the
ropes they wore would be used to hang them. All were penitent,
"but they prayed for whom they pleased." There was a Protestant
service in the lower town a little later and at noon guns were fired
from the city walls.

Noon was also the hour of "the great banquet," where "sixty
guests ate for several hours" at the expense of Governor Carleton.
At seven in the evening the ball began. There were ninety ladies
and a hundred and fifty gentlemen, and they "danced with such
ardor that a Mr. Guilard died of apoplexy." No one paid any



80              The Baroness and the General

attention to the poor man. They just hauled him out by the heels
and went on dancing.

During the festivities at Quebec, General Riedesel met Lady
Mary or Maria Carleton, perhaps for the first time. She and her
sister, Lady Anne, had only just arrived from England. These
sisters would have been interesting to General Riedesel, if he had
known their story.

In 1770, only six years previously, Sir Guy Carleton had been
in England, where he visited the Earl of Effingham and proposed
to the Earl's second daughter, Lady Anne. She refused him,
explaining that she was already engaged to his nephew, Captain
Christopher Carleton. Much embarrassed and chagrined, Sir Guy
left the Earl's country house and went to London. But on hearing
about all this, Lady Mary, the Earl's third daughter, was said to
have exclaimed, "If an offer like that had been made to me, I
wouldn't have refused such an attractive man"

The remark was repeated to Sir Guy; he returned and proposed
to Lady Mary, who accepted. She was twenty-four and he forty-
eight.1 There were some who called Lady Mary a "little blond
doll" and said she tried to put on airs because she had been to
the Court at Versailles. General Riedesel did not like her very
well. "She is too proud," he wrote his wife. "She will not be to
your taste. But Mrs. Murray will be just the friend for you.
Everyone here who knows you says Mrs. Murray is like you which is
why she is my favorite." The General's prediction was wrong,
however. Mrs. Mich Murray, the wife of a Quebec merchant,
turned out to be no great favorite with Mrs. General, who liked
Lady Mary Carleton quite well.

General Riedesel stayed about two weeks in Quebec, and then
went back to Three Rivers to do what he could to enliven the
scene for himself and his officers in that area. He began by
celebrating the birthday of the Queen of England. There were forty
guests invited to dinner, and "Many healths were drunk in
champagne to the firing of a small cannon in front of the house.



                     Winter in Canada                81

During the afternoon and evening there was a ball with 37 ladies
present who were also at supper." An account of the occasion
was written by a young German officer who drove to the party
in a sleigh, covering about twenty-one miles in four hours he
had never before experienced such speed. The letter which he
wrote home to Germany was published, but unfortunately without
his name.

"Miss Tonnencourt," wrote this young man, "enhanced her
charm greatly by her jewels" but a girl whose name was
published only as R--e, "in her wretched cotton gown, won the
preference of many by her natural gentle charm and her fine
voice." The young lady with the jewels was the daughter of the
colonel of militia.

"Several chansons in honor of General von Riedesel have been
written and set to music and are often sung at Three Rivers," the
same young German officer wrote. Riedesel gave dinners and
dancing parties every week. "I do this partly to gain the affections
of the inhabitants" he wrote his wife, perhaps wondering what
she would say if she got news of his gaiety. The parties were "also
to give the officers a chance to indulge in innocent pleasures and
thus prevent them from visiting taverns and getting into bad
company."

The Murrays wrote to Riedesel from Quebec: "Your balls at
Three Rivers surprise everybody here and have added not a little
to the good character you had before acquired among the ladies
for they say that no other man could have brought to light thirty-
five well-dressed women at Three Rivers." At Quebec they had a
contest at the Queen's ball to see which lady's headdress was the
highest with Colonel St. Leger to measure them. "The lovely
Mrs. Johnston carried off the prize, as her head was easily three
quarters higher than any other in the room." There were also
"carioling parties" where "every person carrys his Bottle, Glass,
knife and fork and dishpan." Afterwards they would have an
informal dance at the Chateau, wrote Riedesel's friend "Mich



82              The Baroness and the General

Murray"2 It was gay in Quebec; but he would be delighted to
come to Three Rivers and bring "the beautiful Mrs. Johnston"
who was pleased with General Riedesel's invitation.

By "carioling" Mich Murray meant sleighing.3 Hardly a letter
went home to Germany that winter without some description of
Canadian "carioles." By November 16 the St. Lawrence was
frozen and carioling on the river began. The word itself was
French, meaning a light covered cart, but it was spelled by the
Germans with variations. In describing it, the Germans explained
that it was a "carriage with rockers on which were fastened iron
bands." People going carioling "are dressed entirely in furs" and
the ladies' furs were "elegant." One of the young German officers
promptly bought himself a "minx" cap which he said cost him
7½ piasters, and he had been pricing fur coats. Black martin
"without the cloth cover" would be 12 guineas, and beaver cost a
guinea a pelt, 12 pelts to the coat Everybody had "buffalo robes"
to cover their knees.

The cold might be "severe" but skies were "often quite serene
with not a cloud to be seen. Dressed in furs ... "you parade over
ice and snow amidst perhaps a hundred other carioles, painted
in the most gaudy colors, which from the great contrast of the
snow has a beautiful effect. The ice is much smoother and better
for this amusement before a snowstorm ... but yet the idea of the
water being deep enough under you to float a ship of the line,
and the ice so very transparent as fish to be seen under it, has
rather an alarming appearance to a stranger.... By order of the
government, the roads are marked out on the river" Small fir
trees were cut and set up to mark the safest ice route, and this
was another duty assigned to the captain of militia of each parish.
There were sections of the river safe for carioling early in the
season, but during "the winter of the Germans" there was no ice
bridge all the way across the St Lawrence until February.

One of the Brunswickers quartered at St. Anne crossed over
to Three Rivers and reported: "It is a strange sight for one who



                     Winter in Canada                83

drives for the first time three-quarters of a German mile across a
river and in many places sees an open, raging torrent not three
paces to the left or right of the bridge!" A bridge higher up the
river had broken, and great chunks of ice had floated downstream,
filling gaps in the newly formed ice bridge at St. Anne. "You drive
over fragments of broken bridges ... the ice seems to buckle
beneath you and sends out cracks on either side." Sometimes "you
have to rush over open rifts as broad as your hand."

Warm clothing was issued to the troops, "one pair of long
blue over-alls such as worn by sailors, which come high up above
the hips and ... fasten under the feet with a leather strap and
have five buttons on the outside of each leg from the ankle. One
large woolen cap. One capacious underjacket ... one Canadian
over-coat with cape and facings of white sheeps wool...." Blue
wool mittens were lined with corduroy. The men were grateful
but they also had to pay for the outfit, "33 shillings 9 pence"
being deducted from each man at the rate of 5 shillings a month.

The orderly books at last carried a notation concerning
"Women." "Provisions may be drawn for the Women of the different
Regiments not exceeding 16 per Battalion or 2 per Company,
but these Rations are to be accounted and paid for to the
Pay Master General in like manner for those of the Soldiers and
others." Children were not mentioned.

Riedesel paid a great deal of attention to the activities of rank
and file. For instance, there was a game they played called "ten
quills." At first he thought it was good exercise and he approved
of it. Then he discovered that ten quills was being played for
money and that some of the men were losing heavily. A soldier
hopelessly in debt attempted to desert. Sternly Riedesel ordered
that there should be no more gambling and that the money won
at ten quills must be returned.

For the most part, the men directly under Riedesel's influence
spent a cheerful, healthful winter. But Captain Georg Pausch,



84              The Baroness and the General

after seeing plenty of action at Valcour Island, was sent with his
gunners to Montreal, where he came under General Phillips.
"Everyone was obliged to be at parade at 11 o'clock A.M. the
English Artillery as well as my own" Pausch said. "The companies
formed in line at the barracks and were taken by companies to
the Parade Ground. They were obliged to run, sometimes for half,
sometimes for a whole hour" Pausch admitted that this seemed
to be good for the men, but they had never done it before; and
in spite of his efforts to encourage them, "the quick-step had no
good result except to make the spectators laugh."

Many of Pausch's men had dysentery, and in the hospital they
grew desperately melancholy. They "talked day and night of
fathers, sisters, cousins and aunts....For this disease there is
but one remedy in the world, namely peace and a speedy return,
and with this hope I comfort my sick daily," Pausch wrote. But
many men died of homesickness, he thought.

There was no means of burial in winter, and Lieutenant Thomas
Anburey, whose Travels through the Interior Parts of America
was widely read in England and has been much quoted ever since,
visited "a long room" in the hospital where the frozen bodies of
the dead were kept, pending burial.4 The men died "20 or 30" at
a time. "The superintendant of this room, an apothecary, being
a man of whimsical ideas ... had placed the dead bodies of these
poor Germans in various postures, some kneeling with books in
their hands, other sitting with pipes in their mouths, many standing
erect against the wall, and as they have their clothes on you
can scarcely at first imagine they are dead but upon nearer
approach, what with their long mustaches which are put in form,
and their ghastly countenances, you cannot picture to yourself
anything so horrible, yet at the same time so truly laughable and
ridiculous."

If Anburey's so-called sense of humor were typical of the British
that Captain Pausch was obliged to live with, it was not



                     Winter in Canada                85

surprising that he was so often angry. General Phillips gave a tea
party every afternoon, attendance by officers compulsory, it would
seem. Pausch, who had men under him unjustly jailed for incivility
to the British, often asked for fair treatment, receiving
affable promises over the teacups. But the promises were never
kept.

Of course it was understood that war had ceased for the winter,
but occasionally scouts were sent out to see what the Americans
were doing at Ticonderoga. This duty fell to Canadians and
Indians, because they knew the forest. Prisoners were brought in,
captured at the portage between Lake Champlain and Lake
George. These men pluckily told all sorts of lies about a large
force at Ticonderoga, well supplied, well clothed and fed. They
seem to have been believed.

Actually, however, "everything at the fort" held by the
Americans was in the "greatest confusion" according to Colonel
Richard Varick, twenty-three-year old aide to General Philip
Schuyler. He was at Ticonderoga in his capacity as muster master,
and although a prejudiced observer because of his loyalty to
Schuyler and his dislike of Gates, he was a methodical young man
who counted carefully. There were "600 stakes" needed to
complete the palisade and "still uncut in mid-November" The
"barracks on Mt. Independence are not half covered or chimneys
built" and "100 of Dayton's regiment, just arrived, are already
fallen sick." The commissary was particularly chaotic. Three
hundred barrels of flour arrived but the promised root vegetables,
potatoes, turnips, beets, "or Sauce as our New England brethren
term it" had not been delivered.

There was rum, however.5 "Three or four hogsheads of Rum
are and have been laying on the dock at the store under the
charge of the Centinel.... All the hogsheads are tapped, one
almost out, one half out ... the Centinel and Guard concerned.



86              The Baroness and the General

They carried it by Pails full. Captain Ross discovered it this
morning by the continual drunkenness of some of his men for two
days...."

Colonel Joseph Wood wrote to General Schuyler on November 28,
describing living conditions at Ticonderoga: "The old and
new barracks are quite full and my regt is now lying in old,
worn out tents that will scarcely keep a drop of water out. The
sod houses, as the frost and rain comes on, all moulder away, my
people fall sick every moment. What can be done? We have no
boards, with the winter coming on fast, we must perish. We have
undergone great hardships in Canada, was as Quebec, have had
hard service at every place to this and here our fatigue not less.
The men have no coats to their backs. I do solicit you, Sir, that
you use your influence to have us relieved." The men will not stay
longer than their first enlistment." Colonel Wood was not a man
who had given up, however. He could "get men to engage for the
war, if they had liberty to go home" but furlough had never been
granted. He praised his command. "They are good men. They
turn out smartly on all alarms." It is hard to blame these men
very much for stealing rum!

Most of the garrison at Ticonderoga were militia from
Vermont, New Hampshire and upper New York State. They were
organized very similarly to the Canadian militia, and they also
insisted on serving under their own officers. But instead of serving
for a year, each militia band signal up for a term of months, or
even weeks the length of time decided among themselves. They
were indispensable, but to say that they presented problems to the
high command would be to put it mildly.

When word reached Ticonderoga of General Howe's march
toward Philadelphia, the situation grew worse. On February 19,
1777, Major Francis Barber wrote to General Schuyler from the
fort: "My regiment cordially consents to remain." He spoke
strongly in their behalf: "I beg leave however to mention, as an
Argument for our removal, a circumstance peculiar to ourselves. A



                     Winter in Canada                87

great majority of this battalion have friends, family and property
suffering from the descent of the enemy upon New Jersey, and
consequently are anxiously concerned for their native Province
and very impatient under events in that quarter"

News that Washington had captured a thousand Hessians at
the Battle of Trenton on December 25, 1776, did not reach the
British in Canada for three or four months, and then it simply
was not believed. In March, Mich Murray, writing from Quebec,
told General Riedesel that there was no war news and complained
of boredom. "Our Balls, Routs etc. being over, we are becoming
dull and stupid" he said. He quoted some prices because General
Riedesel, after all the dinner parties, was out of wine. Port was
thirty-seven pounds ten shillings the pipe and Madeira was forty-
five pounds. He supposed the General would not want to buy any
at such cost.

In a letter to the Duke of Brunswick, written in French and
intended to be put into cypher, General Riedesel discussed Lord
Howe.6 "He seems to do nothing but play at cards all day long
and gambling reigns so universally in this army that most of the
officers are ruining themselves. They have pillaged frightfully and
made almost a desert out of Jersey." People were criticizing
General Howe's "too extending winter quarters" Riedesel said. "The
post of Trenton was entirely without forage"

This letter was dated May 6, 1777, and General Riedesel now
knew there had been "the disaster at Trenton." If it hadn't
happened, he thought, "the spirits of the Rebel Public would have
been so low that surely they would have got rid of their leaders
in order to submit." But their morale was now "much lifted"

General Burgoyne had just arrived in Quebec after his winter
in London, where he had finessed the command out of the hands
of Carleton. "The change of Commander in Chief of the Army
in Canada has caused much confusion" Riedesel wrote. "General
Carleton is annoyed to the point of making remarks against



88              The Baroness and the General

My Lord Germain, and he will bring public charges against him
in parliament He has written a blistering letter and has
complained to the King .... General Carleton is already getting on
badly with General Burgoyne and complains that the latter
demands impossibilities of the Province of Canada"

On June 4, 1777, the Baroness Riedesel's ship was in the lower
St. Lawrence. She saw vessels sailing towards them, but the wind
was so strong the captain could not ask them for news. Someone
said there were soldiers on board and Frederika was suddenly terrified.
Her husband's last letters had been full of optimism: the war
with the rebellious colonies was bound to be a short one anyway.
Suppose it was over and her husband was on one of those ships,
going home!

The more she thought about it, the more probable it seemed
to the Baroness that she might be left alone in a foreign land.
To calm her nerves, she took out her embroidery, which had often
proved a solace during the long voyage. She had already made
"two purses and seven caps for myself and the children," she said.
She had "finished a double night-cap" for her husband, and the
best thing to do would be to start embroidering another.

On June 11, after a voyage of almost three months, Madam
Riedesel's ship dropped anchor off Quebec. She was "shaking
with excitement." The city "appeared quite handsome" in the
distance, and it was not until later that she pronounced it "as
dirty as possible and not at all convenient because you have to
climb a great mountain in going through the streets."

Honors were not lacking. The Baroness Riedesel was "saluted
with cannon by all the ships in the harbor." At "twelve noon a
boat approached carrying twelve sailors dressed in white and
wearing silver helmets and green sashes." They had been "sent to
fetch" Mrs. General.

Before she left the ship, the captain came to ask pardon. As
the Baroness told it, he had been "seduced through his relations



                     Winter in Canada                89

with Madam Foy" and he was sorry that "he had behaved rudely"
He was especially sorry right now, because he had found out that
his crew could be "pressed" for the British navy in Quebec and
he wanted Madam von Riedesel to intercede for him so that he
could get his ship back to London. She did exactly that, and it
pleased her to be able to do him a favor.

All Frederika looked for, however, was the handsome figure of
her German General. He was not in the boat manned by the
white-clad, silver-helmeted seamen. He was not on the wharf. But
the sailors handed her a letter from her husband. On the last day
of May, he had received orders from General Burgoyne to go
forward with the army, which was once more poised on the shore
of Lake Champlain for a second thrust at Fort Ticonderoga,
northern gateway to the rebellious colonies.

Frederika was "grieved and frightened" she said, but she
resolved to follow her husband with all speed in the hope of catching
a glimpse of him before he sailed away across Champlain. "I
seated myself and my entire family in the boat" she said. And
then once more she resorted to coals of fire. "I begged permission
to take also Madam Foy and her sister. This request was granted
and I had the satisfaction of making them ashamed of the trouble
they had caused me."



              8
              
"Welcome to the Canadian Continent"



ON THE dock in the lower town, "a little canyall with one
horse" was waiting. It belonged personally to Lady Maty
Carleton, and she had sent it to bring the Baroness von Riedesel
to her house to dinner and to spend the night. A lady's calash
could carry two people or a lady and three children at the most.
There was no further opportunity for a generous gesture toward
Hannah Foy: perhaps her husband, the commissary, was there
to meet her although Madam Riedesel did not say so. And perhaps
it was this same "wife of a commissary" whom Frederika was
to meet again or perhaps another commissary's wife was a lady
of equally easy virtue.

General Riedesel had predicted that Frederika would not like
Lady Mary Carleton but such was not the case. "A small blond
woman," according to French descriptions, Lady Mary was none
the less taller than the small, vivacious Baroness. To judge by her
portraits, Lady Maria, as she now liked to be called, had a look
not so much of pride as of shyness and great reserve. Madam
Riedesel's ready smile, her friendly manner, appealed to Canada's
first lady; and Lady Maria won the heart of the Baroness by sending
a special courier to General Riedesel to tell him that his wife
had arrived safely. This message was sent when their ship was still

90



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          91

in the lower St. Lawrence; the dispatching of a carriage to the
dock was just another kindly gesture.

The Baroness called her new friend "Mrs. General Carleton"
and Her Ladyship liked it. Before long, "Mrs. General Riedesel"
found that she was to be called "Lady Fritz" in Quebec, and this
too seemed delightful. Conversation at the dinner table took a
purely feminine turn: Frederika was relieved to discover that in
Quebec, at least, no one was going to "point the finger" at her.
"They were surprised to see me dressed English-fashion" she
said, and she decided that her London dressmaker must have
been a good one for her clothes were much admired. She laughed
when they told her that they had expected to see her in "waist-
coats, short cloaks and round caps with long ear-laps." That was
what the German army women wore when they straggled off the
transports in the wake of their men the previous year. Lady Mary
and her guests had supposed that a German lady of quality would
dress the same.

Canadian women, Frederika took time to observe, were very
fond of wearing a long cloak of scarlet cloth. "The rich women
wear them of silk and without this garment they never step forth."
They also wore "a kind of worsted cap with great colored loops
of ribbon and this distinguishes the nobility from the other
classes." She was sure that "if a native woman of ordinary rank
should dare to wear such a thing, a real lady would snatch it off
her head."

Everyone was disappointed when Madam Riedesel refused to
spend the night in Quebec. But everyone understood. She must
make all possible speed up the river if she was to see her husband
again before he embarked on the lake. Ever present in her heart
was the fear that her beloved General's next campaign might be
his last, and this thought was in the hearts of all the other wives
left in Quebec. Captain Pownal of the Pallas offered to take the
Baroness, the children and the servants up the St. Lawrence that
very night on board an oared galley. He could go only as far as



92              The Baroness and the General

Point aux Trembles, where he would have to turn back; but this
was a distance of twenty miles.1

People from Lady Carleton's dinner party went along and the
Baroness mentioned a Mrs. Johnson perhaps the "Beautiful
Mrs. Johnston" of the high headdress. "We all embarked at six
in the evening on the nth of June" Frederika said. "It was a
bright moonlight night and Captain Pownal had a splendid band
of music on board." Frederika put her children to bed and then
she went on deck "where we all sat up and drank tea together"
for the rest of the night. At two in the morning the little girls,
their mother and the servants "were all set ashore."

At the village of Point aux Trembles, Mrs. General hired three
calashes. They were "a kind of light chaise," she explained, "very
small and uncomfortable but very fast." She "could not bring
[her] heart to trust one of the children to the servants" so she
tied Frederika, aged three, into one corner of her single seat, held
Caroline, now a year and three months, in her arms, and had
Augusta sit on the floor. Being over five now, Augusta was considered
by her mother to be "the most discreet," so she was told to
sit on her mother's purse and see that it didn't fly out of the little
two-wheeled carriage.

The frugal Baroness was willing to spend money if there was a
good reason for it, and she offered the drivers a bonus if they
would travel fast. "The Canadians are everlastingly talking to their
horses and called them all sorts of names," she said. Since she
understood French almost as well as German, and spoke it much
better than she did English, she talked French with her driver,
who sat on his box just in front of her, his feet on the shafts.

When not 'lashing his horse or singing, the driver kept calling
out, 'Fi donc, Madame!'" ("For shame, Madam.")

Pretending to think that the driver was talking to her, "Plaît-il?"
said the Baroness ("Beg pardon?").

"Oh, it's my horse, the little rascal," said the driver, jovially.
He applied the whip awhile, then sang. The Baroness loved to



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          93

sing, and soon she was joining in with songs of her own. It was a
bumpy, often frightening ride; but with French songs, German
songs, children's songs, and songs of the Canadian woods and the
river, the miles seemed short.

Whenever they came to a village, people ran out of their houses
to stare at the three-calash cavalcade. Then they would smile and
shout "Voilà la femme de notre cher Général!" for General
Riedesel's troops had been quartered along this road and he had
done his best to make the burden light for the country people.
"The Canadian inhabitants" Riedesel said, "behaved much better
than our peasants under similar circumstances."

On the afternoon of June 12 the little procession reached what
was probably the town of Batiscan, fifty-eight miles from Quebec.
Here the hired calash-drivers would go no farther regardless of
the amount of money offered them. Gradually it dawned on Mrs,
General that there was just no bridge across a good-sized river
which entered the St. Lawrence at this point She must now go
by water, and the boat that they showed her "was made of the
bark of a tree!"

"I offered money upon money, I begged and implored for a
calash," said Frederika, by no means over her fear of the water
for all she had just crossed the Atlantic. "The people pretended
to consider these ferries as a regular post route," and they were
right. There was a road of sorts, which took a long detour, but the
regular route from Batiscan to Three Rivers was by water. "It was
horrible weather and I had to cross three rivers which cross each
other" said the unhappy Baroness, and it never occurred to anyone
that here was a lady who had never before seen an Indian
canoe.

"Seated on the bottom of the boat in one corner, I had my
three children upon my lap while my three servants sat on the
other side," the Baroness said. "We were overtaken by a severe
hailstorm" and the three-year-old Frederika was frightened,
screamed "and wanted to jump up." And now for the first



94              The Baroness and the General

time "the boatman told me the canoe would be overturned by
even the slightest movement!" Her mother held the little girl
tightly, trying to explain, unable to calm the child, who was by
now almost hysterical. Mrs. General "tried not to mind her cries"
but she confessed rather apologetically that after this first
experience she always hated canoe travel even in good weather.

A bedraggled little group the lady mistress and two women-
servants; Rockel, who must have been longing for his coach and
horses; three wet and frightened children climbed ashore at the
town of Three Rivers that same night. Some German troops were
still stationed there, and "our officers came out and clasped their
hands over their heads," like spectators acclaiming the victory of
a prize fighter. They "shouted for joy." All of a sudden the
Baroness felt her knees begin to shake, because she "knew from
the way the officers behaved how great our danger had been."
But just to make sure that she knew, the officers told her that two
fishermen had been drowned in a canoe during that storm.

Very shortly the "Grand Vicar," social and spiritual leader of
Three Rivers, arrived to call on the Baroness. He found her and
the children drying themselves before the fire at the military
headquarters, and he sat down for a chat but not a cheerful one.
General Riedesel had been ill, he said, his illness "caused by his
distress" at having to leave winter quarters for the front without
seeing his wife and children. There had been sad rumors, too, the
Grand Vicar declared. "A lady and three children" had been
drowned while crossing the Atlantic when their ship went down
with all hands. For a long and dreadful period, General Riedesel
had not known who the lady was and thought it might be his
wife. Then the General heard that his wife had sailed from
England but had become so frightened" that she had herself "set
ashore."

After listening to all this, the Baroness "sent ahead an express
rider" to tell her husband that she and the children were on their



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          95

way. She knew he had been ill he had said so in a letter which
he left for her at Quebec. It was because he had left his window
open one night, he told her. He had left money for her in Quebec,
and some of this the usually frugal Frederika had been spending
freely for special services and a quick journey.

The bad weather continued, but Mrs. General set out again at
six in the morning. The Grand Vicar very kindly lent her his
calash. General Riedesel was said to be at Chambly, where the
old stone fort had now been repaired and served as an important
base of operations for the coming campaign. There were two ways
to get to Chambly. One was by road up the north bank of the St.
Lawrence to Montreal, and then southeast through Laprairie and
Sorel the famous Whitcomb ambush route. The other way
led across the St. Lawrence to Sorel, and then up the Richelieu
River. After her experience in a boat made of bark, it is not
surprising that the Baroness chose the Montreal route.

No matter which road a traveler chose, however, the way to
Chambly led north from Three Rivers as far as the town of
Berthier, where those taking the Sord and Richelieu River route
crossed the St. Lawrence. Lashed into whitecaps by the wind and
pockmarked by the rain, this river was the widest the Baroness
had ever seen. She drove through Berthier, thankful there was
no need to get into a tiny tossing rowboat or a canoe. The land
journey proved no pleasure jaunt, however, because the Grand
Vicar's calash went so fast that she could hardly get her breath
and it jolted so much that she had to clutch her children tightly
lest they fall out "I was completely beaten to pieces," she said,
"and at every post station where they changed the horses" she
had to get out and walk up and down because her legs were so
stiff she could hardly stand and her arms ached almost unbearably.

Having missed one entire night's sleep on leaving Quebec and
after traveling almost continuously ever since, she reached
Montreal on June 14 in the evening. Setting out very early next
morning, she arrived at Chambly on June 15.



96              The Baroness and the General

As the Baroness drove up to the little clutch of houses, cabins,
and huts that made up the town, she saw a group of Brunswick
officers and the Riedesel family coachman whom her husband had
brought from Wolfenbüttel. "I ran up to him and asked him
where my husband was," she wrote.

"He has gone to Berthier to meet you" the coachman said.

"I saw I had chosen the wrong road" she said. Mrs. General
remembered, also, that she had left no messages in Berthier. She
had just driven on, past the turn that led to the wharf. How
would the General know where she had gone? He might ride all
the way back to Three Rivers, or perhaps in the direction of
Montreal and the time was so short! Exhausted after this grueling
journey, overcome with disappointment, it seemed as though the
Baroness could not keep back her tears. But there were the
children, equally disappointed not to see their father and already
crying. There were the servants, frightened by their first glimpse
of a wide, untamed land so different from their own. And there
was "the group of officers" now crowding around and offering
sympathy. Mrs. General was a fellow officer, at least in her own
little army, and generals do not weep. Or hardly ever.

General Carleton rode up and he was kindness itself. She would
have to wait only a day, or two "at most," he told her.

"My children and my faithful Rockel kept watch on the high-
road," Frederika said. It is to be hoped that she herself tried to
get some rest Carleton was right a day passed before Riedesel
came back. But there had been no need to leave a message,
because everybody in every village remembered the German
Baroness. On June 16, "from a distance," she saw a calash coming
down the road to Chambly with a Canadian riding in it alone.
The calash stopped down the road where Rockel and the children
were posted, and the "Canadian" got out. "I saw him come nearer
and fold the children in his arms. It was my husband!" she said.

General Riedesel was thin and wasted from his illness, and
"was so cold on that warm summer day that he had wrapped himself



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          97

in a sort of cassock of woolen cloth bordered with ribbons."
Around the bottom of the coat there was a fringe, variegated
blue and red, and it looked so strange that little Frederika would
not go to her father, but cried and said, "No, no, this is an ugly
Papa; my Papa is pretty" She remembered her father only from
a miniature her mother had with her, a handsome man in a
white wig with brilliant uniform of blue and gold. Augusta "cried
for joy."

"My joy was beyond all description but my husband looked
weak and sick and this terrified me" Mrs. General said. If only
she could look after him properly: see that he ate well and
enjoyed the good wine which she had brought but most of which
she had to leave in Quebec. But here he was on the verge of
setting out on a new campaign.

General Riedesel threw off the Canadian coat, and now little
Frederika saw his uniform and felt better. "She tenderly embraced
him" The baby Caroline was seeing her father for the first time.

Riedesel had not gone all the way to Berthier, after all. At noon,
when he stopped for dinner near Sorel, some villagers said that
a woman had just arrived from Berthier. The General had an
informant brought in. "Is there any news?" he asked.

"Nothing," this village woman said, "except that a German
woman with three children has come through town. People said
she was the wife of a general."

"How many children did you say?" The woman was sure that
there were three. So General Riedesel turned back to Chambly
with a lightened heart. The fleet with which the Baroness left
England was the first to reach Quebec with letters since
navigation had been closed for the winter. Lady Maria Carleton's
message had said merely that the Baroness had arrived, without
mentioning the children, and General Riedesel had begun to worry
about his little girls.

"We remained together for two happy days" the Baroness



98              The Baroness and the General

wrote. She spoke in praise of the "good houses" with 'large
rooms" and "nice bed-curtains" in Canadian villages. It was too
bad that the partitions were so thin that you could hear
everything, but she would have been completely happy if she had been
allowed to travel with her husband, "But he would not agree to
it." So she "watched the departure of the troops against the
enemy" and then turned back along the road toward Three Rivers.
She felt "alone and deserted with [her] children, in a foreign
land among strangers." This time she traveled slowly, and "at
every post station, which carried me farther from the man I
loved, my heart seemed to break all over again," Frederika said.

At Three Rivers, Mrs, General was "sad and full of anxiety."
Almost her "only society" was the Grand Vicar and his cousin.
General Riedesel had already commended the Grand Vicar's
cousin to his wife as "a very witty young girl who, I am sure, will
please you greatly." Madam Riedesel admitted that the girl was
"good-humored and talked pleasantly" and the Grand Vicar "had
the same qualities besides being a man of intellect." But as to
their being cousins the Baroness soon learned otherwise, and
was greatly shocked by the discovery. She wrote in her journal that
it was the custom that vicars should have housekeepers whom
they called "cousins," and that "to avoid scandal" these women
went away for a while "almost every year, on account of a certain
reason." Monsieur Saint-Onge of Three Rivers never became a
bishop, although he worked hard to curry favor, she said. He
failed of preferment because he never would give up "his 'cousin,'
Miss Cabenac" or so Madam Riedesel believed.

Three Rivers was a pretty town a bit of Old France in the
New World. One small section of it, part of the Rue Notre-
Dame, survives unchanged. Low stone houses with dormer windows
to light a loft under the steep roof stand close to the roadway.
The high gable end of the Ursuline Convent rises at the
turn of the street. "Our hospital has been established here," wrote
one of the German soldiers, but this was nothing new, for the



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          99

land had been granted to the Ursulines in 1700 and they had built
their hospital soon after. The Germans found Yankees there, for
some of the American wounded taken at Three Rivers were still
in the hospital. Pay for their care was promised, the promise never
kept2

"I found among the nuns several lovely people, with whom I
spent many days" wrote Madam Riedesel. They told her that her
husband had often sent them "wine and roast meat" and she took
this gentle hint and did the same. Often she had her own dinner
carried over to the convent so that she could eat with the nuns.

The sisters saw that the friendly German lady was lonely and
anxious about her husband whom they knew and liked. So it
occurred to them to entertain her, and the Baroness thought the
wine had a little something to do with it when the nuns put on
gay peasant dresses and gave her a nun's habit to wear. Then they
"danced a dance" which she described as "cossack," and perhaps
it was, but since many of the first settlers along the St Lawrence
came from Normandy and Brittany, the dance might have been
French in origin.

It was all so entertaining that "I had my children brought in,"
the Baroness wrote. But little Augusta began to cry when she saw
her mother in a nun's habit. " 'Oh, don't become a nun' " she
sobbed, and her sister Frederika joined in. "In order to quiet my
children I had to take off my nun's habit quickly" their mother
said.

A school was connected with the convent, where "young ladies
were taught all kinds of needlework." Lieutenant Anburey, passing
through Three Rivers the previous year, observed that the
Ursulines were "the most ingenious of any in Canada, making
all kinds of fancy ornaments, needlework and curious toys."
General Riedesel had supposed that his "oldest daughters" would
go to the school, and so they did, Augusta, almost six, and
Frederika, not quite three, learning to take the first stitches in
formal needlework. This was an art essential to the education of



100              The Baroness and the General

a gentlewoman, its traditions taught from generation to generation.

The Ursuline sisters spoke a beautiful though already slightly
archaic French, but the Riedesel little girls seem to have learned
none. They spoke English perfectly, however, and their father
proudly wrote to the Duke of Brunswick that his children "were
everywhere taken for English"

The whole Riedesel family often went to services at the convent.
Behind their curtain which concealed the choir from the nave
of their church, the nuns sang "so beautifully" that the Baroness
could believe she was "listening to the song of angels."

Governor Carleton's headquarters had formerly been at Three
Rivers, but Government House had now been turned into a barracks
and the Governor lived in Quebec. He owned a comfortable
private house in Three Rivers, however, which he had turned over
to General Riedesel for his headquarters the previous winter. "You
will find my quarters vacant and prepared for you," the General
had written in one of the letters his wife found waiting for her in
Quebec. "You will find a tolerable garden arranged so you can
walk in it"

Wherever he went, General Riedesel planted a garden, even
when he had no reason to suppose he would be quartered in one
place long enough to reap a harvest.3 Many of the German rank
and file did the same, and he always encouraged them, but the
British seem to have looked down on such activities. As the
Baroness strolled through her husband's garden she thought of
home, for it was laid out European-fashion with a broad gravel
walk down the center and narrower grass paths leading out at
right angles among precisely oblong beds. The General always
indulged himself with a few flowers, but for the most part he
planted vegetables and his wife marveled that they grew so well
in a land which she had been taught to think of as cold and desolate.
She rejoiced because she would be able to have food at low



            "Welcome to the Canadian Continent"          101

cost. "Meat, fowl and milk you can have in abundance" the General
had written her and this, too, she found to be true. The cost
of living was "less than half that in Quebec" just as her husband
said.

But at first there was trouble about money. "The officer who
had been left behind at Three Rivers was not amiable" was the
way Madam Riedesel put it. She referred to Godecke, paymaster
for the Brunswick troops. During her brief visit with her husband,
General Riedesel had given his wife signed orders so that she
could draw upon Godecke. Accordingly she "presented him with
an order" from her husband for "one hundred fifty pounds
sterling." Godecke refused to honor it.

" Is my husband in debt?' " the Baroness asked.

"'Oh, no'" Godecke admitted. "'He has considerable balance.' "
But General Riedesel might be killed any day now, and
the paymaster thought he ought not to take any chances. He would
hate to get in trouble with the Duke of Brunswick for disbursing
the funds of a dead man.

"I was exceedingly provoked," said the Baroness, and this was
probably an understatement. She told the paymaster that even if
her husband was dead she was entitled to a quarter of his yearly
allowance.

"True," replied Godecke, "but how about your passage back?"
He said this with a sneer, the Baroness thought, and she told him
she would never speak to him again. The English paymaster gave
Mrs. General the money and told her she could draw on him any
time.

This accommodation was greatly appreciated because Captain
Arbuthnot, who had brought the Baroness across the Atlantic,
had gone to Montreal in behalf of the shipowner, Banker Watson,
to buy furs. He had promised to buy some for the Baroness and
sell them for her in London. Now that he was indebted to her for
keeping the navy's hands off his crew, she knew he would prove a
good agent. He was due back any time and she wanted to pay



102              The Baroness and the General

him for the furs. Indications are that Madam's venture in
Canadian furs turned out very well.

Meanwhile, the Baroness wrote her husband about Godecke's
scornful treatment, and the General sent his paymaster such a
scorching letter that the fellow came crawling to Madam, full
of "obsequious apologies" She promptly forgave him, and later
when he was ill she sent him delicacies from her table. Someone
told her that Godecke's letters home were so full of praise of her
that his wife was jealous.

General Riedesel wrote to his wife daily, but letters were often
long in reaching her. "It is certain that we are more afraid of
danger to those we love, if they are absent, than if they are near
us" she said, and she worried about her husband constantly.



              9
              
                Second Thrust



ONCE General Burgoyne had concluded with Lord Germain
that a second thrust across Lake Champlain would bring
a quick victory over the Americans, there was no time to lose.
Gentleman Johnny sailed for Quebec to take the command away
from Governor Carleton before Carleton could advance and win
the laurels for himself.

Although everything seemed to be coming his way, there were
one or two details that Burgoyne did not like. He was not to be
commander-in-chief until he crossed the border from Canada into
the Province of New York. And as soon as he met Howe in
Albany, and proceeded with him to New York City, Howe
would outrank him. Promotions made by Burgoyne in his own
army would be scrapped and the men demoted, once they joined
Howe. Burgoyne decided not to tell this to any of the officers
whose rank he had raised.

General Riedesel was not happy about starting the new campaign
without word from Howe. He felt that it was essential
to "establish communications with Howe" but, as he wrote
the Duke of Brunswick early in June, "Burgoyne judges somewhat
hastily and carries out the plan of the ministers. His predecessor

103



              The Baroness and the General               104

[Sir Guy Carleton] went to work more carefully but safely and
made no plan until he was convinced it could be carried out. The
results will show who was right in the present situation."

Howe had never received official orders from London to effect
a junction with Burgoyne at Albany.1 The story of what
happened comes from two sources: Lord Shelburne, famous for his
attitude of conciliation towards the colonies, and William Knox,
undersecretary in the colonial department. In a memorandum,
Lord Shelburne wrote that "although it might appear incredible"
Germain had been on his way to spend a weekend in
the country when he called at his office to sign dispatches. The
dispatch for Howe had not yet been "fair-copied" and he did not
want to wait for it. On Germain's return to London, the Howe
dispatch was forgotten and never sent.

The historian, Sir George Trevelyan, did not believe this story.
He said that there were so many clerks and secretaries in the war
office that such a mistake could not have happened. But a
plethora of clerks and secretaries can cause accidents fully as
frequently as they can prevent them. William Knox left a notation
among his manuscripts that there was "certainly a weak spot" in
Germain's defense, "which was the want of an official communication
to Howe of the plan and Burgoyne's instructions, with
orders for his co-operation."

It is a dramatic story: Lord George Germain's horses waiting
at the door; His Lordship dashing out and jumping into his carriage,
off for a jolly weekend; the clerks hurrying away to their
own hard-earned holiday not fair-copying orders that might
have changed the course of history. But the fact remains that
eventually Howe knew that Burgoyne was coming down the
Hudson and expected strong support. Washington's secret service,
nonexistent at the beginning of the American Revolution, had
been improving daily but it was never able to stop all messengers
from Canada. Lacking "official orders," Howe continued to



                     Second Thrust                 105

enjoy himself in New York with Mrs. Loring,2 the wife of his
Commissary of Prisoners. The commissary himself was having a
good time too, getting rich.3 It was said that he "caused the death
of two thousand" American prisoners of war by starving them and
selling the food intended for their use.

General Riedesel, although understandably critical of the
British, assumed that Howe was at least getting on with the
campaign. "In spite of our delays, in spite of inexpert movement"
made by the British, he told the Duke of Brunswick that "if
General Howe has crossed the Delaware, he will take away the
slight advantage the rebels have" as a result of the Battle of
Trenton. "If we are so fortunate as to push through to Albany in
the month of August, I think the business will be ended entirely
this year. But I don't think we will be in Germany in 1778. I
admit," Riedesel added, "that intrigues and misunderstandings so
obvious as to be publicized distress me greatly and I fear to find
much disagreement after we join with General Howe's large
army."

Burgoyne left Canada with 8581 men 4135 British, 3116
Germans, 830 Canadians and 500 "savages."4 Orders were to
"march to Crown Point in two columns, the Germans on the left,
the English on the right, Canadians and Savages making up the
advance guard...." It would be technically speaking a march,
but one hundred miles of extremely rugged country lay between
the Canadian border and Ticonderoga so that most of the army
were going to get a boat ride. Coming out of winter quarters on
the St. Lawrence, in Montreal and near Sorel, the army made its
way up the Richelieu River and converged upon Cumberland
Head, a level peninsula about twenty-five miles north of the
present Plattsburg.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger was sent out
along the Mohawk River on a "secret" mission that everybody
seemed to know about. With a detachment of two hundred and



106              The Baroness and the General

eighty British, three companies of Canadian Volunteers and all
the Indians they could get hold of, this expedition was to take
Fort Schuyler, induce the neutral Indians (known to be friendly
to the Americans) to join them, and enter the Hudson by the
portage where the Mohawk made its seventy-foot fall. They would
then escort the victorious Burgoyne into Albany at least
according to plan.

Ever since reaching Quebec, Burgoyne had been working on his
"Proclamation" or "Manifesto." This was designed to bring all
American Tories flocking to his banner and to strike terror into
the hearts of the "froward and stubborn generation" of rebels.
He began with the recitation of his titles and honors: By John
Burgoyne Esq'r; Lieut. Gen'l of His Majesties Armies in America,
Col. of the Queens Regt. of Light Dragoons, Governor of Fort
William in North Britain, one of the Representatives of the
Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, and Commanding an
Army and Fleet employed on an expedition from Canada, &c.,
&c., &c.

On the morning of June 19, General Burgoyne reviewed his
troops at Cumberland Head. Splendidly attired in scarlet and
gold, he read them his Proclamation:

"The Forces entrusted to my command are designed to act in
concert and upon a common principle with the numerous Armies
and Fleets which already display in every quarter of America the
power, the justice (and when properly sought) the mercy of the
King..."

The present "Rebellion," Burgoyne said, would, unless put
down, be "made a foundation for the completest system of tyranny
that God in his displeasure" ever allowed. "To the profanation of
Religion," the rebels "added the most profligate prostitution of
common reason ..." Carried away by his own eloquence,
Burgoyne asserted that there were "multitudes compelled not only to



                     Second Thrust                 107

bear Arms but to swear subjection to the usurpation they abhor"
In the tiny towns and hamlets where this printed "Proclamation"
circulated, Americans would be amused to hear themselves called
"multitudes"

"Animated by these considerations, at the head of Troops in
full power of health, discipline and Valour" Burgoyne was
"determined to strike when necessary, and anxious to spare when

possible With the blessing of God," he was going "to extend

[his army] far" and he wanted "to assure the domestick, the
industrious, the infirm and even the timid inhabitants" that he was
"desirous to protect" them "provided they remain quietly in their
Houses; that they do not suffer their Cattle to be removed, nor
their Corn or forage to be secreted or destroyed; that they do not
break up their Bridges or Roads, nor by any other acts, directly
or indirectly endeavour to obstruct the operations of the King's
Troops ..."

Burgoyne promised to pay for "every species of Provision
brought" to his camp "at an equitable rate in solid Coin." He
did not say how the inhabitants were to get through his advance
guard of Indians in order to bring provisions. Burgoyne himself
had yet to learn what a problem his Indians were going to present
But he now got around to discussing what he would do to those
"inhabitants" who disregarded his remarks. They were not to
think they were "too far away from the immediate situation" of
his camp. "I have but to give stretch to the Indian Forces under
my direction (and they amount to Thousands) to overtake the
hardened Enemies of Great Britain and America (I consider them
the same) wherever they may lurk."

After many a sonorous sentence, Burgoyne concluded by assuring
the "unnatural rebels" that if "the phrenzy of hostility should
remain," he would "stand acquitted in the Eyes of God and Men
in denouncing and executing the Vengeance of the state against
the wilful outcasts." The messengers of justice and of wrath



108              The Baroness and the General

"awaited them in the Field" and "devastation, famine, and every
concomitant of horror" awaited their families at home.

Copies of Burgoyne's Proclamation passed from hand to hand
among the colonies. It would be a long time before he learned
what the reaction was if he ever did. Never could he have
understood it. But the Americans laughed long and loud; satires
and parodies began appearing in the newspapers with that opening
paragraph concerning Burgoyne's titles bringing forth the
most derision. In the New York Journal for September 8, 1777,
William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey, poked fun at
Burgoyne as follows:

By John Burgoyne and Burgoyne John, Sir,

And grac'd with titles still more higher,

For I'm lieutenant-general too

Of Georgie's troops both red and blue

On this extensive continent,

And of Queen Charlotte's regiment

Of eight dragoons the colonel,

And Governor eke of Castle Will,

And furthermore when I am there

In house of commons there appear,

(Hoping ere long to be a Peer)

Being a member of that virtuous band

Who always vote in North's command,

Directing too the fleets and troops

From Canada as thick as hops,

And all my titles to display

will end with thrice et cetera.5

Governor Livingston was not much of a poet but these were
grim days, and a measure of a people's courage was that they
could laugh.

Burgoyne graciously acknowledged the cheers of his troops as



                     Second Thrust                 109

he finished reading his Proclamation, and then, to the booming
of cannon, the blaring of trumpets and the unfurling of flags, he
went aboard the Lady Mary.

General Riedesel embarked next day, but without the fanfare.
He had his troops "ready at the appointed time" good organizer
that he was. Provisions to last the whole army for six weeks were
ready, according to Burgoyne's orders, and all heavy baggage had
been left behind. This was to be a quick summer campaign and
no one would need warm clothes.

Lake Champlain itself set aside Riedesel's careful plans, at
least for a day. "A violent wind arose and blew furiously, the
waves beat angrily on the shore" Far out on the lake "Burgoyne's
ship and those which set out along with him could be seen from
the shore to be in constant danger." Riedesel, with smaller vessels
and cumbersome bateaux, "made several attempts to round
Point de Ligonier" but failed and "the flotilla" was finally ordered
to come about. They reached their campground on Cumberland
Head and managed to get ashore safely. Next day they started
out all over again. This time the weather seemed favorable at
first, but a thunderstorm came sweeping over the lake and
hailstones beat upon the soldiers and their wives and children. There
was no shelter in the open boats. The storm was followed by such
a thick fog that the "musicians" there were 102 of them were
ordered to beat drums to help the fleet keep together. No one had
a reliable chart of these waters, however, and drumming was
certainly no protection against hidden reefs and the many small
islands that suddenly loomed ahead in this treacherous lake.

At the end of three hours the wind rose again and now they
were too far from Cumberland Head to come about and seek
shelter. Women and children bailed the boats, while soldiers
rowed and thanked their stars they had learned to row the previous
year. They showed "skill with the rudder" Riedesel said; but
five vessels were driven off course and presumed lost. They had



110              The Baroness and the General

managed to land on a little island appropriately called "Four
Winds" and eventually they found their way to the west shore
of Champlain at the mouth of the Bouquet River, where Riedesel
and the rest of his "flotilla" were safely anchored.

At the Bouquet River, the army stopped to "bake bread to last
four days" and to catch salmon. There was a ferry here and a
small settlement called Willsboro. It had been founded by
William Gilliland who bought up soldiers' land grants after the
French and Indian War and planned to establish a manor. His
letters to General Schuyler expressed sympathy with the American
cause, but in such flowery terms as to seem two-faced, and Arnold
removed him from his lands "to protect him" and keep him
from helping the British.

At the Bouquet River encampment, Burgoyne made another
of his speeches this time to the Indians. After considerable
preamble about "the great King our common father," he told the
"savages" that they were "too sagacious and too faithful to be
deluded or corrupted" by such people as the Americans, and that
they "now burned to vindicate the violated rights of the parental
power" they loved. Just what the interpreter made of this it
would be interesting to know. It seems improbable that all of
these words had an Indian equivalent but the speech continued,
paragraph after paragraph. John Burgoyne, playwright and member
of Parliament, was in his element; and with appropriate gestures
he pointed first to the British, then to the German officers,
"chiefs of His Majesty's European forces and of the Princes of
his Allies." Toward the end he got around to the subject of
scalping.

"In conformity and indulgence to your customs, which have
affixed an idea of honour to such badges of victory," General
Burgoyne told the Indians, "you will be allowed to take the scalps
of the dead when killed by your fire or in fair opposition, but on
no account or pretense or subtlety or prevarication are they to be
taken from the wounded or even from the dying."



                     Second Thrust                 111

But there were exceptions. "Base, lurking assassins, incendiaries,
ravagers and plunderers of the country, to whatever army they
belong, shall be treated with less reserve" If the Indians
understood any of this at all, here was carte blanche. They shouted
"Etow Etow" at intervals. Burgoyne ordered rum for the
Indians and they had a war dance.

The Indians proceeded to burn the houses and mills at Willsboro.
They plundered the farms, slaughtered the cattle, taking a
flank or two of beef to roast over the campfire and leaving the rest
for the crows. Gilliland wrote a very unhappy letter to Schuyler
asking to be indemnified, because he had lost an income of over
a thousand pounds a year by being taken from his home and sent
to Albany.6 Apparently he felt he came under the heading of
"domestick, industrious, infirm and even timid inhabitants," and
that Burgoyne would have given him protection.

No farmers "properly seeking the Mercy of the King" came in
with provisions, horses and cattle to be exchanged for "solid coin,"
and this must have surprised the General. He sent "a large detachment
of Savages and Rangers up Otter Creek to bring in forage."
About ten days later a notation in Burgoyne's orderly book tells
its own story. "No private persons are to buy horses from the
Savages as they are destined for the public use of the army."
No one asked the Indians any questions about where they got
the horses they were selling; they must have found some "base
lurking assassins" who had some.

One thousand five hundred horses had been bought in Canada.
They "were ordered to be sent overland" to Crown Point, but
there was no continuous road only a series of cart tracks with
here and there a section of corduroy laid down by some of
Gilliland's tenants. A road of sorts led along the shore of the lake
to a distance of a few miles beyond Plattsburg, but then the
foothills of the Andirondacks intervened and the track detoured far
inland. Weeks went by and finally only a small proportion of his
herd of horses was ever seen again.



112              The Baroness and the General

The army traveled light but German dragoons usually wore
"leather pantaloons, high boots, long gauntlets and immensely
heavy hats.... They carried short, thick guns7 and wore huge
sabers on a belt." Brunswick "jack-boots weighed 12 lbs the pair"
and it was said that the hat and saber alone weighed more than
an English soldier's whole equipment. But all this was of no
consequence usually because a dragoon was a man who rode a
horse. Riedesel made his men as comfortable as he could by ordering
"long linen trousers, striped blue and white" somewhat like
those worn by the French Canadians in summer.8 But his dragoons
still needed horses and where were they? General Riedesel had
at most not more than two, brought by water, and the other officers
sometimes had only one. The increasingly unhappy dragoons,
awkward on foot and the laughingstock of the British foot soldiers,
had none. Real difficulty for lack of horses was yet to come,
because the artillery was useless without them.

But on went the Indian advance guard to Crown Point. They
"surprised a detachment of the enemy, killed ten and captured
an equal number, whom they scalped." Burgoyne gave orders that
the inhabitants around Crown Point should be "treated with great
consideration" but it was a little late for that.

Crown Point is a long peninsula reaching far out from the
western shore of Lake Champlain as though to touch hands with
another point of land coming from the eastern side. This spot,
with its narrow water passage, had long been a French trading post
with imposing Fort St. Frederick on one side and a barracks with
many chimneys on the other, giving it the name of "Chimney
Point." In 1759, the French blew up Fort St. Frederick at the
approach of Lord Amherst leaving, however, plenty of cut
limestone in usable blocks ready to hand. With these Lord Amherst
built a fort which he named for himself and located west of St.
Frederick in a position to guard Bullwaga Bay, where ships could
take shelter. Ramparts twenty feet thick still stand, overlooking
a deep ditch quarried out of bedrock. Grass grows over the great



                     Second Thrust                 113

walls and only a footpath leads through what was once a gateway.
Within, a wide parade ground comes suddenly into view with two
gaunt, gray stone buildings standing roofless, their empty windows
like the eye sockets in a skull. Lord Amherst's fort was never
completed according to his plan, and in 1773 it caught fire and
the powder magazine blew up. General Carleton had urged that
the fort be repaired, but in 1775 it was held by only a corporal and
eight men. It fell to Ethan Allen and his "hundred odd" Green
Mountain Boys and to Benedict Arnold with his Connecticut
recruits each American leader claiming command and credit
at the expense of the other. Retreating Americans, in their efforts
to destroy the fort at Crown Point, had left it roofless and
windowless, and so it remained. But General Burgoyne found it a
comfortable spot to camp in summer.

On June 25, 1777, "the Fleet proceeded to Crown Point where
we came to anchor," Lieutenant James Murray Hadden noted in
one of the memorandum books he carried. "Thursday, June 26,
Generals Burgoyne, Phillips and Riedesel came up with the army."

"Magazines were erected at Crown Point," said General
Riedesel. "The transport ships were unloaded and returned to
St. Johns for more provisions and more ammunition." Heavy
artillery had still to arrive.

On June 30, in another of his speeches, Burgoyne made his
famous statement, "This Army must not retreat." Next morning
the troops embarked for Ticonderoga. Lake Champlain was "in a
manner covered with Boats or Bateaux ... the Music and Drums
of the different Regiments were continually playing."

In gala mood, Burgoyne's invincible troops advanced, landed
and encamped near Fort Ticonderoga. They were annoyed to
find the "ground wooded with no roads. The Indians, getting
drunk, advanced too near the Enemy," said Hadden. "This folly
terminated in an officer being sent to bring them off, in doing
which he was wounded; one Savage killed and another wounded."



114              The Baroness and the General

This was not quite the way in which Burgoyne intended the siege
to begin, and on the third of July he gave out orders, headed
"Camp near Ticonderoga":

"It being very apparent that Liquor is sold or given to the
Savages, notwithstanding the positive and repeated orders to the
contrary, the Commanding officers are to assemble the Suttieis
and Women of the respective Regiments and inform them that
the first person found guilty of disobedience shall instantly have
their liquors and their suttling stores destroyed and be turned
out of camp, besides receiving such corporal punishment as a
court martial shall inflict."

The next day was July 4. A "feu de joi" was heard coming
from Fort Ticonderoga, but the besiegers had no idea why there
was a thirteen-gun salute, or that the Americans were celebrating
what they called their 'Independence Day" British and German
"artificers" were "making a road to the top of a high Mountain
called Sugar Loaf Hill."



              10
              
                Within the Walls



WHEN Fort Ticonderoga was taken from the British during
the night of May 9-10, 1775, it gave a tremendous lift to
the hearts of Americans. The English still held Boston, and the
Battle of Bunker Hill was still to be fought. Washington had not
yet taken formal command of the Continental Army at Cambridge,
but this amazing victory on Lake Champlain showed
what colonists could do. Since Ethan Allen with his Green
Mountain Boys and Benedict Arnold with his men from Connecticut
had taken the fort, New Englanders rather looked upon the place
as their own. And then, only six weeks later, Philip Schuyler was
commissioned major general in the Northern Department.
Ticonderoga was his.

Command of an ill-fated expedition to Canada fell to Schuyler
in July, 1775, and he soon saw that supply would be the
insurmountable problem. During his frantic efforts to provision
troops on their long march he was stricken with a severe attack
of gout, and so did not set out with the men. When the expedition
collapsed and the routed army with its sick and wounded
retreated, Washington sent Horatio Gates, commissioned major
general after the evacuation of Boston, to see what could be done
to rally the men. Gates thought he had just been given the
Northern Department, and it was a bitter blow to his pride when



116              The Baroness and the General

he received news that he commanded only in Canada. The remnant
of the army was already south of the border. The fact that
Schuyler had never gone to Canada was held against him,
especially in New England where Gates was popular, and Gates
lingered at Ticonderoga hoping that his friends in Congress would
give him Schuyler's place.1

Gates was the highest ranking officer at Ticonderoga when
Carleton appeared on Lake Champlain in October, 1776. Arnold
sailed under his orders, and it was only after the American fleet
was destroyed that Gates remembered that he had told Arnold
not to sail too far north. He now declared that Carleton had
"fled," and many believed this, including himself. He had
announced that he would not serve under Schuyler, and on November
18, 1776, the garrison at Ticonderoga saw him "finally going
off" on his way to Congress, which he found in Baltimore and
followed to Philadelphia. During February, Washington offered
him his old job of adjutant general, but Gates would have none
of it. He wanted the Northern Department, and he planned to
get it by means of intrigue.

Philip Schuyler might almost be said to have inherited the
Northern Department. He was the eldest son in the fourth
generation of Dutch settlers, and the owner of thousands of acres of
land near Saratoga, in the Mohawk River area and along the
Hudson. There were more Indians than white settlers among the
forests legally belonging to Schuyler and as a young man he had
been sent to trade and live among them. He wrote with youthful
fervor of "eyes like an Indian beauty" and an elderly relative
explained that "chiefs, to express their gratitude, had exchanged
names with Philip Schuyler." The pious old lady recalled that
"several Indians assumed his surname."

Schuyler's marriage to "sweet Kitty V. R." was equally pleasing
to the Van Rensselaer family and his own, and their marriage was
blessed with fourteen children. General Schuyler spoke Dutch,
as did older members of his and his wife's family; and his French,



                     Within the Walls                  117

learned as a boy while studying with a Protestant clergyman in
New Rochelle, New York, was correct and elegant. Although a
linguist, Schuyler's bent was for mathematics. His family trained
him to be a merchant and he delighted in trade. If high social
position and inherited wealth had been all that went into the
making of a Tory, Schuyler would never have joined the struggle
for American Independence. But it was restraint of trade which
caused him to catch fire. With his courtly manners and his
business acumen, he was a new breed a merchant prince who
favored government by the people. He and others like him were an
enigma to the British.

Schuyler rose to the rank of major in the British army. His
service was confined to America, where he commanded a company
under Sir William Johnson against Crown Point. Under
Bradstreet, he provisioned the garrison at Oswego and fought
against French and Indian raiders at Oneida. Under Amherst he
was deputy commissary. Leading men he had personally recruited,
he campaigned over territory he would some day inherit or
purchase.

Philip Schuyler had many faults. He was often hasty and
tactless when dealing with men who opposed his plans. There were
those who resented his air of command and thought him arrogant.
But his most serious blind spot, as far as his service to his
country was concerned, was his insistence on New York's territorial
rights against the claims of New Hampshire and the future
state of Vermont. Schuyler was a "Yorker" of the deepest dye.2

Horatio Gates was British-born. His mother was "probably a
housekeeper to the Duke of Leeds'' and his father was variously
described as a "revenue officer, army officer, clergyman, green-
grocer." It was condescendingly said of him that he did well to
rise as high as major in the British army, "considering his
antecedents." He was married in Halifax while on duty in America
during the French and Indian War, but he had retired to England
on half pay when ordered to join the Royal American Regiment



118              The Baroness and the General

in New York. He had served under Braddock at Fort Herkimer
in the Mohawk Valley, and when he came to Fort Ticonderoga
as would-be commander of the Northern District, he was paying a
return visit. He had done duly there under the British.

Washington himself made an American out of Gates. They had
met when Washington was aide-de-camp to Braddock. After the
French and Indian War, Washington was living on his Virginia
plantation, and wrote to Gates to try to sell him some land. In
August 1772, Gates, his wife and his son set sail for America.
They bought a plantation in Berkeley County in what is now
West Virginia, equipped it with stock, slaves and an overseer, and
named it "Travelers' Rest." The life of a Virginia gentleman
suited Gates and he played it to the hilt. He was a politician by
nature and never missed a chance to make good contacts.
Cultivating his acquaintance with Washington, he espoused the
American cause and was commissioned adjutant general in June 1775.
While in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Washington, he did a
good job supplying the army. At that time and along the seacoast,
the problem of supply was easy. Gates departed the scene with a
commission as major general and under an aura of success.

Horatio Gates felt no personal animosity toward Schuyler, at
least at first. Gates was merely a man on his way up in a hurry,
and Schuyler was someone to shove aside. His first move was to
get his friend Dr. Potts appointed medical director in the
Northern Army in place of Dr. Stringer, Schuyler's appointee. It was
easy enough. Charges were brought against Dr. Stringer, who was
given no hearing, and the change in medical directors was
accomplished through Congress without the knowledge or consent of
Schuyler.3

It was no surprise to Gates when Schuyler lost his temper.
Philip Schuyler was severe in his punishment of looters, often
unfair to Vermonters, but fanatically loyal in defense of his friends
and subordinates. He wrote to Congress that Dr. Stringer had
"come to the aid of the stricken troops on their retreat from



                     Within the Walls                  119

Canada." The doctor had "saved many lives and had brought and
supplied his own medicines where none could be had at any
price." Congress "had no right" to dismiss Dr. Stringer.

No one could say to the Continental Congress that they "had
no right" to do whatever they pleased. Congress "resolved" that
as they had "proceeded to the dismission of Dr. Stringer upon
reasons satisfactory to themselves, General Schuyler ought to have
known it to be his duty to have acquiesced therein." Schuyler's
suggestion that he should have been given reasons for Dr. Stringer's
"dismission" was "highly derogatory to the honor of Congress,"
and the President was instructed to tell him to write "in a style
more suitable to the dignity of the representative body of these
free and independent states"

The joyful and triumphant Gates was given the Northern Department
he so greatly coveted. At the end of March, 1777, Congress
ordered Gates to "repair immediately to Ticonderoga,"
taking with him Brigadier General Laroche de Fermois, one of
the least desirable of the French adventurers who plagued
Washington, and Major General Arthur St. Clair, Scottish-born
Pennsylvania landowner who had served under Lord Amherst. St.
Clair brought his little son to Ticonderoga, apparently convinced
by Gates that the coming campaign of 1777 would never materialize,
that Carleton had "fled," and that a pleasant outing on Lake
Champlain was in store.

Gates had been loud in his criticism of Schuyler for staying in
Albany instead of at the fort. But now he too found it a pleasant
city and settled down, Mrs. Gates had. been left in Virginia,
whence she wrote complaining letters about lazy slaves and stupid
overseers. She was delighted when her husband sent for her to
come to Albany. She could visit Dr. Potts's family on the way,
he said, and bring the doctor along with her.

Mrs. Gates, it was noted in Albany, "appears to be a gay, lively
though not very beautiful woman" "Her air denotes her to be a
high-spirited Dame."



120              The Baroness and the General

Early in May, 1777, General Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura
Kosciuszko was sent to Fort Ticonderoga to design and direct the
building of new defenses. He was a romantic and popular figure
in the American Revolution, although it is easy to see why he was
almost never referred to by his full name. A member of the Polish
petty nobility, he had studied engineering and artillery in France.
He borrowed money to come to America to offer his services to
Washington, and he was one of the few who sincerely believed in
the rights of the colonists and paid little attention to serving his
own ends. His plans for the defense of the Delaware River were
so successful that he was commissioned colonel of engineers in
the Continental Army in 1776. Arriving at Ticonderoga, he
immediately advocated fortifying "a hill called Sugar Loaf."

Sugar Loaf Hill was west and south of low-lying Ticonderoga,
and almost exactly opposite Mount Independence, where the
Americans had already begun fortifications. But Sugar Loaf was
over five hundred feet higher than Independence. Surveying the
terrain further, "We have only one company of artillerists here
and need three," Kosciuszko said. "We have a good place to make
a resistance, but to defeat the enemy will take plenty of courage
and more artillerists." Kosciuszko would "say nothing" of works
built uselessly. "They have a passion for building Blockhouses
which are located in some of the least suitable places," he
observed. But the thing to do now was go to work on Sugar Loaf.

Kosciuszko labored under a serious handicap, however. French
was the only language he spoke other than Polish, and his French,
judging by his letters, was strange indeed. Laroche de Fermois
might have helped out. He had come to Ticonderoga under orders
from Gates. He agreed with Kosciuszko that the fortifications at
Ticonderoga were badly planned, but he was one of the most self-
seeking of Washington's foreign volunteers and merely made fun
of Kosciuszko. The American officers tried to tell Kosciuszko that
no one, least of all the British, would think of climbing Sugar
Loaf with its almost perpendicular cliffs. So what did it matter



                     Within the Walls                  121

if it overlooked and could control the fort and Mount
Independence as well? Trumbull had urged the fortifying of Sugar
Loaf in 1776 and Congress had vetoed it. Now it seemed sufficient
to change the name from Sugar Loaf to "Mount Defiance"4

James Wilkinson, at this time only twenty, was aide-de-camp to
Gates. Kosciuszko was "a mere cypher" Wilkinson thought. But
he "detected, under his placid silence, more than a little Anguish
and Mortification" Before long, Kosciuszko asked General
Washington to relieve him from a post where he could be of no use.

In 1775, when General Knox of Washington's newly-created
artillery hauled the guns from Ticonderoga to Cambridge,
Massachusetts, everyone had been astonished at this feat of courage
and ingenuity. But from this time forward, the problem was how to
re-arm Ticonderoga. In June 1776 General Knox confidently reported
that there were cannon to spare at Crown Point. But most
of these were put into the ships of Arnold's fleet and in 1777 some
of them had been at the bottom of Lake Champlain ever since
the Battle of Valcour Island, while others were on board Burgoyne's
fleet soon to be turned against Ticonderoga.

Schuyler had written frantically to Congress for guns, but his
letters went unanswered. He applied to Massachusetts, whose
legislature at first refused and then promised "to furnish what
cannon etc. we can" Letters from Schuyler went to Governor
Trumbull of Connecticut, to the "president of New Hampshire"
and the "New York Convention," begging that guns be sent over
the snow a comparatively easy task. As far as New Hampshire
was concerned, Schuyler was a Yorker let him get his own guns.

Although Gates succeeded in ousting Schuyler on March 25,
1777, it was April 17 before he arrived in Albany. Schuyler had
continued his labors in behalf of Fort Ticonderoga until Gates
actually took command. By this time, spring thaws had set in and
roads were so bad that "a horse sank above his belly" in the mud,
and bridge after plank bridge had been carried away by flood
water. Some cannon had actually reached Albany, however. A



122              The Baroness and the General

month went by, with Gates now in command, and "most of the
cannon" were still in Albany over ninety miles away from the
almost defenseless fort.

General Schuyler's wife and children urged him to resign from
the army and "become plain Philip Schuyler, Esq." when Gates
took over the Northern Department. Schuyler longed to do just
that But he had been accused of embezzling soldiers' pay in the
course of debate in Congress concerning his command, and he
could not let this accusation go unanswered. First he put his case
before the New York Convention, exhibiting all his accounts, and
was exonerated. New York appointed him a delegate to the
Continental Congress, where he asked for a hearing on his conduct
while in charge of the Northern Department. Schuyler was
completely vindicated, and Congress restored his command. On May
15, 1777, he superseded Gates.

It seems incredible that men should quarrel and that Congress
should reverse itself in face of mounting danger. Gates had been
the aggressor, but Schuyler, because of his attitude toward "men
on the Grants," his impatience and his high temper, was not
without blame. As for the Continental Congress, regional jealousies
made any kind of logical action impossible to them. They were to
reverse themselves once more.

"Discomposed and angry," Gates rushed to Philadelphia, burst
into the State House and spoke before Congress without invitation
and in such a manner that some said he must be drunk.
He was "called to order and told he must memorialize." His wife
and son, far from being happy over a prospect of his retirement
to become plain Horatio Gates, Esq., wrote to tell him that he was
"disgraced before all America." His son, who had been courting
a girl in Boston who would have none of him, wrote: "Dear Papa,
As your son and heir, let me intreat you not to tarnish the hitherto
unspotted honour of our family by a mean and servile condescension".

Schuyler was at Ticonderoga by the end of May, conferring



                     Within the Walls                  123

with General St. Clair, who was in command of the fort. A
wooden palisade had been built around the fort and outside of it
was an abatis made of felled trees, their branches pointing
outward. At the old French redoubt, six cannon had been mounted,
but the forward fortifications had not yet been repaired. Most of
the time and effort during the weeks of Gates's command had
been spent in fortifying Mount Independence, across the narrow
arm of Lake Champlain, east of the main post. A bridge leading
to it had just been begun. Iron chains, fastened to stone piers,
were to be sunk in this narrow channel and were supposed to stop
the British fleet. Utterly discouraged, Schuyler told St. Clair
privately that Ticonderoga might have to be abandoned. He rode
back to Albany and sent his muster master, Richard Varick, to
the fort to count and report on men and munitions.5

British Lieutenant Thomas Anburey was at St. Johns, Canada
on the fourteenth day of June, 1777. He was about to embark
with General Burgoyne upon the long journey which would
qualify him to write his Travels through the Interior Parts of
America ... and he had been listening to news which he wrote
down as Gospel truth: "The Americans are in great force at
Ticonderoga...." On that same fourteenth day of June, Colonel
Varick was at Ticonderoga mustering and counting men. The
news which Lieutenant Anburey heard was nothing more than
splendid lies told by American scouts who got caught. Young
Colonel Varick wrote the truth, as he saw it, to General Schuyler.

Being as much a "Yorker" as Schuyler, the twenty-four-year
old Colonel Varick was scornful of New Englanders (and they
returned the compliment). "Were New England to be at War half
a Century their troops would not be disciplined under officers
from their own states," he said. "Not a corps on the ground
understands the simple manual of arms"

As muster master, "I am at a Loss what to do with the Boys,"
Varick confessed. "They are too numerous for so small an Army
and there are also too many Old Men. General St. Clair is at a



124              The Baroness and the General

stand what should be done at this time. My Duty will oblige me
to Strike some out of the rolls."

Varick described the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga, brigade by
brigade:

"I found Colonel Francis's a pretty good corps both with
respect to Officers and Men, well armed and pretty well clothed
arms neat and clean.

"Col. Brewer's a small corps, indifferently armed and clothed
and not much better officered, the arms neat and clean.

"Colonel Warner's Battalion is very indifferently armed and
clothed the arms were very indifferent and they want Bayonets
though the arms they had were clean.

"Colonel Cilly's Battalion a pretty good one and pretty well
officered and armed, which arms were neat and clean the
clothing very indifferent.

"Colonel Scammell's Battalion a very indifferent one having
many young soldiers badly clothed, the arms were new and good
and clean.

"Colonel Jackson's consisted of about 50 or 60 men badly
clothed tho' pretty well armed and arms clean.

"None of the troops have uniforms and consequently make a
very Awkward appearance and many are very young lads, some of
whom I rejected and would have many others had not the situation
of our Garrison forbid the Measure "

There were only 3300 men. Of these 2500 were Continental
troops, presumed to have some training and experience. There
were 800 militia, with a hundred more still to come according to
a different count.

Colonel Seth Warner, whose troops were "indifferently armed
and clothed" had once been proclaimed an outlaw in New York
State because of his efforts on behalf of the Grants. But he had
put all that aside and was writing to the Committees of Safety in
the mountain towns asking for militia. "If forty or fifty head of



                     Within the Walls                  125

cattle could be brought on with the militia they will be paid for
by the commissary on their arrival" he promised. "I should be
glad if a few hills of corn unhoed should not be a motive to detain
men at home, considering the loss of such an important Post
can hardly be recovered "

On June 28, Richard Varick left Ticonderoga. There were a
hundred and four cannon at the two Posts, Ticonderoga and
Mount Independence. The "fleet" had sixty-seven guns. He took
with him "young Master St. Clair, who is sent down by the
General to prevent the trouble of him in case of an attack." Mrs.
Schuyler would look after the boy in Albany. General St. Clair
had finally decided that the summer at Ticonderoga was not
going to be a peaceful outing after all. His scouts had discovered
on June 24 "an encampment of the enemy at Gilliland's Creek."
This was another name for "Bouquet River," where Burgoyne
delivered his speech to the Indians and "after the meeting" had
"ordered them some liquor,"

It was not surprising that the American scouts discovered the
encampment and without being caught. As Anburey told it, the
Indians "had a war dance in which they threw themselves in various
postures, every now and then making the most hideous yells."
Some of them "dressed with the skins of bulls with the horns upon
their heads, others with a great quantity of feathers, and many in
a state of total nudity." There was one, Anburey said, "whose
modesty" caused him to smile, "because the Indian rather than
be divested of every covering had tied a blackbird before him."

Within the walls at Ticonderoga, St. Clair still thought he
would wait for more reports from his scouts. On June 26 he
still "did not imagine" the British "meant a serious attack on
Ticonderoga." Perhaps "this movement of theirs" was "intended
to cover an attack on the Mohawk River ... or an attempt to
penetrate New Hampshire."

On June 30 Henry Brokholst Livingston, another of Schuyler's



126              The Baroness and the General

aides, climbed to the log fort on top of Mount Independence,
carrying his spyglass with him. He was nineteen, the youngest of
the colonels aiding Schuyler; he was brave, inexperienced and an
optimist.6 Burgoyne had now left Crown Point, and Livingston
was watching the approach of a water-borne army.

"We have a fine view of their boats," Livingston told his father,
the Governor of New Jersey, in a letter he continued to write for
several days. We "cannot see that they have brought many Regulars
with them at least the number of red coats in them is
very small. The wind having been contrary for several days has
prevented their fleet from coming up. The first fair day I expect
to see them. Many Betts are depending, that we shall be attacked
in the course of this week.

"Our troops are determined and in great Spirits. They wish
to be permitted to drive the Savages from Three Mile Point but
Gen'l St. Clair chooses to act on the sane side and to risque
nothing. The few Alarms we have had have been of great service
in making the Men alert and vigilant but I am afraid the
Enemy will repeat them so frequently as to throw them into their
former state of indolence and inattention."

On July i, Livingston saw "the second division of their army."
He began to count the British boats. "The second division, in
forty bateaux about twenty men each, landed on the eastern shore
of Lake Champlain opposite Three Mile Point." Next day "they
received a third reinforcement in sixty bateaux." Young Livingston
had just seen General Riedesel's corps take up their position
on Burgoyne's left.

"Two Hessians have deserted to us," Livingston wrote. "They
both seem very intelligent fellows. They agree that Burgoyne
commands the army and under him General Riedesel and the
German forces.... Their dragoons are not mounted but come in
expectation of getting horses at this place."

"We are daily receiving additions to our strength," Livingston



                     Within the Walls                  127

told his father.... "Tomorrow we shall give the British a 13-gun
salute" a "feu de joi," "because it will be the anniversary of the
ever-memorable 4th of July, 1776, on which day we broke off
connections with slavery and became the free and independent
States of America."7

On the night of the Fourth of July, 1777, German artillery was
being hoisted up Sugar Loaf Hill.



             11
              
         The Fall of Ticonderoga



TO GERMAN eyes, Lake Champlain had looked like an
inland sea, and a stormy and dangerous one. Reaches of woodland
which the Germans supposed to be on the lake shore turned
out to be islands, while some of the smaller islands with pointed
fir trees growing above cliffs looked in the distance like frigates.
Then suddenly the lake narrowed at Crown Point, and it was not
surprising that they thought this was a river.

Riedesel's men were ordered to line up in front of their
encampment at Crown Point, leaving their tents standing, at the
sound of two guns. At four guns they struck tents, loading them
on bateaux along with provisions and ammunition. Then the
troops embarked, Brunswickers taking the heavy oars. Slowly they
inched southward against the current. Brunswick dragoons were
leading the whole army. General Phillips was ordered to the right
flank or west bank of Champlain, and he encamped three miles
north of the fort. Riedesel landed and encamped his men opposite.
"We heard their signal guns" wrote Colonel Varick, from within
the walls of the fort.

Now the British fleet approached Ticonderoga, with Burgoyne
himself aboard the Royal George. This was a new frigate, built

128



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  129

at St. Johns the previous winter and carrying thirty-two guns.
Next in size was the old Invincible; then came the gunboats. On
July 3 in the afternoon, the "radeau" came up. Burgoyne's heaviest
guns were mounted on this raft, which was to be rowed forward
straight at the main defenses of the fort. Since the guns on the
radeau outranged anything now mounted on the walls, a blast
from the raft would open a breach through which the besieging
army would march to victory so the plans went But the lake
water shoaled off suddenly, the radeau grounded, and its guns
proved useless. It was ignominiously towed off the mudbank and
the guns taken out of it.

Burgoyne's army is sometimes spoken of as "over-artilleried."
He had brought heavy guns for the siege of Fort Ticonderoga, and
the maps on which he relied made it appear that he had but to
float his guns on waterways almost to the Hudson. Lieutenant
William Twiss1 was Burgoyne's chief engineer and he had been
Controller of Works at St. Johns when Carleton's fleet was built
there. Before coming to Canada he had designed new defenses for
the British navy yard at Portsmouth, England. He was now thirty-
two and faced with the most difficult task in his career, that of
moving Burgoyne's guns. Doubtless he was distressed by the
failure of the radeau, but he already had a new assignment.

It was General Phillips who had summoned Lieutenant Twiss
on the second day of July. Phillips, "taking command of Brigadier
General Fraser's corps and one British brigade" circled west and
south around the point of land where Ticonderoga stood. He
advanced to a hill, Mount Hope, where his Indians flushed out a
few men who had been posted there. The American outpost
guard got safely into the fort, but, from the vantage point of
Mount Hope, General Phillips discovered Sugar Loaf Hill. He sent
for Twiss and asked if a road could be built to the top and a
battery established there. Twiss said he could build a road in
twenty-four hours.

General Phillips moved forward to the Mount Hope area and



130              The Baroness and the General

asked for Brunswickers to take his place on the west side of the
lake. General von Gall's brigade went over. Germans were sent to
Twiss for his working party of seven hundred men, and Twiss
found a ledge just below the summit of Sugar Loaf where he
could mount a battery.

A road to the west side of Sugar Loaf Hill would be for the
most part out of sight from Fort Ticonderoga. But a man with a
spyglass or some of the scouts from the fort might have discovered
activity in the forest, so the new road was cut through dense
underbrush during the night. Bushes chopped off too high, in
haste, made men stumble in the dark. These working parties were
discovered after all, and fired upon. "A man and a horse harnessed
to the carriage of a gun were killed" They soon moved out of
range. Then these same working parties barely escaped being fired
upon by their own men, because no one had thought to tell the
British sentries that cannon would be moving along a new road
in the night-time.

On the fourth of July, at about noon, the British occupied
Mount Sugar Loaf with a small force from Fraser's advance
guard. They began to raise their battery that night. Two twelve-
pounders had already been dragged to the foot of the hill and
"most of the cattle belonging to the army were employed." Where
the "ascent was almost perpendicular" Lieutenant Twiss slung his
cannon in a rope cradle and hoisted them by means of ropes and
pulleys fastened to trees on upper ledges. This almost incredible
feat was accomplished in total darkness, and the maneuver which
would have caught the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga like rats in
a trap was still a secret. But on the summit of Sugar Loaf, beyond
the ledge where the battery was being installed, someone lighted
a fire on the night of July 4 Indians were later blamed for this.
On the morning of the fifth, guns were pointed straight down into
Fort Ticonderoga with orders not to fire until the battery was
complete.



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  131

From that low lull on the east bank of Lake Champlain called
Mount Independence, rebel spyglasses were trained on Sugar
Loaf, across the lake and due west. A light had been seen during
the night and now on the morning of the fifth activity could
plainly be observed. It did not take long for the Americans to
pick out the two-gun battery "seven hundred feet" above Fort
Ticonderoga. General St. Clair called his officers in conference,
retreat was decided upon, and plans made in haste.

The American troops were not told what was happening, and
even Dr. James Thacher, second in command of the sick, was
surprised when he was "awakened at mid-night" on the night of
July 5 and told to get his "regiment of invalids into boats." It
was three in the morning, Sunday, July 6, before all the bateaux
were loaded. They set out "up the lake," south of the bridge
connecting Ticonderoga with Mount Independence, under a convoy
of armed galleys and a guard of six hundred men. Their
destination was Skenesborough, thirty miles away.

"Some of the boats were deeply laden," Dr. Thacher wrote.
There were "cannon, tents, provisions, invalids and women" in
two hundred bateaux. Dr. Thacher was the only one to mention
that there were women with the Ticonderoga garrison. He had
reason to be grateful to them for they could help him care for his
"regiment of invalids."

"The night was moonlight and pleasant," Dr. Thacher continued.
"The sun burst forth in the morning with uncommon
lustre, the day was fine, the water surface serene and unruffled."
Lake Champlain extends southward, with Lake George about four
miles to the west over high hills. "The shore on each side
exhibited a variegated view of huge rocks, caverns and clefts, and
the whole was bounded by a thick, impenetrable wilderness....
We could but look back with regret and forward with apprehension.
We availed ourselves, however, of the means of enlivening
our spirits. The drum and fife afforded us a favorite music; among



132              The Baroness and the General

the hospital stores we found many dozens of choice wine, and,
breaking off their necks, cheered our hearts ..." with the
contents. "At three o'clock in the afternoon we reached our destined
port at Skenesboro', being the head of navigation for our gallies."
Certain that the chain across Champlain between Ticonderoga
and Mount Independence would hold back the British fleet, they
went ashore, leaving galleys and bateaux "lying at the wharf with
baggage, provisions and cannon still in them and no guard posted.

All cannon left at Ticonderoga were to be spiked. The American
battery on Mount Independence was to keep up a cannonade
to cover the sound of marching feet as the garrison crossed the
bridge, defiled eastward around the mountain and turned south to
join General Schuyler at the nearest fort along the Hudson.
Orders were to burn Ticonderoga and explode the powder magazine
at the last moment. The Mount Independence garrison was
to be evacuated to form a rear guard.

The British battery had been mounted in darkness and now
the American retreat was to be carried on at night, with equal
secrecy. But a strangely similar accident spoiled the American
plans. No one knew exactly how it happened, but in the
recriminations which followed it was General Fermois who was accused
of setting his own house on fire in his panic, long before fires
were supposed to break out. Fermois's flaming hut, on top of
Mount Independence, lighted the whole scene like a stage. The
American retreat was no longer a secret.

Now all was confusion inside the walls of Ticonderoga. Fuses
laid to explode the powder magazine were never lighted. Guns
were not spiked; provisions were left behind as well as quantities of
paper money, the pay of the garrison. Someone remembered to set
fire to the bridge leading to the east shore of the lake, but somehow
a fire lighted accidentally will sweep all before it while a fire
set intentionally will often smoulder and go out. The bridge was
only partially damaged.



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  133

Nevertheless, the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga came as a
complete surprise to Burgoyne at least until the first fire broke
out. General Fraser saw it from his post on Mount Hope, north
of Sugar Loaf. "At dawn of day [Fraser] unfurled the British flag
over Ticonderoga" General Riedesel saw something burning
inside the American works on Mount Independence, but thought
it merely an accident "to one of the enemy's magazines" It was
not until full daylight revealed an empty fort that he knew what
had happened. He "embarked his men," sailed southward toward
Ticonderoga, and "took possession of Mount Independence,"
which was on his side of the lake. General Fraser, leaving only a
picket behind him at Mount Hope, set out in hot pursuit of the
Americans, giving orders for the rest of his brigade to follow him.
Fraser's detachment crossed the damaged bridge single file and
plunged into the forest Riedesel later following with methodical
caution.

Burgoyne was still on board the Royal George. With no one to
hinder their efforts, men from the British fleet made short work
of the iron chain and the stone piers in the lake at the narrows at
Ticonderoga. Before noon, their gunboats and even their frigates
had a free passage to Skenesborough; they had a favoring wind.

Dr. James Thacher admitted rather apologetically that he
wrote up his diary a few days late. But he had by no means
forgotten what happened on Sunday afternoon, July 6 on the
American side. At Skenesborough, "Here we were, unsuspicious of
danger; but behold! Burgoyne himself was at our heels. In less
than two hours we were struck with surprise and consternation by
a discharge of cannon from the enemy's fleet, on our gallies and
bateaux lying at the wharf. By uncommon efforts and industry
they had broken through the bridge, boom and chain, which cost
our people such immense labor, and had almost overtaken us on
the lake, and horridly disastrous indeed would have been our fate.



134              The Baroness and the General

It was not long before it was perceived that a number of their
troops and savages had landed and were rapidly advancing toward
our little party. The officers of the guard now attempted to rally
the men and form them in battle array ... but in the utmost
panic they were seen to fly in every direction...."2

Dr. Thacher ran to one of the bateaux and seized his medicine
chest, "carried it a short distance" and then took out such
instruments and supplies as his pockets would hold. "A small rivulet
named Wood Creek was navigable" for light craft from Skenesborough
to Fort Anne, the next American post on the Skenesborough
route to the Hudson. A few of the sick men got into
boats and escaped that way.3 Dr. Thacher followed the creek on
foot for twelve miles and arrived at Fort Anne at five next morning.
This fort was an old Indian trading post, really no more than
a blockhouse surrounded by a palisade fence.

Ebenezer Fletcher, sixteen years old and a fifer, left Fort
Ticonderoga on foot, with the American garrison under General
St. Clair, right after the invalids set off in boats.4 "Early on the
morning of the 6th of July, orders came to strike our tents and
swing our packs," he said. "It was generally conjectured that we
were going to battle but orders came immediately to march. We
marched some distance before light. By sunrise, the enemy ...
pursued us so closely as to fire on our rear. A large body of the
enemy followed us all day but kept so far behind us as not to be
wholly discovered."

This was Fraser's advance guard, who continued their pursuit
of lie Americans all day Sunday "without any provisions." Fraser's
men "happened to kill a cow in the woods," but they had no
bread; and the cow, "divided up among so many, was of little
use."

The Americans marched as far as Hubbardton, a settlement in
the woods north of Lake Bomoseen, with only nine families living
in the entire township. Here, on a partially cleared hilltop, St.



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  135

Clair halted for two hours. Then he and the main part of his
army marched for Castieton, six miles ahead, leaving Seth Warner
in charge of a rear guard with Colonel Ebenezer Francis of
Medford, Massachusetts, in command under him. As young Richard
Varick had recently reported, Colonel Warner's battalion was
"indifferently armed and clothed," but Colonel Francis had "a
pretty good corps...." The two officers decided to send some of
their men "to bring off the settlers" Although families soon came
hurrying over the rough cart tracks from their solitary farms,
driving their oxen with wagons full of household goods in pathetic
disarray, there was really no time for this attempted rescue.

On Monday, "the morning after the retreat, orders came very
early for the troops to refresh and be ready for marching," young
Fletcher said. He was in the rear guard because he was recovering
from measles and could not march very fast, he explained, "Some
were eating, some were cooking and all in a very unfit posture for
battle. Just as the sun rose there was a cry. The enemy are upon
us. Looking around, I saw the enemy in line of battle.

"Orders came to lay down our packs and be ready for action.
The fire instantly began. We were but few in number compared
to the enemy at the commencement of the battle and many of
our party retreated into the woods. Captain Carr came up and
says, 'My lads, advance, we shall beat them yet'. A few of us
followed him in view of the enemy. Every man was trying to secure
himself behind girdled trees which were standing in that place."
Sixteen-year-old Ebenezer Fletcher "made a shelter" for himself
and discharged his piece. He reloaded and took aim again, but
this time his gun misfired. He had raised his gun once more when
he "received a musket ball" in the small of his back. The question
arises, had he turned his back to run away? But he showed no
embarrassment in telling his tale. He and the men Captain Carr
had rallied were nearly surrounded. Young Fletcher's uncle, who
was nearby, "carried me back some distance and laid me down
behind a large tree," he said. Fletcher was taken prisoner and sent



136              The Baroness and the General

back to Ticonderoga, but afterwards escaped. Someone stole his
silver shoe buckles, and he was much distressed, because in the
colonies silver shoe buckles were a mark of distinction. But he
felt much worse when someone stole his fife.

After the first surprise and confusion, Warner and Francis each
rallied his men, and the Battle of Hubbardton lasted for two
hours. Colonel Warner ordered a charge which broke the British
line, and they fell back. They re-formed under cover of the forest
and made a bayonet charge. Warner's were the men "without
bayonets," as Varick had reported, yet they broke this first charge
and it took a second to make them give ground. Warner sent
messages to St. Clair at Castieton for help, and it was said that
some of the militia were on their way but they were too slow.
Colonel Francis's men began to break or, as Quartermaster Cogan,
who was on the scene, put it, "some behaved and some did not"
Colonel Francis was killed "at the head of his men."

General Fraser had come very close to being routed, and had
sent urgent messages to Riedesel to bring up reinforcements.
Riedesel arrived just in time to observe disorder among the
Americans as Colonel Francis fell. Lieutenant Anburey said that
General Riedesel got to the field of action at Hubbardton "a
considerable time before his men." Anburey was sure that he heard
the German General "pouring forth every imprecation against his
troops for their not arriving." Riedesel's excited German may have
sounded like prodigious swearing to Anburey's English ears, and
perhaps it was. But Riedesel's Brunswick troops "after a rapid
march of a quarter of an hour" had "arrived, terribly heated, upon
an eminence from which could be seen the contending forces."

Riedesel could tell that Seth Warner (whom he called "Colonel
von Werner") was about to surround Fraser's left wing, so he
ordered his company of jaegers to advance and attack while the
rest of his men circled toward the Castleton Road to keep Warner



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  137

from retreating. He "ordered a band of music to lead the jaegers"
so that the Americans would think a whole army was coming.
Anburey said the Germans "began singing psalms on their advance"
and that Fraser's men "thought from the noise they made
that a reinforcement had been sent back from the main body of
the American army."

The Brunswickers came on, singing "and at the same time
keeping up an incessant firing which totally decided the fate of
the day," said Anburey. Burgoyne commended the Germans less
enthusiastically, and by degrees he managed to forget who really
won the Battle of Hubbardton.

Two hours after the fighting was over, British officers gathered
around the body of Colonel Francis. They were reading the papers
taken from his wallet when they "heard a bullet whizz by."
The captain who held the papers jumped up then fell, crying
out that he was wounded. Smoke from a gun could be seen still
hanging in the air but "the fellow, as soon as he had fired, made
his escape." This was a strange sort of war, reflected Anburey.
Men seemed as ready to fight for "an individual as ... over an
army of thousands." A Captain Ferguson got Colonel Francis's
watch, which he said he bought from a drummer boy who had
stolen it. This was considered an acceptable way of looting the
dead, and when he met Colonel Francis's widow in Boston,
months later, he gave it to her.

General Fraser put his advance corps in a state of defense
behind some 'log works." No provisions had come up, so he
sent men out "to shoot some bullocks that were running in the
woods." The soldiers cooked their steaks over campfires but
had nothing to eat with their meat until it was discovered that
one of the men had brought along a strange sort of loot from
Ticonderoga. It was gingerbread, sent from home to one of the
Americans in the garrison. This was passed around, General



138              The Baroness and the General

Fraser sharing some of it. Apparently gingerbread was an
unfamiliar confection to these particular soldiers, received as a sort
of joke and found to their surprise to be very good eating.

   The valiant American rear guard had been sure that St. Clair
would reinforce them. Men who were with him at Castleton said
they could hear the sound of battle six miles away. Now it was
assumed that St. Clair would return to attack Fraser; but instead
he left Castleton, marching through Dorset, taking time out only
to send Schuyler a dispatch in "great need for provisions" he
said. When night fell on the field of Hubbardton, wolves came
out and fed upon the bodies of the dead.

   On July 10, Burgoyne, comfortably at his ease in Philip Skene's
house at Skenesborough, issued one of his General Orders which
he composed with so much evident relish:
   "On the 6th day of July, the Enemy were dislodged from
Ticonderoga by the mere countenance and activity of the army and
driven the same day beyond Skenesborough on the Right and
beyond Hubarton on the left, with the loss of all their artillery,
all their armed vessels, a very great quantity of Ammunition,
Provisions and Stores and the greater part of their Baggage."
    Burgoyne made no mention of the battery on Sugar Loaf Hill.
He complimented everybody except Twiss, the artillery and the
"Artificers" who had built the road and hoisted the guns. It was
so much more dramatic to say that the Americans ran from the
"mere countenance" of the army!
    Burgoyne's arithmetic, in his next paragraph, required a little
explanation. "On the 7th Brigadier General Fraser, at the head of
little more than half the advanced corps, came up with a party of
near 200 of the enemy, strongly posted, attacked and defeated
them with the loss on the enemy's part of their principal officers,
200 men killed on the spot, a much greater wounded and about
200 made prisoner." Surely General Fraser was to be congratulated



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  139

for disposing of so many more men than he encountered. But the
200 taken were not the same as the 200 supposedly killed. Colonel
Nathan Hale of Hampstead, New Hampshire, got lost in the
woods with a company of militia. Mistaking Fraser's foragers out
looking for bullocks for a much larger force, he surrendered
himself and his men, most of whom were said to be "invalids." Hale
was a veteran of Bunker Hill with the reputation of a brave
officer, but he died while prisoner of war, unable to clear his name.
After giving a polite nod to General Riedesel for reinforcing
Fraser at a crucial moment, Burgoyne proceeded to commend "Lt.
Col. Hill who on the 8th, at the head of the 9th Regiment" was
attacked near Fort Anne by more than six times his number and
repulsed the enemy after a continuous fire of three hours. In
consequence of this action, Fort Anne was burnt and abandoned
and a party of this Army is in possession of the country on the
other side...."

Dr. James Thacher, having arrived safely at Fort Anne, had the
American version of the story to tell. "On the 7th instant, we
received a small reinforcement from Fort Edward by order of
Major General Schuyler and on discovering that a detachment
of the enemy under the command of Colonel Hill had arrived in
our vicinity, a party from our fort was ordered to attack them in
their covert. The two parties soon engaged in a smart skirmish,
which continued for several hours, and resulted greatly to our
honor and advantage. The enemy being almost surrounded, were
on the point of surrendering when our ammunition being
expended and a party of Indians arriving and setting up the war-
whoop, this being followed by three cheers from their friends
the English, the Americans were induced to give way and retreat"

Young Dr. Thacher was curiously lucky. "One British surgeon
with a wounded captain and twelve or fifteen privates were taken
and brought into our fort," he said. "The surgeon informed me
that he was in possession of books etc, taken from my chest at



140              The Baroness and the General

Skenesborough, and singular to relate, some of the British
prisoners ... had in their pockets a number of private letters
from a friend in Massachusetts which were now returned to me."
The genial, much liked little doctor (he was "small of stature")
married Susannah Hayward of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, at the
end of the Revolution, so perhaps she was the "friend" whose
letters he prized. "Fort Anne being a small picket fort of no
importance, orders were given to set it on fire and on the 8th we
departed for Fort Edward, situated about thirty miles to the
southward" The abandoning of Fort Anne had been determined
in advance by Schuyler, and it was also planned to give up Fort
Edward, but not before as many obstacles as possible had been
placed in Burgoyne's path. Axe-men were already out felling great
trees so that their branches interlocked across Wood Creek.
Bridges were being cut and the only road obstructed.

Schuyler was able to use the wilderness itself against Burgoyne,
but the wilderness also worked against St. Clair and his men.
"Warner, if hard-pressed, will go to Rutland," he wrote Schuyler.
And Warner was certainly hard-pressed. They were "hurried at an
unmerciful rate through the woods ... obliged to kill oxen
belonging to the inhabitants" whenever they could get them. Before
the oxen "were half skinned" the men had to "take a bit and half
roast it over the fire then before half done was obliged to march.
... The Indians took and killed a vast number of our men on the
Retreats."5 Warner reached Bennington and finally marched on to
Rutland with only ninety men. St. Clair headed for Fort Edward
on the Hudson, and heard that Burgoyne was at Skenesborough,
so turned and made for Rutland. He "wandered in the woods"
for a week, and finally joined Schuyler with only fifteen hundred
men.

General Riedesel was "detached to Castleton with five battalions
of the left wing ... for the purpose of making the rebels
believe that the army intended to march in that direction and of



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga              141

giving the loyal inhabitants a chance to join the army" so he
wrote to the Duke of Brunswick, after reporting the news of
Ticonderoga and the story of his saving Fraser's men. He "twice
asked permission to scatter" the remnant of "Colonel von
Werner's men" at Rutland, only "ten hours away" But "Burgoyne
will not allow me to do it, pretending that he does not wish me
to go so far away from the army." So Riedesel put in his time
surveying the possibility of an immediate foray "to the flatlands of
the Connecticut river," to confiscate all the horses in that vicinity.
He prepared a memorandum which Burgoyne "seemed to like
very much." 6

Riedesel was back in Skenesborough on July 22, writing in
French for General Burgoyne's perusal: "The great and rapid
successes have suddenly carried the army forward, where of necessity
we must advance often.... The equipment of the army is
of such a kind that our boats are indispensably necessary and
from the moment we separate ourselves from them we shall lack
everything. Misery will follow. Without transportation of
provisions, half the army would be out foraging, the men overcome
with fatigue and battalions so weak they are no better than a
company ... The army can move only very slowly and in small
companies for lack of resources for transporting all that is
indispensable."

"I suppose there are but two sides to choose. We must always
remain with the army locked close to a river and not leave it until
we have the means of transporting the boats to another, so as
never to lack more than 8 days subsistence."

Riedesel now gave his objections to being "locked to a river":

"The army cannot advance except very slowly. We can never
profit ... from the advantages that the hasty retreat of the enemy
would furnish us with, nor increase the panic terror which the
Rebels feel for the forces of the King."

Numbering his paragraphs carefully, Riedesel said that, second,
"The Inhabitants of the country, now much intimidated, would



142              The Baroness and the General

submit voluntarily in a short time and the army would be
furnished with everything if they should see appearing, here and
there, some detachments; but as the army cannot spread out,"
the Americans "had everywhere small detachments of their own
to keep the people under surveillance" These so-called "detachments"
were the local militia, raised by the people for their own
protection, and supplied from their own farms and those of their
neighbors! General Riedesel had a good deal to learn.

But he proceeded to his third point: "The country into which
our army has advanced will recover courage, they will raise new
armies, they will succeed in overrunning the country with little
Detachments, and some good Rebel could undertake some blow
against our communications which could incommode the army
more and more as time goes on."

Riedesel now launched into his argument concerning horses.
"In order to prevent all these inconveniences it would be necessary
to have a mobile army, that is to say, to get hold of some horses
sufficient to transport the most essential equipment of the officers,
to distribute horses to carry tents and ammunition and to have
some horses to set aside for the artillery and the provisions.

"According to my idea, it is very pernicious to transport equipment
and tents in Canadian carts, for the carts spoil the roads
and cannot get through bad roads without difficulty." The thing
to do, Riedesel thought, would be to abandon most of the carts
and use "bat horses." This term, much used in the British army,
came from the French 6at, meaning pack saddle, or provisions.
Bat horses "go through everything" Riedesel said, "marching on
the flanks of the army, instead of crawling along behind," and the
men would always have tents and ammunition right at hand. A
few carts would still have to be used for heavy provisions and the
artillery.

"There is scarcely an inhabitant who has fewer than two or
three horses," General Riedesel continued, and a good many of
the "inhabitants" would have felt flattered to hear this. It would



                    The Fall of Ticonderoga                  143

have come nearer to the truth to say that in the Green Mountains
and the rugged Berkshires there was "scarcely an inhabitant." But
Riedesel had been told that "on the other side of the Connecticut
there are no troops and the country is full of good horses" He
"subjoined a calculation" of the number of horses he thought
Burgoyne ought to have beginning with his own Dragoons,
who needed 336. He came up with a total of 1147 horses which
he thought that his company of Dragoons, "Peters's corps and that
of Jessups" [American Loyalists, both of them] could go out and
bring in, "under a good officer of the rank of major."

General Riedesel loved horses and had owned many fine ones.
He had just bought a horse from an "inhabitant" and paid a good
price for it, and his fourth, rather long argument, seems to indicate
a slightly troubled conscience. He thought the fanners could get
along just as well with oxen. They used horses "only to carry grain
to the mill or to take a ride" and anyway Burgoyne was to pay
for the horses, or promise to pay. "Lacking horses," the inhabitants
"will not be able to carry news to the rebels so fast and
so frequently," and "this small bleeding is less punitive than they
deserve, for their treason and bad conduct toward the King....
So this action can be defended and justified before God, before
the King and Parliament, because the essential interest of the
army and of the service of the King is so clear."



             12
              
     The Baroness at Fort Edward



THE days had been passing slowly for Mrs. General Riedesel,
left behind at Three Rivers in Canada with her children. At
first letters came regularly from her husband while Burgoyne's
army moved southward along Lake Champlain. Riedesel had
nothing but encouraging news as he sailed or encamped. There
were no armies in the field against him, no American fleet on the
water and not so much as a skirmish with country militia to mar
the advance.

As the distance increased, letters were delayed. There was the
cold fear in her heart, as Mrs. General read cheerful, reassuring
words, that the man who wrote them might not still be alive when
his letters reached her. And she loved him so much. But this was
all part of being the wife of a soldier, and the Baroness Riedesel
smiled confidently before her servants, telling her children that
"Papa" was well and that they would see him soon. To her husband
she "wrote and urged and implored him to let me come to
him" she confessed.

Burgoyne sent triumphant messages back to Canada when the
British flag flew over Ticonderoga. He left nine hundred men to
hold the fort and the post on Mount Independence, but this did
not trouble him, because he was sure that Carleton would send



144



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               145

a detachment to relieve these men so that they could rejoin his
army. There was a surprise in store for Burgoyne, however
Carleton wrote that "because the post has been taken out of my
hands" there would be no sending forward of additional forces.
However, some horses previously contracted for were on their
way. And a lady was crossing the lake.

This was Lady Christian Henrietta Caroline Acland, daughter
of the first Earl of Ilchester. She was twenty-seven years old, never
used her real name but preferred to be called "Lady Harriet," and
she had come to Canada in 1776 with her husband, Major John
Dyke Acland, a member of Parliament. When her husband was
wounded in action against the retreating Americans at Chambly,
she had "nursed him in a miserable hut" on the Richelieu River.
Now Major Acland was wounded again, shot through both thighs
by the Americans at Hubbardton. He was carried back to Ticonderoga,
and Lady Harriet, who had been staying in Montreal, set
out at once to go to him. She was "the most amiable, delicate
piece of quality," the impressionable General Gates was to say
when he met her. She was also rugged, and this time she was not
going to be left behind when her husband once more recovered
and re-joined Burgoyne's army.

Madam Riedesel soon heard that Lady Acland had been allowed
to follow the army. Her own letters asking to come became
increasingly urgent, and she began to pack. There was food to be
prepared for the journey; and hams and sausages must be taken to
the General, who was surely not eating properly without his wife
to look after him. The children's clothes must be ready and
nothing forgotten, because this would not be a journey where
missing items could be supplied from shops along the way. There
was the difficult problem of what to leave behind and how best to
protect furs and winter clothing which everyone was certain would
not be needed. Frederika Riedesel was an artist at packing chests
and boxes, as one of her husband's aides discovered, long later.
Her summons to join her husband came in August.



146              The Baroness and the General

Burgoyne remained in the vicinity of Skenesborough throughout
the month of July. His decision to advance upon Albany by
way of Skenesborough and Wood Creek was a fatal move, and
Colonel Skene, commanding the American Loyalists in Burgoyne's
army, was blamed for it. Philip Skene needed a good road to
insure the increased success of his gristmill, lumber mill and iron
foundry. This private kingdom of his would have to pay him well
if he was ever to liquidate his debts and support his son, who had
been sent to New York to learn to be a gentleman but who had
learned instead to be a spendthrift. Colonel Skene was delighted
to have the British army "cutting a road" to Fort Anne big enough
to "bring up their cannon." He assured Burgoyne that all the
tenants on his lands were brave Loyalists who would join the
British army.1

Skenesborough, the Whitehall of today, is now on the Champlain
Canal. Steep cliffs crowned with spruce and pine overlook
the town, which was marked on early maps as a post on the
regular water route from Champlain to New York. Named for this
Scotsman, who was "Lt. Governor of Crown Point and Ticonderoga"
and "Surveyor of His Majesty's Wood bordering on Lake
Champlain," Skenesborough was literally his private property. His
various grants amounted to eighty-eight square miles. On taking
out his land patents, Skene had promised to settle a hundred
families but he never intended to sell any land: what he visualized
was a feudal empire, with himself as overlord. Negro slaves worked
his iron mines near Crown Point Tenants were given three years'
free rent as an inducement to settle in his mountainous wilderness,
but they owed him their work in return for implements,
building materials and the provisions he sold them. They soon
owed more than they could ever pay.

Skene had labor troubles even among his slaves. Having rented
them out to some of his settlers, he was astonished to hear that
they had refused to work. They said that this was because he had



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               147

"promised to wive them" and had broken his word. He wrote
urgently to his New York agent to buy and send up the Hudson,
"a Negroe Wench.... If she can make up clothes and wash so
much the better. And young. I saw one by Advertisement in
Game's paper that would answer." And again he wrote, "I want
a Negroe Wench, hear they are cheap in a Guinea ship. If from
the Congo, should be glad of one pregnant to a good Negroe. Let
her be young with good teeth and limbs...."In this same letter,
he negotiated for "a stallion as advertised to be sold at the Coffee
House if he is handsome "

Colonel Skene was a man after Burgoyne's own heart. Burgoyne
was a guest in Skene's stone mansion which, thanks to
Schuyler's stern measures against looting, was still furnished
handsomely. When Skene talked about the hundreds of loyal tenants
ready to spring to arms, Burgoyne set himself to one of his
favorite tasks, the writing of a proclamation.

"Instructions to GOVERNOR SKENE
"Headquarters, Skenesborough House July 15, 1777

"You are to consider persons who shall take the Oath of
Allegiance and sign the declaration hereto annexed, as the First
Objects for protection. Such, however, as shall decline signing,
shall remain unmolested Provided they strictly comply with the
Manifesto.

"You are to Require from every Township an immediate Return
of the Names of the Inhabitants who are with the Rebels,
distinguishing those who have been Compelled and those who
engaged Voluntarily.

"You are also to Require Return of the numbers of Horned
Cattel and Waggons and Carts in each Township and also of
the Grain and Mills to grind it. All Cattel and Com faithfully
returned will be paid for in solid coin, at a reasonable price....

"All persons bringing in firearms shall receive a Guinea for



148              The Baroness and the General

every one that shall be in Repair and such Persons as shall enlist
in any of the Provincial Corps will be allowed besides that
Gratuity, to keep their Arms for their own use.

"Persons so enlisting will also be permitted to choose their
Corps and to name the space of time they are willing to serve.

"You will inform the People in General of my powers to Compell
and my inclination to Protect...."

Just in case that "power to Compell" was not entirely clear,
Burgoyne brought up the matter of his "Five hundred Savages
from the Upper Nations."

"Inhabitants of the Several Townships" were invited to send "10
persons or more from each Township" to hear this "Manifesto"
read.

Burgoyne had moved forward, but General Riedesel was still at
Skenesborough, trying to expedite provisions, when he wrote his
wife that she might join him. The country was "secure," he said:
a fine new road was being built and all the bridges repaired, all
the way to Fort Edward twelve miles below the southern end of
Lake George. Hard on the heels of the General's letter came the
aide-de-camp he had sent to bring his family across the wilderness.
Captain Willoe was English, especially appointed to Riedesel by
Lord George Germain. He was young, naïve, very fond of children
and soon to become the much-loved friend of little Frederika and
her sister, Augusta; and as soon as Caroline could talk she called
him "Lo-lo." Two days after Captain Willoe reached Three
Rivers, the Baroness was ready to set out. Accustomed by now to
army delays, Captain Willoe must have been astonished at Mrs.
General's efficiency.

Two boats carried the little family of travelers from Three
Rivers across the St. Lawrence and up the Richelieu. One of the
boats belonged to General Riedesel, and there were troops on
board, commanded '"by the good Sergeant Bürick." He took



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               149

charge of Mrs. General's baggage, not only on this journey he
"kept an eye on it" all through the dangerous days ahead.

The Baroness did not mention the date when she left Three
Rivers, so it is not easy to figure out just how long the journey
lasted. "Night overtook us and we found ourselves obliged to land
on an island," she said, but this was surely not the first night. It
would have been easy enough to land anywhere along the banks
of the Richelieu, so on this particular night they must have been
on Lake Champlain. "The other boat, which was more heavily
laden and was not so well manned, had not been able to keep up."
So they had "neither beds nor candles, and what was worse,
nothing to eat."

On the island where they landed they "found nothing but the
four walls of a deserted, unfinished house." Bushes grew inside
the house walls, and the Baroness covered them with the ample
wool traveling cape she had brought along. There were cushions
in the boat, so she sent her servants for these and felt satisfied
that she had made a reasonably comfortable bed.

Outside the walls of the abandoned house a soldier lit a campfire
and put a pot on to boil. The Baroness "looked wistfully at
it" and asked the man what he was cooking. "Potatoes," he said,
Before long they began to smell so good that Mrs. General and
her children felt desperately hungry. Still, the man "seemed so
happy in the possession of them" that she tried not to ask for
any. Finally she broke down and wanted to know if she could
have "just a few." The soldier gave her half "maybe a dozen,"
she said and "at the same time handed me two or three short
candle-ends he had in his pocket." This gave Mrs. General "great
joy," because her children had been afraid to go to sleep in the
dark. She gave the soldier "a thaler which made him as happy"
as she was.

The second boat finally arrived with Captain Willoe on board.
But he looked pale, and he was evasive when Madam Riedesel



150              The Baroness and the General

asked him what the matter was. He spoke of a storm that
threatened, and said he'd like to break camp and find another
island. This made very little sense to Mrs. General, who assured
him that she liked it where she was. She was surprised to hear him
ordering fires to be lighted which were kept burning all night. It
seemed as though Captain Willoe and some of the men were
unnecessarily noisy as they clumped around the abandoned, roofless
house, knocking at the bushes with sticks.

The Baroness and her family slept well, nonetheless. Provisions
were unloaded from the boat that had arrived late, and they had
a good breakfast cooked over campfires among the rocks down by
the lake shore. Captain Willoe looked weary and admitted he
hadn't slept. Mrs. General asked him why he had seemed so
anxious the night before and laughingly chided him for being so
noisy and restless during the night. He was forced to explain. One
of the men in the laggard boat had happened to mention the
name of the island which they had chosen for their camp: it was
Isle aux Sonnettes, or "Rattlesnake Island".

"We made haste to finish our breakfast," said the Baroness.
Now that she had been told this news she said she saw "skins
and slime of these nasty creatures everywhere," and she remembered
that she had heard of German soldiers who had died as
a result of rattlesnake bite. There were no rattlesnakes in
Brunswick, Germany.

They "ferried over Lake Champlain and came at noon to Fort
John," Mrs. General said. "We were received by the commander
with much kindness and courtesy. It was this way everywhere,
because my husband was so much loved by the English and the
inhabitants of the country." Madam Riedesel forgot that the sight
of a pretty woman and her nice children would be wonderfully
welcome to a man exiled at some remote outpost. As to the
"inhabitants," there were varied experiences in store.

Wolfs Island was to have been the next stop, but there was no
going ashore. A thunderstorm came up which was "the more



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               151

terrible" because the thunder echoed and reverberated along the
rocky shores of the lake. It seemed to the Baroness "as if we
were lying at the bottom of a caldron surrounded by mountains
and great trees." They had left the small boats which carried them
up the Richelieu and had been put aboard a frigate, for which
they were thankful because they felt sure that a bateau would
have been swamped by the waves.

Next day they reached Ticonderoga, but passed it by with
scarcely a halt except to arrange for transportation across the
portage to Lake George.

"Captain Anstruther, an exceedingly good and amiable man
who commanded the 62nd Regiment, undertook to do the honors"
at Fort George. Mrs. General and her family reached the southern
end of Lake George "about noon"; Captain Anstruther ordered
the best meal he could in view of the fact that the Americans had
successfully evacuated Fort George well before any of Burgoyne's
army got there and had most inconsiderately carried off all
provisions. In any case, Mrs. General's presence in this burnt-out,
barely habitable post made dinner a festive occasion.

The Americans had built a "military road" from Fort George
to Fort Edward, on the Hudson.2 On evacuating, after the fall of
Ticonderoga, they had done a good job of cutting bridges and
throwing trees to obstruct it, but a "new" road had just been
built. "In the afternoon, we seated ourselves in a calash," said
Madam Riedesel, "and reached Fort Edward on the same day,
which was the 14th of August."

The Hudson at Fort Edward was not the mighty river that
Madam Riedesel was to cross and recross in days to come. Here it
was but a small stream, having an island in the middle of it where
once a wooden barracks stood, a hospital for the wounded of the
French and Indian wars. This building had now been torn down,
the beams and boards carried off to build houses in a tiny settlement.
Ford Edward itself stood on the east bank of the Hudson.



152              The Baroness and the General

Built by the French, it was once star-shaped with a central tower
like a European castle.3 In spite of this ambitious design, Fort
Edward was never built of stone, however. It was only a log fort,
and no one had repaired it. "There is nothing but the ruins of
it left," General Schuyler had written to Washington on July 26,
1777. "I have frequently galloped my horse in on one side and
out the other. But when it was in the best condition, with the
best troops to garrison it and provided with every necessity, it
would not have stood a two days' siege after batteries had been
opened on it. It is situated in a bottom on the banks of the river,
and surrounded with hills from which the parade may be seen
within point-blank shot" Fort Edward was built to withstand
Indian arrows but not Burgoyne's guns, and Schuyler was explaining
to General Washington that it must be abandoned by
the Americans when the proper time came.

It was a pity that the Baroness Riedesel could not have seen
the village of Fort Edward and the farms around it before General
Burgoyne had moved forward with his army. Lieutenant William
Digby, of the "53rd or Shropshire Regiment of Foot," who was by
no means a poet, was almost lyrical when he described the scene
on July 29. "Our tents were pitched in a large field of as fine
wheat as I ever saw, which in a few minutes was all trampled
down" Next day Digby's regiment "moved on farther to rising
ground about a mile south of Fort Edward and encamped in a
beautiful situation" They could see "the most romantic prospect
of the Hudson's river interspersed with many small islands... "
There was "a fine plain around the fort which appeared doubly
pleasing to us who were so long buried in the woods." Albany was
"about 46 miles away," Digby thought. "The land improves much
and no doubt in a little while will be thickly settled" He and
most of the others, the Germans especially, who had come
through from Skenesborough, had begun to wonder why the rebels
would fight over such a wilderness.

Digby left Ford Edward just in time to carry away a pleasant



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               153

impression. On July 30, Burgoyne's orders present a different
picture of the newly acquired post. "Each regiment of the Line will
turn out 20 men, burn and bury old meat, rubbish and every
other nuisance in or near the camp, under the direction of the
Provost. This is not confined merely to the ground where the
troops are encamped on, but extended to every nuisance and
unwholesome thing about the camp." It was a standing order that
"new and clean Necessaries are to be made in the rear of every
cantonment and encampment every week and the old ones filled
up"; and that "at least six inches' depth of Earth should be thrown
into the Necessaries in use every morning." But the men had been
living in the swamps south of Skenesborough from July ninth to
the twenty-second, clearing Wood Creek and building a causeway.
There was no way of building new "Necessaries," and
dysentery was epidemic by July 29 when they got orders to
move to high ground beyond.

A great disappointment was in store for the Baroness Riedesel
when her calash jounced over the new road into the tiny town
of Fort Edward. Her General was not there to meet her! The
little girls probably cried. But Augusta, just six now, Frederika,
three, and Caroline a little over a year were already referred
to as "the little ladies." They were big girls now, as their mother
doubtless reminded them. And the Riedesel family found that
everything had been made ready for them in a little house down
by the river. It was known as "the Red House" and there was a
large yard around it and a big bam close by where the children
could play. "I had only one room for my husband, myself and
my children," wrote Mrs. General. "My women servants slept m
a kind of hall." Other rooms in the little house were occupied by
General Riedesel's aides.

Every one of the few houses in the little town of Fort Edward
was crowded with people. If the Baroness noticed it; she made no
comment. Crowded towns were common enough in Europe, and
perhaps she had yet to learn that Americans liked td spread out



154              The Baroness and the General

in their great half-tamed country, each man in the midst of his
own woods and fields. These people who were huddled together
in Fort Edward had come in from outlying farms because of
Burgoyne's Indians. Of course not all escaped. Neighbors found
nine members of the Allen family tomahawked and scalped, having
been surprised inside their house at dinner. One man had been
killed while trying to get a horse from the barn so as to ride for
help; another lay dead and mutilated at the door where he had
been defending the women. Two little children, who had hidden
under a bed, had been dragged out and tomahawked. Neighbors
buried the dead some of them standing by with guns ready
while others dug a common grave. Another family, by the name
of Barnes, was wiped out before reaching Fort Edward.4

On the twenty-seventh of July, Jane McCrea was visiting a
family friend, Mrs. Sarah McNeil. Jane was engaged to a former
neighbor, David Jones, a Loyalist who had enlisted in Burgoyne's
army at Crown Point and who was now a lieutenant under General
Fraser. Jane was about twenty years old. Her father had been
a Presbyterian minister, but both parents were now dead and she
lived with her brother John, not far from Fort Edward but on
the other side of the Hudson. John McCrea had been a colonel
in the American army during the expedition to Canada the
previous year.

Jane McCrea crossed the river to visit Mrs. McNeil just before
the Americans withdrew from Fort Edward.5 It was said that
she and Lieutenant David Jones had managed to exchange letters
across the lines, and that they planned to be married as soon as
Burgoyne's army occupied the town. She could then go forward
with the troops along with other officers' wives. But Burgoyne's
Indians were traveling in advance of Fraser's advance guard.

The story of Jane McCrea has been told many times with
imaginary details. It was said that Lieutenant Jones sent a party
of Indians to escort her to him and that, at a signal, she came



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               155

out of Mrs. McNeil's house "in bridal array" that she was an
unusually beautiful girl with hair of a "golden-red." Much effort
has recently gone into the winnowing out of facts, and it seems
clear that Indians were marauding and that they broke into the
McNeil house. A Negro servant and her child hid in the cellar,
but Mrs. McNeil and Jane were dragged out and the young girl
put on a horse. Mrs. McNeil was "very corpulent and unable to
mount a horse" so they made her walk.

One first-person account survives, that of Samuel Standish
written when applying for his pension for service in the Revolution:

"We were marching to Fort Edward and, while there, with
others, were called on to relieve a guard on a hill north of the
Fort. Went and relieved the guard, had not been there long before
we heard an Indian scream and instantly was fired upon by
them. We ran towards the river and the Fort and before I
arrived I met three Indians coming from the river between me
and the fort, who all fired upon me but missed me, when I was
taken up the hill near a spring, was there stripped of my hat, coat
and handkerchief and pinioned by them and after a short time
I saw a party of Indians coming with two women. They came up
the hill to a spring and seemed to be in a quarrel. They shot one
of the women and scalped her. This woman I knew to be Jennie
McCrea."

It is said that Lieutenant David Jones recognized Jane's red-
gold hair trailing from the small, circular piece of her scalp
which hung from a pole as a trophy in the Indian camp. The
Indians had hidden her body beside the road, but when die was
found, her brother, who was in the American rear guard, was
allowed to give her burial. Mrs. McNeil was unharmed, but she
had not seen the murder. And the Indians, finding themselves less
praised for their exploit than they expected, said that Jane had
been killed by a bullet from the gun of a retreating American,
before they scalped her. Burgoyne called them to account, but as



156              The Baroness and the General

he had already said that they could scalp the dead he let them
go with a reprimand.

The story of Jane McCrea had tremendous impact upon the
American so-called "rebels." It spread by word of mouth, and
many who were loyal in their hearts to Great Britain were grieved
and angered to the point of changing sides. Others, who had been
apathetic, feeling that one government was about as good or as
bad as another, now became actively, genuinely rebellious because
of this tragedy.

The Baroness Riedesel never mentioned Jane McCrea in her
letters or journals, or, if she did, the story never reached the
printed version of her Berufs Reise. Some of the horror of war
her husband and his devoted young aides succeeded in keeping
from her, but Burgoyne exchanged several letters with American
officers on the subject of Jane McCrea and it seems probable that
Frederika Riedesel heard about it. Her heart must have contracted
as she thought of her own little girls, and it is safe to say that her
respect for Burgoyne was not greatly increased. Even among his
men, it was hinted that Burgoyne was afraid of his own Indians
and dared not punish them.

General Riedesel came to the Red House at Fort Edward on
the fifteenth of August and stayed until the sixteenth. "On that
day, he was obliged to rejoin the army," to his wife's "great
sorrow." The General's new post was Fort Miller which was
just another blockhouse surrounded by palisades, built originally
for the protection of fur traders' goods. There was not a "trace
left of any fortifications," General Schuyler had written to
Washington, as he prepared his gradual retreat down the Hudson.

General Riedesel had gone forward to direct the sending out of
a detachment, mainly of Germans, but with a few British troops
and American Loyalists. Burgoyne had liked Riedesel's plan of a
foray into the hinterland to seize horses, but he had put off doing
anything about it while at Skenesborough. Now he could see that



                 The Baroness at Fort Edward               157

the difficulty of moving artillery was going to be so great that
horses were a prime necessity. Colonel Skene was going on the
expedition with one of Burgoyne's proclamations in his pocket.
The response at Skenesborough had been disappointing, but Skene
still said that he knew where there were great numbers of
Loyalists.

The German dragoons were still slogging along in their cumbersome
boots, entangling their great sabres in the underbrush and
getting themselves more and more laughed at by British fellow
soldiers.

They were going to a place called Bennington. Philip Skene
said that at Bennington there was an American army depot with
provisions, ammunition, and plenty of horses. Everything was to
be had for the taking. The German dragoons were going to walk
to Bennington, but they were sure they would come back on
horseback.



             13
              
                   Bennington



GENERAL Riedesel had prepared a blueprint for Burgoyne's
ill-fated attack on Bennington when he wrote his memorandum
at Skenesborough with its plan for seizing the horses of
the inhabitants. Later, however, he pointed out that what was
true on the twenty-second of July was no longer true on the
sixteenth of August. In July "the inhabitants of the country were
much intimidated" he had said, but he accurately foretold that
they would "recover courage" They had more courage than the
invaders realized. What the Americans needed was time to
organize, and this Burgoyne gave them while he built roads and
causeways and struggled with his guns.

The small towns of Vermont and New Hampshire had Committees
of Safety, like the larger towns and cities all over the
country. Hampered by distance, by pitifully small numbers of
fighting men and by lack of weapons, they nevertheless went to
work in their own defense. Charlestown, New Hampshire often
referred to as "Number 4" in colonial documents was an
American military base. Indians once had taken captives from this
pioneer town. Now American militia trained on the village green,
and a military road had been built in the direction of Crown
Point So General Stark sent a messenger with a letter to Colonel



                    Bennington                    159

Bartlett, chairman of the Committee of Safety at Charlestown.
On the seventeenth of July Colonel Bartlett replied:

"I expect to march tomorrow or next day. We are detained a
good deal for want of Bullet Molds as there is but one pair of
them in town.... I am afraid we shall meet with difficulty in
procuring utensils to cook our victuals in, as the troops have not
brought any.... There is four pieces of small cannon at this
place that looks good but wants to be cleaned out and put on
carriages ... there is people here that says they can do it. As
there is very little rum in store, if some could be forwarded to us
it would much oblige us."

Seth Warner was in Manchester, Vermont, on July 20, when
he appealed to "all officers in the several counties The frontier
is where there is a body of Troops sufficient to stand against the
enemy," he wrote and he had only five hundred men. He sent
messengers riding southward, from town to town, because "the
counties farther south need not feel safe" now that Ticonderoga
had fallen. All troops "are desired to bring Kittles and materials
for cooking. This Express is to alarm the Inhabitants as he goes
through."

On July 24 the Assembly of New Hampshire voted to raise
three battalions and place them under the command of General
Stark and send them to Vermont "to oppose the ravages of the
coming forward of the enemy." Colonel Warner sent a major to
show the troops the best road to Manchester.

Scouts were dispatched to keep an eye on Burgoyne. One Josiah
Farnsworth, "duly sworn," said that he and his brother had gone
to Skenesborough "on Sunday last" which would have been the
twenty-seventh of July. He had heard Colonel Skene say "he
would cut a road out towards Fort Edward if the Cut but stood
a day." And Farnsworth declared on oath that he "saw the Indians
cut both hands off three prisoners lately taken and afterwards
hanged two up by the heels on a tree and roasted them, the other
they let go" When the "Deponent heard the cries of those



160              The Baroness and the General

that burned" he "came away" he said. He couldn't swear to
what he heard some say" that "the Indians afterward ate the
flesh of them they roasted." But when New Hampshire and
Massachusetts militia began to come in, and when their own Green
Mountain Boys began to assemble, it must have been good news
in Farnsworth's home town of Granville, only about ten miles
southeast of Skenesborough.

Lead was the most difficult item for the Americans to get hold
of. Stockbridge, Massachusetts, sent in "all their town stock" and
sent express riders to other towns, who took "weights from sundry
clocks" until most of Berkshire County had to tell time by the
sun.1 At Bennington "the Dishes, Plates and Spoons" had all been
"melted into ball." The "powder left at Pittsfield" would not
have been "sufficient to make an Alarm," and there were "no
Select men or Committee men but what is gone forward.... A
few Squaws could take the whole town," for they had no arms
or ammunition. Mr. Williams of Pittsfield wrote to the
Commandant of the Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, where
Washington had located a factory for the making of arms:
"Notwithstanding the Order you have received from His Excellency
General Washington not to deliver arms to the Militia, yet I am
confident you will judge it for the good of the Service upon this
emergency to Deliver out, and if you cannot think of a more
proper Person, I will be accountable, if you send 100 Stands which
I will endeavor to forward to whom you shall direct at Bennington
or elsewhere...."

The news that Stark and Warner were gathering an army was
brought to General Schuyler, who had retreated to Stillwater, in
the vicinity of Saratoga.2 Kosciuszko was with him, able to make
himself understood because of Schuyler's knowledge of French,
and together they had looked over a high plateau where an
American army could encamp, entrench and block Burgoyne's
further progress down the Hudson. But on the last day of July,



                    Bennington                    161

General Schuyler made one of his tactless blunders caused by his
"Yorker" blind spot. He sent Major General Benjamin Lincoln of
the Continental Army to Manchester, Vermont. "Colonel Warner
is on the Grants with a small body of Continental troops and
some militia, and expects reinforcements in a day or two by
General Stark with a body of Militia from New Hampshire"
Schuyler told Lincoln. "You will please to repair to Manchester,
the place where the above troops are collecting, and take
command of the whole"

General Lincoln set out according to orders a fat man whose
girth had not been reduced by war's privations. After his
arrival on the Grants, his almost daily letters to Schuyler were
most unhappy ones. On August 6 the tall, broad-shouldered Stark,
his face as angular as though chipped from granite, rode into
Manchester at the head of his men. Not all had arrived, but he
expected a total of fourteen hundred militia. Lincoln had ambled
off to Bennington, but had left orders for Stark to join Schuyler,
at Saratoga, at once. Stark said that "by his instructions from the
New Hampshire Assembly," he was free to join Schuyler or not,
just as he pleased. Stark had no commission in the Continental
Army, having resigned in a quarrel over promotions.

At Bennington, General Lincoln found "a considerable quantity
of flour and several hundred bushels of salt which may draw the
attention of General Burgoyne and induce him to send a party
this way in order to destroy them and distress the inhabitants."
He thought the thing to do would be to "send the flour to
Stillwater, if it is wanted in the army, escorted by ye troops marching
that way." It seemed to have escaped his attention that there were
no troops marching that way, but he did notice that Stark "seems
to be exceedingly soured and thinks he hath been neglected and
... is determined not to join the Continental Army till Congress
gives him his rank there-in."

On August 8, while General Lincoln was in Bennington trying
in vain to get his new command to obey his orders, Burgoyne



162              The Baroness and the General

sent an order to General Riedesel which Riedesel obeyed with
alacrity. Everything was to be arranged with Colonel Baum of
the dragoons "so that he may march tomorrow." Burgoyne had
just been to Fort George, and "from this place" at the southern
end of Lake George, he had "collected all the Sacks he could hear
of, to be delivered to Lt. Col. Baum to carry flour...."3 On
August 9, Lieutenant Colonel Baum marched from Fort Edward
to Fort Miller, with the dragoons. Here he was to receive more
troops for his detachment for the Bennington expedition, from
General Fraser's advance guard.

Ordered for Baum's detachment were 200 Brunswick dragoons,
"Captain Fraser's Light Company of 50, Col. Peter's Provincial
Corps, 150 men," and 56 men from the Canadian Volunteers
plus 100 Indians.4 But on August 10 Baum was delayed, "the
Provincials and Indians intended for him being gone to Stillwater."
One hundred Germans were ordered from Breymann's
corps to make up the deficiency. Some Provincials and Indians
also joined Baum, but not as many as first ordered.

Taking a large sheet of sturdy writing paper and folding it
vertically down the middle, General Riedesel had written out Baum's
orders to the left of the fold, leaving a right-hand column blank
for Burgoyne's comments or corrections.5 "You are to proceed by
the route from Batten Kill to Arlington and take post so as to
secure the pass from Manchester. You are to remain there till the
detachment of Provincials under Captain Sherwood shall join you
from the southward. You are then to proceed to Manchester,
where you are to take post so as to secure the mountains on the
road from Manchester to Rockingham; hence you will detach the
Indians and light troops to the northward toward Otter Creek.
On their return and also on receiving intelligence that no enemy
is in force in the neighborhood of Rockingham, you will proceed
by road over the mountains to Rockingham, where you will take
post. This will be the most distant post on the expedition" By



                    Bennington                    163

modern roads, this little town of Rockingham, on the Connecticut
River, would be about eighty-five miles away. Apparently neither
Riedesel nor Burgoyne had any idea of die distance, so this was
to be such a rapid foray that the troops would take no tents.

From Rockingham, Baum's detachment was to "descend by
the Connecticut River to Brattlebury." And from that place, "by
the quickest march," they were to return "by the great road to
Albany." From Rockingham to Brattleboro on present-day roads
the distance is about twenty-six miles. Here the "great road to
Albany" goes west, on approximately the present route 9, to
Bennington, a distance of about forty-one miles. Considering the
rugged mountainous country, and the state of the primitive, stony
dirt roads of that day, with their steep grades and sharp turns,
Baum and his men would have had quite a ramble even if no
enemy had been in force,6

"During your whole progress, your detachments are to have
orders to bring in to you all horses fit to mount the dragoons
under your command," the orders went on, "or to serve as bat
horses to the troops; they are likewise to bring in saddles and
bridles as can be found." "The number of horses requisite, besides
those for the mounting of the dragoons, ought to be 1300."
Written in, on the right side of the page, this was Burgoyne's
estimate of how many horses the detachment was to bring in.
Riedesel had already said that the dragoons needed 336. "If you
can bring more" than this total of 1636, Burgoyne wrote, "so
much the better."

But this was not all. The narrow roads were not only to be
choked with horses, but Baum's "parties were likewise to bring in
waggons and other convenient carriages, with as many draft
oxen as will be necessary to draw them, and all cattle fit for
slaughter...."

Baum would have Colonel Skene with him, to help him "distinguish
the good subjects from the bad." But he was to "make
hostages of the most respectable people ... to insure ... the



164              The Baroness and the General

delivery of horses and cattle, waggons and harness." "Good"
inhabitants were to be paid for their horses and cattle, but not in
money they were to get paper receipts, which they must later
bring into Burgoyne's camp. Of course "bad" inhabitants got
nothing, but Baum was to "use all possible means against
plundering." The Indians were to be paid for horses brought in.

"The dragoons themselves must ride and take care of the horses
of the regiment. Those horses which are destined for the use
of the army must be tied together in strings of ten each in order
that one man may lead the horses." Baum was to use unarmed
men of Peters's corps and inhabitants he could trust to "conduct"
the horses. At this point it seems to have occurred to the Generals
Burgoyne and Riedesel that Baum was going to have his hands
full with all those horses, cattle and wagons. He was to send back
detachments of them from time to time.

Then there was the possibility of the detachment's being attacked.
In their progress down the Connecticut River Valley they
would have the "defile of the mountains" behind them. Baum
was "always to bear in mind that the corps is too valuable to let
any considerable loss be hazarded on this occasion" and a retreat
through the mountains "might be difficult." He was to "endeavor
to be well informed of the force of the enemy's militia in the
neighboring country." This was written on the right, or Burgoyne's
side of the ledger like page. On Riedesel's side was written, "It is
highly probable that the corps under Mr. Warner, now supposed
to be in Manchester, will retreat before you." It was "Mr.
Warner" now, not "Colonel, von Werner." Both Burgoyne and
Riedesel were underestimating the Americans.

On August 10, "His Excellency General Burgoyne changed the
route first intended for the detachment and ordered ... [it] ...
direct to Bennington." He had heard that Bennington was a depot
for ammunition, lead, horses, and flour.

On August 11 Baum marched out, not forgetting the flour bags.
He took post on the Batten Kill, a sizeable stream emptying



                    Bennington                    165

into the Hudson but finding its way there in a most devious
manner.

On the twelfth he proceeded to Cambridge, New York, leaving
the Batten Kill to its wanderings, as he moved southward down
a fertile valley. His "advanced guard fell in with and defeated a
party of Rebels; took 8 prisoners, 1000 bushels of wheat, 150
bullocks and several other articles" which he sent back to Burgoyne's
camp.

"The accounts you have given me are very satisfactory" Burgoyne
wrote, dating his dispatch August 14 and sending it by
courier. He wanted to know if the road to Cambridge, New York,
would be "practicable for a large corps with cannon" And he
added, "You will please to send to my camp as soon as possible
Waggons and draft cattle and likewise such other cattle as are
not necessary for subsistence. Let the waggons and carts bring off
what flour and wheat they can... "

Baum had now heard that there were militia at Bennington,
and he wanted orders. Burgoyne told him "to possess Bennington"
if he could; if the enemy were too strongly posted, he was to
"take such post as you can maintain until you hear from me. I will
either support you in force, or withdraw you"

Meanwhile Stark continued his argument with Lincoln. From
the point of view of good discipline, his refusal to co-operate and
place himself under Lincoln's orders was shocking. His stubborn
attitude turned out, nevertheless, to be a powerful stroke of luck
for the Americans. Writing politely to Schuyler, Stark explained
that he had consulted with Colonel Seth Warner "of this state"
namely, Vermont, a state the "Yorker" Schuyler refused to
recognize, as Stark well knew and everyone was of the opinion
that Stark's men were too tired to march to Stillwater to join
Schuyler. They were going to Bennington. "Fifty Indians have
been seen this day [April 13] at Cambridge," Stark added. "I have
sent 200 men to oppose them doing any mischief"



166              The Baroness and the General

Baum was now on the road to Bennington. Most of the
"defeated party of Rebels" encountered by Baum on the road to
Cambridge were now on their way to Bennington too via
Arlington, or by North Hoosic, or just by way of trails of their
own. They were sniping at Indians as they went, hoping to save
their own scalps so as to fight another day. Reaching
Bennington before Baum did, they spread the news of his approach.

Baum arrived at the Sancoik mill at "8 in the morning" on
August 14. He was feeling pleased. He had been told of "a party
of the enemy being in possession" of this mill. Writing with his
paper placed on the head of a flour barrel, he had "the honour to
report" to General Burgoyne that the rebels had "abandoned the
mill at our approach but in their usual way fired from the
bushes and took their road to Bennington. A Savage was slightly
wounded." So much for the vaunted marksmanship of the frontier!
Baum was a little annoyed, however, because these rebels "broke
down the bridge, which has retarded our march above an hour."

In the mill Baum found "78 barrels of very fine flour, 20 barrels
of salt and some pearl and potash."7 He had ordered "30
Provincials" to guard the loot at the Sancoik mill, and also the bridge
when it was repaired. Five prisoners, taken at the mill, told Baum
that there were 1500 to 1800 men at Bennington "but are supposed
to leave it at our approach" Baum promised to "fall on the
enemy to-morrow early" and he made a casual comment: "The
Savages cannot be controlled. They ruin and take everything they
please."

The Sancoik mill belonged to a Loyalist, so Colonel Skene
stepped in to order other Loyalists to get the mill going. "Mr.
Bull will have the department of grinding as he is a good miller,"
Skene reported to Burgoyne. "He is to grind as fast as possible and
take receipts for all flour delivered to wagons or carts." The "solid
coin" which Burgoyne had promised would be forthcoming
sometime.

On the morning of August 14, as Baum crossed the bridge, now



                    Bennington                    167

at last repaired, and set off down the road to "fall upon the
enemy" he saw "about 700 of the enemy" coming toward him.
He stopped and loaded one of his two four-pounder brass cannon
and had a shot at them. They retreated. They were an advance
party sent out to look for the enemy and one look was enough,
it seemed. Baum imagined that he was only three miles from
Bennington, but he was eight miles away. A Loyalist told him
that the rebels were well fortified at the town, so he "took post"
as advised by Burgoyne.

The post was at the summit of an extremely steep little hill.
Below it wound the Walloomsac River, and Baum placed a gun
at the bridge over it, just in case some rebels might dare again
to approach. He then sent to Burgoyne for the promised reinforcements.

The fifteenth was a rainy day and Stark's main body remained
in camp not in the town of Bennington but on David Henry's
farm, about a mile an a half below Baum's post. The Americans
spent the day throwing up breastworks and sending out scouting
parties, which now and then fired a few shots to keep Baum where
he was. Next morning, Baum saw "several bands of armed men
near his camp." Skene told 1pm the bands were Loyalists.

"On Saturday, August 16, at twenty minutes past three in the
afternoon, the battle began in earnest, we being on every part of
them." So wrote Peter Clark of Lyndeboro, a farmer, justice of
the peace, and a rebel. He commanded sixty men, and he said
that the "Battle held about %, an hour," as near as he could tell,
"and was equal to Bunker Hill excepting there was not so many
cannon. The enemy had two brass field pieces, we had none...."

Jesse Field, a man from Bennington "belonging to Captain
Dewey's Company of Militia," was sent "across the river, nearly
against" or opposite Baum's hilltop post, and then "over the hills
and forded the river again below the enemy and came up in their



168              The Baroness and the General

rear from the southwest...." When they came in sight of the
breastworks which Baum had thrown up, they halted, "because
some of our party did not come on so quick as they ought to have
done," Field said. He heard firing from the Americans sent around
the hill to the north. "My God, what are we doing they are
killing our brothers!" an officer exclaimed. Just then the order
came to advance.

"We pressed forward and as the Hessians rose above the works
to fire, we discharged our pieces at them and we kept advancing
and about the second fire they left their works and ran down the
hill to the south and southeast. We followed on over their works
and pursued them down over the hill. The day was very warm,
they were in full dress and very heavy armed, and we in our shirts
and trousers and thus had much the advantage in pursuit. Some
were killed in their works, many killed and taken in going down
the hill and others on the flat upon the river."

From the top of the hill, inside the "Hessian" Baum's entrenchments,
a Tory or Loyalist volunteer on the British side told how
things looked to him on that same fatal sixteenth of August:

"We were all ready when we saw the rebels coming to attack
us and we were on such a high bank that we felt perfectly safe
and thought that we could kill any body of troops sent against us
before they reached the place we stood upon. We had not expected
however that they would approach us under cover but supposed
we should see them all the way. We did not know that a
little gulley that lay below us was long and deep enough to
conceal them.... The first we saw of the party coming to attack
us, they made their appearance right under our guns....

"Several of us leveled our pieces at once. I took as fair aim at
them as ever I did at a bird ... but we had to point so much
downwards it made a man but a small mark. We fired together
but to our surprise, they all sprang up the bank so that they did
not give us time to load and came jumping into the midst of us



                    Bennington                    169

with such a noise that we thought of nothing except getting out
of the way of their muskets as fast as possible. I saw all my
companions going over the wall on the other side and I went too.

"We had open fields before us and we scattered in all
directions.... I looked back and saw a raw-boned fellow running
like a deer only a short distance behind me and gaining on me at
every step."

The young Tory threw away his gun, which "was only a useless
bother for it was discharged and had no bayonet, and although a
valuable one" he thought his "pursuer would stop to pick it up."
But the rebel threw away his own gun and kicked off his shoes,
because he could run much faster barefoot. So could his Tory
neighbor, for that matter, but the Tory wore silver buckles which
held his shoes on tightly. He could not get them off.

The Tory youth had been heading for a thick wood or so he
thought. But what he had seen was the tops of trees along the
Walloomsac River. He came to a "frightful precipice." There was
no time to change course; he jumped and landed deep in the
mud on the edge of the river. He never forgot the sound he
heard Splat! Splat! as he hit the mud. And then, close by him,
he heard that sound again. "The fierce fellow" had jumped after
him. Now they were both stuck in the mud. The Loyalist was up
to his knees, but it was a relief to see that "the rebel had no
pistol.... Neither of us made any progress although we wasted
almost all our remaining strength trying to get out of the mud."
But the Tory youth thought that those buckled shoes of his had
kept him from sinking as deep as his enemy. Now if he could just
get them off! With a mighty heave he broke the straps. His feet
"slipped smoothly up through the clay," and although those shoe
buckles were of solid silver he "did not regret than." And being
"still dreadfully afraid," he ran downriver as fast as he could.

Baum had asked for reinforcements on August 14, and on the
fifteenth, at eight o'clock in the morning, Lieutenant Colonel



170              The Baroness and the General

Heinrich Breymann got orders to march. He was to take "the
reserve of the Advance Corps" a battalion of grenadiers, one of
chasseurs, one rifle company and two six-pounder cannon. General
Riedesel himself offered to go out with Breymann, but Burgoyne
would not allow it. Brigadier General Fraser thought Breymann
ought to have more than the "seven or eight hundred men" given
him, and wanted the entire Advance Corps to go; but "this was
rejected because the Advance Corps was too considerable to be
risked.... "

   Breymann marched at nine. Because of the scarcity of carts,
Riedesel "put two boxes of ammunition on the artillery cart. Each
officer carried 40 rounds in his pouch."
   The distance Breymann's corps had to travel was twenty-five
miles, but he himself figured that he made only "½ an English
mile an hour" There were those who said that Breymann was
intentionally slow because he was jealous of Baum. This may be
true, but in any case there were others reasons for delay. On the
night of the eleventh horses in Burgoyne's army down by the
Hudson kicked their shed to pieces in terror because of a violent
thunderstorm. Two days later the ford on the Batten Kill was
flooded, so as to be almost impassable, and boats forming a bridge
over the Hudson filled, broke the chains binding them together
and sank. On the fifteenth, when Breymann set out, it rained all
day. The road leading to Bennington wound between steep hills
where trout brooks coming down each slope had turned to
roaring torrents. Shallow fords had suddenly become deep, with
water spreading and flowing outward all over the road. The road
itself was a quagmire.
   "Each gun and ammunition cart had to be dragged up every
hill, one after another," Breymann said, and he lost count of the
hills. "One artillery cart was overturned and with the greatest
difficulty gotten back on its wheels again.... Our guide lost his
way and, after a long search, Major Barner" had to hunt up "an



                    Bennington                    171

Inhabitant who was able to put us again on the right road". It
was night when Breymann halted seven miles short of Cambridge,
New York.
   The artillery horses had had no food all day. They were so weak
they could no longer drag the guns, and Major Barner "went
forward and took horses from the Inhabitants". An overloaded
ammunition cart broke down. And then, from a more or less
easterly direction, a mud-spattered horseman rode up with a
message: Colonel Skene wanted help in holding Sancoik mill.
Breymann sent him sixty men.
   The sun shone during August sixteenth. The hillsides
steamed with moisture, and it was unbearably hot. At "twenty
minutes past three in the afternoon" when the Battle of Bennington
began, Breymann was not in sight. To be sure, Baum could
see very little in spite of the height of land he had chosen for his
post. The Walloomsac was a narrow ribbon winding below -
widened now because of the rains. But the road, which followed
the river, was hidden by thick forest; on the surrounding hillsides
there were only occasional clearings.

No one knew that the German and British reinforcements were
coming least of all the Americans. "Our men were scattered
all over the field of battle, some resting, some refreshing
themselves, some looking up the dead and wounded, and others in
pursuit of plunder," Jesse Field said, continuing his story of what
happened as he saw it that day. "I did not pursue more than
half a mile, though some went farther, probably near or quite
down to the mill."
   It was "perhaps an hour after sunset" when Field heard the
report of cannon, and news soon came that "we were attacked by
a body of Hessians.... We went down upon the side-hill north
of the road. The Hessians were marching up the road, their
cannon in front, clearing the way."
   When Breymann reached Sancoik mill, it was four in the



172              The Baroness and the General

afternoon. "I positively declare that I did not hear a shot fired"
Breymann said. Colonel Skene told him that all was well but
with Baum all was over. Breymann crossed the bridge, and just
beyond he said he saw "a considerable number of armed people,
some in jackets, some in shirts.... I showed these to Colonel
Skene who assured me they were Royalists and rode up to them
and called out but received no other answer than a discharge of
firearms...."

Field was among the men in shirt-sleeves. "Our men kept
collecting in front and on their right," he said. "Our party were on
the side-hill within 12 to 20 rods of them, generally behind trees,
and kept up a constant fire. The road appeared full of men and it
was like firing into a flock of sheep. They kept firing but with
little success. The battle continued till dusk when they retreated
and were not pursued far".

Field and his friends, apparently without orders and entirely on
their own, did a good job of frontier fighting but it was fortunate
nonetheless that Colonel Seth Warner now arrived from the town
of Bennington with fresh men. "We had another battle much
harder than the first one" wrote justice of the peace Peter Clark.
This was no half hour affair. The battle "continued till dark but
finally they were obliged to flee before us and leave behind them
two more brass field pieces, small arms and other things"

"We do not know how many we have killed," Peter Clark
wrote nearly two weeks later. "Our Scouts daily find them dead
in the woods.... All this week we have been vendueing the
plunder that we took from the enemy which if justice is done
there will be considerable to each man." One man, Thomas
Hooper of New Boston, "belonging to our company that was
wounded in the fight, died Monday morning." But "the wounded
Hessians die 3 or 4 in a day. They are all in the Bennington Meeting
House which smells so it is enough to kill anyone to be in it.
The weather has been so hot it has been bad for the wounded."



                    Bennington                    173

Back at Fort Edward, General Riedesel sat down to write a
difficult letter to the Duke of Brunswick. First, in regard to his
plan, he pointed out the lapse of time. He had suggested a
foray for horses on July 22, and Baum's expedition did not set
out until August 11. Then there was the matter of the route
taken Burgoyne had changed it. As to the Battle of Bennington:

"All who were present testify that Baum and the troops did
well. He had thoroughly beaten the enemy when he was forced
through want of ammunition to retreat....

"General Burgoyne has publicly praised the men," Riedesel
wrote, "but notwithstanding this I cannot divest myself of the
sorrow which I feel at this event, especially since the expedition
was planned contrary to my wishes.... But aside from lie great
loss of so many brave men of Your Highness, and the boasting of
the rebels, this affair will not be of much consequence."

Months went by before the list of Germans dead, wounded
or prisoners of war was complete, but out of a total of 374
Germans under Baum, only 9 rejoined Burgoyne's army. Breymann's
reinforcement numbered 643 men; but the only Brunswickers
to return were Captain von Schlagenteuffel and 29
dragoons.8



             14
              
             The Road to Albany



"THE unlucky affair at Bennington," the Baroness Riedesel
called the battle which marked the turning of the tide against
Burgoyne and his army. She was not a military strategist just
a woman who loved her husband. The General was troubled because
of his fondness for his men, and his grief at losing so many.
That the whole army was now in a perilous position was none of
Mrs. General's business; the thing for her to do was to be her own
"frolicksome" self and divert her husband's mind from sad
thoughts. She told of "the joy of seeing him on August 18th" and
of "spending three happy weeks with him in perfect peace" at
the Red House in Fort Edward.

"The surrounding country was magnificent. We were encircled
by the encampments of the English and the German troops" and
at night campfires gleamed on all the hills overlooking the Hudson.
In the morning the Germans were awakened by notes on the
tuba, while the fife and drum aroused the British. "When it was
beautiful weather we took our meals out under the trees. When it
rained, we laid boards on top of casks and ate out in the barn."
There were usually four or five of the General's aides, known as
his "family," at the long table with his wife and children. At the
Red House, the Baroness ate bear meat for the first time and
found it delicious.
   Lady Fritz loved to entertain, and although she was "sometimes

174



                    The Road to Albany                     175

hard put to it to find enough to eat," she gave little dinner parties
several times a week. The General had a cook who was an accomplished
forager, and it was not until sometime later that the
Baroness discovered that the large sums he said he paid to
"inhabitants" went into his own pocket while the inhabitants got
nothing but mysteriously vacant hen roosts and empty pigsties.

The matter of finding suitable guests was not easy. Fort Edward
was just a country town, a former trading post, with no Tory
gentry to speak of. It was fun to have lots of men at a party
Frederika loved it; but a few ladies made things more festive, and
only the wives of officers were of a sufficiently exalted station
to be received by a Baroness.

Lady Acland and the Major were among the first to dine with
General Riedesel and Lady Fritz. Major Acland, cured of his
wound, had rejoined the army with Lady Harriet on the sixth of
August at Fort Edward, and the Baroness owed them a debt of
gratitude. "Upon the arrival of milady Acland at the army" she
wrote, "General Burgoyne said to my husband, 'General, you shall
have your wife here also/ Whereupon he immediately dispatched
Captain Willoe for me."

Major Acland was not much of a favorite with the Baroness,
however. Lady Harriet "loved him very much, but he was a plain,
rough man and got drunk almost every day."

Also at Fort Edward were Major and Mrs. Harnage and Lieutenant
Reynels and his wife. General Burgoyne was a widower, his
wife having "sunk into a decline" before he left England. She had
been Lady Charlotte Stanley, sixth daughter of the eleventh Earl
of Derby, and their marriage was a romantic elopement She had
died by the time Burgoyne reached Canada.

General Burgoyne was not living in the town of Fort Edward.
He had gone forward to a comfortable farmhouse on a ridge
overlooking the Hudson. It was known as "Duer's house"; it was new
and not entirely completed. William Duer was now a delegate
from New York to the Continental Congress, where he was at



176              The Baroness and the General

work on the problem of making his country, not the "states of
America" as young Livingston had called it, but the United
States. The Americans had driven off all of Duer's cattle, but
Burgoyne found his house delightful.

It was some time before Madam Riedesel discovered that
General Burgoyne was not alone at Duer's house, but living with
"the wife of a commissary who is his mistress," she said. Here was
a social predicament. The wife of the commissary was entitled to
be asked to dinner because of her husband's rank. And Mrs.
General Riedesel naturally wanted General Burgoyne to grace her
dinner table. But she was not going to have a lady of easy virtue
in her house or even in the barn where the long boards were laid
over casks to make a table.

The Baroness never mentioned Burgoyne's mistress by name.
But in speaking of her as "the wife of a commissary" she seemed
to assume that everyone would know the lady in question. Was
this, then, her old friend Hannah Foy? Certainly Hannah had no
great objection to being seduced. Her sea-captain friend, whose
"intimacy" dated from Bristol days, had gone back to England.
There were witnesses enough to her conduct on shipboard so that
her husband might have heard tell of it, and he might have left
her free to look for new adventures. Burgoyne was not in Quebec
when Hannah arrived, but he had been in Bristol more than once.
Perhaps she had already caught his eye.

In justice to Hannah, however, it should be remembered that
there were several commissaries in Burgoyne's army, and his
mistress could have been the wife of any one of them: especially
a mysterious "Mrs. Higgins," wife of a deputy-commissary, later
to be entrusted with secret messages from Burgoyne to Clinton.1
Burgoyne's mistress was a gay lady, fond of singing and of
champagne, Mrs. General Riedesel said. Had she been properly married
to the commander in chief, she and the Baroness might have been
friends.



                    The Road to Albany                     177

Burgoyne's "General Orders" were a little less oratorical than
usual after the Battle of Bennington. He said that "upon the
whole the Enemy have severely felt their little success" but he
wished to warn the troops "against the impositions of a treacherous
enemy, many of whom in the very hour of swearing allegiance
to the King, fought against his troops." What he needed, in other
words, was an army of Americans willing to line up and be shot at,
in the conventional manner. He warned his men "against expending
ammunition too fast, by which conquering Troops were
obliged to retire with loss." He cautioned about delay. "The loss
of two hours may decide the turn of an enterprise, and it might
happen in some cases, the fate of a campaign."

Four weeks now went by, after the "incident at Bennington,"
before Burgoyne moved in any direction.

General Riedesel went on writing to the Duke of Brunswick to
tell him the news as it was brought to Burgoyne's camp. The
Bennington affair would be of little consequence, because "Lt
Colonel St. Leger has captured Fort Stanwix with many cannon
and a strong garrison. It is also said that General Clinton has won
a battle near the Highlands. The army of Arnold has evacuated
Stillwater and, it is rumored, is in Albany." But there were one
or two things wrong with Riedesel's information.

It was true that St. Leger had arrived before Fort Stanwix,
called by the Americans Fort Schuyler. This log-palisaded
blockhouse on the Mohawk River stood on the present site of Rome,
New York. But St Leger had invested not captured the fort, and
Arnold had not gone to Albany he was on his way to Stanwix
to raise the siege.

St. Leger invested Fort Stanwix on August 3. On August 6,
the American General Herkimer had attempted to raise the siege
but was ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Oriskany, a brief
but bloody engagement in which Herkimer himself was killed.



178              The Baroness and the General

Arnold reached the town of Herkimer on August 20, with eight
hundred men. He had come as a volunteer in charge of volunteers.

It was not Arnold but General Schuyler who had retreated from
Stillwater, to take post at Half Moon or "Camp Van Schaick," a
fort on the Mohawk River, about four miles from the point where
the untamed Mohawk took its seventy-foot leap into the Hudson.2
Two men had somehow managed to get out of Fort Stanwix one
dark night. They crept through the camp of besiegers and
encircling Indians, and reached General Schuyler with the news
that food and ammunition were almost gone; the fort must soon
surrender. Schuyler called a conference of officers. He personally
favored sending help, but was outvoted on the grounds that
his force was too small. Losing his famous temper, he declared
that he would "beat up for volunteers next morning." Arnold,
one of the officers at the conference, had volunteered on the spot.

One move Schuyler made without asking advice. As head of
Indian affairs in Northern New York, he was able to hand Arnold
one thousand dollars, partly in wampum belts, to distribute
judiciously among the Oneidas.

On his way, Arnold was delayed at Fort Dayton (now the town
of Herkimer). He presided over the trial of two Tories, brought in
under sentence of death for recruiting for the King of England
behind the American lines. Arnold granted them a reprieve. One
of these prisoners named Hon Yost was said to be half-witted,
and was dressed in tattered Indian garments. The fellow was
related to General Schuyler, but this particular cousin had gone
native among the Indians.

Arnold must have suspected that Hon Yost was more crafty
than crazy; and the American commander had an inspired idea.
Why not send Hon Yost to the "savages" besieging Fort Stanwix,
with a message that a great host was marching against them?

Hon Yost was sure that he could do that, and more: he would



                    The Road to Albany                     179

pretend to have a vision and make direful prophecies, because the
Indians not only revered a madman but were especially impressed
by one with hallucinations. Arnold gave Hon Yost a few wampum
belts which might help the scheme along.

Hon Yost was pleased both with his reprieve and his assignment,
but Arnold took Yost's brother as a hostage just in case the
"madman" should just slip away never to be seen again. The
Americans marched cautiously forward, not unduly hopeful that
this plan would succeed. But St. Leger's "savages" were impressed
by the act Hon Yost put on, and also by the gift of
wampum; so they told St. Leger of an approaching enemy as
numerous as the leaves on the trees and urged that everybody run
for their lives. St. Leger was indignant, but panic spread among
his troops. They fled, leaving tents standing, abandoning
provisions and ammunition, throwing away their knapsacks so that they
could run faster. St. Leger's own Indians fell upon the stragglers,
gathering in scalps and loot. St. Leger's idea now was to march
eastward to join Burgoyne, but he was hustled along the trail to
Montreal and his guides seemed suddenly to have forgotten all
other trails.

The siege of Fort Stanwix was lifted on August 22. Arnold
then made a rapid march to rejoin the main American army. He
brought the promise of some Oneida braves who would join the
Americans, because Schuyler had finally agreed to fight fire with
fire.

There had been a band of Stockbridge Indians with the American
forces for some time. Young Livingston told how they brought
five British prisoners into Fort Edward on July 21 "the
enemy not knowing we had Indians, were decoyed, thinking them
their own." These Stockbridge Indians were known as "tame"
because they lived peaceably with their American neighbors. It
was Schuyler's hope that the Onddas would remain neutral if
given enough wampum and trade goods, because they were
anything but "tame" and he was reluctant to enlist them. But Gates



180              The Baroness and the General

continually asked for Indians "who would be of infinite service to
this army to assist Col. Morgan's Corps as spies and guides"

"Some of the Oneidas, Tuscaroras and Onondagas arrived yesterday
afternoon in Albany," Schuyler told Gates on the fifteenth
of September. "This day will be spent in the usual ceremony of
mutual congratulations which they will not dispense with.... We
shall, however, strive to procure some of them to join you but
cannot advise that you depend on them for guides as they are
unacquainted with the part of the country you are now in."
Schuyler was as good as his word, for about ten days later "three
Tories were just now brought in by the Oneidas," wrote Colonel
Benjamin Warren from the American camp at Stillwater.

Next day "the Indians brought in 27 Regulars and Hessians,
also Tories who were given them to buffet." This cruel game of
running the gantlet did not seem unfair to Benjamin Warren, for
he had lost men under him "when the Indians crawled up ...
killed a sentry, killed and scalped a sergeant." On Warren's march
to Stillwater the Indians "crept between our rere and the body
of our troops and killed and scalped an inhabitant who was
watching his pigs." But Warren showed concern when a British
officer was "killed and scalped by the Oneidas." They said the
officer "was offered but refused quarter," and Colonel Warren
hoped this was true.3

Although General Schuyler sent Indians to Gates, Schuyler was
no longer in command of the Northern Department. The fall of
Ticonderoga had aroused great resentment against him, especially
in New England. "Is he never there!" exclaimed John Adams, on
learning that Schuyler had left the fort shortly before the attack.
Schuyler was removed from his command by order of Congress
on June 29, but did not learn of it until the tenth of August. He
continued to send out axemen to block roads, to cut bridges and
to carry off the planks from bridges to build shelters at Stillwater.
By his orders, Fort George was successfully evacuated and stripped,



                    The Road to Albany                     181

and even after he knew that he had been superseded he remained
at his post continuing his efforts to block Burgoyne's march until
his successor appeared on the scene.

"I am far from insensible of the indignity of being ordered
from the command of the army at a time when an engagement
must soon take place" he wrote to Congress. For a while no
successor was appointed, although General Nathanael Greene of
Rhode Island "was spoken of." He was one of Washington's most
brilliant generals, but he had offended Congress. Eventually
Schuyler's successor was Gates!

Sadly, Schuyler wrote that now perhaps the militia from New
Hampshire and Vermont would come to join the handful of
Continental troops. They might be willing to serve under Gates.

Schuyler retained control of the Indian Department and on
August 19 Gates came to Stillwater, the campground which
Schuyler had chosen. Burgoyne, meanwhile, lingered in the
vicinity of Fort Edward, and the American militia marched
unopposed to Stillwater, tremendously heartened by their victory
at Bennington.

General Riedesel was optimistic at this point: "As soon as our
provisions and the necessary bateaux, which are transported by
land, shall have reached us, the army will advance and will soon be
in Albany" he wrote to the Duke of Brunswick. An attempt was
made to bring one of the Canadian-built gunboats from Lake
George and float it in the Hudson, but the attempt failed, "the
road being in so many places hilly and rocky" Bateaux to carry
provisions were brought forward from Fort Anne to Fort Edward
and "there launched on the Hudson" but they moved downstream
only about six miles before they grounded opposite Fort Miller.
They had to be unloaded, hauled up on shore and carried "two
or three hundred yards on rollers pushed by fatigue parties," then
"put again into the river" Rafts and scows were built on the
banks of the Hudson just below Fort Miller. Burgoyne rode from



182              The Baroness and the General

point to point from Fort Anne to Fort George from Fort
Edward to Fort Miller issuing orders.

On August 19 all but fifty of Burgoyne's five hundred Indians
went back to Canada. They had been the first to arrive back in
Burgoyne's camp after the Battle of Bennington, and it had
seemed then as if they might just keep on running. However, they
had a few horses to sell and some plunder they wanted to pack
up and take with them. Their chief made a formal speech of
farewell. On first joining Burgoyne's army, the chief said, the sun
shone clear and bright, foretelling conquest. But "clouds were
now rising, dark and gloomy ..." For once the speechmaking
was brief, because there was very little Burgoyne could say in
reply and the Indians were in a hurry.

Philip Skene did not seem to realize that he was out of favor
because his hundreds of "loyal inhabitants" had failed to appear.
He made up "an Account of Money spent on Private and Public
Service" and presented it to Burgoyne.4 He wanted fifteen pounds
for "Mr. Tyler sent on Express ... from Lt. Col. Breymer
for himself and horse lost by riding express the night of the 16th
August" and for "Mr, Browning who went and brought intelligence
from Bennington." Then there was the matter of Captain
Lane, a Loyalist, "stripped by the Indians." Two pounds ten
shillings were what his clothes cost. And now that the Indians had
gone, an item was due "To 2 Horses, Bridles and Saddles Delivered
to the Indians at Skenesboro by order to go on Private
Service never returned, $100." Also "i Horse, saddle and Bridle"
had been supplied to "Joseph Brant, a Mohawk Indian dispatched
with letters from Duer's: $45."

There were two particularly significant items on Colonel Philip
Skene's bill. On the third of July "Mr. Kean" and on July 7 "Mr.
Hume" and "Mr. Stalker" were sent "to New York with Dispatches."
Their setting out was billed to General Burgoyne at
10 pounds 10 shillings each, and there was no indication that



                    The Road to Albany                     183

they ever returned. Skene's bill lengthened as time went by and
was never marked paid.

Burgoyne ordered "a corps of marksmen to be formed, consisting
of one non-commissioned officer and 16 men from each
of the five British regiments." They must be "robust men of good
character" and according to Burgoyne's order they were to "act
with the Savages." Everyone knew they were to replace the
Indians, and they had orders to make "the Inhabitants who had
called themselves Tories but who went over to the enemy pay
dear for their late successes at Bennington."

On August 28 Burgoyne got the news that Colonel St. Leger
had been "obliged to retire" from the Mohawk River.

Burgoyne's first bridge of boats across the Hudson had been
strung along above the Saratoga rapids, but a better crossing point
had been found below the Saratoga Falls two miles above the
present Schuylerville. Intrenchments three hundred feet long,
with embankments six feet high, were thrown up to guard the
new bridge. Behind the entrenchments a wooden platform was
built for cannon.

Now General Riedesel had lost his optimism and was becoming
more and more uneasy: he did not like the defection of the
Indians, nor news of failure at Fort Stanwix, nor the fact that the
"inhabitants" were by no means flocking to Burgoyne. The
delays worried him. There was no word from British-occupied
New York, and the problem of supply was increasingly acute.

The General decided to send his wife and children back to
Canada, but he counted without the courage and the persuasive
powers of Mrs. General. "Upon my urgent entreaties," as she
put it, she received permission to follow the army. Part of her
baggage was sent back because she knew as well as her husband
did that a rapid march must now be made. There were "about
thirty Carts ... loaden with Baggage said to be the Lieutenant
General's," but these were headed toward Albany. They contained



184              The Baroness and the General

his wine, his dress uniforms and the belongings of his mistress.
Burgoyne was making himself the exception to his own rule.

General Riedesel acquired oxen and one cart for his personal
baggage. He had a carriage built at Fort Edward by the blacksmith,
the "collar-maker" and the "wheelers" who marched with
the troops. The new calash was composed of parts of broken-down
forage carts and a carriage belonging to an inhabitant in no
position to protest. It was large, covered, with seats inside for Lady
Fritz, the children and both maidservants. They carried a small
chest of clothes, a bottle or two of wine and quite a few provisions.

Once more Mrs. General, who had been the busy housewife,
ordering bears' paws to be cooked in the kitchen, superintending
her children's lessons in their one-room apartment, became the
army wife with a moving job on her hands. The weather had been
hot and humid in the valley of the Hudson during July and
August. Neither Mrs. General nor her husband liked hot weather.
They had been marching south and now they were going south
still farther. Back to Canada went the General's blanket coat
which had made him look so strange and unmilitary. Traveling
cloaks went back to lighten the load of baggage, but the
General's wine would have to follow the army. It would seem that
nothing could be more unwieldy to carry than a large quantity of
wine, but the decision to take it probably saved the whole family
from illness because of polluted water.

The Baroness now spoke enthusiastically of Albany. It was
a fine city with enough good houses to provide comfortable
quarters for all officers or so she had heard. "We cherished the
sweet hope of victory and of coming into the Promised Land,"
she said.

It had rained the day before, but on Saturday morning, September
13, the sun shone brightly when Fraser's corps led off across



                    The Road to Albany                     185

a bridge of boats.5 Fraser started at seven, and three hours later
Riedesel and his rear guard of Germans crossed the Hudson. No
longer the laughingstock of the army, the Brunswick dragoons
were mounted at last; they rode proudly, as they had been trained
to do but there were only some twenty men. When they left
Canada there had been 246 dragoons, 8 musicians, 29 servants, 33
non-commissioned officers and 20 officers.

"I followed the army in the midst of the soldiers who were
singing songs" Mrs. General wrote. The British troops called her
"Red 'Azel," as well she knew, although she may not have
understood enough English to realize they thought her name was
Hazel. They were respectful and she could tell that this odd
name meant that they liked her. As for the Germans, she was
their Baroness symbolic of everything good and beautiful that
they longed for when they thought of home.

Frederika Riedesel crossed the Hudson on a swaying, groaning
bridge, its roadway built of logs laid over boats. She was mercifully
oblivious of the fact that history is full of fatal river crossings.

After crossing the Hudson, "we passed through boundless
forests6 and magnificent tracts of country, which, however, were
abandoned by all the inhabitants who fled before us," wrote Lady
Fritz. It was assumed that the rebels were going to run again, and
the British felt supremely confident as they carried with them an
American flag captured at Fort Anne, "a very handsome one of
13 stripes alternating red and white with thirteen stars in a blue
field, representing a new constellation." But later with knowledge
born of experience, the Baroness explained what had happened to
the inhabitants west of the Hudson. They had "reinforced the
army of General Gates.... Every one of them was a soldier by
nature and could shoot very well. Besides, the thought of fighting
for their fatherland and their freedom had inspired them with
still greater courage."

The Baroness was wrong about the Americans' being soldiers



186              The Baroness and the General

by nature, although she meant it as a compliment. They were
farmers and tradesmen, men and boys who wanted nothing so
much as to get the fighting over with and go home. "Camp life"
was "irksome to them."7 But for the first time, Mrs. General
understood that this America was not just a rebellious colony but
a "fatherland."

Meanwhile Mrs. General Schuyler had been busy at the family
summer home on the southern edge of a little town then called
Saratoga (now known as Schuylerville).8 Apparently, Catherine
Schuyler rarely put pen to paper, but she told her husband's aide,
young Henry Brockholst Livingston, just what to say when he
wrote to General Schuyler. The American's letter could have
been written by Mrs. General Riedesel, so similar was the content:

"Mrs. Schuyler sends you by the Bearer, five Gallons of Wine,
one half Gallon of Brandy, 1 pound of Tea, 10 Wine glasses, a
piece of Cheese, a Loaf of sugar, some smoked Tongues, a bundle
for Mr. Lansing, some Chocolate, Coffee and Ruske.

"Mrs. Schuyler, in consequence of your letter, is packing her
Effects and preparing to move down. She is not at all pleased
with leaving Saratoga so soon, as she had proposed to stay here
several days. The Alarms we have had have but little Effect on
her. She is uneasy for you and has enjoined me to entreat you
not to expose yourself unnecessarily. There were a few Indians
discovered yesterday afternoon ... and a constant firing all last
night by the Sentries who saw, or pretended to see Indians.
I will take a strong Guard with us and not dismiss them till we
are free of all Danger. P. S. There are two bottles of Porter put
up in the greens." It was August when Mrs. Schuyler finally
decided to leave the farm, which everyone spoke of as hers
because she loved it so much. Ripe wheat was standing in her
fields and she personally set fire to it before she set out for
Albany.

In September Mrs. General Riedesel's calash rolled into



                    The Road to Albany                     187

Saratoga, past the church and the three or four small houses that
made up the entire town. The bridge across the Fishkill, which
the retreating Americans had destroyed, had been repaired, and
just across it stood Mrs. Schuyler's house with its Dutch door,
its many windows, its air of hospitality. Burgoyne had taken it for
his headquarters.

Lady Fritz rode on past blackened wheatfields and then through
heavy forest. Three and a half miles or so beyond the Fishkill,
there was another clearing and a good-sized house at the
foot of a hill. Madam Riedesel was delighted to hear that she
could have a room for herself and the children, her maidservants
sleeping in a 'land of entry" in this house under the hill.

Burgoyne's orders were now headed "Sara Toga"; the city which
has since been called Saratoga would eventually be located eleven
miles away from where he was posted. The health resort and the
race track at Saratoga Springs were all part of a distant future;
but Indians, for generations, had visited this region's mineral
springs, whose waters were supposed to cure their ills. Burgoyne's
Indians now brought him trout from Saratoga Lake. His officers
said that "Schuyler's house" was "the best" that they "had yet
seen in that part and much superior to many gentlemen's houses
in Canada." Spacious rooms opened left and right upon a center
hall, and below was a huge vaulted cellar divided into kitchens
and storage rooms with space for hams and sides of beef. Above-
stairs there were comfortable bedrooms for a large family and
accommodations for servants up under the roof. Mrs. Schuyler had
made no attempt to save her furniture. It was more important to
send men to dismantle the gristmill and sink the stones deep in
the millstream in the hope that they would not be discovered and
the mill put into commission for Burgoyne.

Scouts from Burgoyne's army had seen American soldiers at
Schuyler's house "guarding bullocks." But before Burgoyne got
there, all the cattle had been driven off, and the general in the



188              The Baroness and the General

American camp at Stillwater, twelve miles south, was now Gates,
not Schuyler. Varick, Schuyler's aide, wrote indignantly that
General Gates had taken Mrs. Schuyler's favorite cow to supply milk
for his own table. Varick planned to get that cow sent down to
Albany.

General Burgoyne was disappointed to find wine cellars empty
and rows of wrought-iron meat-hooks in the cellar bare of hams or
beef. But he found Schuyler's house perfect for entertaining, and
gave supper parties every night. He had brought plenty of champagne
with him, which his mistress liked as well as he did. But
Lady Fritz was certainly not at the parties, nor was Lady Acland.

On September 15, at about midnight, Lieutenant Digby returned
to his tent on the high ground south and west of Saratoga.
He had been ordered to stand to arms, but the alarm was over
and he had just dropped asleep when he "heard a great noise of
fire, and on running out, saw Major Acland's tent and markee all
in a blaze." Lady Acland camped with the troops and the marquee
was hers. Before Lieutenant Digby got there, she had crawled out
under the back wall of her large canvas shelter, but her husband
thought she was still inside. He was badly burned when he rushed
into the marquee trying to save her. The accident was caused by
a Newfoundland dog the Aclands had brought along on the campaign,
who became "restless" and knocked over a table with a
lighted candle on it

Burgoyne continued a gradual advance, mending roads and
building bridges over creeks. The meadow land beside the Hudson
was marshy and the high ground farther west heavily wooded,
intersected with ravines and brooks. Two roads for the two
columns of Burgoyne's army were to be built and at the same
time a bridge was to be repaired, wrote General Riedesel. "The
spot occupied by the British army" had had an American encampment
on it only the previous day. The Americans were even now
only about five miles away, and "Burgoyne himself sallied out to
reconnoiter."



                    The Road to Albany                     189

On the morning of the sixteenth a combination work and
reconnoitering party marched out. The detachment consisted of
half of Fraser's light troops, the 2nd Brigades of the 9th and 62nd
regiments, with six guns, all from the right wing, together with the
Regiments Specht and Hesse Hanau from the left wing. Along
with them were two groups of men ordered out for fatigue duty,
each group having one hundred men and their bridge-building and
road-making tools. They "left camp accompanied by Burgoyne,
Phillips, Riedesel and Fraser."

The column of the right wing under Major Acland crossed a
bridge as soon as it could be repaired and marched to a road
"leading to Dovogat's house" This house was "about fifty rods
from the Hudson" The left column, under von Gall, crossed the
same newly repaired bridge and "took the road leading to Sword's
house." This house was on the south bank of a brook and "about
fifty yards west of the Hudson" Both houses were only two and
a half miles from lie army's main camp, and "about 800 paces
away from each other through dense woods" Because of the delay
in repairing the bridge, this two-and-a-half-mile march represented
the entire day's work, and at about eight o'clock in the evening
everybody went back to camp.

James Wilkinson, aide to General Gates and now a lieutenant
colonel, had been camping at Dovogat with 170 men. His evidently
not too tidy camp had been made on the night of September
12 (not on the sixteenth as Riedesel supposed). He had
climbed the heights overlooking the Hudson near Saratoga, and
had been watching Fraser's advance corps "come within three
hundred yards of him" From now on, Burgoyne's every move was
watched although he saw no enemy.

On September 17, the British army started out again, taking
the two roads that had been built for them. This time Fraser's
light troops and the English regiments made up the right



190              The Baroness and the General

while all the Germans went left. Behind came "the heavy artillery
... the stores and all the baggage." The right wing was on high
ground, the line extending from Dovogat's house "back to Sword's
house" Fraser was forward "among the hills" and the Germans of
Specht's regiment were down on the Hudson where the bateaux
with freight had arrived and anchored. "The Americans had
destroyed all the bridges and Burgoyne could advance no farther"
wrote General Riedesel, who kept a careful account of each move
and of the disposition of the troops.

On the eighteenth Burgoyne "caused a road to be cut through
the woods" The road along the Hudson "had been entirely
destroyed by the Americans," and as the left wing with the heavy
artillery and baggage were to pass this way, Riedesel superintended
the repair work himself.

"A deserter reported that the Americans had left their camp at
Stillwater and were coming to attack the British army." This was
not true Gates had not moved, but Arnold, with about fifteen
hundred men, had been sent out again, to harass the British.
Riedesel saw men on the east bank of the Hudson, but "all
unnecessary firing was forbidden" because ammunition must be
conserved. He and his work party continued to build a bridge
which he called "Bridge Number One." The men on the east
bank of the Hudson disappeared, and "toward four in the
afternoon four regiments of the enemy with banners could plainly be
seen." It was Arnold again but for once he was cautious and
withdrew "because the ground was unfavorable for a skirmish."

Not bothering with her carriage, and wearing trousers, Lady
Fritz rode astride one of the horses her husband had left with her
and gaily set out over the road her husband was building. She
arrived in time to have breakfast with the General at the campfire.
"Very often I also took my noon meal with him," she said,
and whenever he could General Riedesel "rode over to my quarters
to eat with me."



                    The Road to Albany                     191

The men "slept on their arms" not carrying their tents. On
the nineteenth of September, Burgoyne's army formed to march
again, this time in three columns. Riedesel placed Regiment
Hesse-Hanau on the hills around Sword's house with orders to
"defend the road leading into the woods behind this house" They
were to stay there until the left wing had passed and then they
were to form a rear guard. The signal gun echoed among the hills
but not until eleven in the morning. The advance guard with
pitifully few dragoons and a hundred light infantry pressed
forward. Next came Regiment Riedesel, a detachment of men for
the working party, the artillery for the left wing and then
Regiment Specht. They crossed Bridge Number One and marched
only a short distance before they came to a marshy creek. Riedesel
ordered the regiments to "send out patrols as far as possible,
called for his working party, and set to work on Bridge Number
Two.

"Towards one o'clock in the afternoon musketry fire was heard
in the distance. It seemed to come from "the second" or middle
column of this three-pronged advance. But the three columns
were now separated by dense woods, marshland and a sluggish
creek with a meandering course. The workers went on building
their bridge. General Riedesel ordered Regiment Rhetz to close
in next to Regiment Riedesel. He ordered two companies to ford
the creek and take post on the other side, but "half an hour later
the sound of firing ceased."

General Phillips was in command of the heavy artillery and
he was with Riedesel. He offered to go to look for the "second
column" and "investigate the cause of the late firing." He dared
not go "through the woods by the nearest way" but backtracked
along his own march and then picked up the trail of the second
column and began to follow it.

"As soon as the bridge was done," Riedesel fired a signal gun
to let the officers of the troops strung along behind him know
that they could come forward. But General Riedesel had scarcely



The Baroness and the General

gone six hundred paces before he came to another creek without
any bridge! So he stopped to build one, "Bridge Number Three"
in his report Two twelve-pounders were brought up to defend
Bridge Number Two, and Regiment Rhetz brought up a six-
pounder to defend the working party. Bridge Number Three was
close to the Hudson; it would soon prove to be the farthest point
south on the riverbank that Burgoyne was to reach.

Around two in the afternoon "Major Bloomfield of the artillery"
arrived, to find General Riedesel sweating profusely in the
sweltering heat by the river and urging on his tired working party.
General Phillips had sent the major for "a few guns from the artillery
train" all of the guns being behind Riedesel waiting for bridges.
Riedesel ordered the guns back along the road, but had scarcely
got them rolling when he and his men heard new volleys of
musket fire over on their right, in the woods away from the river.

Riedesel dispatched Captain Willoe to see if he could find
Burgoyne, who was with the middle column, and to ask if there
were by any chance any orders. He posted men to guard bridges
One and Two, because "here were the artillery and the supply
train" practically stuck in the mud. And now "some Indians came
running through the woods and across the mountains" to say
that the enemy was coming.




             15
              
          The Battles of Saratoga



"FREEMAN'S Farm" was on high ground on the west bank
of the Hudson, overlooking marshland and the river. With
immense labor, Freeman had cleared twelve or fifteen acres in
front of his house on land sloping east and south. A log cabin
first served as shelter for the pioneer family, but by 1777 a frame
house of sorts had been built, the log house had become a barn,
and there were other log buildings. Fanner Freeman sold his
place to Isaac Leggett but the "inhabitants" had fled. They were
Quakers, now living in Albany, and it was said that Arnold had
questioned them closely as to whether they had supplied Burgoyne
with provisions. They claimed they had not, and when Arnold
seemed to doubt them, daughter Mary had spoken up with spirit:
"If thee knows better than I, why did thee question me?"

Isaac Leggett had been extending the clearing in the forest. He
had hacked out heavy undergrowth and girdled tall trees with file
so that they would fall victim to his ax more easily. On September
19, these great trees were to be chipped and scarred with cannon
ball and canister.1

Morgan's Rifles had just been sent to Gates from Washington's
army. They were to serve as scouts, and on the morning of the

193



194              The Baroness and the General

nineteenth of September they left the American camp to find out
exactly what Burgoyne was doing. General Riedesel was laboring
mightily to build bridges and drag the artillery train through the
marsh by the river. Burgoyne was advancing in a remarkably
carefree manner on higher ground. Morgan met "Canadians and
Indians in the middle ravine south of Freeman's cottage" and
drove them back. Burgoyne's right wing was reinforced about
halfway between the ravine and the farmhouse. The Battle of
Freeman's Farm, also called the First Battle of Saratoga, had
begun.

The American Major, Henry Dearborn, twenty-six-year-old
veteran of Bunker Hill and of the sieges of Quebec and
Ticonderoga, marched out to support Morgan. He sent for reinforcements
and Colonel Joseph Cilly, veteran of the Battles of Long
Island, Trenton, Princeton, and Ticonderoga, brought out his
battalion; Major Alexander Scammel, who had seen service in
Canada and at Ticonderoga, came up with his brigade. These
were all New Hampshire men. Men Burgoyne was sure had,
every one, run away for good after Ticonderoga and Hubbardton.

At one o'clock in the afternoon the battle began in earnest.
Freeman's Farm, with its fairly level acreage, came as close to
being a proper battle field as anything General Burgoyne had
seen in America. He was "at the head of his troops," and whatever
his faults, he had courage. Four English regiments led by
Burgoyne himself made up the column of the center on the
heights, separated by two miles' distance from the column on the
left, when Riedesel heard "the sound of musket-fire" but thought
nothing of it. Fraser's column was on the right, out of sight if not
as far away. At first, the firing sounded as casual and unimportant
to Burgoyne as it did to Riedesel. But brigade after American
brigade was marching out against Fraser, and this time nobody
was running away. The engagement soon involved the column led
by Burgoyne.2



                  The Battles of Saratoga                195

General Riedesel's aide, Captain Willoe, was sent to find out
what the shooting was about. His appearance on the field of battle
at that particular moment was just a matter of chance. General
Phillips had arrived with his guns, but the American General
Ebenezer Learned had been sent out with New York troops under
Arnold's command and three other American brigades were fighting
"about 60 rods west of the cottage on a plain, or level ground."
So General Burgoyne would be obliged, he said, if General
Riedesel, "after reinforcing his position near the river as much as
possible" would take the rest of his troops and attack the flank
of the enemy "near a place called Freeman's Farm."

Riedesel had already anticipated the first part of these orders
when Captain Willoe brought them to him "in less than an
hour." He had cut through the woods with Regiment Riedesel,
two companies from Regiment Rhetz, and two cannon. Sending
a patrol ahead, he "plunged into the underbrush in the direction
the firing was coming from." To his astonishment, "on coming
out of the woods near a house they call Freeman's Farm, [he
found himself] directly on the Flank of the two armies engaged,
and the left wing [of the British] began just then to fold. Quickly
making up his mind, he formed the seven companies" and burst
from cover, "drums beating." The Americans were "attacked and
overthrown all in the same instant," as Riedesel told the story.

Riedesel left Captain Georg Pausch, artillerist, to post two guns
on the road by the river and then to follow. Pausch threw down
stone walls so that an enemy coming up in the rear would have
no place to hide, and then he dragged two more guns through
the woods in Riedesel's wake and reached the foot of Freeman's
small plateau "under a shower of bullets. The 21st and the 9th
Regiments were about to abandon the field of battle," he said;
"nevertheless, I continued to drag my two cannon up the hill...."
He saw General Phillips, whose guns were all out of ammunition,

"exhorting the English regiments to face the enemy English

captains and other officers and privates and also Brunswick



196              The Baroness and the General

Chasseurs ... grasped the ropes" of Pausch's guns; "the entire
line faced about and by this faithful assistance, my cannon were
soon on top of the hill. I had shells brought up and as soon as I
got the range, I fired 12 or 14 shots into the foe who were within
pistol range.

"Presently the enemy's fire, though very lively at first ceased"
Pausch "advanced about 600 paces, sending a few shells into the
flying enemy and firing from 12 to 15 shots more into the woods
where they had retreated. Everything then became quiet and
about fifteen minutes later, darkness set in."

General Riedesel made it clear, in his account and in his letters
to the Duke of Brunswick, that he and his German troops had
once more saved the British from defeat as they had done at
Hubbardton. And as before, Burgoyne once more claimed a
glorious victory and brushed off German help as of little
consequence. It never occurred to either general, apparently, that the
Americans "withdrew at nightfall" because they were out of
ammunition and that they had gone only a short distance, to their
camp, where Kosciuszko had designed redoubts for them in which
they could bide their time.

The British "occupied the field of battle" and this, to them,
meant victory. "Our small party of Indians had a fine time next
morning plundering and scalping the Americans left on the
field," wrote Pausch. But when he went out "to count the dead"
he got shot at, and a German surgeon found "a fellow [who]
levelled a gun at him when he came near."

On the morning of September 19 (the day of the battle of
Freeman's Farm), the Baroness got up early, put on her riding
habit with the trousers which so astonished the inhabitants, and
set off down the road that her husband was building. She had
breakfast with him, took a look at "Dovogat's house," which



                  The Battles of Saratoga                197

would be Burgoyne's next headquarters, and then watched the
bridge-builders. The noon meal was usually eaten around two
o'clock, but at one o'clock she heard the spattering of musket-
fire off in the woods. "I could hear everything" she said. The
sound of ax and hammer continued as the bridge-builders went
on with their work. When General Phillips set out, she could
hear the guns rumbling down the road and the General's language
as he urged on the horses. But then firing broke out again,
and Mrs. General was ordered to the rear with only time for a
quick farewell to her husband.

"I was an eye-witness of the whole affair," said Lady Fritz. She
stood in the dooryard of the house under the hill and on the
heights beyond she saw dense clouds of smoke following every
boom of cannon. "I knew my husband was in the midst of it,
and I was full of grief and anguish. I shivered at every shot."
Figures could be seen off among the trees, men in red coats
showing up clearly. And then men in brown, green or blue came
forward. Those Americans seemed to disregard the importance of
a uniform. A knot of men in red moved slowly toward the house
under the hill. Then there was a straggling line. They were the
wounded coming down the new road.

They brought Major Harnage to the house and put him in his
room, which was next to Madam Riedesel's. The walls were very
thin and she could hear him moan. He had been shot through
the abdomen, and "he suffered exceedingly," Frederika said. Mrs.
Harnage was with him; she tried to help the surgeon, but when
Lieutenant Young, a boy of nineteen, was brought in, there was
no one to comfort him. Madame Riedesel sent in some broth for
him and he asked to see her. "I went to him at once and found
him lying on a little straw because his camp equipage was lost"
She brought him pillows and a mattress and visited him every
day, discovering that his parents ware people she had known in
England. He was their only son. "He had bled considerably and



198              The Baroness and the General

they wanted to take off his leg, but he could not bring his mind to
it and now mortification set in.... Finally, they attempted the
amputation of his leg but it was too late and he died a few days
afterward" Lady Fritz promised to write to his people.

A hospital for the wounded was set up in a barn in the marshy
valley where Riedesel had been building bridges. The artillery
park was there, and bateaux were tied up along the bank of the
river, provisions still aboard. This area was Riedesel's responsibility,,
and he was constantly anxious lest the Americans should raid it.
But they had destroyed so many bridges below Saratoga that they,
themselves, were cut off from return.

It was decided to fortify the position at Freeman's Farm with
a series of earthworks. This was a most uncomfortable post
because the Americans were so close that they could be heard
"cutting trees and making works," and British pickets were
constantly fired upon. Then there was the noise at night. "The two
first nights this noise was heard, General Fraser thought it was
the dogs belonging to the officers" for Major Acland was not
the only one to bring a dog along. "An order was given for the
dogs to be confined within the tents; any that were seen running
about, the Provost was to hang them." Lieutenant Anburey told
of this and it seemed to him a good idea, for he was getting very
little sleep. But "the noise like the howling of dogs on the right
of the encampment" continued and it was "imagined that the
enemy set it up to deceive us while they were meditating some
attack." A detachment of "Canadians and Provincials" was sent
out to reconnoiter. They found great packs of wolves "that came
after the dead bodies; they were similar to a pack of hounds, for
one setting up a cry, they all joined, and when they approached
a corpse" either unburied, or only half buried "their noise
was hideous until they had scratched it up."

Burgoyne kept his army at Freeman's Farm for three weeks.
Forage for the horses became scarce and the American scouts were



                  The Battles of Saratoga                199

so alert that "we were always obliged to send out a heavy guard
with our foragers" Riedesel said, "Some soldiers and women,
having strolled in front of the encampment about 3 or 4 yards to
gather potatoes, were fired upon by a party of the enemy. Several
were killed and about 26 taken prisoner"

Nobody worried about the women, but Burgoyne issued a special
order to make it clear how he felt about the men. "The General
will no longer bear to lose men for the pitiful consideration
of Potatoes or Forage." He figured that twenty men "could have
cost the lives of some hundred odd of the enemy," and he warned
that "the life of a soldier is the property of the King. The first
soldier caught beyond the advance Sentries of the Army will
instantly be hanged."

General Riedesel was always at his forward post in the marsh-
land, with the artillery, or on the field at Freeman's Farm during
these three weeks. Every day Lady Fritz left her comfortable
room3 and rode forward to be with her husband. Major Griffith
Williams, in command of the British artillery, was one of the
older officers in Burgoyne's army. He was a rough soldier with
no pretentions to elegance like so many of the officers in this
elite army, but the Baroness liked him and he was devoted to her.
He offered to have a house built for her own use, just behind the
lines.

"How much would it cost?" she asked.
"Oh, not more than five or six guineas," Williams told her.
"I took him up on it," said Mrs. General. 'They called it a
"blockhouse" and for such a building large trees of equal thickness
are chosen, which are joined together, making it very durable
and warm, especially if covered with clay." Major Williams
promised Mrs. General a chimney with a good fireplace. The
whole house would be twenty feet square and Lady Fritz watched
the building of her new home with pleasure and anticipation.
Here was a house "I could steadily occupy," she said. "My husband
could live in it with me," and still "be very near his camp."



200              The Baroness and the General

Already, "nights were damp and cold" and she was worried because
he had been sleeping on the ground before his campfire.

Burgoyne wrote to tell Brigadier General Powell, in charge at
Ticonderoga, about the battle at Freeman's Farm.4 "I take the
first opportunity to inform you we have had a smart and very
honorable action and are now encamped in front of the field
which must demonstrate our victory beyond the power of even an
American news-writer to explain away." But Burgoyne's letter was
intercepted by the Americans and never reached General Powell.

On September 21, Burgoyne's advance guard "appeared before"
the American lines and the Americans "gave them three huzzahs
and immediately thirteen cannon." It puzzled the British, who
had no idea that the Americans were celebrating a foray behind
Burgoyne's lines. An American detachment had "taken Tye Landing
and the Mills and French Lines"; they had captured 293 of
General Powell's men and liberated 100 American prisoners.

Powell's letter to Burgoyne came through. He had managed to
hang on at Ticonderoga. The Americans had taken Fort
Independence, looted then abandoned it, and had disappeared "over
the mountain." It was anybody's guess where they were now.

Burgoyne did not tell rank and file about this letter because it
meant that communication with Canada was cut off. To "avoid
the delay in getting provisions from Canada" he reduced the
bread and flour ration and ordered the deputy paymaster to issue
"one hundred and sixty five days' Forage Money to the officers of
the army." He did not say how the officers were going to spend
the money where no shops existed, no "inhabitants" remained,
and where large enemy scouting parties daily tightened the ring
around his camp.

Most of Burgoyne's Indians had left, but there were now "in
all near one hundred and fifty with Gates. They were the ones
who intercepted the messengers with dispatches from General
Burgoyne to General Powell. As time went by, it looked as though
all the tribes south of the Canadian border would either "take



                  The Battles of Saratoga                201

the Hatchet" on the American side or stay at home and remain
neutral.

In Albany, a German-American set himself to a propaganda task
apparently entirely his own idea:

"I am in no public office in the army" he explained in a long
letter written in German and in English and addressed to all the
Germans in British service.5 "I am a free tradesman, a shoemaker
by profession, yet I live better than most of your nobles in
Germany". The German-American was "amazed" at the German
soldiers "for believing us to be Barbarians. But my dear Country-
men, believe not the English that tells you so. Come and see us
here as friends even Blood Relations you will find here. You'll
not repent it, depend on it, for we want all sorts of tradesmen,
who can get employment immediately, and even if they have no
trade, they may get employment and live better with half the
labor in this country than in Germany.... They call us Rebels
but believe them not, we are bold to call God and the world to
witness that we are not. We do not pretend to anything but what
God has allowed to all men freedom....

"I hope as soon as you receive this you will come over to us,
and if not, leave the ugly name Rebel out of your thoughts.... "
Here the poor laborer can go fishing and hunting where and when
he will as well as the rich "

The WELLWISHER, as he signed himself, wrote out his letter in
English to give to Gates. Copies in German he distributed by
methods best known to himself among Burgoyne's German troops.
He offered to pay for "arms and accoutrements," just as Burgoyne
had offered money to Loyalists, and he extolled the advantages of
joining the American army. The Germans would have to ponder
all this. But eventually, Gates was to write, "The Germans desert
to us in shoals "

On October 7, the Baroness Riedesel rode out to the Freeman's
Farm campground as usual. She was to move into her new house



202              The Baroness and the General

the next day, and she "rejoiced at" the sturdy little cabin, smelling
of fresh-cut logs so clean, so snug and soon to be so warm with
a fire on the hearth.

"General Fraser, and, I believe, Generals Burgoyne and Phillips
were to have dined with me [the seventh]" she said. She was
feeling gay.

There seemed to be "considerable movement among the troops"
and Mrs. General asked her husband what was up. "Just a
reconnaisance," he told her, and this was no surprise because "it often
happened." After breakfast at the campfire, Lady Fritz mounted
her horse and rode slowly back to her house under the hill.

Suddenly, around a bend in the road, came "savages in their
war dress, armed with guns." It never occurred to her to be afraid
of them. She called out to know where they were going. "War!
War!" they shouted. "They meant they were going to fight and
it overwhelmed me. I had scarcely got back to my quarters when
I heard skirmishing and firing, which by degrees became
constantly heavier until finally the noise became frightful. It was a
terrible cannonade and I was more dead than alive."

It was true that Burgoyne had ordered a "reconnoitering
expedition." But at ten o'clock in the morning, when the troops
were ready, they had been issued rum and five days' rations.
"General Burgoyne with fifteen hundred men and eight cannon"
started out "accompanied by Generals Riedesel, Phillips and
Fraser." The troops were a mixture, "drawn from all the regiments
except the 4yth," Previously General Riedesel spoke of fifty
Indians. Now he said there were a hundred and fifty, who "with a
corps of Provincials crossed to the right flank in a wide circuit
through the woods."

Burgoyne was once more using his favorite "three-pronged
formation," placing himself in the center, Riedesel on the left near
the river and General Hamilton on the right.6 In a conference
the high officers, General Riedesel had proposed the night



                  The Battles of Saratoga                203

before to return "behind Batten Kill" or back to the vicinity of
Fort Edward. But Burgoyne had sounded his old war cry, BRITONS
NEVER RETREAT, and this morning he led his "reconnaisance in
force" south and westward, hoping to outflank Gates and attack
the Americans in the rear. All efforts to find out just what sort
of camp the rebels had fortified had failed the underbrush was
too thick, at times the fog had been too heavy but of course
according to precedent the rebels would run.

"Toward three in the afternoon the jaegers discovered a small
party of Americans near a house that lay a little way in advance
and was separated from them by a ditch" so General Riedesel
said in his account of this day's events. The Americans, instead
of running, "grew stronger and stronger and Burgoyne, supposing
they meant to oppose his farther advance, fired his two twelve-
pounders at them but without producing the least effect On the
contrary, they continued to increase in numbers." This was the
beginning of the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the
Battle of Bemis Heights.

"At four o'clock in the afternoon" (and here other German
officers take up the story) "the Americans attacked the left wing,
composed of grenadiers under the command of Major Acland,
who were posted in the wood." Major Acland was beaten back.

"Lt. Col. Specht had been assigned to the center under
Burgoyne, with three hundred Germans." When Acland retreated,
Specht's flank was exposed. He ordered two regiments, Specht
and Hesse-Hanau, "to form a curve supporting the artillery. Specht
maintained his ground long and bravely." Then suddenly, "the
right wing under Lord Balcarres" moved off. He had "been
called back by mistake," and now Specht's right flank "was
equally exposed" and "balls struck within their lines from three
different sides. Three of their captains fell and their two cannon
were taken." Reidesel called what happened "a retreat," but
Captain Pausch said that "each man for himself, they made for
the bushes."



204              The Baroness and the General

Brigadier Fraser, always commanding the advance guard, had
been stationed "more to the right with one half of the English
grenadiers, the light infantry and the 24th regiment." He saw that
the center, or middle prong of the main army, was about to
crumple so he ordered the 24th Regiment to reinforce them,
and he rode at the head of that regiment on his gray horse.

Back at the house on the Hudson, opposite the field of battle,
the table had been set for dinner. Lady Fritz was still expecting
her husband and her guests, Generals Fraser, Burgoyne and
Phillips. She tried to shut out of her mind the terrifying roar of
cannon from the nearby hill as she concentrated on her wifely
duties. With all those generals coming, it must be a good dinner!
The room was a pleasant one, rather large, with a low ceiling and
a big fireplace where meat was turning on a spit. Even the cook
who was such a rascal had not been able to get meat lately, but
they had saved a shoulder of pork for just such an occasion. A
long trestle table was set up before the fire with benches and
various assorted chairs pulled up to it. General Riedesel's camp
kit included a good many plates, cups, knives and two-pronged
forks. Nothing was elegant from the point of view of a Baroness,
but Mrs. General achieved a homelike atmosphere wherever she
went. She would have been happy if only those guns would stop.

"About three o'clock in the afternoon, in place of the guests
who were to have dined," a litter came to her door. They were
bringing General Fraser, "mortally wounded."

'The table was taken away and in its place they fixed a bed for
General Fraser. I sat in the comer of the room, trembling. The
noise kept growing louder. The thought that they might bring
me my husband, in the same condition, tormented me
incessantly," the Baroness said.

"General Fraser spoke to the surgeon, 'Conceal nothing from
me. Must I die?' " The wound was abdominal, as Major Harnage's
had been. By a miracle Major Harnage was recovering; but there



                  The Battles of Saratoga                205

was no hope for General Fraser. He suffered greatly and "amidst
his groans" the Baroness heard him speak of his wife and of
"poor General Burgoyne." Prayers were read, and General Fraser
asked that he be buried "next day at six o'clock on top of a hill
which was a sort of redoubt" Burgoyne always called this "the
great redoubt"

"The Americans advanced with more vehemence and in greater
numbers" after General Fraser was carried from the field," said
General Riedesel in his account written for the Duke of
Brunswick. The forward "detachment was nearly surrounded when
General Burgoyne determined to retire to the great redoubt"

Now the British were back on their first battle field, Freeman's
Farm. "Scarcely had the troops been posted in the redoubt, than
the enemy came to attack it with great fury." Everyone
recognized the man on the black stallion. It was Benedict Arnold,
fighting like a crusader against Saracens or like a Norseman gone
berserk. He rallied the men, but they could not take the redoubt
with its abatis of felled trees branches pointing outward in the
style of their own American breastworks. Arnold rode in the
open across Freeman's clearing, under a hail of bullets; then
he and the men who had gathered under his leadership "attacked
Breymann's corps in front and on both flanks." Breymann was
killed, and his men broke and ran. Arnold's horse was killed, and
Arnold's leg was crushed either by the fall of his horse, by a
bullet, or by both. His comrades carried him from the field.

Captain Georg Pausch was on the scene with his artillery and
wrote down what happened to him at the Second Battle of Saratoga.
On the morning of October 7, he was ordered to get two
six-pound cannon ready with ammunition carts to go with them.
At ten he crossed to the right wing of Burgoyne's army, and it
took him three quarters of an hour "to march from one wing of
our army to another" He arrived at a deserted log house, which
had a hole cut in its roof. Here "all the adjutants, engineers and
quartermaster generals were gazing through their spyglasses"



206              The Baroness and the General

trying to get a glimpse of the enemy. But "nothing could be seen."
Pausch posted his "two six-pound cannon on a somewhat elevated
piece of ground" about twenty-five paces apart and fifty paces "in
advance of the front." Major General Williams "of the English
artillery" came up and posted two twelve-pound cannon in front
of the log house. "After being made ready, they were loaded.

"An English officer arrived in haste, saying there were no cannon
on the flank of the left wing and that I must immediately
send one of mine." The Americans were not the only ones to protest
orders Pausch said he would not give up a gun. He would
either take his two guns or stay where he was, "one cannon being
no command for a subaltern, to say nothing of a captain." He
reminded the Britisher that "they had four six-pound cannon of
their own." The officer disappeared.

Half an hour later, Pausch "noticed a few patrols in the woods
and on the height to the left of the woods." Then the "enemy's
advance guard, who were in the bushes, engaged our jaegers,
chasseurs and volunteers. The action extended all along the line,
the enemy appearing in force." He was "serving his cannon," while
the Americans marched out "at a double quick, and in squares,
two strong columns" of them. They were reinforced "and advanced
madly and blindly in the face of furious fire." The troops behind
Pausch were gone. He never knew how long they had left him
alone with his guns, but when he saw "great numbers" of Americans
advancing on him he looked back where he supposed "our
German infantry" was and there was "not a man to be seen.
They had all run across the road into the field and thence into
the bushes and had taken refuge behind the trees."

Captain Pausch managed to get back to the log house, "where
the two 12-pound cannon stood dismounted and deserted." Major
Williams had been taken prisoner while directing the firing of
these guns, and it was said that the hard-bitten old artilleryman
wept at the loss of his cannon.

Pausch "presently came across a little earth-work, 18 feet long



                  The Battles of Saratoga                207

by 5 feet high" It had been thrown up by Burgoyne's advance
picket, and Pausch posted his two guns here "and began to fire
alternately with balls and with shells." He realized that he must
have hit some of his own men "who were in the bushes" because
the Americans "without troubling them, charged savagely upon
my cannon hoping to dismount and silence them. In this they
twice failed, being frustrated each time by the firing of my shells."

An English lieutenant of artillery came up and asked Pausch
for ten artillerymen and one subaltern to serve the abandoned
twelve-pounders left in front of the log cabin. But Pausch said
he couldn't spare any men. Two of his detachment were killed,
"three or four wounded, a number had straggled off." All the
infantry he had commanded were "either gone to the devil or run
away." Moreover, "I had no desire to silence my own cannon,
which were still in my possession, and thereby contribute to
raising the honor of another corps.

"Three wagons of ammunition were fired away by my cannon,
which became so heated that it was impossible for a man to lay
his hand on them. In front, and also to the right and left of my
guns, I had conquered for myself ... a pretty good fort. But
the fire behind us was coming nearer. Finally the Americans were
"repulsed in our rear.... I could see the road on which I had
marched to this second position, as far as the plain and the
clearing." The road was open and here was a chance to retreat
Pausch and three of his men dragged one of the guns, "while a
subaltern followed with the other cannon" still on its carriage.
They got both guns on carriages and "marched briskly along the
road, hoping to meet a body of our infantry" and make a stand.
But "some ran in one direction, others in another" and Pausch
"found the road occupied by the enemy. They came towards us
on it, the bushes were full of them, they were hidden behind trees,
and bullets in plenty received us." Pausch called to his remaining
men to save themselves; he "took refuge behind a fence on the
right of the road with the last of the ammunition wagons" and



208              The Baroness and the General

the horses. He saved these "with the help of a gunner" and here
he "met all the different nationalities of our division, running pell-
mell.... In this confused retreat, all made for our camp and our
lines. As soon as it grew dark, the enemy desisted from their attack."

One of Burgoyne's cannon was never fired before being captured
and turned against him. All the "cannon with the exception
of two howitzers fell into the hands of the Americans."

"We had been told that we had gained an advantage over the
enemy" said Mrs. General Riedesel. But she knew better. She
"could see by the downcast, sorrowful faces that the opposite
was true" In the house where she lived "the whole entry and
the other rooms were already filled with the sick, who were
suffering from camp sickness" for that scourge of armies, dysentery,
had broken out with great violence. Now the wounded were
being brought in, and there was no place to lay them.

"I no longer knew which way to turn" Frederika said, "but
finally I saw my husband coming and then I forgot all my
sufferings and thanked God that he had been spared to me. We went
outside and ate a hasty meal.

"Before my husband went away again he drew me to one side
and told me that everything might go badly and that I must
make ready to leave, but by no means to let anyone know what I
was doing."



             16
              
        Mrs. General in Command



MRS. GENERAL had been critical of the fact that the
women in Burgoyne's army knew all his plans. It was a
matter of principle with her never to ask questions and never to
repeat anything she knew concerning troop movements, so now
she pretended that she was getting ready for the move to the log
cabin which Major Williams had built for her behind the lines.
She packed as though about to begin housekeeping there next
morning.

"Milady Acland occupied a tent" in the field close to the house
under the hill. "She slept in the tent but spent her days in camp"
just as Lady Fritz had been doing, and she had come back to her
tent when the action began on the heights of Saratoga. Toward
evening "someone came to tell her that her husband was mortally
wounded and in the hands of the enemy." Lady Acland "wept and
we comforted her," said Mrs. General.

"She was the loveliest of women. I spent the night first
comforting her and then looking after my children. As for myself,
I could not go to sleep, as I had General Fraser and all the other
wounded gentlemen in my room and I was afraid that my children
would cry and disturb them." The little girls were huddled
together in a corner on their camp mattress.

"General Fraser often sent to beg my pardon for making me so

209



210              The Baroness and the General

much trouble. About three in the morning they told me he could
not last much longer. I wrapped my children in blankets and
went with them into the entry." General Fraser died about eight
o'clock. "After they had washed the corpse, they wrapped it in
a sheet and laid it on the bedstead. We came back into the room
and had this sad sight before us all day"

"Officers that I knew kept coming in, and the cannonade
began again. Retreat was spoken of but not the least movement
made toward it. About five in the afternoon" Mrs. General "saw
the house" that Major Williams had built for her "go up in
flames. So the enemy was close."

Orders came that General Fraser was to be buried at six o'clock
that evening, the eighth of October, "at the great redoubt," in
accordance with his last wish. This was a gallant gesture which
Burgoyne could not resist, but it made Mrs. General angry. She
did not believe that General Fraser would have wanted to postpone
retreat if he had known what the situation was, and her
husband shared her feeling.

"Precisely at six o'clock the corpse was brought out." Madam
Riedesel was living so near that she had but to step out of the
house to watch the cortege of "all the generals and their staffs"
winding up the steep hill to the great redoubt. Drums beat the
long roll as the procession mounted slowly. At the top of the hill
the English Chaplain, Mr. Brudenel, read the service for the
dead. Cannon balls "soared continually over the party or landed
among them" with a vicious thud, sending up sprays of dirt
"Many cannon balls sped through the air not far from me," said
Mrs. General, "but I had my eyes fixed on the hill, where I
distinctly saw my husband in the midst of the enemy's fire."

General Burgoyne himself described the scene. "The incessant
cannonade during the solemnity, the steady attitude and
unaltered voice with which the chaplain officiated, though frequently
covered with dust which shot threw up on all sides of him, the
mute but expressive mixture of sensibility and indignation on



                  Mrs. General in Command                  211

every countenance, these objects will remain to the last of life
upon the mind of every man who was present"

At first, the Americans had no idea what was going on at the
great redoubt When they saw that it was a funeral, they no
longer loaded their cannon with ball but fired "minute guns in
honor of the dead." But no one on the redoubt noticed this.

"The order had gone forth that the army should break up after
the burial and the horses were already harnessed to our calashes"
said Mrs. General, speaking for herself and the other officers'
wives. "Major Harnage dragged himself out of the barn used as a
hospital" and got into his wife's calash, "determined not to be
left behind under a flag of truce." He saw the Baroness "in the
midst of danger" and ordered the Riedesel servants to take the
three little girls and get into the family calash. She "begged to
stay, being determined not to set out before the troops."

"Well, then your children must go," Major Harnage insisted.
"He knew how to take advantage of my weak side," Mrs. General
admitted. "I gave up, got into the calash and we drove off at eight
o'clock that night."

Darkness fell, and campfires were lighted in Freeman's clearing
where Burgoyne's army had been encamped so long. Tents and
marquees had been left standing and a rear guard fed the fires
so that the Americans would think that troops were still there.
But Burgoyne's army was at last beginning to move bade up the
Hudson, and "a great silence had been ordered" along the pitch-
black road. There had been a heavy fog during the day; now there
was no moon, there were no stars. And before long, it began to
rain.

"We traveled continually all night," said Mrs. General, Little
Frederika was afraid and began to cry, and her mother had to
"hold a handkerchief over her mouth lest our whereabouts should
be discovered.

"At six in the morning a halt was called at which everyone



The Baroness and the General

wondered" It was now October 9. General Burgoyne sent orders
to have "all the cannon ranged and counted, which worried all of
us as a few good marches would have placed us in safety" Mrs.
General added. Burgoyne "gave as his excuse that he wanted to
refresh the troops and give time to the bateaux, loaded with
provisions ... to come abreast"

General Riedesel "was completely exhausted and seated himself,
during this delay, in my calash.... He slept nearly three
hours with his head on my shoulder. In the meantime, Captain
Willoe brought me his pocketbook containing bank bills, and
Captain Geismar brought his beautiful watch, a ring and a well-
filled purse and begged me to keep all these for him"

It must have been about nine in the morning when "at last the
army began its march" again. They moved at a snail's pace for
"scarcely an hour" when another halt was ordered this time
because the enemy had been seen. It was only a scouting party of
"about 200 men," and Mrs. General thought these Americans
could have been taken prisoner "had not General Burgoyne lost
his head."

Lady Acland wanted to cross into the enemy's camp to find her
husband, and Mrs. General told her to make Burgoyne give her a
pass.1 So Lady Harriet sent one of her husband's aides, Captain
Lord Petersham, to Burgoyne to ask for a flag of truce and an
escort to Gates's lines, but at first Burgoyne refused. "I told her
she should insist on it," said the Baroness. "She did, and finally
got permission to go."

Confronted with a drama much to his liking, General Burgoyne
sat down to write, dating his letter October 9:

"Lady Harriet Acland, A Lady of the first distinction by family
rank and by personal virtues, is under such concern on account of
Major Acland, her husband, wounded and a prisoner in your
hands, that I cannot refuse her request to commit her to your
protection.

"Whatever general impropriety there may be in persons acting



                  Mrs. General in Command                   213

in your situation and mine to request favors, I cannot see the
uncommon perseverance, and every female grace and exaltation of
character of the Lady and her hard fortune without testifying that
your attentions to her will lay me under obligation."

Burgoyne sent Chaplain Brudenel with Lady Acland, to carry
this letter.

Anburey said that Burgoyne "had not even a cup of wine to
offer" to Lady Harriet Acland, "but from a soldier's wife she
obtained a little rum and dirty water." This does not mean that
Burgoyne had drunk all of his wine. He himself was still at
Dovogat's house, his headquarters ever since the battle of
Freeman's Farm, but his baggage was already in retreat. He did give
Lady Acland "an open boat," and she set out with her "waiting-
maid and the Major's valet de chambre, who had a ball in his
shoulder," a wound he got while searching the battle field for the
Major.

They put off into the Hudson, and Lady Harriet "herself hailed
the sentry" at the first American outpost. The sentry was cautious
he told the lady to stay where she was and wait. It was about
ten o'clock that same night, according to the American General
Wilkinson, when he was "advised from the advanced guard that
a bateau under a flag of truce had arrived from the enemy with a
lady on board. Major Henry Dearborn was ordered to detain the
flag till morning, the night being exceedingly dark." But Dearborn
invited Lady Harriet to come ashore, built a fire for her in a log
hut his pickets used, and "her attendants followed with her
bedding and necessaries" Lady Acland "took tea...."

"Next morning before sunrise" Lady Harriet floated on down
the river to Stillwater, where Gates received her "with all the
tenderness and respect to which her rank and condition gave her
claim," as Wilkinson later wrote. By "condition" Wilkinson
meant that Lady Acland was pregnant and was expecting her child
soon.

Gates was as fond of composing long wordy letters as Burgoyne



214              The Baroness and the General

was, and he sat down to write a reply which he dated October 12:
"I had the honour to receive your Excellency's letter by Lady
Acland. The Respect due to her Ladyship's Rank and the Tenderness
due to her Person and Sex, were alone Sufficient Recommendations
to entitle her to my Protection; considering my
preceeding Conduct with respect to those of your Army whom the
Fortune of War has placed in my Hands, I am surprised that
your Excellency should consider that I could consider the greatest
Attention to Lady Acland in the Light of an Obligation...."
Gates was telling the truth about his treatment of prisoners. He
had sent doctors to Bennington to look after the wounded of both
sides, and Burgoyne's wounded, which the British general had
abandoned after the Second Battle of Saratoga, were being cared
for along with the Americans. Chaplain Brudenel returned to
Burgoyne with the letter from Gates.

"We spent the whole day in the pouring rain, ready to march
at a moment's notice," wrote the Baroness Riedesel on the ninth
of October, the day she had advised Lady Acland to leave. "The
Savages had lost their courage and they were seen going home, in
all directions. My maid-servant did nothing but curse her fate
and tear her hair. I told her to compose herself or she would be
taken for a Savage but she tore off her bonnet and let her hair
hang down over her face" But "my good Lena," the children's
nurse, who had come all the way from Germany, "said nothing
although she was just as frightened.

"Toward evening, we came at last to Saratoga, which was only
half an hour's march from the place where we spent the whole
day. I was wet through and through and there was no place where
I could change my clothes so I sat down before a good fire,
undressed my children and we lay down together on some straw."
The Riedesel calash must have crossed the bridge over the Fish-
kill, and perhaps the Baroness found shelter in some very crowded
house among the three or four in town. General Phillips came



                  Mrs. General in Command                   215

during the night and Lady Fritz asked him why the troops had
halted.

"My poor woman, I am amazed at you" Phillips said. "Here
you are, soaked to the skin and yet you have the will and the
courage to go on in this weather. I wish you were our commanding
general! He halts because he is tired and intends to spend the
night here and give us a supper". In this latter achievement,
General Burgoyne was very fond of indulging" said Lady Fritz
caustically. "He spent half the nights in singing and drinking and
amusing himself with ... his mistress .... who liked champagne
as well as he did" Although Burgoyne was unable to offer Lady
Acland any wine, it would seem he had now caught up with his
supply. Burgoyne was spending one more night at General Schuyler's
house, the best place he and his officers had so far found in
America.

"On the l0th, at seven o'clock in the morning, I drank some tea
by way of refreshment and we now hoped from one moment to
the next that at last we would get under way again," said Mrs.
General. She knew that her husband had "pledged himself to
cover the retreat and bring the army through." But it was nearly
noon when "an English officer brought me some excellent broth
which he shared with me, as I was not able to refuse his urgent
entreaties. Then we set out upon our march but only as far as
another place not far from where we had started.

"The commissaries had forgotten to distribute provisions among
the troops. There were cattle enough but not one had been
slaughtered," and the excuse on the part of the commissaries was
that no orders had been given. "More than thirty officers came to
me who could endure hunger no longer," said Lady Fritz. "I had
tea and coffee made for than and divided among than all the
provisions with which my carriage was constantly filled." In spite
of the "confusion and disorder," the Riedesel cook had been foraging;
and he probably found conditions favorable to the art of



216              The Baroness and the General

stealing. Mrs. General was supplied with "sheep, poultry and
pigs" but at last even her provisions gave out, and in despair she
called to Captain Lord Petersham who was passing: "Come and
see for yourself these wounded officers who are in need of
everything!" She admitted that she spoke "passionately" She told him
to tell Burgoyne, and in about fifteen minutes Burgoyne arrived
in person. He told Lady Fritz that "a general was much to be
pitied when he was not properly served or his commands obeyed,"
and he thanked her "very pathetically for having reminded him
of his duty."

Mrs. General politely begged Burgoyne's pardon "for having
meddled with things which I well knew a woman had no business
with...." She explained that it was just because she had nothing
more to give the wounded officers. Burgoyne thanked her again,
but she knew perfectly well he never forgave her "for the tongue-
lashing."

Once more, "The horses were harnessed to our calashes ready
to leave. The whole army clamored for a retreat," and General
Riedesel again promised "to make it possible if no more time
were lost." But now Burgoyne "gave express orders that provisions
should be properly distributed." Burgoyne seated himself at table.

"About two o'clock in the afternoon, the firing of cannon and
small arms was heard and all was alarm and confusion." General
Riedesel sent an aide with a message for his wife, telling her what
to do. She jumped into her calash with her children, gave Rockel
his orders, and they galloped down the road. The tiny town of
Saratoga was soon behind them and they reached a house on a
bank overlooking the Hudson, where they were to take shelter.
Just as they turned in at the dooryard Lady Fritz saw "five or six
men with guns, on the opposite side of the river." These men
took aim and fired.

Gates had sent this detachment across the Hudson on October



                  Mrs. General in Command                   217

8, the day after the second battle of Saratoga. There were only
nine hundred men, but they were to "make a show of field pieces"
and at night they "arranged a long line of fires to indicate a large
army" They had a battery on the riverside just opposite the house
where General Riedesel had told his wife to take shelter. "We
saw a number of officers on the stairs and on the east side of the
house on the hill .... apparently surveying our position and
works" said Ebenezer Mattoon, the American officer who had
been sent out to help block Burgoyne's retreat. Guns "were
levelled with such effect as to disperse them"2

When Lady Fritz saw the men take aim, "almost involuntarily,
I threw the children on the bottom of the calash and myself over
them" she said. "At that instant the villains fired and shattered
the arm of a poor Englishman who was already wounded" and
was trying to take shelter in the house. The Baroness and her
children now piled out of the calash and got safely under cover.
"Immediately after our arrival a most frightful cannonade began,
and became so heavy that we were finally obliged to take refuge
in the cellar. I laid myself down in a corner not far from the door.
My children lay down upon the earth with their heads in my lap
and in this manner we passed the whole night"

The American Captain Benjamin Warren, whose retreat from
Fort Edward had been harassed by Burgoyne's Indians, told how
it was when it came to be Burgoyne's turn to retreat.3 On Friday,
the tenth of October, "the greatest part" of the American army
"marched up to give them the fatal blow." They found the road
"strowed with wagons, baggage, dead carcases, Ammunition, tents,
etc,, much of it as damaged as they could for want of time; houses
and buildings mostly burnt as they retreated and the bridges also
though our carpenters repaired them as fast as we marched."

On Saturday, October 11, Captain Warren arrived at Saratoga
village just at sunset. He had seen a great column of smoke rising



218              The Baroness and the General

at the southern edge of the town and the smell of burning wood
hung in the air. The British "burnt Schuyler's house, just as our
people got there," he said.

The Baroness did not sleep at all on the night of her arrival at
the house on the north side of town. The cellar where she and
her three little girls had taken refuge was full of the wives of
soldiers and their children, who cried in the terrifying darkness.

Worst of all, however, was "the horrible stench. The women
and children, being afraid to venture forth, had soiled the whole
cellar.... Next morning the cannonade began again, but from
a different side" The Baroness was too good a general in her own
right not to realize that this meant that Burgoyne's army was
encircled, but the house where she had taken refuge was not at
the moment under fire so she saw an advantage and made the
most of it: "I told everybody to go out of the cellar for a little
while so I could have it cleaned or we would all be sick," she said.
The army women obeyed Mrs. General without question, and she
selected the strongest and healthiest among them and "at once
set all hands to work."

Mops and brooms may have been left behind by the owners of
the house, or perhaps they had to be improved from rags and
birch twigs. In any case, Mrs. General found tools for her working
party and had the cellar thoroughly cleaned as a German woman
knew so well how to do. Next, she "fumigated" by "sprinkling
vinegar on burning coals." Then she "ordered everybody out,"
including the working party, and "for the first time surveyed our
place of refuge," she said. "It consisted of three beautiful cellars
splendidly arched."

Mrs. General organized the people whose care she had taken
over. The "most dangerously wounded of the officers" were
brought in and laid in the cellar farthest from the entrance. The
women and children were told to stay in the second section of the
cellar, and all the rest were allotted places in the vaulted space



                  Mrs. General in Command                   219

nearest the door. "Each person had found the place prepared for
him" in the cellar "when a fresh and terrible cannonading threw
us once more into an alarm."

They closed the cellar entrance, but "many people who had no
right to come in threw themselves against the door." Mrs. General
had just sent her children into the space under the stairs and
they would have been crushed if a mob had broken in, for the
stairs were flimsy and badly built. "With arms outstretched" Lady
Fritz held that door. Afterwards she could not understand how she
did it, except that "God gave me strength," she said.

"Eleven cannon balls went through the house" and the people
in the cellar "could plainly hear them rolling over their heads."
Upstairs, surgeons were at work amputating a soldiers leg when a
ball came through the house, table-high. The patient's "comrades
ran off," but they came back to find that the cannon ball had
taken off the soldier's other leg. The poor man was still alive.

"I, myself, was more dead than alive," said Mrs. General, but
this was not on her own account but out of anxiety for her
husband. As often as he could, he sent her an aide with a message to
say he was all right.

During the day the "ladies" who had taken refuge in the cellar
"sat together." They were Mrs. Harnage, wife of the major, and
Mrs. Reynels,4 whose husband was "the good lieutenant who
shared his broth" with Lady Fritz on the road back to Saratoga.
Under the circumstances, the Baroness had relaxed her stern
German-Lutheran principles slightly: "The wife of the commissary"
was now included among the 'ladies," but she was still not
mentioned by name.

Someone came to the cellar and spoke to one of the ladies. Lady
Fritz saw the whispering and thought they were "glancing her
way with exceedingly sad expressions." Suddenly she was sure that
her husband had been killed and she "shrieked aloud." But "a
moment, later, it was Mrs. Reynels who was "called from the
room." Lieutenant Reynels was not dead, but a cannon ball had



220              The Baroness and the General

taken his arm off at the shoulder. They brought him into the
cellar and laid him down as gently as possible, but "during the
whole night we heard his moans which resounded fearfully
through the vaulted cellars" The lieutenant died toward morning.

"My husband came to visit me, which lightened my anxiety
and gave me fresh courage" said the Baroness. People tried to
make themselves a little more comfortable in the cellar, and Mrs.
Harnage and Mrs. Reynels "made a little room in a corner by
hanging curtains from the ceiling." They wanted to fix up a corner
for Lady Fritz and her children, but she refused. She "had some
straw brought in, laid her camp bed on it and slept in the little
cubby-hole under the stairs. Her maidservants slept "not far off."
Suppose, in the course of a cannonade, this farmhouse should
catch fire over their heads! Mrs. General wanted to stay near the
door where she and the children would have a chance to escape,
even if it meant dashing out into gunfire.

"In the night, I was often terrified lest a stealthy and secret
retreat might have been ordered. My husband would have to
march away. When this fear overwhelmed me, I crept out of my
cellar to reassure myself, and if I saw the troops lying around the
fires, for the nights were already cold, I would return and be able
to go quietly to sleep."

All the men in the cellar were wounded, but there were three
English officers still able to move about They had places
opposite the cubbyhole where Lady Fritz and the children slept, and
they promised her that "in case of hasty retreat" each of them
would take one of her little girls on his horse. One of General
Riedesel's horses stood "constantly saddled" for the children's
mother. They would all try somehow to keep together.

The three children were afraid in that dark cellar, but they
were the daughters of a general and they knew they must not cry
the way the children of soldiers did. But little Frederika
sometimes cried in her sleep. One of these three wounded officers
"discovered a great talent, however. He could imitate very naturally



                  Mrs. General in Command                   221

the lowing of a cow and the bleating of a calf." When three-year-
old Frederika cried, he would "imitate these animals" and the
little girl "would be still and we would all laugh"

The only water available to Burgoyne's troops "was from a very
muddy spring." The men were so desperate that they "got water
out of the holes the cattle made with their feet," and since it
rained a great deal they "tried to catch water in their caps." More
water was soon desperately needed for the wounded in the farm-
house, but when men went down to the Hudson with a pail they
were either killed or wounded by riflemen from across the river.
Mrs. General called for volunteers among the army women. Jane
Cramer, the wife of a sergeant, set out across the meadow and not
a shot was fired at her. After this, she brought water to the farm-
house whenever it was needed, "and they never molested her,"
said Mrs. General who had now learned two new things about
Americans: they loved their "fatherland" and they "respected
women."

The difficulty in keeping reasonably clean troubled Lady Fritz
she who put cleanliness next to godliness. On the third day in
the cellar, some of the wounded lent her their "comer." Her three
devoted British officers stood guard for her, discreetly turning
their backs while she "changed her linen." The valuables she had
promised to take care of Captain Willoe's wallet, Captain
Geismar's "beautiful watch and ring" worried her. "I fastened
them inside my stays, as I was in constant terror lest I should lose
some of them and I resolved never again to undertake such a
commission," she said.

"Our cook saw to our meals," wrote the Baroness, as casually
as though she had been at home in her husband's ancestral castle.
"But he cooked almost entirely without water and in order to
quench thirst I was obliged to drink wine and even give it to the
children." In spite of her love of cleanliness she did not seem to
realize that wine would be better than water taken out of horse-
tracks or even river water.



222              The Baroness and the General

Fortunately, although much baggage had been "strowed upon
the road" General Riedesel's wine had been saved in the retreat.
"It was the only thing he could take" Lady Fritz said, and "our
faithful Rockel," using the privilege due the family coachman,
came to her in great anxiety: "I fear the General drinks so much
wine because he dreads falling into captivity and is therefore weary
of life." The Baroness reassured Rockel the best she could.

But Lieutenant Reynels had died, Mrs. Hamage's husband was
still suffering from his wound, and "it seemed too much to hope
that I should be the only fortunate one" Frederika said. She
nevertheless prayed earnestly for her husband, who "lay outside by
the watchfires at night" and nights were "damp and cold." This
alone might kill him, she thought, even if enemy bullets passed
him by. She "constantly busied herself with the wounded" so that
anxiety would not become unbearable.

There was a "Major Plumfield" who had "a small bullet go
through both cheeks, shattering his teeth and grazing his
tongue"5 This wound became so horribly infected that the
discharge from it "almost choked him"; he could not eat, "could
hold nothing in his mouth." Lady Fritz gave him "a bottle of
Rhine wine" and told him to keep some of it in his mouth all
the time. This cleared up the infection and the major's wound
healed.

"One day a Canadian officer came into our cellar who could
hardly stand." Mrs. General thought he must be ill or gravely
wounded; although there seemed to be no mark on him. She
"finally got it out of him that he was almost dead with hunger,"
and she gave him her dinner.

"Finally .... [Burgoyne] .... spoke of surrender." Mrs. General
Riedesel ought to have been called into the conference, for she
had acted the part of commanding officer in her sphere.



             17
              
         Troops of the Convention



IT TOOK General Burgoyne's army almost four days to retreat
eight miles. The ground where he was surrounded and besieged
was not of his choosing he just intended to halt on the small
plateau a little west and north of Saratoga Village.

"We began to entrench ourselves, all hands being ordered to
work ...." wrote Lieutenant Digby, the young Britisher who
thought that "a determination was made to fall nobly together
rather than disgrace the name of British troops."1

"The men worked without ceasing during the night and without
the least complaint of fatigue. Our cannon were drawn up and
ready to receive" the Americans "at daybreak. Next morning their
cannon and ours began to play on each other.

"We were obliged to bring our oxen and horses into our lines
where they had the wretched prospect of living but a few days
as our grass was all gone and nothing after but the leaves of trees
for them. Still they continued firing into us from batteries they
erected during the night and placed their riflemen in the tops of
trees but still did not venture to storm our works. At night, we
strengthened our works and threw up more."

Burgoyne divided his troops into three camps, forming three
different fronts, one facing south toward the Fishkill where lay
the ruins of General Schuyler's house, one facing east toward the
Hudson, and the third looking westward. Here the ground was

223



224              The Baroness and the General

high and heavily wooded, but there was no hilltop Burgoyne could
have fortified. American troops on the east bank of the Hudson
had been reinforced, General Stark was circling north and west;
Gates moved forward to Freeman's Farm and then to Saratoga
village.

On October 12, the same young Britisher wrote: "Our cattle
begin to die fast and the stench is very prejudicial in such a small
space. A cannon shot was near taking the General, as it lodged
quite close to him in a large oak tree." Burgoyne had set up his
marquee in a slight hollow in the midst of his men, and it was
said that a cannon ball carried the leg of mutton off his dinner
table. "I believe that the general's greatest wish, as indeed it ought
to be, was for them to attack us" said Digby, but the Americans
"acted with greater prudence well knowing what a slaughter must
have been made upon them.

"In the evening, many of our Canadian drivers of wagons, carts
and other like services found means to escape from us" On the
morning of October 13 the American cannon "reached our post
... the bulk of their army was hourly reinforced by militia
flocking in to them.... Our lines were infiladed or flanked by their
cannon...."

Lieutenant Anburey took post at "a small redoubt" built of
logs, breast-high, with "angles which faced the enemy A man
risked his life if he ventured in day time to look over the works."
To relieve the boredom, the men would hoist a cap on a stick for
the "Yankee marksmen.... Instantly there would be one or two
shot fired at it and as many holes through it...." Only the
Bangles" in this redoubt were safe from riflemen, who could be
seen coming out each morning and climbing into trees overlooking
the outpost Anburey and his men were forbidden to fire at
them because of the shortage of ammunition, and if the British
moved about they were picked off like quail in a clearing. Men
became so stiff from sitting huddled in the "angles" all day that
they could scarcely walk when darkness came. Anburey's horse



                 Troops of the Convention                   225

had dropped a colt and he had become fond of the little thing, but
now he had to shoot it because it was starving. Wolves were again
heard close to camp. If cattle strayed, wolves got them.

"Surrounded by the enemy and obliged to pass a marshy ravine
and to ascend a steep hill to reach them" Burgoyne could not
attack the army under Gates, but Gates could easily cross the
Hudson "to attack our rear." The "moment for retreat was past,"
Riedesel wrote, on October 13, 1777.

The German General would have felt still more bitter about
Burgoyne's failure to retreat in time if he had known of the real
situation among the detachments of American troops who held
the escape routes. The American General John Fellows sent in a
report from Batten Kill. "I have received one load of ammunition
and that is all dealt out." Many of the troops were "destitute"
of ammunition, "some flints being especially wanting." A detachment
sent to Fort Edward captured "a few score of men" and
"seven barrels of rum," but no provisions or ammunition.

The worst news of all for the Americans just now was that the
"laboratory" for making ammunition in Albany was "at present
standing still owing to the want of lead for musket cartridges and
grape for canister...."

But Burgoyne was unaware of all this. General Riedesel took
up the narrative. On the thirteenth at a later conference,
Burgoyne "stated that he saw no mode of attacking the enemy." The
only possible retreat would be for each individual to make his
way as best he could through "almost impassable forests." There
"were only five days' provisions left ... the defeat and dispersion
of the army was not only probable but certain.

"After a short pause, intended to leave the officers time to
reflect on what he had told them, General Burgoyne solemnly
declared that he alone would be responsible for the present
situation of the army, as he had never asked any advice, but required
a submissive obedience to his commands." General Riedesel



226              The Baroness and the General

"could not but approve of a public declaration so well calculated
to convince everybody." He had his aide, Captain Heinrich Urban
Cleve, take careful notes of all the proceedings, write this account
of them, and then he not only "begged all British officers to
testify" to what Burgoyne had said, but had them sign Cleve's
narrative.2

After his dramatic "short pause," Burgoyne "then laid the
following queries before the council of war.

"1. Whether military history offers precedents of any army
having capitulated in such a situation?
"2. Whether capitulation under such circumstances would be
dishonorable?
"3. Whether the army really was in such a situation as to be
obliged to capitulate?"

The staff thought hard, like a class of history students anxious
to please the professor.

"On the first question it was generally answered that the
situation of the Saxon army at Perna, of General Fink at Maxen, and
of Prince Maurice of Saxony had been less forlorn than that in
which our army was placed; and that nobody could have blamed
the generals who should have capitulated at that juncture in order
to save their armies." Someone (and it could have been Riedesel)
remembered that "the King of Prussia cashiered General Fink,
but chiefly to gratify his personal resentment" This last was not
quite what General Burgoyne wanted to hear, but the "answer to
question two, based on the answer to question one, was that the
capitulation could not be dishonorable."

On the third count, "all the officers replied that if General
Burgoyne could see any possibility of successfully attacking the
enemy, they were ready to sacrifice their lives ... but that their
ground was untenable.... " General Burgoyne "then pulled out
of his pocket the draft of propositions to be made to General



                 Troops of the Convention                    227

Gates. This was unanimously approved. We found it very much to
our advantage provided the enemy would agree to it."

They "sent a drum" into the American camp on October 13,
with a note which read: "Lieutenant-General Burgoyne is desirous
of sending a Field Officer to Major-General Gates upon a matter
of highest moment to both armies. He requests to be informed at
what hour General Gates will receive him, tomorrow morning."
Next day, Major Kingston appeared with a much longer letter in
Burgoyne's best style:

"After having fought you twice, Lieutenant-General Burgoyne
has waited some days in his present position, determined to try a
third conflict against any force you could bring against him.

"He is apprized of the superiority of your numbers and the
disposition of your troops to impede his supplies and render his
retreat a scene of carnage on both sides. In this situation he is
impelled by humanity, and thinks himself justified by established
principles and precedents of state, and of war, to spare the lives
of brave men upon honourable terms; should Major-General
Gates be inclined to treat upon that idea, General Burgoyne
would propose a cessation of arms during the time necessary to
communicate preliminary terms by which, in any extremity, he
and his army mean to abide."

The cease-fire went into effect at once and in the sudden silence
everyone breathed a deep sigh. The wounded crawled out of the
cellar. The women and children went back to husbands and
fathers in camp or sought in vain for a man who was dead or
missing.

Mrs. General Riedesel took quarters aboveground after what
seemed the longest days of her life. "I had a good bed made up
for my husband in a little room, while my children and I and
both my maids lay down in a little parlor close by." The General
fell into the deep sleep of total exhaustion.

About one in the morning a messenger came who wanted to



228              The Baroness and the General

speak to General Riedesel. Mrs. General awoke and told the man
to go away. But "I had to admit him, he was not to be denied"
she said. "I finally agreed to wake my husband, the man gave his
message, and I observed it did not please him. He lay down again
and went back to sleep."

Next morning General Burgoyne reconvened the conference
with his officers, and read General Gates's proposals aloud:

"General Burgoyne's army being exceedingly reduced by
repeated defeats, by desertion, sickness etc., their provisions
exhausted, their military horses, tents and baggage taken or
destroyed, their retreat cut off, they can only be allowed to
surrender prisoners of war"

Burgoyne's "officers unanimously declared that they would
rather die than submit to such dishonorable conditions.... The
suspension of hostilities ceased in consequence

"My husband went back to his post and I to my cellar" said
Mrs. General. "A large amount of fresh meat was distributed to
the officers .... and the good woman who constantly kept us
supplied with water made us a capital soup" But Lady Fritz "had
lost all appetite" The wounded officers that she had been taking
care of came and told her "it was absolutely necessary" that she
should eat, and declared that they would not touch their own
food until she had some with them. "I could no longer withstand
their friendly entreaties," she said, "and they assured me it made
them happy to be able to offer me the first good thing they had
enjoyed."

General Gates had been writing joyful and triumphant letters
to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, telling
of "the great success of the Arms of the United States in this
Department." He sent not so much as a line to General Washington,
to whom the news of the victory at Saratoga was vitally
important. But Gates owed his appointment entirely to Congress,
as well he knew. He wrote an understandably gleeful letter to his



                 Troops of the Convention                    229

"Dear Betsy" telling his wife that 'The voice of fame ere this
reaches you will tell how greatly Fortunate we have been...."

And then, on the lower Hudson, the Americans captured "thirteen
British men, one furiner & Six of the Tories, one of which is
a noted Vilin and has once before bin our Prisoner; his Name is
Tailor." Daniel Taylor was an officer sent out by Sir Henry
Clinton from Fort Montgomery, on the Hudson. He was disguised
as a "country man" and was driving a cart. Clinton had just
captured the fort, and he wrote a letter to Burgoyne on thin silk,
dated October 8, 1777. "Nous y voila and nothing now between
us but Gates," it said. "I sincerely hope this little success of ours
may facilitate your operations. In answer to your letter of the 28
September by C.C. I shall only say, I can not presume to order
or even advise for reasons obvious. I heartily wish you success, &
that etc." The letter was put into a hollow silver ball, made in
two parts and threaded to screw together. The ball was lead
coated to make it look like a bullet.

Taylor was captured at New Windsor, just below Newburgh.
He had fallen in with a patrol from Webb's Connecticut Regiment,
who were wearing red coats taken from a captured British
transport, so that Taylor thought he was among friends. He spoke
unguardedly, and these men offered to "take him to Clinton."
Unfortunately for Taylor, he found himself in the presence of
General George Clinton, then the American Governor of New
York, instead of Sir Henry Clinton, second in command to Howe.
Taylor panicked and swallowed his silver bullet and apparently
everyone saw him do it Dr. Moses Higby was called, and recovered
the bullet by forcing Taylor to drink "Tartaremetic."
Taylor was court-martialed and hanged on October 14.3 News,
although slow to travel, reached Gates, not only concerning the
message in the bullet but also that Sir Henry Clinton was taking
the forts on the Hudson, one after the other, and burning
American ships in the river.

"On the 15th of October in the morning, General Gates sent



230              The Baroness and the General

new proposals of capitulation in which he acquiesced to all that
General Burgoyne had stipulated, except some immaterial things"
This was "to the surprise of everybody" General Riedesel said,
but it did not take anybody very long to guess the reason. In his
sudden willingness to agree to everything, Gates had tipped his
hand. Clinton must be coining.

A council of war was called, and it was agreed to send two
commissioners to "Arrange minor articles and prepare a Convention
for the signature of the two respective generals" They went to
work in the American camp, with General Gates, and by eleven
o'clock that evening they had a paper which he signed, and the
British commissioners gave their word of honor that Burgoyne
would sign it too. But that very night, "a man calling himself a
Royalist asked to see General Burgoyne. He said that he had
heard third hand that General Clinton had taken .... Fort
Montgomery, that he had advanced as far as Esopus [the old Dutch
name for Kingston] eight days previously and that according to
all appearances he ought now to be in Albany"4

General Burgoyne "and several other officers were excited over
this good but very vague news," General Riedesel said. "They
wanted very much to break the treaty which had just been
arranged and on the morning of October 16" they had another
council of war to vote on it Eight favored breaking the treaty,
fourteen said it was as good as signed and could not be broken
without breaking faith. The same majority "decided not to place
faith in what the Royalist said. Even if Clinton had been at
Esopus within the last four days, the supply of food was too short
to wait for his help" But "in order to drag on negotiations"
Burgoyne wrote Gate another letter, accusing him of having
detached troops, saying the action was against good faith, and
demanding to "send two officers to see and count the army of the
enemy." He also said that in the treaty the word "capitulation"
must be changed to "convention."

It was true that Gates was in a panic over Clinton's advance.



                 Troops of the Convention                    231

British General Vaughan burned Esopus [Kingston] on October
16. "They drove off the Inhabitants who remained in town to
the River and fired on them, avowing they would shew no mercy."
The Americans assumed that either Clinton or Vaughan was now
headed for Albany, and there Mrs. General Schuyler was packing
her family silver and a few clothes and some provisions in chests.
She looked at the spacious rooms, their walls lined with family
portraits, and wondered if she would ever see her home again.
The Schuylers had built and lived in one of the most beautiful
houses in Albany, or anywhere in the colonies, now the "States of
America."

Burgoyne must have been "astonished" all over again when
Gates refused to let HJTT? count the American army. That army
was "four times larger" than it had been when Burgoyne arrived
at Saratoga; Gates made this statement "on his word of honor,"
and he gave Burgoyne an hour to think it over, "after which he
would take measures." Unfortunately, however, he agreed to
amend the treaty to read "Convention" instead of "Capitulation,"
and to call Burgoyne's army "troops of the Convention" instead
of "prisoners of war." Gates had lost the battle of the conference
table, just as surely as Burgoyne had lost the battle of Saratoga.

General Burgoyne put on his handsomest dress uniform and
mounted his horse. Doubtless he now had fewer than thirty carts
loaded with personal baggage, but he had enough to support his
dignity. General Riedesel, having taken too literally the orders to
send back superfluous belongings, could not compete. But he
gathered his aides around him and made the best appearance he
could for the honor of the Duke of Brunswick There was no one
he could send back to the house above the river except "a groom"
to escort his wife.

"We saw the British army piling their arms, the piles of arms
extending from Schuyler's Creek northward nearly to the house
on the hill," said Ebenezer Mattoon, who was posted across the



The Baroness and the General

river. "They were along the ground west of the road then
traveled...." General Gates's marquee was on "a level piece of
ground about 150 rods south" of the ruins of General Schuyler's
house and "a little south and west of this there is a rising ground,
on which our army was posted in order to appear to the best
advantage. About noon on the 17th [of October] General Burgoyne
with a number of his officers rode up near to the marquee, in front
of which General Gates was sitting, attended with many of his
officers. The sides of the marquee were rolled up so that all that
was transacted might be seen.

"General Burgoyne dismounted and approached General Gates,
who rose and stepped forward to meet him. General Burgoyne
then delivered up his sword to General Gates, who received it in
his left hand, extending his right hand to take the right hand of
General Burgoyne. After a few minutes' conversation, Gates
returned the sword ... the other officers did the same. Then all
repaired to the table and while dining, the prisoners were passing
by" This was the surrender as the American Ebenezer Mattoon
saw it

Mrs. General, weak from hunger and very nervous, did the
best she could to prepare herself and her children for surrender.
Now, at least, there was water so they could all bathe, and there
was privacy for changing linen. She got out the good clothes she
had saved for a triumphant march into Albany, and dressed herself
and her children for a very different occasion. The little girls were
scrubbed clean, their hair washed and combed. Augusta, now six,
promised to take care of her sisters. Three-year-old Frederika
would be sure not to cry; and Caroline, no longer just a bundle in
blankets, would sit on her mother's lap in the calash.

Jane Cramer, the woman who had brought water to the people
in the cellar, came to say good-by. And the men and women she
bad helped so greatly crowded round; someone told her to hold
out her apron, and "everyone threw a handful of money in it."



                 Troops of the Convention                    233

She "received over twenty guineas" and as she followed the army,
plodding along with the other women in their assigned place
among the baggage, life would be a little easier for her. She could
buy food and even a pair of shoes.

But now it was time to go. "I seated myself in my dear calash,"
said Lady Fritz. She and the children were all frightened as
Rockel took up the reins and they drove down the road and "into
the camp of the enemy" Then came a surprise. The Americans
"all greeted me, even showing compassion in their faces at seeing
a mother with her little children in such a situation.

"When I approached the tents, a noble-looking man came toward
me, took the children out of the carriage and kissed them.
Then with tears in his eyes he helped me to alight 'You tremble'
he said. 'Do not be afraid' ".

" 'No' " said Mrs. General, " 'for you are so kind and have been
so tender toward my children that it has given me courage. He
then led me to the tent of General Gates, with whom I found
Generals Burgoyne and Phillips, who were on an extremely
friendly footing with him"

Lieutenant William Digby of the grenadiers described the surrender
through English eyes. "About ten o'clock, we marched out
according to treaty, with drums beating & the honours of war,
but the drums seemed to have lost their former inspiring sounds,
and though we beat the grenadiers' march, which not long ago was
so animating, yet it seemed by its last feeble effort, as if almost
ashamed to be heard on such an occasion." Tears (though "unmanly")
forced their way to Digby's eyes.

One of the Germans told how the American army looked to
him:

"We passed the hostile camp, in which all the regiments along
with the artillery were drawn up under arms. Not one of them
was properly uniformed, but each man had on the clothes in
which he goes to the field, to church or to the tavern. But they



234              The Baroness and the General

stood like soldiers, erect, with a military bearing that was subject
to little criticism. All their guns were provided with bayonets and
the riflemen had rifles. The people stood so still that we were
greatly amazed. Not one fellow made a motion as if to speak to
his neighbor; furthermore, nature had formed all the fellows who
stood in rank and file so slender, so handsome, so sinewy, that it
was a pleasure to look at them.... ," One of the German officers
was "grieved that he cannot enroll any recruits from this people.

"The officers of the regiments in General Gates's camp wore
very few uniforms and those they did wear were of their own
invention. All colors of cloth were usable, brown coats, with sea-
green facings, white lining, and silver sword knots; also grey coats
with straw [colored] facings and yellow buttons were frequently
seen .... other officers on the other hand were in their ordinary
clothes....

"There were men with snow-white wigs with mighty long bushy
hair at the sides and thick lamb's tails behind. There were
glistening black Abbot's wigs which especially set off red and copper-
colored faces. There were also white or gray English Pastor's wigs,
whose horse or goat hair was done up in a dangerously high roll
standing up in the air. You think such a man has a whole sheep
under his hat .... They have a great respect for wigs.... The
respected wearers of these various wigs are in part between their
fiftieth and sixtieth year and they sometimes cut a droll figure
under arms.... But you recognize at first glance the earnestness
which has led them to seize their guns and powder-horns and that
especially in engagements in the forest it is no joke to oppose
them and that they can cold-bloodedly draw a bead on anyone

'There were also regular regiments in the hostile army who
could not yet be properly uniformed because of lack of cloth and
time. These had standards with all manner of emblems and mottoes,
some of which seemed to us very caustic. Still I must say in
praise of the enemy regiments that there was not a man among
them who showed the slightest sign of mockery, malicious delight,



                 Troops of the Convention                    235

hate or other insult; it seemed rather as if they wished to do us
honor"

General Gates, "a man between fifty and sixty" who "wears
his thin gray hair cut round" was "very lively and friendly." He
"wore spectacles because of his weak eyes" and stood at the door
of his tent inviting all the "commanders of brigades and
regiments" in, and "offering them all sorts of refreshments"5

"All the officers remained to dine with General Gates," said
Mrs. General Riedesel but it was very evidently a party for men
only. The Baroness, who was so apt to be anxious about proper
social behavior, began to feel her cheeks grow hot. Mrs. Harnage
and Mrs. Reynels were nowhere to be seen nor was "the wife of
the commissary." Lady Fritz had never been at a surrender before
and "the thing was so entirely new to me!" she said.

At this point "the gentleman who had received me so kindly
on first driving into camp, came up and said, It may be
embarrassing to you to dine with all these gentlemen. Come into my
tent and bring your children. I will give you a frugal meal, I am
afraid, but you would be a welcome guest."

"You are certainly a husband and a father, since you show me
so much kindness" said Lady Fritz inviting the gentleman to
tell her his name. He was "the American General Schuyler." Since
American officers wore all sorts of clothes, she did not think it
strange that he was out of uniform. Superseded by Gates, not yet
vindicated by the court-martial he had asked for, Philip Schuyler
was too much of a gentleman not to appear in order to congratulate
his successful rival. But at the moment he was plain Philip
Schuyler.

"Never have I eaten a better meal" said the Baroness. There
was "smoked tongue, beef-steaks, potatoes, good bread and butter."
The last "good bread and butter" she had eaten was in Canada. "I
was content, I saw that all around me were the same, but what
rejoiced me most was that my husband was out of danger,"

"As soon as we had finished dinner, General Schuyler invited



236              The Baroness and the General

me to be his guest at his house in Albany. General Burgoyne
would also be there. I sent and asked my husband what I should
do. He sent me word to accept the invitation and as it was two
days' journey from where we were and already five o'clock in the
afternoon, he advised me to set out ... and to stay over night at
a place about three hours' ride away." General Schuyler sent "a
French officer" as escort for Lady Fritz, perhaps because he had
already discovered that she spoke French better than she did
English.



             18
              
              Overland Journey



DAYS were growing shorter now that it was October, and
darkness had fallen before the Baroness reached the house
on the Hudson, partway to Albany. She was not entirely happy to
see her escort turn back, leaving her alone with her children and
the servants.

At the house was "a mortally wounded Brunswick officer" with
a "French doctor" who was taking care of him. The "wounded
man praised the good nursing of the doctor and the doctor may
have been a good surgeon," but as far as Lady Fritz was
concerned, he was "a young coxcomb." The doctor was delighted
when he found that this most attractive German lady could speak
French and the Baroness soon wished she had not let him discover it.

"He began to entertain me with all kinds of sweet speeches
and impertinences, among other things, that he could not believe
that I was a General's wife, because a woman of such rank
would not follow her husband into the army. I ought therefore
to stay with him, he said. It would be better to be with the victors
than with the vanquished.

"I was beside myself with his insolence but dared not let him
see the contempt I felt because I had no protection. When night
came, he offered to share his room with me." Lady Fritz



238              The Baroness and the General

announced that she would sit up in the room with the wounded
German officer. Whereupon the doctor "distressed" her "still
more with all sorts of foolish flatteries."

Suddenly the door opened and there was General Riedesel and
one of his aides. "Here, sir, is my husband," said Lady Fritz, with
a glance meant "to annihilate the Frenchman." The doctor "withdrew,
looking very sheepish. Yet afterwards, he was so polite as to
give up his room to us."

The next day the Riedesels arrived in Albany. It was a pleasant
little city built on the natural terraces formed by the Hudson in
centuries past. Here and there a church steeple pricked through
trees now nearly bare of leaves. There was a large open square
where the militia drilled and paraded in times of peace, but the
grass had been worn away by the more purposeful drills of wartime.
General Riedesel and his aide rode down the cobbled street
close to the river, sending the cook with the camp gear to the
public square where the baggage was to be guarded by "ten or
twenty militia." The cook was to find a bed for himself. The
General, his aide and a few militia escorted Mrs. General's calash
as it jounced along over the stones, past warehouses and docks
which were for the most part empty and deserted, now that there
was no trade with British-held New York. Then the pitifully thin
horses struggled through mud as paved city streets gave place to
a country road.

They came to well cultivated fields, barns and stables, then
vegetable gardens where the harvest had been gathered. Set among
formal lawns and flower gardens was a tall brick mansion with
small-paned windows, bars painted white, and at the edge of the
roof a delicate white-painted balustrade. The Baroness did not
describe the Schuyler mansion, with its wide entrance hall and
handsome staircase, its drawing-room, wainscoted, paneled and
carved. She spoke only of the "friendly reception" Mrs. General
Shuyler and her children gave the family from Germany. "They



                        Overland Journey                   239

treated us as people would who could forget their own losses
because of the misfortunes of others" said Lady Fritz. She was
thinking of the blackened ruins of Mrs. Schuyler's country home,
but perhaps she did not even know how close this town house in
Albany had come to being looted and burned by Clinton.1

Schuyler had sent Colonel Varick, his former aide and now his
secretary, to ride through to Albany to tell Mrs. Schuyler how
many guests to expect She and her servants had been preparing
rooms: a chamber for General Riedesel and Lady Fritz, a small
one for the children and the maids, and the great formal bed-
chamber for Burgoyne. "Even General Burgoyne was deeply
moved at their magnanimity," the Baroness said.

General Schuyler had gone to look at the ruins of his Saratoga
home. Nothing remained but the log "necessary," behind the
house, and he dispatched orders to Albany for carpenters and
blacksmiths. Later, Burgoyne sent him "two British soldiers who
are masons by trade and prisoners" to help with the rebuilding of
the house.

Meanwhile, young Varick wrote to Schuyler from Albany: "On
Saturday, Burgoyne mentioned with tears in his eyes, his situation
that he had received so much civility from you and again
repeated by Mrs. Schuyler, whose property he had destroyed."

Drying his eyes, Burgoyne retired to Mrs. Schuyler's guest
chamber overlooking the Hudson to write a letter to Sir William
Howe. Among the many concessions he had won from Gates was
permission to send an officer to Howe with dispatches, unopened
and uncensored. So, in a letter marked Private, Gentleman Johnny
told his real thoughts: "The treatment of the officers and troops
in general is of so extraordinary a nature in point of generosity
that I must suppose it proceeds from some other motive than
mere kindness of disposition."

Burgoyne was proud of the treaty or "Convention" he had



240              The Baroness and the General

made with Gates, and he had good reason to be for it was a
masterpiece. His army was to march to Boston and then have
"Free passage to great Britain, upon condition of not serving
again in North America during the present contest" In case
Howe could not see the beauty of this any better than Gates,
Burgoyne spelled it out. It would "enable the Mother Country
to send forth the force at home in proportion to what she will
receive from their return...." If Howe liked this idea, he was to
"order transports and convoy to Boston without delay."

On the other hand it might be better to send the whole
Convention army to New York and there exchange Burgoyne's troops
for a few American prisoners. Burgoyne arranged for this alternative
in the next article of his Convention, but if Howe liked the
idea, "I confide in your justice and friendship not to leave me
unexchanged," he wrote. "My honor and in great measure my life
depend upon my return to England." He planned to see the King
personally and to exert his oratorical gifts in his own behalf in
Parliament, where accusations would surely be made against him.

General Burgoyne wrote two letters, both headed "Albany" and
both dated "October 20, 1777."2 One was his "official" letter, in
which he said: "General Riedesel exerted himself to bring up a
part of the left wing, and arrived in time to charge the enemy with
regularity and bravery." This was during the battle of Freeman's
Farm when Riedesel sent to know what the shooting was about.
In describing the Second Battle of Saratoga, Burgoyne complimented
his foe General Benedict Arnold, who led the enemy when
they stormed the lines "with great fury." Arnold was "wounded,
but unhappily the entrenchments of the German reserves ....
were carried."

But in his letter marked "Separate and Private" Burgoyne
told another story:

".... For your private consideration, I have to add to the
circumstances of my public letter ...." There were "the scandalous
defection of the Indians; a desertion or timidity worse than


[as these were scanned for OCR - the pictures are of poor quality]

General Baron von Riedesel; The Baroness von Riedesel

The Five Riedesel Daughters

George III and Family

General John Burgoyne by Sir Joshua Reynolds

General Sir Guy Carleton; General Sir Frederick Haldimand;
Major General William Phillips; The Bridegroom

General Philip Schuyler; General Horatio Gates; General William Heath Alternate

Castle at Lauterbach; St. James's Palace Mall

Quebec

Fraser's Funeral at the "Great Redoubt" at Saratoga Alternate

Barracks of the Prisoners of Saratoga

Plan of Boston

Burgoyne's Positions at the Battles of Saratoga




                        Overland Journey                    241

desertion of the Provincials and Canadians, a very few individuals
excepted; and a strong disposition on the part of the Germans to be
prisoners rather than endure hard blows." So much for Riedesel's
troops, who had saved him twice.

"Had all my troops been British, I in my conscience believe I
should have made my way through Mr. Gates's army. At Saratoga,
destitute as I was of provisions, I was not without resources to
have opened a passage to Ticonderoga had my whole army been
in a temper for hardy enterprise even British troops declined.
The utmost that the officers gave me to hope from the complexion
of their men was that they would fight upon that ground if
attacked. The Germans fell short of that it was notorious that
they meant to have given one fire and then to have clubbed their
arms."

Letters were being written in more than one of Mrs. Schuyler's
upper chambers. General Riedesel also had a report to make, and
although he passed on the blame as was only human, the tone of
his letter was very different:

"The army has been the victim of poor planning by the War
Ministry in London" he said, writing in French to the Duke of
Brunswick. There was the matter of Howe's failure to meet Burgoyne,
but there was also pride. "The army has been the victim of
our own vanity, encouraged by the taking of Ticonderoga, so that
in order to achieve a great renoun in England the whole army has
been risked." He spoke of the impossibility of so large a force
leaving bases so far behind and penetrating a wilderness with no
knowledge of the terrain.

But Riedesel wasted few words in vain regret or recrimination.
He spoke of his men: "A soldier is worse off than a commander
and all that they have suffered has been in vain." Almost worse
than defeat was the utter confusion and lack of system. German
regiments were scattered, some in Canada, some prisoners of war,
some among the "Convention Troops," as they were to be called.
General Riedesel begged to be relieved of his command.



242              The Baroness and the General

"What troubles me even more than the sad situation is the
regret and embarrassment that all this will cause Your Serene
Highness," he said.

The Duke of Brunswick had already gone on record as doubtful
of the practicability of Burgoyne's plan, and he had no intention
whatever of dispensing with the services of so faithful an officer
as Riedesel. But of course his reassuring letter would be a long
time coming, and Madam Riedesel would have a hard time cheering
her unhappy General.

The rest, the good food and above all Mrs. Schuyler's warm-
hearted welcome were what Lady Fritz needed most after her long
ordeal and to prepare her for difficulties ahead. Even the children
had playmates for a little while. Doubtless twelve-year-old John
Bradstreet Schuyler found little girls of six, three, and a year and
a half much beneath his notice. But there were Philip Jeremiah
Schuyler, aged nine; Rensselaer, aged four; and Cornelia, only ten
months old. They were a lively family, and it was said that one
of them, probably Rensselaer, burst into Burgoyne's bedroom,
where the great man himself lay in the canopied bed, his aides on
mattresses on the floor around him. "Surrender!" Ren shouted.
"You are all my prisoners." The little boy was 'Very arch and
forward," and his mother apologized for him.

Burgoyne lingered on as a guest of the Schuylers', where they
served "a table of more than twenty covers for me and my
friends," he said. These guests gave Mrs. Schuyler "no small
trouble," but Burgoyne behaved "with Great Politeness."

General Riedesel and his family left the Schuylers' hospitable
home as soon as they could, because the General was anxious
about his troops who were already marching overland.

Mrs. Schuyler gave the Baroness a letter to the oldest Schuyler
daughter, Angelica, who, with her sister Betsy, was living in Boston.
Angelica had eloped with John Barker Church in July.3 "This
match was exceedingly disagreeable to me and I had signified it



                        Overland Journey                    243

to him," General Schuyler said. "But as there is no undoing this
Gordian knot ... I frowned, I made them humble themselves,
forgave, and called them home." Angelica's husband had gone to
Boston to make his fortune building and buying shares in
privateers. Angelica would surely enjoy knowing the Baroness
Riedesel, her mother said, and she was right. But she spoke of her
daughter as "Mrs. Carter," not "Mrs. Church." John had taken
the name of Carter when he left England in haste because of a
duel, and not even his wife knew his right name at this time.

The "mortally wounded" Major Acland was in Albany, not
wounded mortally at all but getting well fast. The Baroness parted
with Lady Acland with real regret. General Schuyler was to send
his aide, Colonel Livingston, and his own coachman, horses and
sleigh to carry the Aclands to New York. On his return, Colonel
Livingston was to be captured by Tories but he was to escape.

General Arnold was also in Albany, also recovering from a
wound a hero to the British as well as to the Americans. But
he had fought his last battle for his country at Saratoga; within
three years he would be despised even by the British, and in
America the name of Benedict Arnold would be forever linked
with treachery.

General Riedesel need not have hastened across the Hudson
to catch up with Burgoyne's defeated army. The progress of the
Convention Troops toward Boston was painfully slow. On October
18, the day after the surrender, they were herded down to
Stillwater to be ferried over the Hudson at the wide stretch of calm
water just above the rapids. But there were not nearly enough rafts
to carry so many men, and only the British crossed the first day.
The Germans encamped in the rain, on the west bank. The Germans
were to take a different route to Boston in any case, so that
the small towns the prisoners passed through would not be swept
completely bare of provisions.

At first the younger British officers had a sort of cross-country



244              The Baroness and the General

junket, at least according to Lieutenant Anburey. "After we had
crossed the river, we purchased some liquor and fresh provisions of
the inhabitants" he said. "This purchase convinced us of the
value of the precious ore as the Americans received our guineas
with much cordiality and gave us paper dollars in lieu, at the rate
of nine for a guinea" He said that the "real" rate of exchange
was "four and two thirds dollars" Now he wished he had not
"greatly despised and converted to all manner of uses the many
reams of paper dollars taken at Ticonderoga."

"We were two days crossing the Green Mountains" said Anburey.
The route assigned to the British prisoners led through
what is now called the Berkshires and the wonder of it is that
they did so well. "The roads across were almost impassable" and
when they reached the top of the pass "there came a heavy fall of
snow. After this, it was impossible to describe the confusion; carts
breaking down, others sticking fast, some oversetting, horses
tumbling with their loads of baggage, men cursing, women shrieking
and children squalling."

At one time, Anburey was assigned to "the baggage guard"
where the women and children were. "Exclusive of being covered
with snow and riding about after bat men to keep them together
... my attention was directed to a scene which I did not think
possible for human nature to endure," he said. "In the midst of
the heavy snow storm, upon a baggage-cart and with nothing to
shelter her from the inclemency of the weather but a bit of oil-
cloth, a soldier's wife was delivered of a child" She and the infant
arrived safely in Boston at the end of the march. "It may be said
that women who follow a camp are of such masculine nature that
they endure hardships but this woman was quite the reverse, being
small and of a very delicate constitution."

It was now, in the vicinity of Williamstown, that Anburey
encountered "that indelicate custom they call bundling," as he put
it. He thought, however, that the American's point of view was
Arriving at "a small log hut," Anburey found that his



                        Overland Journey                    245

servant with his camp mattress had lagged behind. But American
featherbeds were "remarkably good" he had observed "neat and
clean" Since there were only two beds in the log hut, "I inquired
which I was to sleep in," he said, assuming of course that he had
a right to one or the other.

"Mr. Ensign" said the housewife, "Our Jonathan and I will
sleep in this and our Jemima and you will sleep in that."

Anburey seems to have been embarrassed as well as surprised.
He offered to sit up all night, but the father of the family
"immediately replied, 'Oh la! Mr. Ensign, you won't be the first man
our Jemima has bundled with, will it, Jemima?'

"When little Jemima, who bye the bye, was a very pretty black-
eyed girl of about sixteen or seventeen archly replied, "No, father,
by many, but 'twill be the first Britainer' I did not go to bundle
with her," said Anburey, although he was "gravely tempted." He
would be "in the same room with her father and mother, my kind
host and hostess! I thought of that I thought of more besides
to struggle with the passions of nature; to clasp Jemima in my
arms to do what? you'll ask why to do nothing! For if
amid all these temptations the lovely Jemima had melted into
kindness, she had been an outcast from the world treated with
contempt, abused by violence No, Jemima, I could have
endured all these things to have been blessed by you, but it was too
vast a sacrifice when you was to be the victim." After these
pious reflections, Anburey added that "great" must be the "virtue"
or "cold" must be "the American constitution when this
unaccountable custom is in honorable repute and perpetual practice."

Apparently Anburey never saw the "bundling board" which
Jemima's father would have fastened securely down the middle of
the bed.4 High, thick and tightly clamped in place, it protected
virtue while Jemima and her friends also modestly kept their
clothes on. Although there were tales of ardor and the circumventing
of bundling boards, in all probability Lieutenant Anburey
need not have been so worried.



246              The Baroness and the General

Starting out a day later, the Germans were at last ferried across
the Hudson and marched to Schaghticoke. They, too, had eyes
in their heads where girls were concerned; they wrote accounts
which were published in Germany and read not only by the families
of men hired by George III but by Germans wondering if
America might be a good place to live some time.

"We received provisions from the Americans" the Brunswickers
wrote. It was fresh meat, and they had "tasted almost
nothing but salt pork the whole campaign." They marched only
three miles on the east bank of the Hudson before dark, because
the river crossing had taken so long. Schaghticoke was "a village
inhabitated by Dutchmen, rich but very avaricious people....
From here on, we found a great quantity of apples from which in
New York and all New England they make an incredible amount
of cider....

"Here they first stole our horses, a trick which did not cease the
whole march. To comfort us, they said that we had either stolen
them ourselves or must have bought them from the Royalists who
stole them.... We could not understand however, how they
pretended to reclaim horses born and bred in Canada and even
German horses."

But even if the Yorkers and all the New Englanders were horse
thieves, one young German who was writing home had great
admiration for the girls he saw along the way. "The womenfolk
in this whole extensive region ... are slender and straight, fleshy
without being stout They have pretty little feet, very solid hands
and arms, a very white skin and a healthy complexion without
having to paint. I have hardly seen one with pockmarks, but
smallpox innoculation has long been in use here. Their teeth are very
white, their lips pretty and their eyes very laughing and animated.
At the same time, they have natural good manners, a very
unconstrained manner, a frank, gay face and natural boldness.

"They think a great deal of cleanliness and of good footwear.
They dress very decently, but then, any clothes would become



                        Overland Journey                    247

them, .... They curl their hair every day, do it up in a moderately
high tuft in front and a chignon at the back. Generally they go
bareheaded and at the most put on a tiny heart-shaped cap or
other such trifle on their heads; now and then a rustic nymph lets
her hair fall free and ties it with a ribbon.

"If they go out, they put on a silk wrap and pull on gloves no
matter how miserable a hut they live in. They know how to drape
themselves very neatly in their wraps so that one little white elbow
peeks out. Then they put on their heads a Corsican or other well-
made sun-hat from beneath which they can peep out very roguishly
with their mischievous eyes.

"In the English colonies, the beauties have fallen in love with
red silk and woolen wraps. Dressed in this manner, a girl runs,
springs and dances along and offers a friendly 'good day' or
mayhap according to the nature of a question, gives a pert little
answer. Dozens of these pretty girls stood by the road everywhere
and let us pass in review, laughed at us mockingly now and then
or now and then coquettishly extended an apple with a curtsy.
We thought at first they were city girls, or at least those of class 2,
but lo! they were the daughters of poor peasants [whose] fathers
one recognized as such by their garb."

Although the Germans were sure they recognized a "poor
peasant" when they saw one, these men in homespun and leather
"had incredible stores of grain. Great heaps of it lay in bays
covered with temporary roofs," and barns were filled with hay, so
that there was no place for the plodding prisoners to sleep except
in the fields. If some "peasants" lived in log huts, others had well-
built farmhouses "the interior fitted up with very good furniture
even to mirrors with gilded frames and very good pendulum
clocks."

The Germans were sure that there was "petticoat rule throughout
America." They did not seem to notice that there were sheep
as well as cattle on nearly every farm, and that hardly a house
was without a spinning wheel and a loom, so they concluded that



248              The Baroness and the General

"wives and daughters made a display beyond the income of most
men. The last penny from his pocket must be yielded for this
purpose there is no help for it" There was something extremely
puzzling about this situation, from a German point of view. "The
women do not get it by stamping their feet, do not bite or scratch
their husbands, do not fall in a faint or feign illness Heaven
alone knows how they go about it so that their husbands submit
so patiently to this taxation."

General Riedesel's men had seen but few Negroes in their lives,
but they did not have to wait to travel south to observe slavery.
From the Hudson "to Springfield [Massachusetts] one finds few
habitations without a Negro family dwelling in a separate cabin.
.... The children are well fed, especially while still young, and
their slavery is very bearable. The Negro is much like the Peasant's
hired man. He can go to war in his master's place, hence you
never see a regiment in which there are not a lot of Negroes and
there are well-built, strong, husky fellows among them. Here also
are many free Negro families who dwell in good houses, have
means, and live quite in the manner of the other inhabitants...."

Days grew short, nights were bitterly cold, and in front of the
Germans the Berkshires now rose like a wall. They crossed at
Great Harrington where they "never saw a ruder, more spiteful
people." Not even the officers were allowed "to stick their noses
inside the door" of any of the houses and had to "lie in stables
which had not been cleaned out and in barns." The Germans
plunged into deep forest immediately on leaving town. Then the
road began to rise with incredibly steep grades and it was hard
to imagine that carts had ever used it These woods were known
to be full of bears and it seemed as though the men (and women
and children) from Brunswick might be following a bear-track.
It began to rain.

Just as they thought the so-called road would never emerge
from the forest, they came out upon a ridge in the tiny town of
Blandford. Now the rain changed to sleet and snow. "The wet



                        Overland Journey                    249

clothes froze like armor on the body and one grenadier froze to
death on the march" They reached Westfield, where "the nature
of the weather softened the hearts of the inhabitants and they
took us in." Westfield was "a really nice town."

The Brunswickers used their eyes while marching through
Springfield, Massachusetts. They praised "a small but well-built
arsenal" Springfield "was now an important munitions center of
the Americans.... We found there several parks of artillery ....
with, among other things, twelve brand-new four-pound French
cannon. The storehouses were crammed full. In all the houses,
workmen of every sort were staying, who are making ammunition
wagons, gun carriages, muskets, etc." They saw "wagons as good
as can be made in England .... and order reigned in everything."

On plodded the Germans, giving Massachusetts towns a good
or a bad mark, as the case might be. Palmer was "a wretched
village," Brookfield had "good houses and rich inhabitants,"
Worcester was "a thriving little city."

General Riedesel, the Baroness and the three little girls had
stayed only three days with the Schuylers. When they left, Lady
Fritz said that the Schuylers "acted as if they were very reluctant
to part with us." The little girls hated to leave the first friends
they had made among the Americans. But Burgoyne would stay
in Albany one week more, his "suite and visitors" entirely
discomposing "the economy of the family."

Now the Riedesels discovered that their "knave" of a cook had
lost all their campaign equipment. He said the wicked Americans
stole it, but eventually they found out that he himself had sold it
"The British officers each gave us something one gave a pair of
spoons, another some plates," said Mrs. General. "We used these
borrowed things for a long time" and "it was at great cost" that
they finally acquired anything more.

Mrs. General had her "calash covered with coarse linen which
in turn was coated with oil" to keep out the rain. "I do not know



250              The Baroness and the General

whether it was my carriage that attracted the curiosity of people
to it but it certainly looked like the kind of wagon they carry rare
animals around in," she said. Sometimes, as they traveled through
the small towns, the crowds pressed so close that Rockel would
have to pull up the horses and come to a halt. Lady Fritz was
good-natured about it. She thought the crowds would "tear off
the linen covering in their eagerness to see what was inside" so
she would get out and talk with the people. "I must say, they
were very friendly," she remarked, "and were particularly delighted
by my being able to speak English." She no longer believed that
Americans ate cats, but she seemed surprised to discover that
"English was the language of their country."

It was a long, hard journey. "God supported me," said Mrs.
General, "and I lost neither my frolicsomeness nor my spirits."

But General Riedesel, as he rode forward to help his officers try
to find shelter for his men, or as he rode beside his wife's calash,
was surveying in his mind's eye the ruin of his military career. He
expected to be called home in disgrace. He never supposed he
would be given another command and a chance to redeem his
reputation; and, as his wife put it, "he was gnawed by grief." The
constant halts made him so angry "he could scarcely endure
them." And one night he was ill "from an emetic he had taken,"
doubtless the army doctor's prescription for a broken heart.

The noise "our American guard made, who never left us but
were continually drinking and carousing before our very door,"
kept the General awake. He sent a message for them to be quiet,
"but they redoubled their racket."

So Mrs. General went herself to talk to the guard. "I told them
that my husband was ill and begged they would be less noisy.
Immediately, all became still...."



             19
              
      The Baroness in Cambridge



ON THE twenty-third of October, at one in the afternoon,
the cannon on Fort Hill, overlooking the city of Boston,
began to roar, sending up a dense cloud of smoke. The guns on
Dorchester Heights replied. Boston citizens might have been
alarmed at first, for they had not forgotten the hungry, humiliating
days of occupation and they constantly feared a return of the
British fleet. But this was a thirteen-gun salute telling a joyful
story. Rumor of "the capture of General Burgoyne and his whole
army" had reached Boston the day before but nobody believed
it. Now a courier, breathless from his six-day journey, confirmed
the news.

In Cambridge that night, "the colleges were beautifully
illuminated"1 There was a bonfire on Cambridge Common, and
a constant popping and banging as the Americans troops stationed
in Cambridge answered the fire of cannon on the Common.
"Prominent gentlemen of the town and army" got up a
dinner and drank toasts until morning. Tory newspapers
announced that the news of Burgoyne's surrender was a hoax,
but the courier had seen it with his own eyes.

Major General William Heath's headquarters in Boston were
"illuminated" and for the moment he was a happy man as he
went about putting lighted candles in every window. He was

251



252              The Baroness and the General

forty years old, "of middling stature, light complexion, corpulent
and bald-headed" Since 1632, when the first William Heath had
taken up land in Roxbury, Heaths had tilled their fields. The
present William was much more of a country squire than a
general. But he had a passion for American self-government, and
he had been a member of the Massachusetts General Court when
Gage dissolved it. At seventeen he had joined the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. Later he helped to
organize the Minute Men, and he was one of the few "embattled
fanners" at Lexington who knew how to fire a cannon. He
received his rank of Major General after the Battle of Bunker Hill,
but he had proved no strategist when New York City was taken
and now most of his duties concerned civilian defense. General
Heath was honest, incorruptible and fearless. He could keep
records, and Washington needed such men.

Heath's mood of elation over the American victory at Saratoga
lasted only until he got the news that Burgoyne's surrendered
troops "were coming this way" As he was commander of the
Eastern Division, they would be under his care, and he must
have them guarded, housed and fed. It was gratifying that
everyone from Washington on down thought that Heath could handle
the problem, but it would have been better still if someone had
been willing to help him.

Heath had responsibility, but he hated to assume military
authority over civilians.2 Everything he attempted to do he put
before both "Houses of the Assembly" in Boston. The Massachusetts
legislature felt no kindness toward their uninvited guests.
The "best men of the militia" were ordered to report for guard
duty, first of all. But the drafted men were allowed to hire
substitutes, and a great number "of Lads and old men" appeared.
There were far too few of them, even if they had been good
soldiers. Those who came shuffling into line would desert as
soon as they felt like it and, in vain, Heath begged for more and
better guards.



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                 253

The barracks on Prospect Hill in Somerville and the Winter
Hill barracks on the road to Medford had been occupied by
American troops. They would now shelter Burgoyne's army, the
British on Prospect Hill, the Germans on Winter Hill. But the
buildings were in bad repair, carpenters hard to find and lumber
in short supply. The American troops had been far from
comfortable in the barracks and people were unable to see why
Burgoyne's troops were entitled to anything very much better.

But the greatest difficulty was in getting houses for the officers.
It was decided that they should live in Cambridge, because in
Cambridge was "Tory Row" a street lined with large mansions,
the country homes of Boston Tories who had departed with Gage
or earlier. The finest house had belonged to Major John Vassall,
a Tory, who fled in 1775. His mansion had teen Washington's
headquarters. It would be "suitable'' for General Burgoyne, but
when "the lady who lives in Vassall's house was asked to move
out for General Burgoyne she answered very short, that she was
burnt out of Charles Town, she supposed by his orders. She would
move out in a moment for General Washington, but not for
him."3

In order to survive a winter on those hills overlooking Boston,
Burgoyne's troops would need firewood for their small iron stoves.
In the mansions on Tory Row in Cambridge, fireplaces in every
room consumed great quantities of wood. Even before the Revolution
firewood had been scarce around Boston, and small schooners
brought it in from Maine or Nova Scotia. The British blockade
had stopped these little ships and the countryside for miles around
had been scoured for wood. People stole out in the night to cut
trees not their own, and farmers tried in vain to save their apple
orchards. Now these prisoners were coming, and if Massachusetts
citizens had anything to say about it, they would get firewood last
if at all. Produce and forage for horses were also in short supply
and again who could blame New Englanders if they wanted to
supply themselves and their own troops first?



254              The Baroness and the General

Burgoyne's troops arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on
Friday, November 7, 1777, and Hannah Winthrop, wife of a
Harvard professor of mathematics, described them:

"I never had the least idea that creation produced such a sordid
set of creatures in human figure" she told her friend Mercy
Warren of Plymouth. "Poor, dirty, emaciated men, great numbers
of women who seemed to be the beasts of burthen, having
a bushel basket on their back by which they were bent double.
The contents seemed to be pots and kettles, various sorts of
furniture, children peeping through gridirons and other utensils.
[There were] some very young infants who were born on the road.

"The women were barefoot, clothed in dirty rags. Such effluvia
filled the air while they were passing, had they not been smoking
all the time, I should have been apprehensive of being
contaminated by them.

"After a noble-looking advanced guard [these were Americans]
General Johnny Burgoyne headed this terrible group on horseback.
The other Generals also clothed in blue cloaks.

"Hessians, Waldeckers, Anspackers, Brunswickers etc, etc, followed
on. The Hessian Generals gave us a polite bow as they
passed not so the British. Their baggage wagons were drawn
by half-starved horses.

"But to bring up the rear [was] another fine, noble-looking
Guard of American Victorious Yeomanry, who assisted in bringing
these Sons of Slavery to terms. Some of our wagons, drawn by
fat oxen, driven by joyous looking Yankees, closed the Cavalcade.

'The Generals and other officers went to Bradish's where they
quarter at present.... The Privates trudged through thick and
thin to the hills where we tho't they were to be confined but what
was our surprise when in the morning we beheld an inundation of
these disagreeable objects filling our streets. How mortifying it is!
They are in a manner demanding our houses and colleges for
their genteel accommodation. Did the brave General Gates ever
mean this? Did our Legislature ever intend the military should



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  255

prevail over the civil? Is there not a degree of unkindness in
loading poor Cambridge, almost ruined before, with this great army
seeming to be let loose upon us? And what will be the consequences,
time will discover.

"Some polite ones say we ought not to look upon them as
Prisoners, they are persons of distinguished rank. Perhaps too, we
must not view them in the light of enemys. I fear this distinction
will soon be lost. Surprising that our General should insist on the
first University in America being disbanded for their more genteel
accommodation and we poor oppressed people seek an asylum in
the woods against a piercing winter...."

Mrs. Winthrop had heard that General Heath had been trying
to get the use of Harvard dormitories for the Convention Troops.
This was true, but he tried in vain. Harvard had been evacuated
for Washington's army, the students going to Concord which
was the "asylum in the woods" Mrs. Winthrop had evidently disliked.
The Harvard buildings had been much damaged by the
troops, "noble American Yeomanry" though they might be, and
Harvard voted not to let their property be wrecked again. The
legislature had left everything to Heath, while denying him any
power of eviction the students got an extra vacation while
the wrangle lasted but the Harvard overseers finally refused to
hand over anything "but a wooden dwelling."

"It is said that we shall have not less than seven thousand
persons to feed in Cambridge and its environs more than its
inhabitants," Mrs. Winthrop continued. "Two hundred and fifty
cord of wood will not serve them a week. Think how we must be
distressed. Wood is risen to five pounds ten shilling per cord and
but little to be purchased.

"General Burgoyne dined Saturday in Boston with General
Heath."

Heath had "sent one of his aides for him and the other officers"
to escort them into Boston, by way of Roxbury, and Hannah
Winthrop saw Burgoyne riding through Boston "properly



256              The Baroness and the General

attended." She heard that after dinner he "walkt on foot to
Charlestown Ferry, followed by as great a number of spectators as ever
attended a pope."

Burgoyne "observed to an officer with him, the decent and
modest behavior of the inhabitants as he pass'd," and said that
if he "had been conducting prisoners through the City of London,
not all the Guards of His Majesty could have prevented insults."

General Heath said in his Memoirs of the American War that
in Boston, "before the dinner was done, so great was the curiosity
of the citizens of both sexes and of all ages and descriptions to
get a peep at General Burgoyne that the streets were filled, the
doors, windows, the tops of houses and fences were crowded."
As Heath with Burgoyne and his staff walked out after dinner,
Burgoyne turned to Phillips and Riedesel and said: "There is the
former residence of the Governor." A man in the street heard
him and remarked in a loud voice, "And on the other side is the
riding school." This was Old South Meeting House, where the
British during the occupation had chopped up and burned the
pews and used the building for a place to exercise their horses.

Before that dinner, there had been business to attend to. The
parole for officers to sign, fixing the limits where they were free to
go, was shown to them. Perhaps it might have been better to
have shown the officers this document after dinner, when they
were mellow with wine, for they made a great fuss about it. They
were not to be allowed in Boston! Many besides Burgoyne had
lived in Boston previously, and they wanted to pick up where they
had left off living in fine houses, frequenting the best taverns,
acquiring mistresses and above all gambling at cards.4 They liked
the idea of living in Cambridge no better than Cambridge liked
having them. The officers did not sign the parole until three weeks
later.

One other point was brought up, before dinner. General Phillips,
second in command to Burgoyne, suggested to General Heath



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  257

that he "should delegate to General Burgoyne the power of seeing
your orders executed." The British regarded Heath as a fanner
which he was and therefore a peasant, which he was not. The
American General's reply astonished them: All officers were to
keep discipline in the rank and file; but as to command Burgoyne
would take orders and Heath would give them.

At first, Burgoyne spoke noble words about not separating "his
lot from that of the army." But long before the parole was signed,
he let slip the mask of fatherly commander and amiable good
fellow. Complaint after complaint was delivered to General
Heath. "I cannot speak with satisfaction upon what has passed
and still passes here," he said. "The officers are crowded into the
Barracks, Six and Seven in a Room of about Ten Feet square and
without Distinction of Rank." It was "distinction of rank" that
mattered, and Burgoyne never got around to mentioning that the
troops had no blankets, nor even straw to sleep on, and little
firewood.

Eventually, General Heath had to order "all the wood on
Charlestown wharves to be confiscated for the prisoners," much
as he hated to exert military authority. He sent a colonel to
Cambridge "to take up proper houses for the officers," but Colonel
Chase was to use persuasion, not force. None of this made any
sense to Burgoyne, who felt that his personal sufferings were great:

"I and General Phillips after being amused with promises of
Quarters for eight Days are still in a dirty, small, miserable tavern,
lodging in a Bed Room together, and all the Gentlemen of our
suite Lodging upon the Floor in a Chamber against, a good deal
worse off than their Servants have been used to.

"The only Prospect that remains to me Personally is that I
shall be permitted to Occupy a House without a Table, Chair or
any one article of Furniture for the Price of one hundred and fifty
pounds Sterling till the first of April, but the same Sum is to be
paid tho' I should embark in ten days." Burgoyne had already
turned (town two houses as "exceedingly inconvenient" He said



258              The Baroness and the General

he did not blame Heath or other officers, "They do what they
can."

But the "Supreme Powers of the State are unwilling or unable
to enforce their authority and the Inhabitants want the Hospitality
or indeed the Common Civilization to assist us without it,
the publick Faith is broke and we are the sufferers...." Heath
sent this letter of Burgoyne's to the Continental Congress.

Congress had ratified the Convention of Saratoga and awarded
a gold medal to Gates. Apparently only one man in America
understood the second article of the treaty, which Burgoyne had
"privately and separately" explained to Lord Howe. This man was
General George Washington. "I do not think it is to our interest
to expedite the passage of the prisoners to England," he wrote to
General Heath, "for you may depend upon it, that they will
immediately on their arrival there, throw them into different
garrisons and bring out an equal number. Now if they sail in
December, they may arrive time enough to take the place of others,
who may be out in May, which is as early as a campaign can be
entered upon."

Washington was at Whitmarsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia.
He had suffered defeat at Brandywine, well-conceived
plans had gone wrong at Germantown, and he would soon be
wintering at Valley Forge. But Washington did not suggest that
the treaty be repudiated. He noticed that nothing had been said
about supplying the prisoners with provisions for their homeward
voyage and he suggested that Heath refuse to do this so that
Clinton would be forced to put supplies aboard the transports
before they left New York. This ought to cause just enough delay
so that bad weather would set in and sailing ships would wait till
spring before attempting the Atlantic.

Congress finally came to its senses and began looking for a way
to nullify the whole agreement between Burgoyne and Gates,
whose glory was now growing dim. They leaped upon the phrase
is Burgoyne's letter, "the publick Faith is broke." This "charge



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  259

was not warranted" they said, and indicated that Burgoyne
planned to "disengage himself" Sensing what was up, Burgoyne's
tone became milder.

It seems strange that a linen-covered calash containing a
German Baroness and three children should have escaped description
from Hannah Winthrop's sharp quill pen. Perhaps Mrs.
General Riedesel slipped into Cambridge after dark or after the
troops had passed. It is not at all surprising, however, that Lady
Fritz should be fully as critical as Mrs. Winthrop. "This filthy
place," she called Bradish's Tavern, otherwise known as "The
Blue Anchor," just off Harvard Square. It was not the sort of
inn that a Cambridge citizen would have recommended to a
friend, to be sure, but it was the only one willing to take the
prisoners.
   Long and loud were the protests of Burgoyne and his officers
but they consoled themselves at Bradish's by giving a dinner in
honor of British royalty. "I believe it was the birthday of the
Queen of England," said the Baroness, not too sure. "They drank
a great deal of wine" of this she was certain, pledging King,
Queen and country, absent friends, wives and sweethearts,
confusion to the enemy, and so on, from noon till after dark. The
Riedesel children's nursemaid must have been busy with little
Caroline, because Augusta and Frederika watched the whole
performance with fascinated eyes.

The dinner was over at last. The guests staggered off for a long
nap before supper, and they must have laid in plenty of wine
because there was some of it left. Augusta and Frederika watched
the servants putting it away in a closet under the stairs. When
everyone had gone, the two little girls went over to the closet,
got out the wine and sat down on the floor to "toast the Queen"
Their mother found them, much later, flushed, excited and yet
strangely sleepy. She thought, they had caught some terrible
disease. Frederika "had spasms and I was entirely at a loss to know



260              The Baroness and the General

the cause when Nature helped her and she vomited and then I
saw that it was the wine. I blamed the little girls greatly" but
they said that "they too loved the King and Queen" and wanted
to "wish them happiness."

After a day or two at Bradish's Tavern, the Riedesels were
given quarters in a house nearby. It was a tiny cottage, once owned
and occupied by Judah Monis, Harvard's first teacher of Hebrew.
A "peasant" owned it now, the Baroness said. She and her husband
had "only one room up under the roof" while her servants
slept on the floor and her husband's "menservants in the entry."
She had some straw put under her "field bed," but straw was
extremely hard to come by and had to "serve for a long time."

"Our host allowed us to eat in his room where the whole
family ate and slept," said Lady Fritz. "The man was kind, but
the woman, in order to revenge herself for the trouble we were
to her, played the trick ... of combing out her childrens' hair,
which was full of vermin, every time we sat down at table."
Putting it mildly, she added, "It very often entirely took away our
appetites." They begged the woman to stop but she said it was
"her room" and she 'liked to comb her children's hair at this
time." They dared say no more for fear of being put out in the
street.

Three weeks went by. The Baroness had her servants scrub and
clean the room under the eaves and the entry, and doubtless she
would have had the whole house cleaned if her landlady had
allowed it This little cottage in Cambridge was less habitable than
the cellar at Saratoga, but no cannon balls were coming through
the walls and General Riedesel was not in danger. Lady Fritz
did not complain.

General Burgoyne finally accepted quarters in the "Bishop's
Palace." This house was built by the Reverend East Apthorp,
Church of England missionary to Cambridge, founder of Christ
Church. People in Cambridge gave the house this name because
of the luxurious style of the mansion it was not the sort of



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  261

house a Puritan parson would have cared for. At the beginning of
hostilities between the colonies and the mother country, the
Reverend East Apthorp thought it best to depart; he sold his
house to John Borland, a Tory merchant, who added a top floor
for his family slaves. Cambridge patriots looted Apthorp's Christ
Church, taking the organ pipes to melt into bullets. Then John
Borland also departed. Once richly furnished, the Apthorp house
at 10 Linden Street had now been looted along with the church,
and General Burgoyne was in the market for secondhand furniture
for which he paid (or promised to pay) handsomely. He
complained, of course.

General Riedesel's turn came at last: General Heath found a
house for him on upper Brattle Street then called Watertown
Road. This house had been built by Richard Lechmere, once the
owner of many acres of farmland now part of the city of
Cambridge. It was a simple, unpretentious country farmhouse, built
for comfort, but with the quiet elegance of good paneling, fine
hand-wrought hardware and stenciled walls.5 General Riedesel
hired from the American commissary "2½ dozen chairs, 2 bed-
steads with beds, one night chair, 2 bureaux and 2 looking glasses"
To furnish the downstairs rooms, they had "one large breakfast
table, 4 other tables, one tea board and 1 large kittle".

The Baroness loved this house. "It was one of the most beautiful
in Cambridge," she said. She was also impressed by Tory Row,
but not primarily because of the imposing architecture. "Never
have I chanced upon such an agreeable situation" she said.
"Seven families who were connected with each other, partly by
family relationships and partly by affection, had here farms and
gardens and magnificent houses and not far off plantations of
fruits. The owners of these were in the habit of daily meeting each
other in the afternoon, now at the house of one, now at another
and making themselves merry with music and dancing living
in prosperity, united and happy until, alas, this ruinous war



262              The Baroness and the General

severed them and left all their houses desolate...." The Baroness
Riedesel resolved to do what she could to restore at least a
semblance of gracious living to Cambridge.

"General Phillips was ever our kind and welcome friend," she
said. "We saw much of him. Our house was constantly full of
Englishmen." The other Englishmen were young captains and
lieutenants, described by Hannah Winthrop as "prancing and
patrolling every comer of the town, ornamented with their
glittering side-arms, weapons of destruction." One of Burgoyne's
Articles of Convention allowed all his officers to keep their side-
arms, and greatly did the Cambridge citizens resent this.

Lady Fritz discovered that it was an English custom to pay a
first courtesy-call and hope to be asked to come again. If no such
invitation was forthcoming it was assumed that the hostess did
not want to continue an acquaintance. She had been surprised
when nice young men whom she had made welcome failed to
return to her house. She "soon learned of this convenient custom"
she said and chose "those whose company was the most agreeable."
But she was so happy when cheering and welcoming home-
sick young officers that she almost always said, "Do come again."

"None of our gentlemen were allowed to go to Boston," said
Lady Fritz, and she must have listened patiently to many
complaints. But she had no trouble in getting a pass from General
Heath for herself, calash and coachman, to go to call on Mrs.
Carter, daughter of General Schuyler.

John Carter (or John Barker Church) was an ardent American
patriot, although he never gave up his British nationality and
returned to England, eventually, to become a member of parliament.
Angelica would one day have a fine house in London
and entertain royalty. A letter from her John to one of her
father's aides during the winter of 1777 reveals a young man
not quite thirty learning to be a good husband to a girl of
twenty-one. "I entreat you to purchase for Mrs. Carter, one or
two of the best cookery books, as she is a young Housekeeper and



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  263

wants to gain Experience" John Carter did not insist that his
wife be too serious, however. He also sent for "a set of strings for
her guitar" and powder for her hair. If there were any "Hysong
tea" to be had in Albany, it must be bought for Mrs. Carter, "be
the price what it will."

The Baroness found "Madam Carter as gentle and good as her
parents. I dined at her house several times" she said, and many
prominent Bostonians would remember Lady Fritz. But she had
not one good word to say for Angelica's husband. It would appear
that the young man had a macabre sense of humor, and that he
delighted in shocking the somewhat literal-minded Baroness.

'When the English General Howe had burned many hamlets
and small towns, this miserable Carter" proposed that the Americans
"chop off the heads of our generals, salt them down in small
barrels and send them over to England one barrel for every
hamlet or little town burned down," John Carter "was wicked and
treacherous," asserted the Baroness, "but this barbarous suggestion
was fortunately not followed.

"The city of Boston, throughout, is pretty but it is inhabited
by violent patriots and full of wicked people," Madam Riedesel
declared. "The women, especially, were so shameless that they
regarded me with repugnance and even spit at me when I passed
them by."

One of General Riedesel's young officers, Ernst Johann Schuler
von Senden, from Wolfenbüttel, tried to explain the American
attitude.6 "It is natural that they have completely wrong ideas
about German women if they look upon the soldier-women in
camp as typical...." These poor women "run around in rags as
they own nothing else." They were so dreadful to look at that
"an order went out [apparently from a superstitious city council]
that these wenches were not to show themselves outside of camp
for fear the pregnant women in Boston should be marked"
and bring forth an ill-favored child! But the optimistic von Senden
was sure that "when it becomes known that the German Generalin



264              The Baroness and the General

is a pretty and educated woman" this "judgment" would get "a
little correction."

The Baroness invited the Carters to dinner at her house in
Cambridge, and they came often. Whether she knew it or not,
John Carter (Church) also played cards with British officers.
Word from Burgoyne written to Riedesel explains: "I did not
understand you, my dear General, in what you mentioned in your
note about Carter. But Anstruther, who is just now come in to
dinner, tells me of Carter's gambling I was not of the party nor
out of my house all day yesterday which was lucky, for I hear
the little man carried off money in all his pockets...."

On the third of June, 1778, the Baroness Riedesel gave "a ball
and a supper in honor of the birthday" of her husband. It was a
grand affair. The terrace and gardens were "illuminated" and there
was a "magnificent supper of more than eighty different dishes"
prepared by that "knave" of a cook whose thievery had yet to be
discovered. He must have raided all the barnyards in the
township of Cambridge, with great success.

Madam Riedesel had met Boston people at the Carters' house
and she asked them to her party. Not one of them came except
the Carters, and she was hurt. But she felt much worse when
"Burgoyne, who was expected, sent an excuse after keeping every body
waiting for him until eight o'clock in the evening." Nevertheless,
she had fun at her party.

"We danced considerably," said Lady Fritz. It grew late
and then it was early in the morning of the next day. They
remembered that it was now "the birthday of the King of England"
so they resolved they would not separate till the King's health
was drunk. All joined in singing " 'God Save the King' and all
eyes were full of tears.' " The Baroness looked around the circle
of officers, young and old, thinking of their own land. "Even the
Carters could not shut their hearts against us," she said.

The two oldest little girls had been allowed to stay up to see the



                   The Baroness in Cambridge                  265

illumination. They too sang "God Save the King" and perhaps
their mother let them drink a toast in carefully watered wine.

Then the company separated, and on coming out of the lighted
house and the torchlit gardens into the dark road, they saw that
the "house was surrounded." Barefoot men had silently arrived,
carrying guns. On nearby hills, barrels of pitch were burning.

There was constant fear among the people of Boston and the
neighboring towns that Burgoyne's troops would break out and
march to join Clinton in New York, ravaging the country as they
went. The militia had been called out lest the Reidesels' gay
party meant "a mutiny" among the prisoners of Saratoga.



             20
              
            Peaceful Cambridge



GENERAL Riedesel visited his troops every day. He insisted
that the men get out in the open and drill in front of their
barracks, using any sort of stick of wood they could find in place
of the guns they had given up. He appointed a guard from each
regiment, consisting of one noncommissioned officer and sixteen
privates under the command of a lieutenant, to see that order
was kept among the men and to avert quarrels between the men
and the local militia. "Theft or marauding" was to be punished
promptly, and restitution made to citizens who brought forward
provable claims. Gambling was forbidden to the Germans under
severe penalties, but the men could play tenpins though not for
money.

Toward the end of November, 1777, General Riedesel wrote to
General Heath asking for a separate commissary or "store" on
Winter Hill, and this was immediately granted "so that the
common complaint of the British being amply supplied" while the
Germans were "destitute" might be removed. Riedesel tried
desperately to get straw for his men to sleep on. The barracks
were built on the ground with no excavation under them and the
winter of 1777-1778 was intensely cold. But straw seemed to have
vanished from the earth and he had to let his men sleep on bare
boards so that the little straw he found and paid a fancy price for

266



                   Peaceful Cambridge                       267

could go to the wounded in hospital. The cold was much worse
in Cambridge than in Canada, Riedesel said, but he was surprised
to find that his men were comparatively healthy.

Schuler von Senden described "Winter Hill, three miles from
Boston.... The barracks where we are stationed are flimsily
built, offer but little shelter against the impending cold. But they
are better than what we have had up to now. Each room beds
twelve to eighteen men; otherwise they are unfurnished, without
tables, chairs, or cots. In each there is a small stove at which four
or five men at the most can warm themselves at one time....

"I can easily discern the city of Boston with its suburbs,
Cambridge and Charleston, separated only by a bridge. In fact, it is
easy to observe every ship in the harbor. Only one English mile
from us, I can see Bunker Hill where such bloody battles took
place at the beginning of the war and only a short distance away
is Prospect Hill where the English prisoners have a camp exactly
like ours.

"We are rapidly growing accustomed to our life here.... For
the first month the food was good, but now it is deteriorating and
at times we receive the notorious ships' biscuit instead of bread,
and salt fish instead of meat. After only a short time we made our
barracks homelike and we feel quite comfortable, considering the
circumstances.... The treatment of the troops is not bad. To be
sure .... one may leave camp only on a pass, but every so often
each of us receives one in order to buy necessaries...."

Von Senden said that only about a hundred Germans deserted
while the troops crossed the mountains from Saratoga into New
England, and he considered this a good record because "our
people, particularly as far as clothes go, are in wretched
condition." General Riedesel was doing what he could about this. He
sent Captain Willoe, that trusted young aide who brought Madam
Riedesel to Fort Edward, back to Canada with a letter for Governor
Carleton. "Our troops, from officers down to privates are
without clothes, shoes and other necessaries" the letter said. Along



268              The Baroness and the General

with the request for winter clothing, General Riedesel commended
Captain Willoe's bravery in action and hoped that His Excellency
would look after Willoe's future and give him a promotion. Then
day after day the German troops on Winter Hill watched for
the coming of sailing ships from Canada. But the clothing ships
never came.1

Riedesel managed to buy some cloth. He set the women to
making caps and mittens, and he ordered the long skirts of the
soldiers' coats cut off, the material to be used to patch what was
left of their uniforms. At inspection time, officers praised the
regiment with the neatest patchwork. The German women also
worked in the hospital, and were paid for their services, but only
after Riedesel had wrangled with the British for several months
in their behalf (the Germans being allowed by treaty between
the King and the Duke of Brunswick to run their own hospitals,
the British government to pay the expenses).

If Burgoyne ever went near his troops on Prospect Hill, it was
not a matter of record. Disorders in the British camp were
frequent but they were all laid to the discomfort of the soldiers.
General Howe had refused to give ships carrying firewood a safe-
conduct through the naval blockade, so there was always a shortage
of fuel and all the troops suffered from the cold. British
soldiers constantly slipped off to Boston, sometimes bringing
women back to the barracks with them. Apparently their own
officers made no objection. The American militia were supposed
to prevent it, but the 'lads and old men" who guarded the
prisoners were weak, inefficient and all too often open to bribery.

General Burgoyne's first thought was to get back to England as
soon as possible; his obsession was his personal dignity. On
January 4, 1778, he wrote angrily to General Heath: "As to your
allotment of a convenient Transport for my passage, if it is from
Yourself, I am to thank you, Sir, for a sort of Insult which the most
haughty man in Office would be ashamed of in any other Country."



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        269

He explained that he must have a "Frigate, together with the
Transports" the frigate for himself and the transports for the
common soldiers.

General Heath replied mildly: ".... When the transports arrive
to receive the troops, they will enter the harbor, and if you find by
the Convention that a Frigate is to enter for the particular
reception of yourself, she will not be prohibited. But if it is rather
uncommon for ships of war to bear flags of truce and if consenting
to it in the present case should appear rather to be an act of
politeness and generosity than otherwise I leave it to your own
reflections whether you have made choice of the most happy
expressions to obtain it...."

Great Britain was to pay for the keep of the prisoners. Nothing
so far had been paid, and General Heath had used all the money
that Congress had sent him. "The expense of the Troops of the
Convention only, is about $20,000 a week for provisions and fuel,"
he wrote in desperation to Henry Laurens, President of the
Continental Congress. Then there was the matter of pay for the
"regiment of guards" and "the great expense of transporting
stores." Burgoyne seemed to think that these bills need never
be paid, but Congress "resolved" that neither he nor his troops
should leave any debts behind them. Burgoyne was "much
chagrined."

"General Burgoyne somehow communicated to Viscount Howe
the subject of the Frigate," said Heath, who was trying in vain to
keep his prisoners from getting or sending news. Howe said the
transports had been delayed. He thought a frigate could never
get into Boston Harbor, and Burgoyne began to campaign for
permission to go home alone to England, leaving from British-
held Newport.

So far, both Howe and Burgoyne unintentionally helped the
United States Congress in detaining Burgoyne's troops, but
Congress was still looking for an excuse to break the treaty altogether.
They wanted to know where the colors of the regiments were.



270              The Baroness and the General

Burgoyne said he had left them in Canada, and this may have
been true. At this point, no one knew where the German colors
were except General Riedesel, and no one seems to have asked
him. Arms were to have been surrendered in good condition at
Saratoga, but many of the Convention Troops had smashed their
muskets before piling them on the bank of the Hudson. This was
in violation of the treaty but hardly important enough to nullify
it. The troops allowed to go to Canada had promised not to fight
again in North America, but Congress had heard that Carleton
had enlisted them. This was a fact but, as yet, proof was lacking.
Things looked bleak for the lawyers in Congress.

At last a courier arrived with a letter for General Heath, marked
"Confidential" On the eighth of January, 1778, Congress had
resolved to hold the Convention Troops "until Great Britain
ratified the Convention of Saratoga." Great Britain could not ratify
the treaty without recognizing the United States as a nation with
a right to negotiate. So the lawyers had thought of a way to keep
Burgoyne's army waiting for quite a while.

As President of the Congress, Henry Laurens had wanted General
Heath to get the news in confidence in case it might cause
trouble among the prisoners. But "people in the streets" knew
it long before Heath did, much to his dismay. The people
believed that "a meeting was planned": that arms had been smuggled
into the barracks on Prospect Hill. This "meeting" would be
between escaping prisoners and the British, either at Newport or
New York.

Serious trouble began early in January, when Colonel David
Henley, in charge of prisoners under Heath, reported that there
had been "mutinous behavior" at the British barracks. A prisoner
had thrown a stone at an American "Gentry," which "deprived
him of his reason and near his life." The prisoner took the gun
away from the unconscious guard and other guards called for help.
"Colonel Gerish directly, with 200 men, made search for the



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        271

villain and the Gentry's piece, upon which the Prisoners arm'd
themselves with clubs etc" Colonel Gerish gave the order for
his men to fire, '"but on discovering some of his own party in the
barracks, he countermanded those orders and rushed upon them in
a brave manner, with fire-locks clubbed drove them from barrack
to barrack till he made them sick of their Frolick, taking some
prisoners and confining them." So Henley's report read.

Next morning Colonel Henley took a hand. The prisoners
"assembled," refused to "disperse," behaved with "their usual
insolence, and rescued" one of Colonel Gerish's prisoners taken
the night before. At this point Henley lost his temper. But as he
wrote it up in his report to General Heath, he was "acting with
resolution" when he personally "gave orders to disperse" and
"they did it with so much reluctance and insolence" that he
"ran a British soldier through the body and pushed with such
force that it may prove fatal to him."

Burgoyne said that "insults and provocations, at which the
most placid dispositions would revolt" were "daily given to the
officers and soldiers" of his army. Colonel Henley was "indecent,
violent, vindictive" he was guilty of "intentional murder"
and Burgoyne made "a demand for prompt and satisfactory
justice."

General Heath ordered a Court of Inquiry for Colonel Henley.2
He also promised Burgoyne that he would look into all
complaints, such as "the conduct of a number of [British] officers at
Bradish's Tavern, of prisoners being rescued from the guards,
sentinels abused and insulted at their posts; passes counterfeited;
robberies committed in the environs of the barracks...."

The Court of Inquiry agreed that Colonel Henley was entitled
to a court-martial, and General Burgoyne himself appeared
against him. Day after day, the courthouse in Cambridge was
packed. To the amazement of one of the German officers, "every
male person can attend such a court and everyone is permitted to
take notes.... not even the humblest is refused admittance."



272              The Baroness and the General

But of course there were no women allowed. In the "oval building
with great church windows all around, reaching to the roof, the
President, General Glover, sat on a chair like a professor's." In
front, seated at a large rectangular table, sat Colonel Henley, "the
accused," with Lieutenant Colonel Tudor as Judge Advocate.
General Burgoyne was seated at the same table, with Generals
Phillips and von Riedesel as his assistants.

It was "a long and tedious trial," said General Heath. "General
Burgoyne .... said everything which he judged proper, which,
although novel in Courts Martial was yet permitted"

"General Burgoyne has several times shown himself a great
orator and drawn tears from the whole court," said the German
observer, who was probably one of Riedesel's aides.

Lieutenant Anburey published what he said was a verbatim
report of Burgoyne's speeches, and they were certainly long and
tedious, especially when he took time out to air some of his
personal grievances against General William Heath. Basing his case
on the accusation of "intentional murder," Burgoyne's eloquence
included passages referring to Colonel Henley's hands "imbrued
with blood" or Henley's "thirst for blood," along with sarcasm
directed at the Provincial rebel lawyers and their methods of
defense. Burgoyne's oratory helped to get Henley acquitted of all
charges.

The affair had provided free entertainment for most of the male
population of Cambridge and doubtless for their wives over the
dinner table. It had occupied Burgoyne's mind, and he had
enjoyed the center of the stage small, provincial and rebellious
though his audience might be.

Hannah Winthrop, who should have been a modern columnist,
wrote her report to Mercy Warren. "The British officers live in the
most luxurious manner possible, rioting on the fat of the land,
stalking at large like Lords of the Soil. General Burgoyne has
been allowed a Court Martial on a Continental Colonel for doing
his duty ... interrogating and aiming to intimidate witnesses on



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        273

our part, encouraging those of his own, displaying his
Parliamentary eloquence, Spouting forth his Contempt of America,
sometimes by insidious, ironical compliments, at others by direct
abuse "

The Henley trial ended on the twenty-seventh of February,
1778, and on March 19 General Burgoyne at last got leave from
Congress to go to England. He was not exchanged, he was free
to go only on parole, but this news was "joyous to the General"
as Heath put it.

Burgoyne was less than joyous when he was reminded that he
was not to leave Cambridge until all his personal bills and all the
accounts for provisions for his army had been paid. At first,
Congress insisted that the bill be paid in gold, the gold to be
forwarded to the treasury and used to pay for munitions bought in
France. Patiently, but with an undercurrent of desperation,
General Heath pointed out that large sums of money were owing in
Boston and that his task of getting in more provisions would be
almost impossible unless current bills were paid. Finally Congress
agreed to accept "specie" for part of the bill, which Heath could
use to satisfy creditors. The rest of the debt could be paid in
provisions for the future use of the prisoners, these provisions to be
forwarded from Newport or New York "by vessels bearing flags."
As a "pledge for any deficiencies, a box of gold" must be deposited
with General Heath. Burgoyne wrote many haughty letters, but
finally agreed to all demands.

Heath gave Burgoyne a farewell dinner in Boston and this was
the second time, while a prisoner, that Burgoyne was allowed to
go into that city. "If you will give me a memorandum," said
Burgoyne, grandly, "I will forward to you any foreign necessaries
you may want...." How about wine? Some tea, perhaps or
sugar? Heath replied that he pref erred to go without luxuries along
with his fellow countrymen.

Burgoyne called on Madam the Baroness von Riedesel, who



274              The Baroness and the General

could be haughty, too, when she chose. She had asked him to her
house many times, "but he invariably excused himself on various
pretences" He now "made me a great many apologies, to which
I replied that I would be extremely sorry if he had gone out of
his way on our account."

Lady Fritz had nothing to say, this time, concerning Burgoyne's
mistress. According to the Convention of Saratoga, he had been
allowed to send back to Canada "all Canadians and persons
belonging to the establishment in Canada," and "many other
followers of the Army who come under no particular Description."
It would seem that Burgoyne's mistress could have gone if she
had wanted to. If Burgoyne had a companion, commissary's wife
or otherwise, to share his bed at Bishop Apthorp's house,
apparently no one was so indiscreet as to mention it.

On April 7, 1778, "General Burgoyne, attended by several
officers" arrived in Newport, Rhode Island.3 Along with him was
"a rebel commissary," come to get the money promised in cash.
Writing without fear of censorship at last, Burgoyne said he had
paid "Sums which altogether amounted to 27,000 pounds sterling."
The rest of the sum of one hundred thousand pounds must go to
Boston "by the Hands of the Paymaster ...." But to Burgoyne's
dismay, he had discovered that the whole military chest at
Newport was "only 156,000." So he took out 47,000 pounds sterling
and said that 27,000 of this "was indispensable to discharge the
agreement with General Heath" and the remaining "20,000,
tho' a mere pittance, will be some immediate resource in point of
subsistence."

Burgoyne would have "refused all demands," he said, "if it
affected" only his own departure. But Heath had informed him,
quite truthfully, that there would be no more food for the prisoners
unless money and provisions were supplied at once.

On the tenth of April Burgoyne made "a tour of the island
attended by General Pigot and other officers" to look at Newport's



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        275

defenses. That night there was an "Assembly attended by about
40 ladies and 100 gentlemen." On April 15, Gentleman Johnny
"embarked on the Grampus, which, with a fleet of about 30 sail,
immediately got under way. No salute was given or other
compliment paid to him...."

General Burgoyne would not be seen riding with the King
in London. He would not even be allowed to see the King. There
would be lonely hours during which he prepared his statement of
what had happened to him among the rebels of North America,
and gradually it would dawn upon him that no move whatever
was being made for his exchange. His ungrateful sovereign wanted
him left a "prisoner of the Convention" on parole.

General Phillips was now in full charge of the Convention
Troops. Burgoyne had left with him the means of writing secretly
to Lord Howe, and had described how the secret writing was to
be done. "I cut the enclosed Cyphers and left the counterparts
in his [Phillips's] hands; the one is for a shorter, the other for a
longer correspondence. Your Excellency will immediately perceive
the method of using them is to write the secret part in the
interstices, and then fill the Vacuities so as to make them seem
Part of an indifferent letter. The Person who receives has only to
apply the interstices and consequently reads the secret Part. They
are meant to be applicable to each Page, and when the second
Cypher is to be used, two strokes are to be put under the date"

These "masks" were usually cut out in an hour-glass shape or
an oblong, but it sounds as though Burgoyne had cut some very
fancy holes in his papers.4 General Phillips wrote pathetically
once or twice to say that he had received no letter that made any
secret sense when he laid his cut-out masks of paper over them.
Phillips began to realize that the British High Command had
forgotten him and his Convention Troops or at least, that he was
on nobody's mind particularly. He wrote to Sir Guy Carleton,
who was in Quebec. There were American prisoners in Canada,



276              The Baroness and the General

why not send some of them in the "clothing ships" and arrange
an exchange so that Burgoyne's former army could go to New
York and fight again from there? But the clothing ships did not
come, and relations between the unhappy prisoners and the
equally unhappy "inhabitants" grew daily worse.

On June 17, 1778, Lieutenant Richard Brown, an English
Officer, was "riding out of the lines with two women" when the
American guard ordered him to halt and show his pass and that
of the women. Lieutenant Brown, "when repeatedly challenged,"
did not stop, and the guard shot him.

"Murder and death has at length taken place," wrote General
Phillips, who was a man of choleric disposition at best
Boredom and frustration concerning his career and his situation as a
forgotten prisoner had made his temper almost uncontrollable
these days, and he let himself go in his letter to General Heath:

"An officer, riding out from the barracks on Prospect Hill, has
been shot by an American sentinel. I leave the horrors incident
to that bloody disposition, which has joined itself to rebellion in
these Colonies, to the feelings of all Europe. I do not ask for
justice, for I believe every principle of it has fled from this
Province.

"I demand liberty to send an officer to Gen. Sir Henry Clinton,
by way of the head-quarters of Gen. Washington with my report
of this murder."

Inquiry into the shooting of Lieutenant Brown had already
begun when Heath received Phillips's letter. There were witnesses
who confirmed the guard's account, and he was exonerated. But
the patient General Heath was angry. "Were it even certain that
the shooting of the officer was an act of the most deliberate, wilful
murder, why should you charge these free and independent States
with a bloody disposition and with rebellion, and this state in
particular as void of every principle of justice?" he wrote Phillips.
"Although I ever had and still have a personal regard for you,



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        277

and wish in every respect to treat you with the utmost generosity;
that duty which I owe to the honour and dignity of the United
States will not allow me to pass unnoticed such expressions as are
contained in your letter...." The demand of liberty for an officer
to proceed to Sir Henry Clinton was denied. Heath promised that
a copy of Phillips's letter should go to Clinton, however and
also to Congress. And he restricted General William Phillips to
his "house, gardens and yard" in Cambridge, with the exception
of "the direct road to the quarters of the troops on Prospect and
Winter Hills." Phillips refused to sign a parole accepting these
limits and Heath put a guard at his house.

General Heath reminded Phillips that France had "acknowledged
the independency of the United States." French ships were
arriving daily in Boston Harbor "with goods and stores." This
was a bad time for Phillips to be talking about rebellious colonies,
but every letter he wrote was in an angry vein and his blood
pressure must have reached a new high point every day. Eventually,
he refused to communicate with Heath at all, and appointed
Riedesel to carry on all correspondence.

General Riedesel had troubles of his own. It was spring and his
men were escaping from the barracks and deserting. He had one
of his aides write out a polite report in English for General Heath.
Congress had "resolved" and Washington had confirmed the
ruling that "no officer of the Continental Army should receive or
enlist soldiers of the Army of the Convention." But "facts had
come to light" which convinced Riedesel that "provincial officers
do enlist German troops...." There were houses in Watertown
where German soldiers could go to enlist, and the American guards
on Winter Hill would not stop a man who said he was going there.

Riedesel had sent a noncommissioned officer to the tavern in
Watertown to look for Grenadier Dohlenberg, "deserted from
the barracks." Instead of hunting down Grenadier Dohlenberg,
arresting and returning him, an American Captain Merket, who



278              The Baroness and the General

was busy recruiting at the tavern, blithely offered to enlist
Riedesel's noncommissioned officer to no avail, to be sure.

Worse followed! "A patrol of the garrison of Cambridge took
up five men, by name Christian Crone, Andrew Entrott, Henry
Schmidt, Anthony Staderman and William Büttcher," who were
found roaming the streets at night. They were confined forty-eight
hours in the guardhouse on Prospect Hill; but they had not
"committed any riot," so they were to be returned to their barracks.
When Riedesel sent his aide, Lieutenant Du Roi, to get them
the men were gone. They had been "released" having been found
"innocent," and "by some accident" had disappeared. At least
that was the story told to Du Roi. But a sergeant of the guard
let slip that "the men had been sent ... to Bunker's Hill in order
to be carried over to Boston, as they had enlisted in the
Continental Army." Everyone promised to help General Riedesel
find his five men, but somehow they were never seen again.

At last, Riedesel had a little luck. "Yesterday afternoon," he
wrote on the last day of May, "I met three men in Continental
uniform, two in a calash and one on horseback riding before.
Upon looking a little nearer, I perceived them to be German,
and Brunswick soldiers."

General Riedesel rushed into the street and shouted to the men
to halt. But "the man on horseback rode off." The two in the
calash obediently pulled up, and when he ordered them out of the
carriage they stepped down. Riedesel ordered them "into a
neighboring house to examine them nearer." (He did not say what the
householder might have thought of this.) One man was a
Bennington prisoner of war, the other a Brunswick soldier "included
in the Convention." Riedesel ordered the Brunswick man to take
off the Continental uniform and give it to the man captured at
Bennington, who was to deliver it and himself to the Cambridge
guard. Then, gathering in his own man, who was presumably
wearing some sort of clothing, he took the Brunswicker back to
Winter Hill.



                   Peaceful Cambridge                        279

After questioning this man, Riedesel knew who had been
causing all the trouble. "A certain Colonel Armand clandestinely
persuades our troops to desert and enlists them publicly in the
American service" he discovered. Writing to General Heath,
Riedesel declared that "numbers of our men (half of them in Col.
Armand's uniform) and half still in the Brunswick uniforms were
swarming in the town of Boston." He did not see how Heath
could be unaware of this.

General Heath knew Colonel Armand all right He was the
Marquis de la Rouerie of the French Guards, a rich young man
with a taste for adventure. He had been with Washington at
Valley Forge, had hoped to go with Lafayette on a winter expedition
into Canada, and for this purpose had recruited volunteers
for a regiment at his own expense. The expedition could not be
organized quickly enough to follow upon the heels of Burgoyne's
defeat, and was given up. But "Armand," as he liked to be called,
was in Boston recruiting for his private little army, passing out
gaudy uniforms of his own design, and there was little or nothing
that General Heath could do about him except give him
Riedesel's letter, and write to General Washington for advice.

However, Heath had a word to say to General Riedesel. "I
cannot but express surprise that in the public road you should
stop men cloathed in the uniform of the United States, to strip
or confine them under guard.... I shall by no means allow of the
taking up of men cloathed in the Continental uniform in any place
where an officer of the Convention may happen to see them.
You will therefore please immediately, Sir, to set at Liberty the
Person whom you stripped .... without offering him any abuse
or punishment,"5

Riedesel replied that the deserter had confessed to receiving
thirty dollars for his enlistment and "had testified so much
repentence for his crime" that he had been released and pardoned.
But "The has since disappeared and I know not what has become
of him."



280              The Baroness and the General

Colonel Armand wrote a letter which Riedesel considered
frivolous and impertinent and so, of course, it was.6 But
Armand, although he wrote English very badly, had a good time
composing it 'In the first days I was in Boston, good many of the
Germans came to me for being enlisted" Armand said. "General
Heath I consulted, told me he could not grant me such leave.

I had the mortification of seeing all those brave men dispersed.

I have been informed that a good many of them .... have enlisted
in the Militia. I don't suppose your intention be to make me
responsible for what the Militia does.... In fine, Sir, of all your
deserters from your camp, I haven't seen the twentieth part of
them. I am positively ignorant where they have gone.... I have
the honor of assuring you that Last Campaign, my Corps was
almost composed of these brave men I made an essential point
to love them better than any others. If I had some this campaign,
they would be happier under my orders than in any other Regiment."

It was not surprising that General Riedesel suffered from severe
headaches and that his wife had difficulty in cheering him up!
She encouraged him to plant a garden, and he got some of the
best gardeners among the prisoners to help with it. The land was
fertile on Brattle Street and they planted some strange American
produce such as the pumpkin.

On June 18, 1778, General Phillips still refusing to make
peace with Heath, still under house arrest wrote to General
Riedesel. There was a party at the Riedesels' and he could not
be there.

"I do sincerely give you my congratulations on the return of
Madam de Riedesel's birthday," General Phillips wrote. "It was
the peculiar order of Providence to give her to the World for
your happiness the Worthiest Woman, best wife and most
amiable Companion and Friend.

"I shall drink her health in a Bumper of Claret at my dinner."



             21
              
               Marching Orders



AMERICAN land forces and Admiral d'Estaing, Commodore
of the French fleet, had worked out a plan to liberate Newport,
Rhode Island. It was good strategy and, in the opinion of
German officers engaged in the battle, the Americans were fighting
well. But then on August 11 "a terrible storm arose" which
"lasted three days." In Boston, "the strongest trees were torn
up" and some "of the barracks demolished." In other words, there
was something very like a hurricane in New England in August
1778, and the French fleet "was dispersed."1 The land army hung
on desperately, but naval support was necessary and a retreat was
ordered. Tory newspapers said that "the wrath of Heaven" had
descended upon the rebels and the utterly discouraged Americans
could not help wondering if this were true. It took steadfast faith
to believe that so many defeats could ever add up to victory.

A very battered French fleet limped into Boston harbor, "12
sail of the line and 4 frigates." D'Estaing's flagship, the
Languedoc, was dismasted; she lost her bowsprit and rudder and had to
be towed into port. The Marseilles lost her foremast, and the
Caesar, a seventy-four, driven clear of the squadron, was much
battered when "she fell in with a British 50 gun ship" and fought
her "for near three glasses." When other British ships hove in
sight, the Caesar broke off the engagement and somehow managed

281





282              The Baroness and the General

"to make Boston lower harbor" on August 22. Count
d'Estaing determined to bring the remnants of his whole squadron
to Boston. He "came up to town" and John Hancock politely
invited him to breakfast and to bring his officers.2

The French count accepted with pleasure John Hancock's kind
invitation for himself and three hundred officers. Mrs. Hancock
sent servants "in all haste to milk the cows on Boston Common."
Most of the cows belonged to her neighbors but there was no time
to ask permission and nobody complained. This was a hungry
French fleet that had arrived in Boston, a city already host to
hungry Convention Troops.

Some of the Convention Troops had already been sent to Rutland,
Vermont, to relieve the burden of providing food for them
in Boston. In New York, Clinton was also hungry, so he had
stopped sending provisions to the prisoners. He was asked to provide
passports for "American vessels, to transport provisions," but
refused. When "passports were not granted within three days after
application" and "measures were not taken by Clinton to send
supplies to Boston," Congress resolved "to remove the prisoners
to such part of the United States as they may be best suited in."

General Phillips tailed in vain against the use of the word
"prisoners" in connection with the Troops of the Convention.
It was all beside the point: his men could march or starve. They
must pay the bills now owing, since Burgoyne's departure, and
officers must pay their board and lodging bills. But they had used
up all their cash paying gambling debts, and it was a blow to
learn that a debt to a landlady, although not a debt of honor,
must be honored.

There was another reason for removing the Troops of the Convention
from Boston, besides shortage of food. As early as March,
writing from Valley Forge, Washington had warned: ".... If
they remain within reach of that part of the Enemy who are at
Newport, I think it more than probable that they will make an
effort to rescue than.... "



                    Marching Orders                       283

On the first day of September, 1778, the French officers were
just sitting down to dinner with General Heath when signal guns
began to boom. Mr. John Cutler, who was "posted in the steeple
of the Old South Meeting House, [had seen] about twenty sail."
Count d'Estaing, instead of sitting down at table, "immediately
put off for the squadron."

The German troops, looking out over Boston from Winter Hill,
saw that "alarm flags were hoisted on all their buildings and spires.
Everyone who could carry or obtain arms hastened to the city.
The people of the neighboring townships came riding into the city
on horseback.... Governor Hancock had the forts around the
city occupied. Meanwhile, it grew dark and the alarm fires shone
from the heights."

The British ships decided that the entrance to Boston Harbor
was too well fortified to approach at that time, but on October 11
there came another alarm. General Heath now advised Boston
citizens "to pack up their effects and remove women and children."
This, too, proved a false alarm; but it buoyed up the hopes of the
prisoners. "General Howe attempted a landing to rescue the
captive troops," wrote Madam Riedesel.

The news that the troops were to march into the distant
"Province of Virginia" was greeted with deep dismay. "I have
heard from particular channels .... and make no doubt that the
troops will be marched away," wrote General Phillips to Riedesel.
"Patience, perforce, mon Général. Si nous avions attaque le 20me
septembre, ceci r'aura pas arrivé"3 So there had really been a plot,
and the words "We will have to be patient, my General, if we had
attacked on the 20th of September, all this would not have
happened" referred to some plan not carried out.

Phillips was putting every obstacle he could think of in the
way of the departure of the troops in the hope that rescue might
still come. He refused to pay the provision bill first because he
was named as "debtor," and next because the Convention Troops
had been called "prisoners"; then, when these matters had been



284              The Baroness and the General

politely explained or corrected to please him, he objected to the
words "the United States'' on the grounds that there was no such
nation. At this, Heath's patience was at an end. He replied briefly:
Phillips would pay or no one would eat. So Phillips sent to
Newport for fifty thousand pounds sterling.4

But there had been changes in the British high command.
Howe had now gone home to England, although Madam Riedesel
did not know it and perhaps none of the other prisoners
did. Clinton, after taking charge of evacuating Philadelphia, was
in New York waiting for word that his own request to be relieved
had been accepted. Instead, he found himself made commander
in chief. He informed Congress that he would no longer subsist
the Convention Troops, and Congress replied that this effectively
broke the Convention of Saratoga. The troops were now prisoners
of war, without any further quibbling, and they were going to be
marched to Virginia where they would live in a more comfortable
climate and where food was much more plentiful. Officers would
pay their bills or go to jail.

Phillips received a polite letter from Newport promising not
fifty thousand but ten thousand pounds. Then, a day later, came
word that the paymaster "must detain" even the ten thousand
pounds "in consequence of arrival" of orders from New York.
The paymaster was "afraid it would not be hereafter" in his
power to obey Phillips's "commands in this way, so much as he
could wish." Now Phillips realized that Clinton had cut off his
cash.

General Phillips was desperate. He wrote to Clinton suggesting
a "cartel" the Saratoga prisoners to be exchanged for American
prisoners in Clinton's hands. He described how healthy all the
prisoners were and what a fine fighting force they would make,
because they were so angry over their treatment by the Americans.

At the same time, Phillips wrote to Washington to say that
Ms poor, unhappy troops were so weak and ill that they could



                    Marching Orders                       285

not possibly march as far as Virginia. This letter, with line after
line of heavy-handed flattery, also suggested that he, personally,
ought to be allowed to go to New York "to see his friends'"
before beginning an "exile" in faraway Virginia.

General George Washington, a gentleman from Virginia, replied
with an icily polite "no" to all of Phillips's suggestions.
Clinton said he would see what he could do about a cartel, and so
Phillips had to pin his hopes on that. It seemed to escape
everyone's attention that Clinton had nowhere nearly enough
American prisoners to exchange for Burgoyne's army. Many Americans
had died, "in the sugar-house and on prison-ships" in New York
Harbor. "Twenty or thirty die every day they lie in heaps,
unburied," testified an American in 1777. Of "3 hale and hearty
men" from Litchfield, Connecticut, only 6 survived imprisonment.
Phillips and Riedesel "determined to borrow on their own credit
as much money as possible in and around Boston." Interest was
excessive and John Carter (Church) was one of those who
advanced cash. "All the officers who had money were obliged to
lend it for the use of the troops who, in this manner, received
their pay in hard cash," General Riedesel said. Those officers who
needed money applied to him and he gave them enough to buy
horses for their long journey. "This was fair because they had
several month's pay due them." Riedesel did not neglect to write
to Clinton to remind him that the advance must be repaid.

"Tho' the Rebel General has ordered us to march, it's a doubt
with me whether the inhabitants will let us go, as we are all
drowned in debt," complained one of Phillips's younger officers.
There were no such remarks from the Germans. They had not
dared to go to the clandestine cockfights held in country barns
which had so delighted the English. They had searched for
moderately priced lodgings, and if they gambled they knew they
had to keep it dark because of Riedesel's wrath at such
proceedings. One of the German noncommissioned officers did yield to



286              The Baroness and the General

temptation, lost money at cards and stole a silver gorget belonging
to his regiment to pay his debts. Riedesel hoped that General
Heath would not have to be told.

General Riedesel listed the supplies his troops would need
before they began their southward march, and sent the list to
Clinton. They should have one thousand and fifty blankets and the
same number of nightcaps. Material to make "Waste coats with
Sleaves" and dark blue cloth for "Trowsers" was needed along
with "6587 yards of yd.-wide Linen for mattresses and Bolsters."
General Phillips asked Clinton to "grant the same to the British"
but "Sir Henry Clinton was pleased to grant" only five hundred
blankets, and no nightcaps.

It was in the month of November in 1778 that the order was
finally received to go to Virginia, wrote the Baroness. "My
husband fortunately found a pretty English carriage and bought it
for me, so that I could travel easily" Much was said about the
cruelty of the Americans in sending the prisoners on the march so
late in the year, but the delays had been caused by either Phillips
or Clinton. Mrs. General said only that she was "sorry to leave
Cambridge." As always, she had made a home for herself, her
husband and children, in the place the fortunes of war allotted
to hen This time she really loved the farmhouse. She had set her
maids to work waxing the wainscoting, scrubbing the wide floor-
boards and polishing the small-paned windows.

Then there was the garden. "Almost all our soldiers understood
gardening and were besides glad of the opportunity to earn
something," wrote Lady Fritz. "My husband had often a kind of
nervous and anxious feeling by which he was never easy unless
he was walking or working in a garden. When the grief of being
in captivity, the unpleasant situation of our troops, the lack of
news from home, all threw him into a despondency," the garden
was there, just beyond the house, "to divert him." General
Riedesel bought "a small provision cart" for his wife, which would



                    Marching Orders                       287

follow after the "pretty English carriage" along the march. She
had already laid in their harvest the turnips, potatoes, cabbages
which would keep well in the deep cellar under the Cambridge
house. Now she loaded the provision cart with as much of their
own produce as it could carry.

One morning, some townspeople waited upon Madam the
Baroness with a bill "amounting to one thousand rix thalers." It
must have been a dreadful shock to her, for she had been most
careful of her money. Well aware of what her husband thought
of people who went into debt with no idea of how to pay, she
had been feeling pleased with herself because she owed nothing.
She asked to see the bills, of course and it was the knave of a
cook, "whose receipts I had luckily taken daily," who had "paid
nothing whatever. My husband had him arrested."

But the cook "slipped off." On the sixth of November, "Major
General Gates, with his lady, suite, etc.," arrived in Boston. They
lived well and the Riedesel's cook saw an easy mark. He hired
himself to Gates. He was soon found to be "too expensive,"
however, and his next job was with Lafayette, who told the Riedesels
that their ex-cook "would answer only for a King."

"My husband wished him well because of his skill at cooking,
which was very great," said Lady Fritz. "But the scoundrel hated
me, because I watched him."

The Baroness said that it was while she was preparing for the
march south that she discovered what had become of the German
regimental flags. They were supposed to have been surrendered at
Saratoga, but General Riedesel had given her to understand that
they had been burned. Now he told her that only the staves had
been burned he still had the flags. But he thought it would be
too difficult to try to keep them safely hidden on a long cross-
country march through rebel territory. The Baroness "summoned
a trustworthy tailor from among the German troops" and shut
herself up "with the right honorable tailor" who helped her
"make a mattress in which we sewed every one of the flags."



288              The Baroness and the General

Captain O'Connell, one of Riedesel's aides, "under pretense of
some errand, was sent to New York and passed off the mattress
as his own"

The voluminous correspondence between the Convention Generals
and General Heath show that many had been the requests
for a pass and a flag of truce for prisoners to go to New York
on one pretext or another, and they were almost all refused. But
General Gates was now in charge, having been "appointed by
Congress to the chief command in the Eastern Department in
the room of the Hon. Major Gen. Heath" Gates had been up to
his old tricks, undermining the reputation of men too busy doing
their duty to bother with politics, and he began giving orders by
the eighth of November. He was still generous to the enemy,
and it was he who gave Captain O'Connell leave to go to New
York. O'Connell got through safely with his mattress full of flags.

The Troops of the Convention began their march on November
9, 1778, the British going first, in three divisions. On the tenth
the "foreign troops began to march, escorted by one captain, three
officers and one hundred of the militia from New York state."
The wagons "for the transportation of baggage failed to appear"
and "drivers of wagons passing in the road were forced to take
their baggage" This caused no little indignation on the part of
some wood carters and farmers who had set out with produce for
the Boston market.

It surprised and touched General William Heath to have the
Massachusetts legislature, with whom he had had many an argument,
send him an official letter of thanks for being "tenacious of
the civil rights of the community and of the honor and safety of
these Free and Sovereign and Independent States."

Not realizing what a difficult problem the presence of Burgoyne's
captive army had been, Gates supposed he was still a
great hero in New England. But he was already out of favor with
the hungry Bostonians, and soon his lavish mode of living



                    Marching Orders                       289

annoyed them greatly. By the end of the year, John Carter, who was
ardently pro-Schuyler, fought a duel with Gates's son Bob over
General Schuyler's right to be called "the Hero of Saratoga."
Young Bob missed, and Carter fired in the air.

Angelica Schuyler Carter was probably not in Boston. On
September 9 her husband had written that Angelica and their
'little son" were visiting her parents, the Philip Schuylers in
Albany.5 Angelica's sister Betsy had returned earlier; perhaps she
had already begun to feel the attraction of her future husband,
Alexander Hamilton.

Of the "ladies" who had taken refuge in the cellar at Saratoga,
the Baroness Riedesel was the only one to make the march south.
Mrs. Harnage stayed behind in Cambridge with her husband,
who was still suffering from his wound. She had a child, but
the baby did not live. Her husband was finally exchanged, and
they went back to England together, to their "children at home,
both daughters requiring a mother's care."6 The widow of
Lieutenant Reynels "with her two children" was also allowed to go
home "where this unfortunate lady hath two more children."

The Riedesels hoped that General Gates would call on them,
and on November 21 General Riedesel wrote to him for permission
to go to Boston for himself and Madam Riedesel, "to take
leave of you," he said. "I take the liberty to request an officer to
conduct Madame Riedesel upon the road and a guard to escort
my baggage and that of persons belonging to the staff of the
Brunswick troops," he added.

Gates did not grant the pass to Boston.7 His genial mood had
vanished. But he sent Robert Troup, one of his aides, to escort
the Baroness at least part of the way. It was little Augusta who
chose Captain Edmonston from among her father's aides. He
promised the little girl not to leave her and the family along the
way "a promise that he faithfully kept," the children's mother
said.

Rockel, who had been coachman for the General's wife from



290              The Baroness and the General

the day she set out from Germany, was still her man, but now he
drove American horses hitched to "the pretty English wagon."
Rockel was growing old, Mrs. General said. When the road was
bad, which was often, he would just sit on the box and shout
"Captain!" Edmonston would then get off his horse to give a
heave to a mired wheel or lead the carriage horses over a
particularly shaky bridge. "I did not like to have him do this," said
Lady Fritz, but Edmonston "was amused and begged me not to
notice it."

Colonel Robert Troup, the American escort, was twenty-one
years old, a law student when the American Revolution broke out
and destined to become a judge and a power in the Genesee
Valley of upper New York State. He was already a veteran soldier,
having served under Washington at the Battle of Long Island
and under Gates at Saratoga. He had been a prisoner of war
aboard a British ship in New York Harbor and in Provost Prison,
and his rank of colonel had been given to him in recognition of
both his sufferings and his bravery. He was earnest and amiable,
holding no grudge against either the British or their auxiliaries.
The Baroness never knew how much he did for her in protecting
her against the enmity of civilians who saw a German lady and
her children traveling in what seemed to them like luxury
across their devastated country. Serious damage would not be
evident until they reached New Jersey, but Connecticut was
feeling poor, her inhabitants truculent

A total of about 4145 prisoner troops and officers were on the
move. For the first time since they had left Canada, women and
children were allowed to ride in wagons by General Heath's
orders before he was superseded. Either by hiring or commandeering,
three hundred and eighty-four farm wagons with drivers were
obtained in Cambridge for the transportation project.

Mrs. General did not set out with the troops, and when she
left her husband rode on horseback alongside of his wife's
carriage as far as Watertown, then turned back. There were still



                    Marching Orders                       291

unpaid bills, and both he and General Phillips would have to
stay in Boston until everything was cleared up. Finally, as Phillips
wrote to Clinton, "My last requisition for money on Rhode
Island succeeded so far as to release Major General Riedesel and
myself from Cambridge" and Riedesel left on the twenty-eighth
of November. Phillips was anxious about catching up with the
troops but he need not have worried: they traveled at a snail's
pace.

Lieutenant August Wilhelm Du Roi of Brunswick's Prince
Frederick Regiment kept a journal of the march south from Cambridge
all the way to Charlottesville, Virginia.8 "We were all
frightened at the prospect of the long march," wrote Du Roi. "But
in order not to discourage the men, the officers had to hide their
feelings and pretend to be pleased with the change" His pleasure
was not all pretense, as many of his journal entries showed. Each
day he noted the distance marched and the things which surprised,
pleased or annoyed him.

The Germans marched eleven miles the first day. Du Roi was
astonished to find that "the villages or townships in New England
are often 4 or 5 miles long and the houses on the road placed
at such a distance that all the ground belonging to one estate
surrounds the house." This was far different from the European
walled towns he was used to, where peasants went out to till the
fields each morning and returned at night.

It was good the towns were no closer together for one reason,
however. "Although our escorts treated us rather well and had
allowed our men to walk as they pleased during the march, we
had to submit to being marched through all the villages with fifes
and drums. They never missed a chance to show us that we were
miserable prisoners, subject to the authority of adventurous
peasants, who were set to watch us."

The Germans were to cross the Connecticut River at Enfield,
Connecticut, and here the Massachusetts drivers with their wagons



292              The Baroness and the General

turned back. There had been "almost a riot" at Wilbraham, where
the drivers especially those who had been forced into service
declared they were going home; threats by the militia plus
promises of extra pay had induced them to go on as far as the
Connecticut border.

Lieutenant Du Roi felt impelled to sum up his impressions of
Massachusetts:

"The province ... is particularly well cultivated although the
houses are of light structure. They are regularly and tastefully
built, very clean inside, comfortable and roomy. They are also
well furnished....

"The girls mature very early; I have seen quite a number of
them hardly 17 years old and as big and developed as they would
ever be.... However, they get old very early and a woman of 30
often looks like one 50 years old. The people are very fond of
luxury, especially the women, which fondness shows itself in their
dress and in their houses. However, the way of living in regard
to food is very poor. No German stomach can put up with it.

"The men are very industrious, especially in business, but they
are selfish and not sociable. The women are exceedingly proud,
negligent and very lazy. The men have to do all the outside work,
as milking cows, etc. The woman in New England is the laziest
creature I know, and not much good for anything."

Flatboats, seventy feet long and capable of carrying from fifty
to sixty men, ferried the troops from Burgoyne's army across the
Connecticut. Du Roi estimated that the river was over half a
mile wide and they told him it had a swift current. The English
divisions had crossed ahead of the Germans and he heard that one
of the ferryboats had been carried four miles downstream by the
current and two men had been drowned trying to get ashore.

After they crossed the Connecticut, the German division
marched "as far as Suffield, a little town with well-built houses
where we were all well received," said Du Roi. "We noticed a



                    Marching Orders                       293

great difference in the behavior of these people from those of the
Province of Massachusetts who at all times treated us badly and
showed themselves very ill-mannered. Our officers gave the Belles
of the town a ball in the evening. Everyone, even the clergyman's
wife, came and we danced till daybreak."

General Riedesel, riding hard, caught up with his wife's carriage
and joined her little army of aides-de-camp and servants.
They crossed the Connecticut together and went to Hartford
instead of Suffield. It was December 5, and Colonel Troup was
having trouble with their transportation problem. He was "much
embarrassed to procure wagons," because Mr. James Bull, who
was in charge, said he had been 'lured to expedite the march of
the Convention Troops through this state" but nobody had told
him about any General Riedesel or any Mrs. General either.
Colonel Troup had to pull his rank and order Mr. Bull to get
wagons or answer for his conduct to General Gates, Commander
of the Eastern Division. Bull then promised wagons' "by 9
tomorrow."

The Riedesels were enjoying Hartford, however. They had
hardly settled themselves, at a clean and comfortable inn, before
a party of Continental officers galloped up. They recognized one
man among them General La Fayette. "La Fayette was so polite
and agreeable that he pleased us all very much," said the Baroness.
"He had many Americans with him who were ready to jump
out of their skins with vexation at hearing us talk French all the
time." She thought the Americans were afraid Lafayette might be
telling her secrets and that she would "alienate him from their
cause."

As a matter of fact, it distressed the Baroness to see a French
nobleman consorting with peasants and rebels, and she did do
her best to "alienate" Lafayette. "He spoke much of England and
the kindness which the King had shown in having him taken



294              The Baroness and the General

sight-seeing" she said. "I could not keep from asking him how he
found it in his heart to accept so many marks of kindness from
the King when he was on his way to fight against him"

La Fayette "appeared somewhat ashamed" Lady Fritz thought.
" 'It is true that such an idea passed through my mind on the day
the King offered to show me his fleet' " he said. He made an
excuse to avoid "the embarrassment of having to refuse" Some
people in England had actually "accused him of being a spy" and
he "went immediately to America."

The Baroness heard her husband ask their guest if he had dined.
The French officer said no, he had not been able to get anything
to eat, and Lady Fritz was almost in a panic when she heard her
husband invite La Fayette to dinner. Her provision wagon was
not in Hartford it had lagged behind and "I knew he loved
a good dinner" she said. "Finally, I managed to glean, from what
provisions we had on hand, enough to make him a very respectable
meal."



             22
              
               The Long Road



THE journal of August Wilhelm Du Roi, Lieutenant and
Adjutant in the service of the Duke of Brunswick, continued
the story of the long road southward, at first comparing what he
saw with familiar sights in Europe. The Farmington River at
Simsbury was like the Oder in Germany, except that it was not
navigable "on account of many rocks and cliffs." He misunderstood
the names of many of the towns he passed through, but he
put down an approximation of what he heard; he got a few of
the names right, so the route of the German soldiers can still be
traced.1They soon entered rugged country and passed through
part of what is now the Housatonic State Forest. Hills from
thirteen hundred to nineteen hundred feet high surrounded them,
and their primitive cart track followed more or less the route of
the present U. S. Highway 44.

"Our expectations and every idea of a bad road were surpassed,"
said Du Roi. They scrambled down "a very steep mountain," then
clawed their way up again "over another, still higher and steeper."
Sometimes, rocks "three or four feet in circumference lay in the
middle of the road. It was cold and water coming down the
mountains was frozen, which made the ascents and descents difficult
for the men and almost impossible for the horses." The column
was continually halted because of broken wagons, so that the

295



296              The Baroness and the General

prisoners were often unable to reach the towns where barns had
been requisitioned for their shelter and food gathered in for them.
Darkness fell, and they bivouacked in the forest.

Leaving four wagons broken down in the woods, the weary
Germans finally emerged at a Connecticut village which seems to
have been Norfolk. They were welcomed warmly. "The clergy-
man of that place had a concert and a ball today," said Du Roi;
the date seems to have been November 22, which was a Sunday.
"An affair of this kind is not considered wrong here at all, as it
is at home".

When the troops came into Salisbury, in the northwestern
corner of Connecticut, Du Roi said this was "a very good township
where we found many nice people and good quarters. The place
is situated in a pleasant part of the country, which had induced
many rich people to settle here." The Germans asked for "a day
of rest," which was granted. "A ball was given and we had a very
pleasant time. Twenty-five Belles of rank were present and the
ladies danced very well until morning."

Du Roi thought that rich Americans came to Salisbury just for
the view and yet he visited the ironworks, where the money
was made. "A smelting furnace" was "laid out well and on a
large scale," he said. "All establishments, which have been erected
to supply the necessities of war and its continuation, have
developed exceedingly well, considering the short time of their
existence, and it is astonishing how people who had been completely
ignorant of these matters succeeded so well." But iron was
discovered in Salisbury in 1632. Du Roi had been passing through
country where copper had been mined also, and processed secretly,
in defiance of a British law. General Knox, who had taken the
Ticonderoga artillery to Boston, was at Salisbury, superintending
the casting of cannon.

But no matter how superior he still felt, Lieutenant Du Roi was
impressed with the colonies. Connecticut fared better than
Massachusetts in his estimation. "The inhabitants are better-mannered



                     The Long Road                        297

and not so haughty as those in Massachusetts. They were very
nice to us. There was quite a number of them who were for the
King and would tell us so as soon as they were alone with us. The
women are more inclined to work and take an interest in their
housekeeping."

It is not surprising that the Baroness Riedesel found the march
less entertaining and far more tiring than her young fellow
countryman, Du Roi. He could ride horseback all day and dance all
night, apparently. But Lady Fritz had to sit in her carriage, hope
and pray it wouldn't turn over and worry about what she and
the children would have to eat, because her provision wagon was
forever breaking down. Her account of the march was brief, not
very explicit, and many of her experiences were unhappy.

"One day we came to a pretty place," she wrote, but what that
place was called she did not say. It seems to have been east of
the Hudson; perhaps it was in the Berkshires, because "our wagon
had not been able to follow us and we could endure our hunger
no longer," she said. "Observing a quantity of butcher's meat in
the house in which we put up, I begged the hostess to let me
have some. I have several kinds. There is beef, veal and mutton"
the woman said.

"My mouth already watered at the prospect," Lady Fritz
remembered. " 'Let me have some and I will pay you well' " she
offered.

"Snapping her fingers almost in my face, the woman replied,
'You shall not have a morsel of it. Why have you come out of
your land to kill us and waste our goods and possessions? Now
you are our prisoners and it is our turn to torment you' ".

The Baroness kept her temper. "I pointed to my poor children,
almost dead with hunger." The woman was adamant, "but finally
Caroline took the woman by the hand and said to her in English,
"Good Woman, I am very hungry".

The woman took Caroline into another room where she "gave



298              The Baroness and the General

her an egg. 'I have two sisters' Caroline said." So the woman
gave her three eggs.

"I am still angry" declared the woman, "but I cannot resist a
child" She became more gentle after that," said Lady Fritz, "and
brought out bread and gave us milk.

"I made tea for ourselves and the woman eyed us longingly, for
Americans love tea very much.... I poured out a saucer of tea
for her, and this completely won her over" The woman now
invited the Baroness into her kitchen and went down cellar to
get a basket of potatoes for her. The husband was sitting in the
kitchen before the fire, "gnawing at a pig's-tail." He "reached out
this tidbit to his wife," and she gnawed on it for a while and
then gave it back to him.

"I saw this singular mutual entertainment with amazement and
disgust," said Lady Fritz. In fact, she probably stared so that the
man thought she wanted a turn at the pig's-tail. He handed it to
her.

"What should I do? Throw it away and not only hurt his
feelings but lose the lovely basket of potatoes?" She thought
desperately: she dared not ride a plain no thank-you. She took the
pig's-tail, "pretended to eat it and quietly threw it into the fire."
Considering how much a New Englander hates to waste anything,
this might have been a wrong decision, but the Baroness and her
host and hostess "had now made our peace. They gave me my
potatoes and I made a good supper of them with excellent butter.
Besides this, they moved us into three pretty rooms with good
beds."

Du Roi reached the province of New York before Mrs. General
Riedesel got there. He went through a town "about 2 miles long"
called Amenia. "The houses were very poor and, like Canadian
houses, built of logs put one on top of the other. Some of them
were no better than the huts of Indians. Since the Congress
thought it probable that many of our men might want to desert



                     The Long Road                         299

to New York City a closer watch was kept over us and patrols
were placed on both sides"

As a matter of fact, the reason was a little different. The troops
were now approaching the place, just below Newburgh, where
they were to cross the Hudson. Clinton had sailed up the Hudson
once to a point over thirty miles north of Newburgh, and with a
little enterprise he could sail again and liberate Burgoyne's army
so Phillips hoped and the Americans feared. No rescuers appeared,
however; and news came that Clinton's offer of a cartel
had been refused.

Lieutenant Du Roi heard that General Washington "had come
to ... see the German division march through" Fishkill. He told
his men, "and we marched in particularly good order." The
General sent one of his adjutants to Brigadier Specht, inviting him
and his suite to dinner. Lieutenant Du Roi was included in the
invitation and went to see General Washington.

"He shook hands with us according to the custom here, and we
sat around the fireplace for half an hour, drinking toddy a drink
made of whisky and sugar. The General was very pleasant, wished
to be able to facilitate matters for Brigadier Specht on the march,
and was quite satisfied that we did not complain of anything....

"General Washington is a man of medium height, well built,
well educated," said Du Roi, putting physique first. "He has rather
a large nose but not out of proportion." Du Roi was acting as
interpreter for Specht, who did not speak English, and he mentioned
with gratitude that Washington "speaks very distinctly."
He thought that Washington "expresses himself rather more sincerely
than complimentary but is, however, quite polite. In short,
he impresses you as a good man who can be trusted. He has
nothing very extraordinary or great about him, which I expected."

General George Washington "departed next day," and the
Baroness Riedesel did not see him, which was a pity. Her opinion
of him would have been interesting.

The German troops crossed the Hudson a little below Newburgh.



300              The Baroness and the General

Behind them rose the mountains they had just left, their
crests now powdered with snow. The men must have looked back
in amazement at the high pass they had followed through the
forest, and they must have looked ahead with equal amazement
at the Hudson, which Du Roi thought was "seven miles wide at
this point." Could this be the river they had bridged with boats
above Saratoga only three months ago? A "two-masted vessel
which held 150 men" crossed the Hudson "in about 12 to 16
minutes" if the wind was right. It took "four or five hours before
the division and all their baggage was taken over."

It was sometime in December before the Baroness reached the
Hudson. "We were quartered at the house of a boatman" she
said. The room they were given had no glass in the windows "so
we hung our bedclothes over the empty window casements and
slept upon straw because our baggage wagon had broken down
and we had no beds."

Lady Fritz described her landlady as "a perfect fury," a "wicked
woman" and an "antiroyalist." Forced by a storm to stay three
days at the boatman's house, the Baroness and her party were
finally told that they must cross the Hudson, regardless of the
weather and "in a little boat with one sail." It was all the
wicked landlady's doing, in order to get rid of her guests, the
Baroness was sure, but when the boatman said he would sail the
boat himself, she agreed to go.

They all got into the skiff: Colonel Troup, Colonel Edmonston,
Lady Fritz, the three children, the womenservants, a footman
and Rockel. The boatman had a boy to help him. They shoved
off, and then the boatman jumped ashore! Gray water flecked
with whitecaps lay ahead of them and they had no one to handle
the skiff except the boatman's boy helper, who was completely
incompetent. "We were driven hither and thither upon the river
for more than five hours," said Mrs. General It was a terrible



                     The Long Road                         301

experience. Her husband had gone on ahead and was all unaware
of her danger. But at last they reached the west bank of the
Hudson, and "waded up to the knees across a morass" to a house.

Men liked the Baroness. Daughter of an army officer and wife
of a general, she expected and received protection with a touch
of gallantry from officers, respect and services from rank and file.
With civilians she just exerted her natural charm and got results.
But the women she encountered in rural America she looked
upon as peasants, and ordered about as befitted a Baroness among
her husband's serfs pleasantly but firmly. When results were
unfortunate she was puzzled, sometimes angry, but more often
hurt. Just across the Hudson, however, came the exception which
proved the rule: it was the woman who was "kind" and the man
who was surly.

The man, "who had just come in from the field in his rough
clothes, his dirty linen and wearing a long beard, looked so much
like a bear that we trembled before him." Finding the adjutants
Troup and Edmonston drying themselves by the kitchen fire, he
"seized them by the arms, called them nasty royalists" and wanted
to know if it wasn't enough that he harbored them, without their
invading his privacy.

"The following day, which was Sunday, the "kind wife" invited
the Baroness to drink coffee with her after dinner. "Scarcely had
I seated myself than in came the husband, looking much more
respectable, for he had shaved himself and put on his Sunday
linen." But remembering how truculent he had been, Lady Fritz
got up to go.

The man shut the door and barred her way. "Are you afraid of
me?" he asked.

"No," said Lady Fritz, with that spark which never deserted
her. "I am afraid of no one, not even the devil whom you so
much resembled yesterday."

"But today I look much better?"



302              The Baroness and the General

"Yes," said the Baroness, '"but I'm going to leave before you
behave badly again." Lady Fritz was never egotistical, so she was
surprised that she had not "Vexed but pleased" the man.

He took her hand and urged her to sit down. "I am not as bad
as you think," he said. "You please me and if I had no wife I
would many you."

At Sussex Court House, just beyond the northern boundary
of New Jersey, Colonel Robert Troup left the Riedesels. He had
been ordered to Morristown, and "A Captain Brown, sent by
General Lord Stirling," took his place. Colonel Troup had become
devoted to the Baroness. He hated to part with her and the
children, and wished he could have stayed to make their journey
easier.

Writing to General Gates on the third of January, 1779, Troup
told of his experiences.2 "You cannot conceive of the difficulties
we have met with on the road," he said. "The people of almost
every house we stopped at seemed to take pleasure in making our
stay with them uncomfortable. I am sorry to add that the women
were most impolite to Madame de Riedesel. They could not
banish from their minds the notions they had imbibed of the
cruelties our prisoners have received. Some were afraid of being
plundered by us and others of being killed.

"One young girl, who had been lately married, cried and
gnashed her teeth near two hours because I requested her to let
Madame de Riedesel sleep in her bedroom where she had a few
gowns, petticoats, pots and trammels.

"Indeed, such has been the incivility of all ranks and degrees
to us that I have suffered the most painful anxiety."

But General Riedesel wrote to Gates also. "I cannot sufficiently
express my thanks for the politeness and attention which Colonel
Troup has shown to Madame de Riedesel and me upon the journey
and the trouble he has given himself to alleviate the difficulties
which naturally and unavoidably occur on such a journey."

General Riedesel had courteously forgiven an incident which



                     The Long Road                         303

roused his ire at the time when it happened. The militia guard,
which escorted his baggage from Hartford to the New York line,
went home without waiting for another guard to take their place.
They left the baggage "at Colonel Morehouse's" without a guard
and someone Colonel Troup, being a Yorker, was sure it was
the Connecticut militia "broke open some of the boxes and
plundered them of several dozens of wine, a great number of
spermaceti candles and five dozen packs of cards."

Colonel Troup added some current news in his letter to Gates.
Mrs. Washington would soon join the General at Philadelphia.
(She had visited him even when he was at Valley Forge the
previous year.) General Lee had been found guilty of cowardice by
the court-martial which followed his failure to obey orders that
would have crippled or perhaps captured Clinton at Monmouth,
during his evacuation of Philadelphia. Lee had fought a duel "the
other day" with Colonel John Laurens, aide-de-camp to
Washington.3 (This was John Laurens son of Henry Laurens, who
had just resigned as president of the Continental Congress.)
Colonel Laurens had been at Monmouth. In the duel, Lee had been
"slightly wounded in the body" and "intended to have another
pass as soon as he recovers."

Now Colonel Troup rode away and slowly but more or less
steadily the Convention soldiers moved southward. Lieutenant
Du Roi found more formidable rivers in his path than he had ever
seen before and he could no longer compare them with rivers in
Europe. They had to wait a day because the Delaware was too
rough, and then they crossed "on big flatboats" at Frenchtown,
where the river was "half a mile wide" with banks "very high
and beautiful." Summing up New Jersey, Du Roi's report was
generally favorable. It was "very hilly and woody" he said. He
thought so because the route had been carefully planned to keep
the prisoners in the northern part of the state away from New
York City with its temptation to escape; away from the parts of
New Jersey ravaged by war and empty of provisions. There were



304              The Baroness and the General

"good pastures, cornfields and orchards." It met with Du Roi's
approval that there should be "a good many people here who
take sides with the King" and he heard that they were "badly
treated" by their rebel neighbors. But he was growing a little
tolerant and remarked that the "inhabitants are industrious but
poor. They have suffered too much from the war."

The bridge over the Schuylkill aroused German admiration.
It was "built by General Sullivan and was 228 paces long, resting
on 9 wooden pillars with many stones being sunk to keep the
pillars in place because of the current.

"Our good Captain Price" who had been sent with some Continental
troops as an escort for the prisoners from the Hudson
into Pennsylvania, left them near Valley Forge. Perhaps it was
Captain Price who pointed out and told them of Valley Forge.
"The place is fortified ...." Du Roi wrote. "Huts had been built
in three weeks, and the camp looks like a badly built town. It is
remarkable that the [American] army could stand these quarters
for a whole winter without many of the necessities of life, as shoes
and stockings etc.

"Every one of the officers was sorry to lose Captain Price," said
Du Roi, "I especially, because I was very much attached to him,
we got along so well." But now Price and his Continentals were
gone and the Pennsylvania militia who were to take their place
failed to appear. The prisoners "marched seven miles without
escort." They could all have escaped but where would they go?
At last "an old Colonel" met them, and he had a letter to
Lieutenant Du Roi. "He asked me to tell him for heaven's sake what
was he expected to do!" So with the aid of some crudely drawn
maps, and with a more or less southerly direction in mind, the
troops marched to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by their usual slow
stages.

It was not surprising that Lieutenant Du Roi, German in spite
of his French-sounding name, liked Lancaster the best of any
American city. His men had quarters "in well-kept barracks, two



                     The Long Road                         305

stories high" and the officers were entertained in private homes.
Lancaster had "1000 houses, most of them built of stone in the
very best taste four or five stories high" he said. "In front of
the houses is a sidewalk made of brick for pedestrians. This is kept
very clean"

Du Roi's journal became a tourist guide to Lancaster for the
year 1778-1779. There were five churches with steeples, and one
of them was "a magnificent building entirely of brick. There were
"decorations" inside, and an organ. The clergyman's name was
Helmuth, he was German-born and "a very nice, educated gentleman."

The houses were "very clean inside and the way of living is
exactly like that in Germany." Everywhere he went, he heard
German as well as English spoken, and all this made it the more
heartbreaking for the German prisoners. "Our hopes of being
hospitably received by our countrymen were cruelly deceived," wrote
Du Roi. Although "there were a few nice people among them,"
for the most part the militia escort had to compel people to give
an officer a room.

Du Roi was forced to a conclusion: "On the whole, we were
ashamed of being Germans, because we never had met with so
much meanness in one spot as from our countrymen."

They reached the Susquehanna, "a mile and three quarters
wide," found the current too strong and the weather "too stormy
to cross" at Wright's Ferry, so they encamped, in the rain. When
the wind went down they boarded flatboats, with long oars
"fastened to the boat with iron." Today, a high concrete bridge crosses
the Susquehanna to a tiny town called "Wrightsville" on the
western bank. From the bridge, a road cuts down to water level,
and from there can be seen the "little islands and cliffs" which
the Germans found so beautiful but terrifying, as their heavy boats
swept along just barely out of reach of the rocks. It took the first
German division eight hours to cross the Susquehanna.

Pennsylvanians were still inhospitable, and Du Roi sarcastically



306              The Baroness and the General

remarked: "It really does credit to the character of the Germans
that our countrymen were the only ones who treated us mean and
at the same time tried to get something out of us and cheat us"
When the prisoners reached Hanover, Pennsylvania, the German
inhabitants redeemed themselves, however. "They received us very
well indeed, which reconciled us a little with our countrymen. All
the German maidens came to a ball and danced with our officers,
in spite of its being Christmas and a holy day"

The march now led through wide, fertile fields, beautifully
cultivated. Snow fell at intervals, and the going was bad; but the
German troops found real roads which, though muddy, were vastly
superior to the cart tracks they had followed across the mountains.
They circled north and westward of Philadelphia and Baltimore.
This was a great disappointment to the young officers, who
had hoped to see the cities. But Du Roi's size-up of Pennsylvania
was most favorable: "Pennsylvania is a very flourishing
state, not very hilly. It has the most beautiful estates ... all
the houses are fine and big, also the barns and stables. There is
no other country with so many beautiful houses. The inhabitants
are also mostly German, and there are quite a number who cannot
even understand English, let alone speak it. They are very
industrious and consequently rich.... However, they do not live
extravagantly; on the contrary they are inclined to gather more
riches."

Du Roi encountered Quakers here, and was pleased with them.
"Men as well as women dress very plainly, choose however the
finest and best material, being magnificently dressed, in this way.
They are very kind to strangers .... We found many nice, good
girls among their women, who were in many ways not so shy as
others. Almost all the Quakers are wealthy people who never let
anyone belonging to their sect be reduced by poverty "

There was more in praise of Pennsylvania, but the Germans
soon crossed into Maryland which they found thoroughly detestable.
Maryland "belonged to a man named Baltimore," he



                     The Long Road                         307

thought; anyway, that was what they told him. Nobody owned
his own house; it was this Mr. Baltimore who owned all the
houses. Maryland was a land of badly cultivated fields and
miserable huts, but Du Roi understood that nobody was going to pay
taxes to Mr. Baltimore after this and so Maryland would improve.
It sounded as though the good Lieutenant Du Roi had been
listening to rebel talk!

Snow fell on Du Roi and the Prince Frederick Regiment in
December, and the weather was still colder in January, when the
Riedesels came along in their carriage. Madam Riedesel spoke of
only one encounter with Pennsylvania Germans, but it was a
pleasant one. "We were lodged and well fed," she said, and the
"patriarch of the family" told her his life history, which she
considered astonishing. He had been the son of a coachman of Count
Gortz in Germany. Running away from home at the age of twelve,
he had reached America as an indentured servant. His master,
"taking a fancy to him, had him well educated" and after the
German lad had worked out his indenture his master "gave him
some land to cultivate.... He was very active and industrious"
and soon able to buy the land. So the master "gave him his
daughter for a wife" as Lady Fritz put it and this German, now an
old man, had nine sons, all of them fanners and landowners. He
told the Baroness that his only regret was "the thought of having
left his father, to whom, however, he often sent money."

Count Gortz was "a neighbor and friend" of the Riedesels, and
this was why the coachman's son "took such good care of us,"
said Lady Fritz. Looking out across the fields, she could see that
this man and his nine sons owned, together, as much or more land
than most German counts could lay claim to.

The Riedesels crossed the Potomac among "dangerous ice
floes," and a "great quantity of snow" came down as they prepared
to cross the "Blue Mountains." The mountains were beautiful,
the country was "picturesque" but Mrs. General was cold and,



308              The Baroness and the General

although she hated to admit it, frightened. Four of her servants
rode on horseback in front of her carriage to make a path for it
in the snow. "Often we were in danger of our lives along these
breakneck roads"

But worst of all was lack of food. General Riedesel had ridden
forward to try to find a place for his family to live in Charlottesville.
Mrs. General and her little private army of servants, and
her escort, Captain Edmonston, now traveled with the troops, at
the end of the last column. By the time they reached a town or
hamlet where food might be bought, everything was gone.

They were "a day's journey from Charlottesville" when they
"had nothing left but tea and none of us could get anything but
bread and butter. A country peasant whom we met on the road
gave me only a handful of sour fruit. At noon we came to a house
where I begged for something to eat. They refused me with hard
words, saying they had nothing for dogs of Royalists. Seeing some
Turkish meal [corn meal] I begged for a couple of handfuls so I
could mix it with water and make bread."

"The woman answered me, 'No, that is for our Negroes who
work for us. But you want to kill us.' Captain Edmonston offered
her two guineas for it because my children were so hungry. But
she said, 'No, not for a hundred would I give you any. If you die
of hunger, so much the better'" At this point Captain Edmonston
wanted to take the corn meal by force, but the Baroness
"entreated him to keep calm."

"We will find better people farther on," she said. But they did
not come to so much as a hut. "The roads were horrible, the
horses completely worn out, and my three children, exhausted by
hunger, looked very pale," their mother said. "For the first time,
I lost heart."

Captain Edmonston could not bear the sight of the little girls,
too brave to cry, too listless to play or talk to him as they had
done so gaily all along the way. He went "from man to man"
among the wagon drivers to see if anyone had anything to eat.



                     The Long Road                         309

But they were just as hungry and just as destitute. At last, a
driver gave him "a piece of old bread, a quarter of a pound's
weight" which had been considerably gnawed at because it was
so hard no one could bite a piece out of it.

When Captain Edmonston brought the children this rock-hard
hunk of bread, their "eyes sparkled," their mother said. She
started to give it all to the youngest, but little Caroline would
not take any until her sisters had some. Augusta and Frederika
said that Caroline could have it all, but their mother carefully
divided it three ways.

But Frederika Riedesel was no longer "Mrs. General" she
was just a mother with nothing to give her hungry children except
stale bread. She began to cry. "If I had at any time refused a
piece of bread to the poor, I would have thought that God wanted
to punish me now," she said.

Captain Edmonston "was so upset" that he hastily rode off. He
gave the wagon driver a guinea for this piece of bread, which had
been the driver's last, and which he had so "gladly shared." When
the driver turned back to recross the Blue Ridge Mountains,
Captain Edmonston "bought him a large stock of bread for his
return journey."



23
             23
              
        The Baroness in Virginia



IT WAS snowing hard on the seventeenth of January, 1779,
when the German troops reached Charlottesville, Virginia.
They had crossed a river which they believed was called the
"Rapid Anne." They were out of provisions, but they thought they
were coming into a sunny winter paradise. Instead, they found
themselves on a high, windy plateau, and "after having gone
through all the hardships of the march, we reached the climax of
bad things," said Lieutenant Du Roi. "Never shall I forget the day
which was terrible in every way. Never have I seen men so
discouraged and in such despair."

Huts, 24 feet long by 14 feet wide, intended to house 18 men,
stood close together, with no space between them. There were
4 rows of cabins, 12 to the row, set in squares. All around were
great trees. The huts were built of logs, notched at the ends and
laid up without nails. Logs "a hand wide" formed the roof, and
in one side of each cabin "a hole is made in which a door is
fastened, in about the way we fix a door in pigpens" back in
Germany, Du Roi said. There was "not a single nail used except five
or six in the doors." Du Roi did not realize that nails were a
luxury and very scarce in Charlottesville.

There were no windows in the cabins, but windows would have
been "superfluous because fresh air and rain had free passage



                 The Baroness in Virginia                 311

through the walls" which had not yet been chinked with clay.
There were no chimneys. The fire was built in the middle of the
dirt floor, and "most of the huts did not even have a roof."

Thomas Jefferson, writing to Governor Patrick Henry, described
the difficulties in Charlottesville. "The barracks were unfinished
for want of labor; the spell of weather the worst in the memory
of man, no stores of bread laid in, the roads, by the weather and
the number of wagons, soon rendered impassable and not only
the troops themselves were greatly disappointed but the people
of the neighborhood were greatly alarmed at the consequences
which a total failure of provisions might produce."

Du Roi said that some of his men preferred to camp in the
woods, where they could protect themselves against the cold
better than in the roofless huts. But next morning the sun shone
and "the men started right away to improve their dwellings
although they lacked almost all tools." They filled the spaces
between the logs with clay, and later, when Schiller von Senden
painted a water-color picture of the huts, he quite rightly gave
them orange stripes between brown logs. The color of the clay
was bright orange around Charlottesville.1

Du Roi's journal would not be complete, of course, without his
summing-up of Virginia. He discussed slavery, not entirely
condemning it but saying that no slaves were now being imported,
"the prices are so high." Virginia horses were very fine but also
high-priced. And the agricultural product which impressed him
the most was "peaches so prolific that whisky is made of them
and pigs eat them." Du Roi deplored the wood ticks and the
rattlesnakes.

"The freemen in Virginia are a lazy lot," he said, "who expect
their slaves to do all their work." But the "wealthy and educated
people of rank, 'gentlemen' ... are hospitable to the highest
degree towards strangers." However, he added, it is best never to
join a gentleman at cards he never plays for small stakes.

"The women are a great deal more industrious. A gentleman's



312              The Baroness and the General

wife considers it highly honorable to do some of the work herself....
It is considered a thing to be ashamed of if all the cotton
and linen goods needed in the house are not woven at home, the
women supervising the slaves' weaving....

"The women here deserve to be highly respected for their
industrious tendencies. They are quite the opposite of those in New
England, and although not as pretty as those, as a rule they are
much more polite and better mannered, also more courteous to
strangers" Some sharp-tongued New England girl must have been
hard on Du Roi, refusing to go out and milk the cow for him!

General Riedesel was already in Charlottesville, having difficulty
finding a house for his family.2 The English prisoners had got
there first and had taken all the best quarters. But by paying them
well, he persuaded a Major Irving and two other officers to move
out of "Colle," and let him have it. Colle was the name of an
estate on one of the small, conical hills that make the environs
of Charlottesville unusual and charming. Across a narrow valley,
another slightly higher but similar hill rose, crowned by a white
house with columns. This was Thomas Jefferson's much-loved
Monticello, begun in 1763 when he "levelled off the northeast
comer of the mountain." ,

Colle belonged to Signor Philip Mazzei. Formerly a physician,
Mazzei came to Virginia through the influence of Benjamin
Franklin and others, bringing with him 10,000 cuttings from the
vineyards of his native Tuscany, and also cuttings from vineyards
in France, Portugal and Spain. Tuscan vineyard workers also came
in the vessel he chartered, and Washington had welcomed him
in Williamsburg.

Jefferson and Mazzei became friends and Jefferson helped him
procure Colle, then gave him land adjoining Colle for the "4,000
olive trees, lemon trees, .... seeds, grafts and small plants" to be
tried out in Virginia. Jefferson and Mazzei were collaborators in
agricultural experiments. Mazzei was an ardent patriot, and in



                 The Baroness in Virginia                  313

1779 he went to Europe as financial agent for the state of Virginia.
When the Convention Troops descended upon Charlottesville,
Colle was for rent but Mazzei had not yet left town.

Major Irving and his friends had paid a fancy price for the rent
of Colle. They particularly liked it because there was forage for
their horses, they said. The horses were already pastured there,
and a long correspondence ensued while they wrangled over terms
with Riedesel.3 But Riedesel outranked the major and also paid
him off. Fourteen years later, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Albert
Gallatin about Mazzei's agricultural experiments and a few lines
from that letter have often been quoted: "Mazzei rented his place
to General Riedesel, whose horses in one week destroyed the whole
labor of three or four years." But General Riedesel was an ardent
gardener. From his correspondence with the English major, it
looks as though it must have been Major Irving's horses, not
Riedesel's, that ruined Mazzei's vineyards.4

"This spring the weather set in remarkably mild," wrote Jefferson
in his Garden Book on February 8, 1779.5 All the fruit trees
were in blossom on this day when Madam Riedesel's battered
English carriage rolled into Charlottesville, after a journey of over
seven hundred miles. The "mountains," shaped like giant anthills,
where Monticello and Colle and other country homes were built,
were misted over with green. Peach trees were aflutter with pink
and white blossoms. The road led "through a beautiful wood"
which was part of Jefferson's estate and had been stocked with
deer.

Then the road wound upward to Colle and just one thing
marred the idyllic scene. This was the smell of putrid meat.
Preparations for the reception of the troops at Charlottesville had gone
badly all along, and there was no co-operation on the part of the
weather. Snow had fallen on the unfinished barracks while "oxen
and swine" were being slaughtered to feed the troops. Then the
weather suddenly turned hot, and "salt was very scarce. They cut



314              The Baroness and the General

the meat into quarters" Mrs. General explained, "placed it in a
vault in the earth and scattered ashes between the pieces instead
of salt, which answered equally well" But because of the heat "all
the top layers were spoiled. The meat was brought to us on a
wheel-barrow but we were often obliged to throw the whole of it
away, although sometimes we could wash it, salt it, and hang it
up in smoke."

Mrs. General reached Colle in the morning of an unseasonably
hot day, and dealt first with the meat situation. She found that
"two heads of cabbage could be brought in from the garden," and
Mr. Mazzei, owner of Colle, let her have "the head, neck and
giblets of a ram." This would make a good stew, Mr. Mazzei said.
And he would give her "half a putrid ham." Rejecting the ham
and proceeding with the stew, Lady Fritz "had scarcely enough
for dinner to satisfy us alone." Her family consisted of herself, her
husband, their three children "and a minimum of five servants."
Then, just before dinner, "eight German officers rode up." Lady
Fritz burst into tears.

But she was still Mrs. General. Hastily drying her eyes, she
welcomed her guests and asked them all to dinner. This was
exactly what they came for, and they accepted with alacrity.

The reason for Mazzei's frugality in supplying the Baroness
with food was that he was on the verge of sailing for Europe, and
he intended to sell off all his possessions farm produce included.
It took him three days to make an inventory, and he told in his
own words what went on.6

The General bought the vegetables in my garden, the chickens
in the coop and such other things as he had to buy .... together
with some trifles that his wife desired. There were six coops, for
besides having chickens and geese, I had two kinds of ducks and
two kinds of turkeys. There were three vegetable gardens, in each
of which there was a spring giving an abundance of fresh water."

Mr. Mazzei's auction lasted four days, "beginning early in the



                 The Baroness in Virginia                  315

morning" and ending late at night with almost no time out for
meals. People came from forty miles around, and when it was
over, the Riedesels had no furniture "except logs to sit on and
logs with boards across for a table."

"During that time" wrote Mazzei, "the General and his wife
boarded at my house; afterwards I was their guest."

He had squeezed every cent of profit he could out of the
Riedesels, but Lady Fritz served good meals to him, his wife and
his daughter. He constantly quarreled with his wife, who had
agreed to a divorce, and he spoiled his daughter outrageously. It
was not surprising that the Riedesels "looked forward to their
departure."

"In March," wrote Jefferson in his Garden Book, "it set in
cold." The Blue Ridge Mountains, which he could see from his
window looming grandly across a plain, "were covered with snow
and the thermometer [was] below freezing" at Monticello.7 'This
killed all the fruits, which had blossomed forward. The weather
then again became mild till a thunderstorm on the 15th of April
and wind at the North West brought on again severe frosts."

Lady Fritz used stronger terms. "We had heavy thunderstorms
lasting for five or six days at a time," she said. As for that "north
west wind," it was "a tempest which tore more than a hundred
trees in our neighborhood up by the roots."

In the night someone beat upon their door and shouted that
the new stable they had been building was about to blow down.
General Riedesel rushed out, summoning all the men on the place
to help prop it up. This left his wife alone in the house with the
children and the women servants. The wind rose to a terrifying,
sustained roar and "a great piece of the chimney fell into the
room. The whole house rocked."

General Riedesel decided that the Mazzei house was not likely
to stand many more such gales of wind. He drew some plans,
perhaps with Jefferson's advice, and "we had built for us a large
house, with a great drawing-room in the center and upon each



316              The Baroness and the General

side of it, two rooms". The house "cost one hundred guineas and
was exceedingly pretty" said Lady Fritz.

It was easier said than done to build, however, even with one
hundred guineas to spend. The General had "2000 nails" promised
to him by Colonel Harvie, who was in charge of the prisoners.
But on the first of May, Colonel Bland had taken over and
Colonel Harvie had never produced the nails. Riedesel's carpenters
were at a standstill, he told Colonel Bland. There were "no nails
to be had in Fredericksburg or Richmond" but he had heard that
the American quartermaster had some in stores at the barracks
he would like "about 6000." But there were not six thousand nails
at the barracks.

Jefferson, in writing to Patrick Henry, must have referred to
General Riedesel when he told of "the officer who is building a
house for the accommodation of his family.... Independent of
brick work, for the carpentry ... I know he is to pay fifteen
hundred dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has paid
to one person thirty-six hundred and seventy dollars for different
articles to fix himself commodiously." On April 29, Jefferson put
in his personal records, "sold my pianoforte to General Riedesel
who is to give me 100."

This present to Lady Fritz made her very happy. She was a fine
musician, and it had been a very long time since she had touched
a piano. There were many musicians among the German prisoners.
Captain Geismar, for example, had apparently managed to bring
his violin safely through a disastrous campaign and across the
long miles from Cambridge to Charlottesville. He accompanied
his general's wife when she played her piano and sang arias from
the operas.

On April 11, 1779, Thomas Jefferson received an invitation
which read: "Major General Phillips sends his compliments to
Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson and requests the favor of their company
at dinner on Thursday at Two o'clock to meet General and
Madame de Riedesel. Major General Phillips hopes Miss Jefferson



                 The Baroness in Virginia                  317

will be permitted to be of the party to meet the Young Ladies
from Colic."

"Miss Jefferson" must have been Martha, just about six and a
half years old. Mrs. Jefferson was younger than the Baroness
Riedesel by two and a half years but she had been married at
eighteen, had had a son, and was widowed at nineteen. Martha
was her oldest child by her second marriage. Like the Baroness,
Mrs. Jefferson knew the grief of losing children. Martha's little
sister Jane had lived only about eighteen months; another son
had survived scarcely a month. There was a baby, named Mary,
now not quite a year old. The auburn-haired, hazel-eyed Mrs.
Thomas Jefferson had great charm and was a fine musician,
both on the harpsichord and the piano.

Six-year-old Miss Jefferson often played with the young ladies
from Colle: Miss Augusta Riedesel, who would be eight in
August, Miss Frederika, five, and Miss Caroline about three. It is
to be hoped that they all behaved themselves like proper "young
Ladies" But their mother said nothing about it in her book, nor
did she mention the musical evenings at the Jefferson's which were
so much a part of their social life.8 However, when the Jeffersons
left Charlottesville early in June General Riedesel wrote to them
as follows:

"The good fortune which I have had in making your acquaintance
and all the kindness which I have received from you during
your short stay at Monticello moves me to present these lines of
felicitation on your new post.... My only regret is that we shall
be deprived of your society, which has thus far made our stay at
Colle so pleasant. Madame de Riedesel joins her felicitations to
mine.... She is only saddened that, in going to Monticello, she
will no longer find there, her good friend, Madame Jefferson.... "

Jefferson had just been elected Governor of Virginia. "I thank
you for your kind congratulations" he replied, "tho' condolences
would be better...." Everyone knew how much he loved
Monticello. He spoke of the "loss of the agreeable society ... of



318              The Baroness and the General

which Madame de Riedesel and yourself were an important part,"
and of Mrs. Jefferson's "regret on her separation from Madame de
Riedesel."

General Phillips was living at Blenheim, a long, low frame
house built by Colonel John Carter for his son, Edward. Set on a
hilltop in the midst of a plantation employing 1500 slaves, it was
one of the finest houses in the area but it was very much out
of repair. In design, Blenheim was built for hospitality, having a
large drawing room in the center and living quarters left and right
of it, one side for the family and the other for guests. Phillips
complained, of course. He was paying "30 golden guineas a
month" for the place and it was in terrible shape. Plantation work-
parties had been living in it.

Riedesel was building his new house with American dollars and
doing very well. But Phillips had bad luck. The dollars sent him
by the British agent in Fredericksburg were "of bad emission" and
had to be returned. It had seemed to the British a smart move to
break down the American currency by circulating counterfeit
paper dollars, but General Phillips was very angry to find himself
a victim of the scheme. He would have to try to borrow money
"from Col Harvie and Mr. Jefferson" and "become a Beggar once
more for a little Port Wine a Dozen" would greatly oblige him.
General Riedesel would please send them over. And if the
Riedesels "had any oil, send me as much as will dress a salad for
you on Thursday," Phillips wrote.

Many were the dinner parties exchanged between General
Phillips and the Riedesels. The irascible Phillips could be calmed,
amused and made to forget his troubles when Lady Fritz played
her new pianoforte for him and sang his favorite songs. She was
outspoken to her husband's superior officer, telling him not to
complain so much and to moderate his language in front of
Americans, who would only laugh at him. Phillips was devoted to



                 The Baroness in Virginia                  319

her. Writing in French, he suggested to General Riedesel that he
proceed according to his wife's ideas because "she has more beautiful
eyes than you do and permit me to respect her orders instead of
yours." When he heard that one of the Baroness's trunks had
arrived broken open, he wrote that she didn't need fine clothes to
make her any more charming.

The Baroness herself explained how she and General Phillips
planned their meals. "Every week we killed, by turns, an ox and
two pigs. Very soon we wanted for nothing." Meals alternated:
a dinner at Blenheim, a dinner at Colle; but the Baroness set the
better table because she had made friends with the colored
people living around her and they "brought us everything we needed
in the shape of poultry and vegetables." Besides all this, there
were wild turkeys, which "weighed over fifty pounds and were
perfectly tame." After a while, the turkeys "all flew off into the
woods and we gave them up for lost." Then back they came, the
hen turkeys followed by broods of chicks, much to the delight of
the three little girls.

The Riedesel children were well and happy on their Virginia
plantation. Augusta was a serious child with fine eyes and a rather
determined chin. Frederika was fair and looked much like her
father. Her light blue eyes were gentle. Caroline was a pretty
blond baby, learning to speak English and German with a word
or two of French, as the case might be. The children could have
had an even better time in the woods and in the gardens if their
mother had not been "in constant terror of rattlesnakes." It took
more than rattlesnakes to scare little girls of their experience.

It was a treat for the children to get into the new "chariot"
their mother had chosen, take along provisions for a picnic and
drive to the barracks about ten miles away. Twisting and turning,
the road led past Monticello, past the northern edge of Charlottesville,
and out from among the steep little hills into rolling country.
Their father took that journey on horseback nearly every day.

The drive to the barracks was not always without excitement.



320              The Baroness and the General

One day the horses went through some rotten logs in a bridge.
The front wheels of the carriage were smashed, but by a miracle
the chaise stayed upright at the edge of the gaping hole where
the poor horses struggled and floundered. The harness broke or
they would all have been pulled into the bed of the creek.

   General Riedesel had "laid out upwards of 200 pounds sterling
in garden seeds for the German troops only" wrote Thomas
Jefferson, "Their poultry, pigeons and other preparations of that
kind, present to the mind the idea of a company of farmers rather
than a camp of soldiers" The men had cleared all the ground
along "the top and brow of a high hill" and they could see the
long line of the Blue Ridge Mountains, majestic against the sky.
   Lieutenant Du Roi had become one of General Phillips's aides
and was sent on various errands, but Schiller von Senden was at
the barracks most of the time and wrote of what went on there.
They told him that in those mountains "there are panthers, bears,
wolves, elk, stags, wildcats, opossums, marten, skunks, rabbits and
raccoon." The Germans were fond of taming small animals and
one of the sights at the barracks which the Riedesel children
looked forward to was a tame raccoon described by von Senden as
"something like a badger but can climb trees rapidly."
   The soldiers' gardens were all neatly fenced and "all the things
in the gardens at home were also found in the gardens here," von
Senden said. And there was a strange new plant, "a kind of pea
with a yellow blossom, the leaves of which remind me of our
clover leaves. When the blossoms fall off, the stalks growing out
from the base push pods into the earth for a distance of 1½
inches, each containing two or three large peas. They are tasty."
Von Senden was carefully describing peanuts.
   Strawberries grew wild, and were larger "than our garden
strawberries at home." As the season advanced melons grew "without
any care whatever."
   But garden palings were important, because "cows and pigs



                 The Baroness in Virginia                  321

usually run around freely although they seldom stray farther than
a mile and a half." This was far enough for them to make pests of
themselves. Cows wore bells, "so that they can be found more
readily."

When it was not the day for the children to go out in the carriage,
the Baroness rode horseback. She astonished the inhabitants
by her costume somewhat like a Hussar's, with high jack boots.
Her embonpoint was commented upon. It was a very thin Mrs.
General who had been driven down out of the mountains in
February but during the last few months she had enjoyed good
food. The word embonpoint, moreover, was not then a euphemism
for overweight but a term of sincere admiration. Inhabitants
meant that Mrs. General was well stacked and they said that she
was also a handsome lady.

General Riedesel "took considerable satisfaction in busying himself
in his garden," his wife wrote. But he refused to wear a hat
because he was tormented by severe headaches and a hat seemed
unbearably heavy.

"I was engaged in putting to rights my new house," Lady Fritz
related, "when I heard a noise out of doors. I ran to the window
and saw my husband being carried into the house by some men.
His face was blue, his hands white, his eyes fixed and great drops
of sweat stood upon his forehead. I was more dead than alive with
fright and the children uttered piercing shrieks."

The surgeon attached to Regiment Riedesel was living at the
house and "happened at the moment to be in." The men laid the
General down, and the surgeon "tore off all his clothing and at
once opened a vein." Everyone said that General Riedesel had
had a sunstroke, but the blue color of his face which his wife
observed does not bear this out. He also experienced temporary
loss of speech. The diagnosis made no difference, however,
because bloodletting would have been the treatment no matter what



322              The Baroness and the General

the illness. General Riedesel regained consciousness and "gazed
upon me with a loving look and took my hand" his wife said. "He
soon regained his speech, but was weak and ill a long time".

Frederika Riedesel was as close to panic as she had ever been
during her whole experience in America. "My God, what would
have become of me and my little children in the midst of captives,
so far from home and in an enemy's land?" she wrote. She had
many loyal friends, from General Phillips on down. Not a German
officer in her husband's "family" but what was devoted to
her she could have counted on Jefferson or on any American
officer she had social contact with; but she had a special reason for
her feeling of terror. She was expecting another child.



             24
              
              The New Yorkers



THE weakness that came with General Riedesel's illness made
him "grieve the more over his situation" wrote Mrs. General.
The local doctor suggested that she take him to "Frederick-
Spring," and when she approached General Phillips about this
idea he said to go ahead and he would come along himself as
soon as he could.

Jefferson gave the Riedesels a passport to "visit several medicinal
springs, in Louisa, Berkeley and Augusta [Counties]. You will be
pleased in this to follow your own inclination, passing from one
to another of them by such roads and making such excursions on
the road or at any of the springs as may be agreeable to yourself"
Jefferson wrote, dating his letter July, 1779. The letter released
Riedesel from his previous parole, "prescribing certain limits
which might have restrained you from visiting these springs. You
are also at perfect liberty to take with you such of your family as
you choose to be attended by, who shall be considered as included
within the same dispensation. I shall be obliged to you, however,
for their names at a time before you set out, for the information
of the commanding officer of the garrison that I may be able to
guard them from molestation." A more generous permission could
hardly have been devised.

"Frederick-Spring" now called Berkeley Springs, was a fashionable

323



324              The Baroness and the General

resort not far from the Potomac in what is now West Virginia.
As was the case with most of the warm springs, the Indians
were supposed to have discovered curative powers in the water.
Unlike most mineral springs, however, the water was pleasant,
rather sweet-tasting. George Washington surveyed the land around
Berkeley Springs for Lord Thomas Fairfax in 1746 and the area
was granted to Virginia as public domain. General Gates bought
a plot in the nearby town of Bath as did Washington, whose
nephew, Major John Augustus Washington, took the waters in the
vain hope of a cure for tuberculosis. Makeshift cottages, shelters
and tents dotted the narrow hollow where the springs rise, below
Warm Springs Ridge and Hogback Mountain.

Mrs. General thought the waters did her husband no good at
all and might have harmed him. He "probably increased his
disorder by always getting his head wet before bathing," she said,
"and in spite of all we could do his hair would remain damp."
The air was hot and humid and for a man who liked a cold, dry
climate this was torture. The poor General could not sleep at
night, so his wife "read to him in a drowsy tone" This put him to
sleep but if she stopped reading he woke again. "His feet and
hands were constantly blue and cold as ice," no matter how hot
and uncomfortable he felt.

The books the Riedesels read were in French and had belonged
to Mazzei. Candied was among them and this Lady Fritz returned.
Mazzei complained that she kept others, and doubtless
this troubled her conscience very little. Mazzei's profiteering had
not been forgotten.

Worried as she was about her husband, Lady Fritz could not
help having a good time. One day "a Virginian came into my
room," she said. He wanted to have a look at a German woman.
She laughed and told him to go ahead and look. "He eyed me
from head to foot," and when he asked to see her husband, she
took him to the General. But the idea of being stared at like a



                     The New Yorkers                         325

circus freak brought tears to the General's eyes and she was
overcome with remorse. "Everything irritated him" she knew that
it was just that she had had a good laugh and wanted him to
laugh too.1

Members of General Washington's family were at Frederick-
Spring, but the Baroness refrained from comment. However, there
was a Mrs. Carroll,2 "an ardent American patriot, but reasonable."
The inference might be that the Washingtons were unreasonably
patriotic. But in any case Lady Fritz and Mrs. Carroll "became
great friends." Her husband had come to take the waters. The
official bathing and water-drinking time was in the morning, so
Mrs. Carroll and the Baroness spent their mornings together.
Captain Geismar had come as one of General Riedesel's aides, and he
had brought his violin, so he played "and I sang Italian arias to
the great delight of Mrs. Carroll," said Lady Fritz.

One day "a peasant came in. As Americans generally are fond of
music, he listened attentively" and when the Baroness finished
her song he asked her to sing again. She knew this man, because
he was a neighboring farmer from whom she had attempted in
vain to buy butter. Having a little fun with him, therefore, the
Baroness asked him what he would give her to sing. "Two pounds
of butter," he replied quite seriously.

Lady Fritz laughed and began to sing again. Once more she
received an encore, only this time the farmer said he wanted
something lively. "At length I sang so much," she said, "that the next
morning he brought me four or five pounds of fresh butter." He
had his wife with him because he wanted the Baroness to sing
for her too. "I succeeded in winning their affection," she said,
"and afterwards I lacked for nothing." She thought that "the best
of the joke" was that these people imagined they really paid her
to sing for them. "They wondered much when I paid them for
the butter they thought they had sold."

Like most foreign visitors, Lady Fritz generalized from details



326              The Baroness and the General

she observed. "The Virginians are generally languid, a fate which
they attribute to their hot climate" she said. "But on the slightest
inducement, in a twinkling they will leap up and dance about and
if a reel is played for them the men immediately catch hold of
the women who then jump up [and dance] as if possessed. But as
soon as they are led back to their chairs they sit on them like
blocks of wood."

The Baroness was told tales of incest among mountain folk,
and she seemed to think it was common practice everywhere. She
did not mention German deserters, but there were many who
slipped off into the Blue Ridge Mountains, took unto themselves
more or less lawful wives, and brought German names among a
people who accepted the newcomers with respect and affection.

Desertion was again one of the problems troubling General
Riedesel's mind. As General Phillips wrote him, "The difficulty of
discovering the motives of this great desertion3 or the means made
use of to get away is very great whoever the men are who act
as guides or who plan the taking-off of soldiers, they are possessed
of much cunning and caution" General Phillips discovered that
the Convention soldiers were running off to join a group of Americans
called "Goodrich's Privateers" The Americans "engage themselves
by oath to bring the men safe to the vessels which lie in
the Rappahannock River." It took three days to go through the
woods from Charlottesville, by way of an unfrequented path near
which they had a log house where were collected provisions for
two hundred for two days. "The route taken is toward Augusta,
over the blue ridge, and down the Rappahannock to the vessels."

There was still another method of escape, by which Phillips
was sure some of the deserters were getting safely away. "A man
who lived in the mountains and found a brother in the 9th Regiment,
has undertaken to conduct men of that regiment to Halifax,
they are gone off some days," he said. "The guides appear in the



                     The New Yorkers                          327

Barracks as sellers of whiskey. There is reason to believe a good
many have got off safe, as the Soldier has returned and six days
ago took off 40 more men with him" This kind of desertion would
seem to be with Phillips's blessing.

The Riedesels had been expecting from day to day that General
Phillips would join them, but he had his troubles back at
Charlottesville, not only with deserters but with Colonel Bland, the
American in charge of the prisoners whom he called "Alexander
the Great." "My soul is already there [at Frederick-Spring]," he
wrote. "Only my miserable body remains at Blenheim.... Adieu
my dear Riedesel lay me at the feet of Madame and be assured
of my entire attachment."

Captain Edmonston, who had reluctantly parted from the
Riedesels, was on his way to England, having been exchanged.
He had with him a bill of exchange of 1050 pounds sterling,
"several officers wishing to send money to England," and he had
gotten as far as Philadelphia when he wrote that "Generals
Phillips and Riedesel are about to be exchanged."

"I don't believe a word of it," wrote Phillips, but on August 13
there was definite news. General Clinton wrote to Phillips that
"an exchange on parole is agreed upon, the officers which the
enemy are to receive for you and General Riedesel are already
gone .... with respect to your final exchange, we must talk of
that when we meet."

Now all was excitement. It was decided that General Riedesel
must go back to Charlottesville to wind up his affairs. He was to
sell provisions, wine, house furnishings and the piano. The
Baroness, with Captain Freeman, her husband's English-speaking aide,
her children, her coachman Rockel and the servants, would fare
forth alone. Loaned to her among the servants was Giovanni, one
of Mazzei's Tuscan boys, who carried a cage full of redbirds or
cardinals on his back. He was called Giovannetti.



328              The Baroness and the General

Their friend Mrs. Carrou had invited the Baroness to come to
her plantation in Maryland, to stay until she had word that her
husband awaited her at York, Pennsylvania.

This journey toward New York was far more pleasant than the
one from Cambridge to Charlottesville, but it was not without
hazard. "Before we arrived I was overturned in my carriage" said
Lady Fritz, "but I was not at all hurt." Mrs. Carroll "sent a man
on horseback" to meet the Baroness, on the main highway, and
they drove through "a pretty hamlet inhabited by pure Africans,
each of whom had his garden and understood some handicraft."

Lady Fritz was not aware that she was the guest of people of
distinction. Mis. Carroll's family consisted of "an old father-in-
law, eighty-four years of age, of a sprightly humor and most
extreme neatness.... four perfectly lovely grandchildren and their
kind, beloved mother, our amiable hostess." The "old father-in-
law" was Charles Carroll of Annapolis. "Although not now decked
with titles, we derive our descent from princes," he once told his
son. He was one of the great Catholic leaders in Maryland who
joined the American patriot cause at the very beginning. The
"four lovely grandchildren" were Polly, age nine; Charles, aged
four; Anne, three years old; and Catherine, only a year and a half.
Charles Carroll of Annapolis had a fine Georgian mansion in
Annapolis, where George Washington was often his guest.

But it was "the country-seat" where the Baroness Riedesel
was entertained. This would be "Doughoregan," about sixteen
miles northwest of Baltimore. Begun about 1727, the two-story
house was eventually three hundred feet long and thirty feet wide.

"We drove through a large courtyard to a very beautiful house,
where the whole family gave us a joyful welcome," said Lady
Fritz. "We were served upon silver and entertained, not, it is true,
with much display, but with taste. Nothing was wanting for our
comfort.

"The garden was magnificent, and on the following day she



                     The New Yorkers                          329

[Mrs. Carroll] drove us out to look at her vineyard which was
splendid and displayed great taste, in fact exceeding my expectations.
First we went through a great fruit garden. Then we ascended
the vineyard by a winding path which led up to the top
of the hill. Between every vine a poplar-rose and an amaranth
grew. The effect of this arrangement was to give a magnificent
appearance to one looking down from the top." Lady Fritz said
she never saw its equal for beauty anywhere else in America. "The
husband of Mrs. Carroll had traveled abroad and had gathered
ideas for the laying out of grounds in England and France."

Doughoregan Manor contained 13,360 acres. Mrs. Carroll's husband
had indeed traveled abroad he had been sent to Europe
to study at the age of ten because, under English rule, Catholic
schools were unlawful in Maryland. When he returned at the age
of twenty-eight, his father gave him a great deal of land and he
became known as "Charles Carroll of Carrollton" because he had
a cousin, "Charles Carroll the Barrister" His mother had died
before Charles got home and he understood that he must marry
a Catholic girl, pleasing to his father. He had found a girl he
loved, but she died just before the wedding.

It seems probable that Mary Darnall, aged nineteen, was chosen
to be Mrs. Carroll of Carrollton by her father-in-law. "She brings
no dowry but she is of good family, beautiful, sweet-tempered,
virtuous and sensible" wrote the bridegroom at the end of a long
letter on political matters.

Lady Fritz did not care much for Carroll of Carrollton. He
might be the first signer of the Declaration of Independence,
statesman, defender of the Catholic faith but these things
would not commend him to her, if she knew about them. To
her 'Tie was not very lovable, but rather brusque and miserly
and not at all suited to his wife, who" although she never said
anything, "did not appear very happy. She loved her father-in-law
very much" That Carroll of Carrollton was parsimonious was
mentioned even by one of his most admiring biographers. Charles



330              The Baroness and the General

Carroll would "send out of the house for change" rather than
"overpay a bill by a very few cents.... He was also painfully
accurate."

"Not far from this estate was a town called Baltimore" wrote
Mrs. General. They told her it "was very pretty and inhabited by
many amiable families. We received a visit from an intimate
friend of our hostess. Both these women reminded me of Rousseau's
Hé1oise" Lady Fritz thought that Mary Carroll "was as full
of tender feeling" as Hé1oise, and "would gladly have had a Saint
Preux for a husband."

The visit lasted eight or ten days, and as a parting gift for their
hostess, Captain Freeman designed and built "a temple adorned
with flowers and dedicated to Friendship and Gratitude." Later,
Mrs. Carroll wrote the Baroness that they always kept the little
temple decorated with fresh flowers. "Our parting was sad," said
Lady Fritz. "The lovely, agreeable Mrs. Carroll is now dead." She
died in 1782 at the age of thirty-three, eleven days after the death
of her father-in-law, to whom, say the records, "she was deeply
attached."

Mrs. Carroll piled the Baroness's wagon "with provisions of the
best quality, enough to last a long time." But Lady Fritz did not
really need much, because there were many royalists along the
road through Maryland who "furnished her with every needful
thing."

The weather was not kind, however. Not far from Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, the Baroness and her retinue were passing through
a great forest when they were "overtaken by a violent thunder-
storm. A tree broke and fell between the carriage-box and the
horses, and here we sat fast aground because none of our servants
were strong enough to move the tree." Lightning flashed, close-
followed by the crack of thunder which hardly diminished into
rumbles before the next shock came. "The lightning struck in
several places around us and another and larger tree threatened to
crush us."



                     The New Yorkers                          331

There was nothing Mrs. General could think of to tell her army
of servants to do to get her out of the forest, and she said all of
them, including Captain Freeman, seemed to have lost their
heads. But Augusta, "only eight years old at the time" had a
suggestion. "Just unhitch the horses, put them behind the carriage
and you can drag it backward" They did this, it worked, and
somehow or other they got around the fallen tree and on their
way again. They all "asked each other, 'Why didn't we think of
this?'"

The storm swept on over "Yorktown" or York, Pennsylvania
and when Mrs. General and her little army got there she found
her husband very anxious about them "because of the vivid
lightning." Next day they "rode through magnificent country, and
passed ... a very well cultivated section inhabited by the
Moravian brethren." In Bethlehem they "found a right good
tavern" and rested there to wait for some more officers from
Charlottesville to catch up with than. Then they pushed forward,
for they were all eager to get to New York, which had come to
seem like a Promised Land. Frederika Riedesel was especially
anxious to get there before her expected child came a place
where she could have "good nursing" and be among friends and
allies instead of "the enemy."

They came at last into New Jersey, and "to the house of a
family who gave themselves out as Royalists." The name was
Van Home. "They showed us much kindness and begged us to
recommend them to General Cornwallis.... and General
Clinton." The Van Home daughters were young and pretty.

But things had been going too well for the Riedesels until
they reached Elizabeth, New Jersey, or "Elizabethtown" as they
called it, General Phillips and part of his staff with them by now.
Sitting down to dinner among "many Royalists who welcomed
us joyfully, toasts were drunk and we believed we should cross over
to New York and be restored to Freedom that same evening.

"Suddenly the door opened and an officer sent by General



332              The Baroness and the General

Washington stepped in and handed General Phillips a letter." It
was addressed to Joshua Messereau, Esq., Deputy Commissary of
Prisoners. "You will remove General Phillips and the officers of
the Convention Troops under your care, with their families and
attendants, to Chatham, where you will have proper quarters
provided for them till you receive further orders for their destination,"
the letter said.

General Phillips flew into a rage. He pounded the table with
his fist and shouted that this was what you could expect from
people who were all of them rascals. Then he "seized" Lady
Fritz's hand and told her not to lose courage and to notice "how
collected" he was.

If her recollection of the scene was accurate, Lady Fritz told
General Phillips to stop making a spectacle of himself people
were laughing. When he was "in a passion" he could get into "still
more trouble." He calmed down and thanked her. Actually, the
withdrawal of parole to go into New York was his own fault. It
was again an affair of money a little matter of unpaid bills and
gratuitous insults on Phillips's part. Had the Baroness been in
Charlottesville instead of Berkeley Springs, it is possible she might
have influenced Phillips to behave himself better while there.

James Mulligan, authorized by the Continental Congress, had
presented Phillips with a bill for the expenses incurred by the
prisoners since the last settlement. "I assure you I have not 2000
pounds in the military chest," Phillips had told him, then
unfortunately he added that if he had the "power to procure all the
gold in the province of America," he would not pay Mulligan's
bill. The demand was for "eighty-five thousand five hundred
pounds sterling, being the expense" of the prisoners from March
through August, 1778. Mulligan explained all the charges and
Phillips replied to his demands in an increasingly haughty tone.
So Congress decided to halt the Generals within sight of British-
held New York.
Phillips was still not as calm as the Baroness would have liked



                     The New Yorkers                          333

when he sat down on September 30 to write to General Washington.
Riedesel, who had often persuaded him to moderate his style
in his letters to General Heath, was not asked to revise this one.

"I do not allow of any conduct of mine or Major-General
Riedesel's deserving this treatment and I hope, Sir, from your
known candour and honour an Explanation."

Perhaps he had no idea what was wrong; but he did have debts
a trifle on his mind, because on that same date he wrote to
Colonel Bland, the American officer in Charlottesville, regarding
a debt of honor: "General Phillips sends his compliments to
Colonel Bland he quite forgot to send the paymaster general to
him, relating to the bet. He has commissioned Mr. Hoaksley to
wait upon Colonel Bland with five hundred pounds currency."

The Riedesels now returned along the road they had so recently
and hopefully traveled. Again they stayed at the Van Homes',
but this time, "we found a nephew of General Washington's there
with a lot of other American officers. Three days had wrought a
wonderful change in the sentiments of these people." The Baroness
saw "the daughters of these pretended Royalists on a most
familiar footing with the anti-Royalists and allowing them all
sorts of liberties" There was a wild party, in the course of which
everybody sang " 'God save Great Washington, God damn the
King' all night long."

The activities of the Van Home young ladies were fairly well
known, and at one time the Americans had threatened to jail their
father because of his Tory sympathies. It would have been
interesting if the Baroness had happened to mention her former
shipmate, Mrs. Hannah Foy, who had been a Miss Van Home.
The girls who were so impartial in their favors to officers of both
sides were Hannah's cousins; the house belonged to her uncle
Philip the manor nicknamed "Convivial Hall." When she left
next morning, Lady Fritz "could hardly conceal" her "indignation."



334              The Baroness and the General

Although ordered to Chatham, the Riedesels were allowed to
go back to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at their own request. They
now had at least "sixteen people, four house servants and about
twenty horses"; and they all put up at the inn which Lady Fritz
had liked so well on her way north.4

The Baroness was much impressed by Bethlehem, as well she
might be. The Moravian buildings which are now such marvels of
stone masonry were all of them already built and were no longer
new even in 1779. They were said to be larger than any other
buildings in America at that time and the heavy stone buttresses,
the high walls, the bell tower, gave the town the look of a
mediaeval German city. Riverbanks were steep and wooded at the
point where Monocacy Creek and the Lehigh River join, so that
Bethlehem seemed miraculously transported from Europe to a
wilderness. But away from the riverbanks, Moravian industry had
cleared great fields, rolling into the distance acre after acre,
unlike any German counterpart.

At Bethlehem "all sorts" of hand-crafted merchandise was for
sale, "dressed leather as good as that of the English but less
expensive" and "magnificent embroidery" which had been taught to
the Moravian settlers by a German woman. Frugal as she was,
Lady Fritz could not resist buying some embroidery. There were
"workers in steel, excellent blacksmiths and cabinetmakers of
great skill."

But best of all was the music. For the previous thirty years,
Bethlehem had had a "Collegium Musicum" and some of the
scores of Bach were said to have been played at Bethlehem before
they were printed in Europe. "Flutes, oboes, French horns and
trumpets accompanied the organ" in church on special days, and
the Riedesels "went to church often and enjoyed the splendid
singing."

In the peaceful cemetery, avenues of trees had been planted.
Headstones were laid level with the turf so that no brother or
sister should have a monument rising higher than another. While



                     The New Yorkers                          335

the Riedesels were in Bethlehem, "the wife of the minister died"
and Lady Fritz observed a strange custom. They saw the body
"laid out in a separate enclosure with bars" awaiting burial,
because "they never keep a dead body in the house." The bars were
to keep away wolves.

The Riedesels lived in Bethlehem for six weeks, and the Baroness
would have been very happy except for her anxiety over her
husband's health. He suffered "greatly the whole time from
constant pains in his head and at night could scarcely breathe."
She suggested that he stop smoking and try taking snuff, "a
practice which he regarded with the greatest aversion." He thought
she was joking, but he tried it, "and the very next instant felt
relief so that he gave up his pipe for a snuff box."

The children had been wonderfully well during their long journey
from Brunswick, Germany, to Canada and on the long march
which ended so disastrously at Saratoga. The heat in Virginia,
which their parents complained of, agreed with them perfectly.
But now in Bethlehem, in November, 1779, little Caroline developed
"a choking cough" and was very ill. It seems not to have
occurred to her mother at first that this was whooping cough, and
when the other children came down with it later she was much
surprised.

For the first time, however, Mrs. General began to be uneasy
about herself. She was "far advanced in pregnancy," she said. At
last, after many letters had been exchanged, word came that
Congress would allow Phillips and Riedesel to go to New York on
parole, and General Riedesel set out around the twentieth of
October. He left his wife in Bethlehem, where she must stay until
he found suitable quarters for her. New York was a crowded city
with more than 3000 Loyalist refugees added to Tory citizens,
and a fair number of rebel agents and spies.

A house was still to be found; but, toward the end of November,
Mrs. General set out, in charge of her little army as usual,
responsible for the welfare of them all. She was determined not



336              The Baroness and the General

to stop over at the Van Homes' again because "I despise double-
dealing people" she said. But fate played her a mean trick. "Our
wagon broke down before their very door" and she was forced to
stay with them "until the damage could be repaired" She refused
to spend the night, however, and when they "again asked me to
recommend them and assured us of their devotion to the King, I
said I didn't believe they needed any recommendation. They could
take that as they pleased."

Mrs. General "came once more to Elizabethtown" and was
"kindly received," as before. Poor Giovannetti was not allowed to
go into New York, and so he turned back to Charlottesville. The
redbirds or cardinals he had carried in the cage on his back had
all died, and Mrs. General grieved for them. One of her packing
boxes had been broken, and her collection of butterflies which she
had made in Virginia was ruined. She vowed she would never try
to make another.



General Pattison, Commandant of the City of New York, sent
a boat for Mrs. General and her party. They "embarked upon the
Hudson" and arrived very late at night. A soldier was waiting "at
the gateway" to the fortifications which the British General Henry
Clinton was engaged in strengthening being much afraid that
the Americans planned to attack him. The soldier had been sent
by General Riedesel, who was at a supper party with Lord Cornwallis
a command invitation, as his wife understood. Still it was
a disappointment not to be met by him, and when the soldier
took her "to a very great and beautiful house" she was not happy.
The innkeeper at Bethlehem had charged her a great deal too
much, she thought, and now she supposed she was in some sumptuous
hostelry which would cost still more.5

"I was too busy putting my children to bed and too tired to
ask where I was," said Lady Fritz.

Next morning a servant came to inquire what the Baroness



                     The New Yorkers                          337

would like to order for dinner, how many members of the family
would be there, and how many guests. "I told him six in all,
myself, my children, my servant, and Pastor Mylius." Pastor
Mylius was chaplain of Regiment Riedesel and he was now the
children's tutor "in everything useful" General Riedesel and his
aides were not dining at home and "three dishes" would be
plenty for just the family.

The servant said that "six large and four small dishes" had
already been ordered. "I decidedly forbade such profusion," said
Lady Fritz. She was horrified.

Callers were announced before the Baroness could get her boxes
unpacked. Lord Cornwallis came first, and then General Clinton.
General Pattison also arrived to apologize for not having found a
house for Mrs. General. The servant who had announced the Generals
had led her to a sumptuous drawing-room to receive them. A
fire blazed on the hearth, she was seated in a luxurious wing chair
upholstered in brocade; the whole end of the room was of paneled
oak, the overmantel carved with a great garland of fruit. Lady
Fritz anxiously asked General Pattison about the tariff, for never
had she seen such an inn! After some hesitation, General Pattison
told her that she was the guest of General Tryon, Royal Governor
of New York, who was living on Long Island temporarily. "He
had asked that his hospitality be anonymous, for fear I might not
accept it," Lady Fritz said.

Now that she was free of anxiety about money, the Baroness
enjoyed the mansion that was hers for the time being. It was
known to New Yorkers as the 'Walton house," and it was on
Queen Street (now Pearl Street) just south of the present
approaches to the Brooklyn Bridge. Built in 1752, the Walton house
was considered the handsomest private home in the city; the lavish
entertainment provided by William Walton, merchant, had
caused comment in the British parliament to the effect that if
the colonists could afford to live like this, they could pay more
taxes to the Crown. When Washington came into New York,



338              The Baroness and the General

William Walton prudently withdrew to a New Jersey estate. Sir
William Howe "invited him to return and he opened his house
freely to British officers" or so it was said.

Over the front door were "two angels carved in oak, bearing a
shield" with the Walton coat of arms a chevron painted red,
the "heads of griffins" black, a knight's helmet surmounted with
"a crest, a savage man, proper." Some people thought the "savage
man" was Hercules because he had a club on his shoulder. The
front door was carved oak and the entrance hall was paved in
varicolored marble with a wide staircase leading to the ballroom.
All the rooms were wainscoted in oak, except the library, which
was paneled in "rare wood from Spanish America." There were
many luxurious bedrooms, a "morning breakfast-room and family
parlor."

Governor Tryon was on Long Island, organizing raids on the
Connecticut coast. During 1779, he ordered the burning of Fairfield
and Norwalk, leaving copies of "an Address to the Inhabitants
of Connecticut" to tell the settlers to mend their ways and
be loyal to the King. One day a "General" was announced. The
Baroness did not understand his name, but said she would see him.
"In the course of conversation, he asked me, among other things,
whether I was satisfied with my quarters. My heart was full of
gratitude for all the kindness which had been shown me," she
wrote. She explained that she had forced General Pattison to tell
her who her benefactor was that she did not know General
Tryon personally, but that she would "give anything to be able to
thank him."

At this point, General Riedesel came in. "This is the man who
has given us the use of this beautiful house," he told his wife. "I
could not find words to express my feelings and General Tryon
was very much affected," said Lady Fritz. She had made another
of her conquests and "invariably received the greatest proofs of
his friendship."

Later, General Henry Clinton's call produced mixed emotions.



                     The New Yorkers                          339

He told the Baroness that the city of New York was full of smallpox
and offered her his country house, where she could go to
have her children inoculated. This was kind of him, but inoculation
for smallpox was a perilous undertaking. Vaccination was a
discovery nearly twenty years in the future, and inoculation often
resulted in severe cases of smallpox or death from blood poisoning
because of unsanitary methods of procedure. But Clinton was
sure the children would be "safer" in the country, and their
mother began to pack boxes again.

Clinton's house in the country was the Beekman mansion.
Standing near the foot of the present Fifty-second Street and the
East River, it had been built by Dr. James Beekman in 1764 and
had been used as headquarters for General Howe in 1776. Nathan
Hale was tried and condemned to death in Dr. Beekman's greenhouse,
and Commissary Loring had the house for a while, but it
had been Clinton's summer home since 1778. It was an hour-long
journey from the Walton house near the Battery to the Beekman
house.

The Riedesels had replaced their knave of a cook with another
one, probably drawn from the ranks of the German troops. They
were to stay in the country two weeks while the children had their
inoculation-induced smallpox, so their mother sent the cook out
to buy provisions enough to last. It was to be hoped that this cook
was honest, but, taking no chances, the Baroness gave him ten
guineas, which she was sure would be ample but not enough to
tempt him. He came back almost at once. 'The money I had
given him would buy enough for only about two days" she discovered
and it was not her servant's fault. New York was a
hungry city.

People had come in to New York, from New Jersey and
Pennsylvania after the evacuation of Philadelphia and from upper
New York state in the wake of Burgoyne's army. They told
pathetic and true tales of having supplied Burgoyne only to be



340              The Baroness and the General

left to the mercy of angry neighbors who would not give them so
much as a crust of bread. Clinton and his officers lived lavishly,
three-course dinners with six side-dishes being the rule, not the
exception, but the poor were starving and the moderately wealthy
found that "fifty dollars would not keep a family for two days."

Mrs. General thought the country house was "perfectly beautiful"
Its lines were somewhat classic, with a triple window over
the front door and an ornamental wooden balustrade at the upper
angle of the gambrel roof. Four chimneys, two at each end,
indicated a goodly number of fireplaces, and they were needed for
the house had been built for summer occupancy in a cool location,
which proved bitter cold in December.

General Riedesel had sent one of the German doctors from the
army to his family, and the inoculation went well. In about two
weeks they "had nothing more to fear from the infection," and
they got ready to go back to town, sending the servants on ahead.
Then in the night it snowed.

The storm roared so that they thought "the whole house would
go over." There was a terrible crash and in the morning: they saw
that half the balustrade on the roof had come down from the
weight of the snow and the force of the gale. There were "four or
five feet of snow on the level and eight feet in drifts," they could
not get out "without sledges," and there was nothing to eat.

"I went to work to hunt up something for dinner," said Mrs.
General. There were fourteen people to feed but she was always
equal to emergencies. "I found an old hen that had been forgotten
and it served us for soup." General Clinton's gardener provided
some potatoes, and there was "a little salt meat left from our
provisions."

But that afternoon, after dinner, Mrs. General stood at the
window staring out at the white, trackless road "feeling thoroughly
perplexed." What in the world was she going to do for another
meal? This was as bad as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then she
saw something moving far down the road, making slow progress



                     The New Yorkers                          341

toward the house. It was a man on horseback, and when he came
in at the gate she could tell that it was her cook.

"Filled with joy, I turned around to the rest of the company
to tell them the news. When I looked back, I could not see or
hear anything of the cook or his horse!

"Terrified by this disappearance the gentlemen rushed out
and found the cook and his horse completely buried in snow"
Lady Fritz thought that her cook could never have gotten out of
that drift without help but he had brought provisions for the
evening meal."

Next day Captain Willoe arrived6 with "two large sledges" to
take them back to the city. The children's mother was worried
about taking the children out "on account of the terrible cold"
and "because their pocks had not entirely dried up." Little
Caroline "had lost her whooping cough during inoculation" but
it "came back and lasted a whole year." Otherwise the sleighride
did them no harm, and never were New Yorkers more happy to
get back to town.



             25
              
                 Miss America



THE Riedesels returned to New York to find their house ready
and waiting for them. John Marston, one-time Deputy to the
Provincial Congress, was politely but firmly told by General Pattison
to get out of his large, three-story brick home on the corner
of Broad and Water streets and to let General Riedesel have it.1
Old Dutch houses, their stair-step gable ends facing the street,
alternated with new Colonial mansions or small frame buildings
on Broad Street, one of the few streets to escape the fire of 1776.
The Riedesels' New York home was only about two blocks from
the Walton house, their temporary home, and a block from the
fort where the General was to spend much of his time.

The Marston house was beautifully furnished in mahogany
throughout, and there were carpets on the floors a luxury still
rather frowned upon in Germany. Of course the frugal Mrs.
General asked about the price of all this. The house was to cost
her nothing, General Pattison smilingly assured her - the British
government would bear the expense. The furnishings had belonged
to some rebel or other, had been confiscated and stored and were
now all hers.

Mrs. General had been extremely nervous and anxious to get to
New York because of being "far advanced in pregnancy." But she
never really believed in worrying about anything for very long, and

342



                       Miss America                       343

now she was feeling very well indeed. A big celebration was
coming up. She determined to go to the Queen's birthday ball.

Queen Charlotte's birthday was really in summer, Lady Fritz
explained but so was the King's. For the benefit of the trades-
people, therefore, the Queen's birthday was celebrated in January.
"Tartly to please General Phillips and partly to make me forget
my own sufferings," the British officers chose the Baroness
Frederika von Riedesel to be Queen of the Ball, and this great honor
was really a great surprise as well.2

The "General, field and staff officers of the army" were giving
the party for "the garrison and principal ladies and gentlemen of
the city." It was costing them four hundred guineas. Of course
they wanted "to please General Phillips," but by now they had
all met Mrs. Riedesel and they wanted her for Queen to please
themselves, most of all. The "wife of General Cornwallis's
adjutant was a lady of noble birth" who outranked the Baroness and
was therefore supposed to be Queen. The difficulty was solved
rather curiously. The British lady was also expecting a child so
the officers told her she ought not to go out in her delicate
condition! Madame de Riedesel's "expectations" were not quite so
"imminent," it was explained.

Festivities began at noon on the eighteenth of January, 1780,
"with the firing of a Royal Salute from Fort George." This was
followed at one o'clock by another royal salute from "His
Majesty's ships of war in New York Harbor." Ladies were not
invited to "the public dinner given by General Tryon to his
Excellency General Knyphausen, Major-General Phillips, Baron
Riedesel, commander of the troops of his Serene Highness the
Duke of Brunswick, Major-General Pattison, Commandant of the
City and the other general officers of the garrison. Many public
toasts were drank beginning with 'Her Majesty the Queen,
the most amiable, exemplary and beloved Princess on earth' "
although the poor Queen had been a disliked, unhappy princess for
many years.



344              The Baroness and the General

"The day was spent in hilarity" so the officers must have been
in a fairly mellow mood when they arrived in the afternoon at the
ladies' reception, given at Governor Tryon's house. Here the
Baroness was "received with all ceremonies" she said, enjoying herself
tremendously. General Tryon "introduced me to all the ladies,
some of whom were envious of the honor which was shown me"
But Lady Fritz told them that she was given precedence over
them all for the day alone and because she "represented the
Queen just this one time.... I will always give place to ladies
older than I, in the future, the Baroness promised, and "as there
were quite a number present who were my elders, my explanation
conciliated them. Their faces quickly brightened up and I was
soon on a pleasant footing with all of them." Pointing out a lady's
advanced age might not seem the best way to "conciliate." But
Lady Fritz, brought up at the court of a small German
principality, knew what she was about.

At six o'clock in the evening it was time to start for the ball.
The Baroness was escorted to a carriage and seated between
Generals Tryon and Pattison. They drove to Hicks Tavern, once the
De Lancey Mansion at 115 Broadway, where "the public rooms
were.... entirely new painted and decorated in a Stile that
reflects honor on the taste of the Managers" Over the main door
"A Doric pediment was erected" which enclosed "a transparent
painting of their Majesties in their Royal Robes, over which was
an emblematical piece, encircled with the motto of Britains Strike
Home. The whole [was] illuminated with a beautiful Variety of
different colored Lamps" As Lady Fritz drove up, she was
"received with kettle-drums and trumpets."

"The ball was opened at eight o'clock by the Baroness de
Riedesel and Major-General Pattison, Commandant of the City
and Garrison," according to the New York Mercury for January
24, 1780. "I had not wanted to dance," the Baroness herself said,
"as I was far advanced with child. But I was obliged to open the
ball ... by a formal minuet My situation, as well as my bashfulness,



                       Miss America                        345

made me think myself very awkward. But in order to banish
my timidity, they all assured me that I did very well and must
dance once more. The result was that I danced several English
dances."

At half past nine the "country dances began" Now the music
grew more lively, and instead of the stately advance and retreat,
the bow and curtsey of the minuet, couples whirled in partnership
or sidestepped gaily in a big circle, singing the tunes the fiddlers
played. They leaped high as they "set and turned single" and they
skipped nimbly through the "ladies and gentlemen's hay." It was
all too much of a workout for Lady Fritz but this did not keep
her from enjoying herself. Her foot tapped to the music, her blue
eyes sparkled and she gave the officers who crowded around her
something to laugh about and a smile to remember. There had
been time for her to have a new dress made, and silks and satins
were available in New York. She could have had her hair powdered
in the popular style if she thought it became her; and no matter
what she wore she was a pretty woman by all accounts and in her
element at a party.

At midnight the company adjourned for supper in "the two
Long Rooms. The tables were "ornamented with parterres and
Arbours displaying an elegant assemblage of natural and artificial
flowers, China images, etc." and "the supper consisted of three
hundred and eighty dishes." They led Lady Fritz to the supper
rooms. "And as I represented the Queen, I was made to sit under
a canopy and drink the first toast," die said. "I was touched at
all the marks of friendship I received. Although extremely tired,
still, in order to show my gratitude, I stayed ... till two o'clock
in the morning." The ball lasted until three A.M. but it was no
haughty queen who withdrew an hour early, but a warm-hearted,
happy and popular young woman.

"I was loaded with kindness and I passed the winter very
pleasantly except for suffering very much from the cold," the
Baroness wrote. She thought it was just because "the commissary



346              The Baroness and the General

had not had a sufficient quantity of wood cut" and she did not
realize that "the oldest man in this country does not remember
such a long continuance of very severe cold" William Smith, a
lawyer and a Tory, but an increasingly critical one, said that the
ink was freezing on his pen as he wrote those words.

Lawyer William Smith also wrote that "General Tryon is
distressed by the scarcity of fuel has but a load himself orders
old hulks of transport vessels rotten at the wharves to be cut up.
There are 3000 cords at the opposite Landings but we can't have
it till there is a Thaw to open access to the Landings.... 'Tis
said that this Island will be totally deforested in a week.... Many
reputable People lay abed in these Days for Want of Fuel."3

The Baroness Riedesel went to call on the "noble British lady"
whose place she had taken at the Queen's birthday ball. The
lady's child had arrived, and she was in the "lying-in chamber,"
which was so dark that Lady Fritz could not see who else was
there. There seem to have been quite a few callers, and the talk
naturally turned to the bitter cold. Like other "reputable people,
the three Riedesel children had to stay in bed to keep warm. Their
mother had borrowed wood from General Tryon for Saturday and
Sunday, promising to pay it back on Monday if she could get
any wood.

"The next day, as I was looking out of the window, I saw a
number of wagons full of chopped-down trees standing in the
street. Each wagon held two cords of wood." She went into the
small room where Pastor Mylius sat with the little girls, huddled
over the fireplace "where our last stick of wood was burning." The
children were wrapped in cloaks and blankets but they were
shivering, trying hard not to cry. Little Caroline was coughing.

"I have never been envious in my life" their mother told the
chaplain of Regiment Riedesel, "but there are four wagonloads
of wood in the street right how, in front of our very door. How
happy I would be if I had only some of it!"

These was a knock on the door. "A servant had brought a



                       Miss America                        347

message from a Major Brown" He had sent those four loads of wood
to the Baroness de Riedesel with his compliments, and when she
needed more she was to let him know. Major Brown was in the
Commissary Department. He had been a caller at the other lady's
lying-in chamber, but Lady Fritz had "scarcely seen his face."
What she wanted now was to find him and thank him.

"Some days after, I was at a ball where he also was expected.
He had been described to me as a man with a very prominent,
turned-up nose" so Lady Fritz kept looking everywhere "for such
a person" Major Brown was shy he hid out; but she found him
and thanked him "right heartily." He told her he couldn't sleep
for thinking about her and worrying about her children, so next
morning he had ordered "some trees cut in the great avenue in
front of the city."

This friendship with Major Brown was "of immense advantage
to us," said Mrs. General. "My husband was supplied with many
kinds of provisions, with Indian meal, part of which we used for
bread and part for cake, and also with salted meat." General
Riedesel was issued more meat than he needed, some of it not fit
to eat anyway. His wife at first gave it away to get rid of it. But
Major Brown told her what the other Generals did they
exchanged surplus meat for butter and spermaceti candles "which
burn better and are much more beautiful than tallow candles."
Soldiers got the surplus meat, for which they were doubtless
grateful regardless of what shape it was in, and "we saved
considerable," said Mrs. General. But no matter how carefully she
managed, Lady Fritz could afford to give only one "gentlemen's dinner
party a week" because "everything was so terribly expensive in the
city," she said. Generals Phillips, Tryon and Pattison were her
constant guests.4

It was no secret that the Baroness wanted a boy, and long
before her child was born his name had been chosen. He was to be
called "Americus" in honor of the place of his birth. The
Godfathers had been selected: General Phillips, General Knyphausen



348              The Baroness and the General

and Colonel Wurmb. And then, on the seventh of March, 1780, a
little girl was born. "My husband wished very much for a son"
wrote Lady Fritz just as though she hadn't wanted one herself
just as much. "But the baby was so pretty that we were soon
consoled." They named her "Amerika (America)" Henceforward,
many would be the affectionate inquiries in letters concerning
"Lady Fritz" and "Miss America."

Miss America was only six weeks old when General Riedesel
"persuaded" his wife to go to General Tryon's to dinner with him.
Tryon was soon to leave for England and Lady Fritz never missed
a party if she could help it, anyway. But when she got home she
noticed that her husband seemed extremely anxious about the
baby. He kept "going to look at the child," and kept saying
" 'Don't you think she's pale?' " Or he would feel of her forehead
and shake his head and say " 'She is certainly ill.' " Suddenly a
suspicion "darted into my mind," said Lady Fritz. "I rolled back
the baby's little sleeves and there were two pocks on each arm."

It had all been part of a plot on the part of the two Generals,
Riedesel and Tryon. "An English doctor had inoculated the baby"
while her mother was out. "I must confess that for a moment I
was quite angry," said Lady Fritz. "But when the baby became so
ill that we were afraid we would lose her, my husband was
inconsolable and kept accusing himself" of causing a tragedy. He
had only done what he thought was right and he had wanted to
keep his wife from anxiety, but now "I had all I could do to keep
up his spirits," she said. And "God be praised, it came out all
right." The baby recovered perfectly and Miss America would
never have to be ashamed of a pockmarked face.5

As soon as it was reasonably safe for sailing vessels to cross the
Atlantic, General Tryon set out for England. He made the Baroness
a parting gift of "magnificent furniture, tapestries, oriental
rugs, curtains and a set of silk hangings." It would seem that they
came from the Walton house.

Everyone had been looking forward to spring. There were those,



                       Miss America                        349

like Tiyon, who were going to England; supplies from England
were expected, and a new campaign would open. But the city of
New York fought-over and fire-ravaged, its poor starving and
suffering from the cold became, with the spring thaw, a city of
pestilence. As soon as the snow melted, the soldiers, who had been
living in huts underground, found themselves sinking to their
knees in mud. The mud had a horrible stench. All winter long, a
common sight had been servants carrying on their heads great tubs
filled with sewage from their masters' houses. These they emptied
on the ice in the river. As the ice melted this accumulation spread
everywhere through the open waterway now Canal Street, into
all the overflowing brooks of well-watered Manhattan Island.

Soldiers fell ill, were accused of malingering and died by the
hundreds. Efforts were made to get them out of their horrible
quarters, but the survivors were mostly too weak to work on the
new huts, to be built aboveground on land laid waste by fire. No
one paid any attention to the civilians, "sick of a fever" or to the
prisoners whose condition was the worst of all. There were "fifty
or sixty fresh burials every day," and in the graveyards during the
winter frozen bodies had been stacked up which must now, somehow
or other, go underground.

In the Riedesel household "twenty fell ill, eight of them
dangerously" Among the dangerously ill was "my daughter Augusta"
her mother wrote. "Augusta had such violent paroxysms of fever
that she begged me to hold her tightly, and when the chills and
the fits of shaking came she shook me with her in the bed."
Someone told the little girl's mother that people were "most likely to
die during these shaking fits."

The medication ordered was "salts of wormwood mixed with
lemon juice, sugar and water" which the children's mother mixed
herself because "all our servants were sick and I was obliged to do
everything." The only time she had to rest was while she was
nursing the new baby, and when she lay down on the bed with
America she often "fell asleep," she was so exhausted.



350              The Baroness and the General

Augusta recovered but the children's father had the same
infection and "became so ill" that his family lost hope. They were
now back in Clinton's summer home, the Beekman house, but
the pestilence had followed them. General Riedesel was taken
with "severe diarrhea and constant vomiting, and when his wife
tried to give him "sago water" which the doctor had prescribed,
he begged her to let him die in peace.

One day when the doctor came out from New York to see
General Riedesel, Lady Fritz begged him to tell her the truth:
Was there any hope for her husband? " 'Certainly there is,' " the
doctor said. "And at this confident answer" the two oldest little
girls who had been hiding in order to hear what the doctor said
came out from under the table and "kissed his hands." Before
this, the doctor "had visited us very punctually, and now he
redoubled his attentions."

While the doctor was there, Lady Fritz kept her watch in her
hand. She thought the doctor's visits benefited her husband in
direct ratio to the length of time he stayed, and when he
"remained three minutes, then five, then fifteen and finally a whole
half hour" she was happy. Now she knew that her beloved husband
must surely get well! Pastor Mylius and "our trusty jaeger
Rockel" proved immune to the infection. They took turns watching
at night by General Riedesel's bedside and at last the Baron
and his little daughter Augusta both recovered.

"I was well, and blessed with a cheerful, happy temperament,"
said Lady Fritz. "At length all who were sick were restored to
health, and not one died a result that abundantly repaid me
for all my trouble."

It pleased Lady Fritz to have General Clinton come out to see
her. He came informally, dressed 'like a huntsman," she said,
instead of in his uniform. At first, he had seemed cold and distant,
but she put this down to British reserve or possibly shyness. If she
heard anything about Clinton's private life in New York City, she
said nothing about it.



                       Miss America                        351

But Thomas Jones, Tory Supreme Court justice, collecting
material for his History of New York in the Revolution, had
become completely disillusioned with the way Great Britain
conducted their war in the colonies, and with Sir Henry Clinton in
particular.

"In 1780 it was thought necessary (nobody, the Generals
excepted, knew for what) to rebuild all the demolished forts ...
and to add a number of new ones. This was done, the work
performed, that is the laboring part, by the inhabitants.... The
General also thought it necessary, for his own safety no doubt,
as no one else apprehended any danger, to have beacons erected
all around the island [of Manhattan], a circumference of at least
30 miles, and upon every hill or eminence.... not less than 300
were erected, with a tar barrel" at each beacon, and a guard, "the
whole project costing 150,000. As a further security to the
General's person, 25 galleys were purchased and moored in a line in
the North River within 50 yards of His Excellency's quarters.
With the city surrounded by men of war and armed ships, with
25 armed galleys in his rear, a captain's guard in his front, 300
beacons upon the island to set fire to upon an alarm, 20,000 good
troops upon York Island, at Kingsbridge, upon Long Island and
Staten Island, with at least 10,000 militia and refugees embodied
and perfectly disciplined, he thought himself pretty secure
wallowed in the arms of Mrs. Badely, entertained the daughters of
Blundell." Their father had been a butler in General Clinton's
house at some time while his father was governor of New York
(1741-1753).

One of Mrs. General's callers, "the Hessian General Loos,"
hurt her feelings. Lady Fritz had known General Loos ever since
she was a little girl, and "when he came to see me he looked me
over from head to foot," she said. " 'Why, what has become of
your slender waist, your beautiful complexion and your fair white
hands?' " he exclaimed. " 'They are all gone! But you have seen
many lands. When you get home all your friends will ask you



352              The Baroness and the General

to tell your adventures. They will be envious, but behind your
back they will say that your story is tiresome. They will play
with their fans and declare, 'This woman can talk of nothing but
America.' "

" 'Thank you for the warning' " said Lady Fritz, and the old
General ought to have noticed that her eyes still flashed when she
was angry. She had a word of advice for him. "'Don't tell a
woman she has lost her looks she might not take it as well as
I do'"

General Phillips stayed in New York and either escaped the
fever or had it only lightly but he also had advice to offer, this
time to General Riedesel:

"I hear you drink no wine," he wrote. "I do not quite approve
of it I would allow you in twenty-four hours one pint of wine
with one half pint of water and no other drink. No walking
exercise but moderately so on horseback. To eat moderately at
dinner of roast meat but no sausages or high dishes no roots or
greens with rich gravy or forced meats no tea except sasafras
very strong with milk. A strict Regimen altogether with Bark
in discretion and Vitriol drops and Purging Physic every week
and the Cold Bath but not till August moderate study but no
deep or serious reading never exposed to the sun....

"I hear Susan and Ann are with you. You must not play with
girls, dear Riedesel. It is very bad for you"

No doubt this was all good advice, but a piece of good news had
a much better effect on General Riedesel. General Benjamin
Lincoln, who helped Stark to surround Burgoyne's troops, had
himself been trapped by Clinton in Charleston, South Carolina. He
was taken prisoner and on July 19, 1780, General Clinton
communicated with Lincoln.7 He trusted there "would be no
difficulties attending your exchange. As it must, however, involve that
of Major General Phillips and Riedesel, and as there are many
circumstances to be discussed, I propose either Amboy,
Elizabeth Towtt or at General Phillips' Quarters on Long Island."



                       Miss America                        353

Galloping couriers carried letters back and forth, and time went
by. Clinton finally agreed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the place
of meeting, and so did Lincoln, but by now it was September.
Another month passed. At last, the exchange of Phillips and
Riedesel for Lincoln went through on October 13, 1780.

General Riedesel was given a post on Long Island and methodically
he went to work to make a survey of the efforts of refugees
to fortify and garrison Long Island towns.

"I have been south as far as Schmidts Point," he reported to
Clinton. This was "four miles on the other side of Fire Place
where the rebels surprised the refugees this winter. The refugees
made their fort on poor ground but the location of their new fort
nearby will be extremely useful in the forwarding of intelligence
from East Hampton

"From Schmidt's Town I went to Lloyd's Neck, The antipathy
of the inhabitants on the other side of Schmidt's Town as far as
South Hampton.... was inconvenient. Without exaggeration,
there are ten rebels to every Loyalist. My advice is to keep a sharp
eye on them"

General Riedesel found that his Brooklyn headquarters "were
not habitable in winter," because only a few rooms could be
heated. He returned to New York every night. But when spring
came, Mrs. General announced that the Brooklyn farmhouse was
just the place for the whole family.



             26
              
Progress in the American Rebellion



MY ATTENTION had been for some time directed to
the drawing out of the enemy's hands, by every possible
means, the troops of the Saratoga Convention," wrote Sir
Henry Clinton, in the narrative in which he tried to explain his
part in the "American Rebellion" But to Burgoyne, Phillips and
Riedesel, it seemed as though Clinton was giving little or no
thought to the matter.

Clinton explained how he had tried to acquire more American
prisoners so as to place himself in a better bargaining position:

"An attempt was made to surprise one of their brigades that lay
at Elizabeth Town.... but unfortunately, some untoward accidents
retarding the progress of the detachments.... allowed the
whole brigade" to get away. "In another little excursion from
King's Bridge under General Tiyon.... toward Horse Neck and
Greenwich, a number of saltpans and a quantity of military stores
and provisions were destroyed, a few vessels burned and some cattle
collected. We were not fortunate enough, however, to acquire
many prisoners with either."1 Small-scale raids upon the
Connecticut coast continued, and on July 22, 1781, for example, a
foray into a tiny settlement known as Middlesex Parish netted
only a few horses and certain civilian prisoners taken in church
with their minister and ardent patriot, the Reverend Moses

354



           Progress in the American Rebellion              355

Mather. These men were secured aboard prison ships, where many
died. They were of no use for purposes of military exchange.

In his Narrative, Clinton said he could have exchanged officers
but would not leave the troops leaderless with no one to protect
them, "exposed" as they were to "such arts as the enemy might
use to incite them to enter into their service" This sounds well,
but does not exactly correspond with what was said in letters at
the time. The emphasis was all on exchanging officers, and it was
General Riedesel who had a splendid idea for liberating extra
officers so that they could go to Canada, to command the
German troops left there and others due to arrive.

Riedesel described his scheme in a letter written in French and
marked "to be put in cypher." In the British army, each major-
general was entitled to 12 servants, a brigadier was allowed 6, a
deputy adjutant general 4, a deputy quartermaster the same, an
adjutant2 and so on down the line, with a second lieutenant
being entitled to one servant. "If the rebels absolutely refuse to
exchange rank and file ... under the guise of 'servants' we can
exchange as many officers as possible." Riedesel added a schedule
of the number of officers who could masquerade as servants of
those properly exchanged, and came up with a total of 222 men.3

General Horatio Gates, the great superseder, had taken over the
Southern Department after Lincoln's capture. In August, 1780, he
was defeated by Lord Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina.
It would have been poetic justice if he had been taken prisoner
like Burgoyne, but on the evening after the battle Gates reported
the disaster from Charlotte, North Carolina, seventy miles away.
But many rank and file Americans had been captured and things
looked brighter for an exchange of prisoners from now on.

General Phillips, on active duty since his and Riedesel's
exchange in October 1780, wrote to Lord George Germain that he
thought the Convention Troops might be exchanged, if bills for
their subsistence were paid. "A sum not exceeding Twenty-five
Thousand Pounds Sterling will fully answer," he suggested, and



356              The Baroness and the General

"bring about the exchange of perhaps the whole of the troops."
This would liberate ''sixteen hundred rank and file ... most of
them in full health, inured to the climate and all the changes
of it" It would be cheaper in the end than "recruiting and sending
over the same number of men"

This plan took infinite patience to put into effect. But at last
a small vessel named the General Riedesel carried "money, great
and small uniforms and provisions" to the Brunswick troops. The
ship sailed from New York on the nineteenth of March, 1781,
and arrived in Virginia about ten days later. The Troops of the
Convention were no longer in Charlottesville. Because of the
British campaign against the South they had been moved to
Winchester, about eighty miles north of Charlottesville. In his letter
concerning the liberation of the prisoners, Riedesel asked Jefferson
"to allow such of them as are" invalids, "properly certified by
the Physicians of the hospital, to embark on board the flag of
truce vessel and come to New York, from whence it will be in my
power to send them home."3

Jefferson granted this request, but there were many delays. The
New Jersey Gazette of November 28, 1781, carried the report of
"the wreck of a sloop, bottom up, on a bar off Corson's Inlet with
30 or 40 souls on board." Thirteen bodies were either taken out
of her or cast ashore, and papers found on them identified them
as "prisoners of war on parole, bound from Virginia for New
York." The name of the vessel was not given, but it would seem
that this might be the end of the little ship General Riedesel.

Upon his exchange, General Phillips had been given command
"of the grenadiers, the light infantry, and the 42nd British
infantry." It was "the élite corps of the army. He is full of joy,"
General Riedesel commented, not without a touch of envy.

Early in March, 1781, Phillips commanded an expeditionary
force of about 2000 men leaving New York and heading for the
coast of Virginia. The Prince Frederick infantry regiment was
among this force, and it seemed to Riedesel as though Germans



           Progress in the American Rebellion               357

were forever being taken out of his care. From this regiment
"the convalescent, tired, sick and womenfolk" were left behind,
as well as heavy baggage.

This leaving of "womenfolk" was nothing new. Back in 1779,
when troops set out to attack the Southern coast line, "all women
and children left in New York by the different regiments" had
been sent to Cork, in Ireland, whether they came from Ireland
or not. But now, in 1781, the "womenfolk" stayed in New York;
and the husbands of many would never return.4 There were girls
who had been children when the war began who were now grown;
there were some fatherless, some orphaned, who had no means of
livelihood save to turn to prostitution. A barracks master named
Clarke "interested himself" in these "poor girls," but orphanages
were filled to overflowing and nothing could be done about them.
Houses where German women established themselves were
tolerated until someone complained, whereupon the women were
dispersed perhaps to find themselves shelter in some garret or
cellar. Jobs were scarce; it was a lucky girl who found someone
who would let her work for food and shelter.

The troops were "ordered on board the fleet" on March 2, and
good-bys were said. Then came such bad weather that it was
March 20 "during the evening" when the "strong winds abated"
and, under convoy of nine men-of-war, the fleet, 42 sail in all,
passed through the channel."

"I have not time to say all I feel and think," General Phillips
had written to the Riedesels on March 8. "Be assured of my
continued solicitude for you and my dear Madame de Riedesel and
all your family Augusta in particular.... Be careful of your
health and believe me ever your sincere friend...." There would
be time for several more messages, but this was almost the last
letter General William Phillips would ever write.

Benedict Arnold had arrived in New York. He was now wearing
the uniform of a British general, Phillips had been placed in



358              The Baroness and the General

command over him and now sailed to meet him in Portsmouth, Virginia.

"I know not by what means they have corrupted the famous
American General Arnold" Riedesel had written the previous
autumn. "He had promised to make us masters of the fortress of
West Point...." Troops had been ready to go up the North
River and "Sir Henry had sent, with the consent of Arnold, his
adjutant general, Major André, to see West Point and make a
plan of it. Unfortunately, André was taken by a patrol of Militia,
having a passport from Arnold in his pocket. Arnold, seeing that
his secret was betrayed, saved himself and came to New York.
They say that he will be employed." Arnold was indeed employed,
but the Riedesels did not call on the new General. Major André
had called on the Baroness Riedesel when she was at General
Clinton's summer home. Everyone liked André and the honors
with which Arnold hoped to be received were never forthcoming.

General Phillips did not mention Benedict Arnold in his letters
to Riedesel, but he wrote from Portsmouth, Virginia: "It would
take a volume to describe the confusion, difficulties and want of
arrangements I found here troops & la debandade works in
ruin Departments all running different ways no amity."

The Prince Frederick Regiment had a journal of events which
told in more detail exactly what happened. "Contrary winds and
storms" kept Phillips from moving up the James River "aboard
large, long-boats expressly built by the orders of General Arnold."
They finally got under way, however, and proceeded, "severely
damaging different storage places of the enemy." From the
American point of view, this was described as "pillaging, burning
and raiding" and some of the rebels said that Arnold purposely
delayed Phillips because when Phillips arrived he would lose his
chance "of enriching himself with plunder."5

On May 14 General Phillips was at Petersburg, Virginia, on
the Appomattox River, not far from the James. He was planning
to fortify a post here when he was taken suddenly ill with "a



           Progress in the American Rebellion               359

severe inflamation of the gall bladder" according to the German
chronicler. Others called it "a fever" and a few tried to spread
the wild rumor that Arnold had him poisoned.

General Phillips had written Riedesel that Lafayette was in
Baltimore, but on May 10 Lafayette appeared on the heights
opposite Petersburg and cannonaded British headquarters at
"Bollingbrook." They moved General Phillips, desperately ill, to
the cellar of this house taking him there just in time before
a cannon ball went through the room where he had been lying.
On May 14, General William Phillips died, and was buried in the
old Blandford Churchyard in Petersburg.6

The Riedesels were shocked and saddened by this news. Even
Thomas Jefferson, who got on better with Phillips than other
Americans, characterized him as "intolerably insolent and
haughty"; but Lady Fritz said, "We have always mourned his loss.
He was a very brave man and true friend to his friends."

General Clinton made Riedesel "Lieutenant General with the
corresponding English allowance," which was higher pay than
he had been getting. The raise was more than welcome, for the
cost of living continued to rise. General Pattison, who had been
the Riedesels' good friend, had gone back to England and the new
Commandant of the City, General Jackson, was out to make his
fortune: signs of graft were everywhere. Barrack masters took in
"four cart-man's loads" of wood to the cord and then sold three
loads to the cord to the army, keeping one load to sell for their
own profit at four pounds a cord for oak and five pounds ten
shillings for hickory. This was about four times the honest price.
Loyalist farmers were paid for "oak, buckwheat, or rye" whatever
produce they brought in but made to sign blank receipts,
which the Collectors of Forage filled in later with false amounts,
making "fifty pounds a day with great ease and no expense."
The Commissary Department charged the Crown 53,750 a year
for the use of 500 horses owned personally by the Commissary and



360              The Baroness and the General

rented to the Crown at "15 a head," and housed in barns taken
from the rebels for no rent at all with the horses' rent charged
to the Crown, of course.

This was all such an open secret that when Prince William
Henry visited New York in September, 1781, he twitted a young
lieutenant on not being under a barrack master or a commissary,
so as to "share in the emoluments." The much disillusioned New
York Loyalist and historian, Thomas Jones, said that "every two
years commissioners in this department returned to England
richer than half the princes in Germany."

General Riedesel had great difficulty in collecting claims of
money for his officers and men. Before General Phillips left New
York, Riedesel had applied to him for eight hundred pounds'
subsistence. Phillips replied that he had no jurisdiction over
exchanged prisoners; the man to ask was Clinton. But Clinton, after
paying the provisions bill for the Convention Troops, was not in
a mood to pay any more. It began to seem to Riedesel as though
nothing could be done in New York, and he asked to be sent to
Canada. The request was granted, but there was a long wait for
transports, for final orders and for German troops to take along.

The Baroness was "pretty lonesome" over in Brooklyn during
1781. But there was a glorious view from the farmhouse. Every
evening she saw the little city of New York "entirely lighted up,"
with houses "so close to the shore that the lights were reflected
in the water." She could hear "the beating of drums" in the fort,
and on a windless night she could hear "the calls of the sentinels.
We had our own boat," she said, and "we could cross over to
New York in a quarter of an hour."

At noon, one day, the English officers under General Riedesel's
command were dining with Lady Fritz and her husband. They
invited the Baroness to go back with them "to their camp" on
Long Island after dinner, and she got into a carriage. When she
arrived at the camp, "an officer came up" and asked if she would



           Progress in the American Rebellion               361

walk with him "down the line" She said, yes, of course she would.
They started out, and then she saw that she was actually
reviewing the troops "with all honors even to the beating of drums!"

Extremely embarrassed, Lady Fritz stopped in her tracks. "It is
not suitable!" she protested. "A German woman is not accustomed
to such distinctions!"

"It was to honor her for all she had done for their comrades at
Saratoga," the young officer told her. So Mrs. General marched
on, "down the line," while the drums beat.

Mrs. General deserved a happy day. She was on sentry duty
every night No one had been entirely successful in keeping an
eye on those Long Island rebels, and a band of them sneaked
behind the British lines, snatched the German Major Maybaum
out of his bed and carried him off a prisoner. General Riedesel's
house, "dose to the shore," was "perfectly isolated" and he felt
sure he would be the next victim. There were guards outside his
house, but he thought the rebels could "overcome them." All
night long and every night, "if there was the slightest sound he
would wake up" and seize the weapons he had constantly by him.
He thought it would break his heart if he were ever a prisoner
again, and he determined to die fighting for his personal freedom
if necessary. "He lost considerable sleep," said Mrs. General
and as for herself, "I became so accustomed to watching that
daylight would often surprise me and then I would lie down for
a few hours' rest."

At last, in July, General Riedesel was relieved of this tedious
and nerve-wearing command. Now all was hustle and bustle in
preparation for departure. The Baroness had laid in a good deal
of firewood, and had "saved thirty cords" in case they should have
to stay in New York another winter. She tried to return the wood,
but Major Brown, the commissary who had been so kind to her,
suggested she sell it, and she could have made about one hundred
and twenty pounds, supposing it to be hickory, not oak. But the



362              The Baroness and the General

Baroness refused. She was frugal, constantly worried about
expenses, but never a profiteer. Major Brown could have sold it too,
but he was evidently not one of the men to go back to England
with a princely fortune. He said the wood had been issued and
he could not take it back. This was not an age when a social
conscience could be said to have developed, but Lady Fritz gave
her thirty cords of wood to the poor.

Next, the Baroness sent for the new Commandant of New York
and said she was ready to return the fine mahogany furniture so
graciously loaned to her. The new Commandant was astonished
it was rebel furniture why not keep it? Mrs. General said that
it belonged to the Crown, and into the Royal warehouse it went,
"save for one English bedstead which we kept for remembrance."
But she afterwards regretted her decision; the warehouse was
burned and all the fine furniture the highboys, the armchairs,
the tea-tables she had loved so much were destroyed.

Mrs. General had another problem to deal with. The German
regimental flags, kept in defiance of the Convention of Saratoga
and safely smuggled into New York, were still there still sewed
into the mattress which she and the German tailor had made.
Somehow, they must get back to Germany. Mrs. General took
charge of them, using that flag-filled mattress for her bed aboard
ship.

General Clinton had promised to find the Riedesels a good
ship from among the convoy scheduled to leave for Canada
one that "could run away from danger and not be captured on the
way" But he turned the matter over to an agent, who was
probably bribed by the captain of the Little Seed, and they went
aboard "one of the smallest and most miserable ships in the whole
fleet" The Little Seal leaked, she was undermanned and she was
loaded so badly that she developed a dangerous list. She fell so far
behind the convoy that she finally had to be towed behind a
man-of-war.



           Progress in the American Rebellion               363

There was one tragic event just before the Riedesels set sail.
They had three Negro servants "a man, his wife, and a kinswoman
of theirs" who were going to Canada with them. On
July 25, 1781, a letter was handed to General Riedesel. "The
bearer, Mr. Ludlow, having been Empowered by [former] Governor
Bull of South Carolina to take into his possession some
of Mr. Bull's Negroes who left Carolina with the King's Troops
last summer, hath applied at Headquarters for authority to execute
his trust...." Madam Riedesel's opinion of the Loyalist ex-Governor
was unflattering. She thought he was a turncoat and that
his title to these servants was questionable.7

"They had served us faithfully" and their former owner had
"treated them shockingly" so that now "the shrieks and lamentations
of these poor people were very great. The girl, Phyllis by
name, fainted," she said, and the Riedesels offered to buy Phyllis.
The agent "demanded thirty guineas for the girl" and in order
to compel us to buy all three refused to sell her separately. The
sum demanded was too much for our purse, but we afterwards
wished we had made the sacrifice."

It was a long, uncomfortable voyage from New York to Halifax.
There were storms when everyone was sick, and there were alarms
of privateers. But it was "during a calm" when another ship in
the convoy sailed too close to the Little Seal. A crash, the rending
and splintering of wood, and part of their stern came away and
sank. "This tore away our little Necessary and it was very
fortunate that no one was in it at the time," said the Baroness.

The convoy anchored at Halifax long enough for the usual
round of official entertainments. The Governor and his wife
gave a dinner inviting the Riedesels of course and Lady
Fritz was served lobster, a delicacy she had never seen before.
They told her that lobsters were good Loyalists because they wore
the King's red uniform.

The Little Seal somehow stayed afloat and reached the St.



364              The Baroness and the General

Lawrence River, where she anchored "on account of the ebbing
tide." Then she promptly lost her anchor. "They threw out a
second anchor, which met with the same fete" and now there was
only one left. Provisions were all gone, and "a boat which we had
sent on shore brought back only some fowls and eggs."

General Riedesel now took command. He ordered the Little
Seal's captain to lower the longboat and row his family ashore.
"We all got in to it, my husband and myself, our children, both
aides-de-camp, my maid servants and two attendants," said Mrs.
General. When they reached dry land they "chanced upon a
pretty cottage occupied by a peasant," where they were "received
in a very friendly manner." At last the land of rebels was far
behind them, and they were among proper peasants who knew
how to behave.

The General and one of his aides borrowed horses and rode on
to Quebec. Mrs. General, once more in command of her little
army, arrived there three days later. It was the middle of
September, and the journey from New York had taken eight weeks.

"We look upon the Americans as at our feet," exulted Walpole
when news of the Southern campaign reached London. Captain
Edmonston was now in London and wrote that Burgoyne was
"nearly forgotten. He was news at one time, his story is news no
longer.... He is more miserable here than in America." They
were saying that Cornwallis had taken more men from Gates than
Gates ever took from Burgoyne at Saratoga. Burgoyne explained
that General Benedict Arnold (now on the British side)
"advanced without consultation with his general," and really won at
Saratoga.

General Riedesel hoped that he had arrived in Canada in time
to see action on the rebels' Northern border and to share in a
glorious victory. He found a new Governor in Canada a man
much to his taste: Sir Frederick Haldimand, born in Switzerland,
a soldier of fortune. He was reputedly austere and unapproachable



           Progress in the American Rebellion               365

"but my husband soon gained his affection" wrote Mrs.
General. "I soon won his friendship too." She could have put it
the other way around. Governor Haldimand, who had never
married, was friendly toward Riedesel and enchanted with Lady
Fritz, who soon had him eating out of her hand.

No one among the British forces was paying any attention to
an American general named Nathaniel Greene, who had replaced
Gates in the South. On September 17, 1781, at about the time
when the Riedesels reached Canada, Lord Cornwallis sent to
Clinton for reinforcements. This time there was no story of
storms, of troops being ordered into transports and then waiting
eighteen days for a favorable wind. But again "the sailing of the
fleet was unfortunately protracted," as Clinton put it. After all,
there really seemed to be no particular hurry.



             27
              
              Return to Canada



FOR the Baroness, the return to Canada was like a joyful
homecoming. Not only were the peasants docile and ready to
do her bidding but their homes were shining-clean, as she observed
as she traveled up the St. Lawrence by the road to Quebec. Skies
were blue, the air crisp and cool with frosty nights. The City of
Quebec, which she had disapproved of when she first saw it, had
changed for the better.

The Governor's house, which "up to this time resembled a
barrack," was now "furnished and arranged after the English
fashion" and General Haldimand's gardens were "already full of
choice fruits and foreign plants." Lady Fritz could hardly believe
that some of these plants would survive a Canadian winter, but
the Governor, whose house was situated "on a height almost on
the very top" of the great cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence,
had chosen a sunny, protected spot facing southward. His fruit
trees had already survived several seasons.

Lady Fritz revised at least one of her judgments concerning
her husband's friends in Quebec. Before she had first arrived in
1777, the General had assured her that she might not like Lady
Maria Carleton, then Canada's first lady and that she would be
delighted with Mrs. "Mich" Murray. With feminine perversity,
Lady Fritz had liked Lady Maria but cared very little for Mrs.

366



                   Return to Canada                      367

Murray. It may easily be that Mrs. Murray was overenthusiastic in
her praise of General Riedesel. The Baroness said more than once
that she came to America to share her husband's "tour of duty"
in order to look after his health. This was true. But she also
regarded her stout German husband as handsome beyond compare,
charming and irresistible to women. She knew the kind of
temptations that would be placed in his path, for she had been
an army child and not even Hannah Foy had much to teach her
although she would always be shocked by actual evidence
that a general's life was not always a lonely one. But Mrs. Murray,
on close acquaintance, proved not only hospitable and friendly
but devoted to her own husband and not vulnerable even to
so attractive a German general as the Baron Riedesel. Lady Fritz
now moved in with the Murrays, children, servants, baggage and
all, and lived with them for a month. When it came time to
leave, the Riedesels took the Murrays' young daughter with them
to be their guest at Sorel for the winter.

General Riedesel's health improved. He laid this to the
invigorating Canadian climate, and to a certain extent he was right;
but also, General Haldimand had placed him in command of all
the German troops in Canada and had given him work to do, so
that now he was a much happier man. This is not to say that he
was without problems and frustrations. Sitting down to write to
Lord George Germain, he reported carefully on his position and
that of the troops as of October 13, 1781 and mentioned a few
difficulties.

Riedesel had arrived in Canada with "British and German
exchanged officers, the whole amounting to about 800 men....
Had not Mr. Washington without any just cause, broke the
promise which he had made to the late Major General Phillips,
I should have brought 40 officers more with me," he said.1 Of
course it was not "Mr. Washington" but Congress which had
broken off negotiations, over a small matter of unpaid bills. In



368              The Baroness and the General

retaliation, Clinton recalled all American officers on parole from
New York City and in daily expectation of exchange. They began
to come in, accusations were made that many had broken parole
and were fighting again and then Congress recalled General
John Burgoyne, on parole in Great Britain.2 Clinton promptly
reversed his orders. Nothing more was said about Burgoyne's
recall, and negotiations continued. General Riedesel did not say
how many officers posing as servants got into New York.

If Sir Henry Clinton could have exchanged more "of our
prisoners of war, I would have brought above three hundred
more of our troops to this Province and the troops of his Serene
Highness the Duke of Brunswick, my Master, would now consist
of three thousand active men (a number equal to those with whom
I crossed the Lake)" Riedesel continued. ".... But being
disappointed by a breach of public faith in the enemy," he would do
the best he could with what he had. Riedesel thanked Lord
Germain for the "douceur equal to forage money" which His
Lordship had granted over Clinton's head "to all officers of the
Convention Army."

General Riedesel took up a personal matter in the last paragraph
of his letter to Lord George Germain. A new Major General
named Clark had just arrived on the Canadian scene. This
man "had been only a colonel for more than a year" after
Riedesel had "served His Majesty as Major General." But here
was this so-called "General" Clark with a commission giving him
"local rank" as General since the first of January, 1776, while
General Riedesel's "local rank" came from a commission dated
eleven days later! "He must command me wherever we meet,"
wrote the Baron in anguish of spirit. "Your Lordship will not be
surprised at my being most sensibly hurt." Riedesel had hoped
that his luck would turn. And now this!

Any answer on the subject of General Clark's seniority would
be a long time coming from Great Britain, because the ice in the
St. Lawrence would soon close all communication. It was hard to



                   Return to Canada                       369

have to go on a tour of inspection of frontier posts with General
Clark, but orders were orders. That there should be any good
word spoken of General Clark in Riedesel's letters would be too
much to expect.

Governor Haldimand gave General Clark the command over
troops stationed at Quebec, on the Island of Orleans, and on the
banks of the St. Lawrence. It was a choice command, close to
Quebec for the most part. Haldimand gave Baron Riedesel the
Richelieu River, Isle aux Noix and all the most vulnerable
approaches that the rebels on the Grants and eastern New York
might use. This was a command where action might be expected,
and it pleased the Baron. But Haldimand suggested that Madam
the Baroness would, of course, prefer to live in Quebec for the
winter. Like many another bachelor, he was sure he understood
women; and he saw at once that Lady Fritz loved parties, so he
promised her plenty of them, and guaranteed she would not miss
her husband in the least.

The Baroness upset Haldimand's calculations. Certainly she
liked a good time, but she would be off to Sorel, her husband's
headquarters, as soon as he could find some sort of house.
Gallantly, Governor Haldimand replied, "You must not live in a
hovel. I will have a house built for you." He promised that the
house would be ready by Christmas and assumed she would stay
in Quebec till then. But Mrs. General set out for Sorel as soon
as a temporary home was found for her with one of the "inhabitants."
"The trees for our dwelling had not been felled, nor the
boards sawed" but plans were being drawn and the location had
been selected about a quarter of a mile beyond the town and
close to the Richelieu River. The attractive eighteenth-century
Government House which now stands on this site, although
larger and of cut stone, follows more or less the plans which the
Riedesels themselves made. Lady Fritz did not believe that her
new house could possibly be finished by Christmas. On Christmas



370              The Baroness and the General

Eve, however, they moved in, and she spoke as though she were
a bride coming into the first home of her own.

"We had a large dining room and nearby a pretty room for my
husband, close to which was our sleeping apartment. Then came
a cunning little nursery with a small room connected with it for
our oldest daughter. Last of all was a large and beautiful parlor,
which we used as a sitting room. Overhead were four big rooms,
one for the women servants, one for the men servants and two
spare room for guests." There was "an entry" which Lady Fritz
described as looking like a "handsome apartment." It had benches
along the walls where General Riedesel's personal guard of six
men could sleep by turns during the night. They were in constant
attendance on him, for he was still mortally afraid of being taken
prisoner and he had not forgotten the exploits of the American
"vile assassin" Lieutenant Whitcomb, who had kidnapped two
officers.

In the entry stood "a great stove from which pipes extended to
the ceiling and heated the whole house," Lady Fritz said, describing
her primitive hot-air furnace, which she greatly admired.
Another luxury delighted her almost as much. "Upon the walls
pretty paper hangings were pasted," and this wallpaper, which was
such a novelty, kept out a little of the cold. Her heart was almost
broken when the walls "warped during the winter, being made of
green wood, and the paper hangings were torn, letting in a draft."
Eventually, Lady Fritz would design and direct the building of a
covered passage leading to the "wash house" and to the kitchen,
which was also a separate building. Over the wash house there
would be a guardroom.

On Christmas day, 1781, the Riedesels had their Christmas
dinner in the dining room of their new house. They had "plum
pudding" and Lady Fritz explained in her diary that to eat plum
pudding at Christmas was an English custom. All the dinner
guests were men, officers of the garrison. But of course there were



                   Return to Canada                       371

the Riedesel young ladies Augusta, Frederika, Caroline and
America.

Lady Fritz thoroughly enjoyed setting up housekeeping at
Sorel, but there were surprises in store for her. "Inhabitants"
came to ask how many chickens she wanted killed to last all winter
and how many fish she would need for a full winter's supply.
She remembered all too well the putrid meat brought to her in
Charlottesville and she was sure that fish, especially, would be
much worse. Whereupon the Baroness learned about frozen food.
The 'loft" would be her frozen-fish locker, because fish would
keep better there than in the cellar. She laid in "three or four
hundred fish, great quantities of fowls as well as beef and lamb."
The meat "was delicious all winter long," but there was a point to
be remembered before starting dinner. The food was packed in
snow and time must be allowed to chop it out with a hatchet.

Six barrels of apples and a half barrel of pears were shockingly
expensive, and Mrs. General blamed herself for not making a
firm bargain with the dealer in Quebec before she ordered them.
But they kept well in the cellar as long as the barrels were tightly
headed, the heads "pasted over with paper." Frozen lemons were
good when defrosted, and the Indians brought around "an excellent
fruit" for sale. "It grows in water, is red, and as large as a
cherry without a stone." The answer to this riddle is "cranberry."
Cooked with maple sugar, cranberries made a wonderful preserve.

General Riedesel, meanwhile, had more complicated matters
on his mind than frozen food, cranberries or even plum pudding
at Christmastime. In the first place, Sorel had changed since he
last made it his headquarters before Burgoyne's campaign. Loyalists
from northern New York, New Hampshire and Vermont fled
over the border into Canada after Burgoyne's defeat. In Sorel,
the life of collaborators with the rebels was hard but the life of
displaced Loyalists was no easier. That "these immigrants were
encouraged by the British government" was the indignant



372              The Baroness and the General

complaint in predominantly French Sorel. To ease the situation,
Governor Haldimand bought the "Seigneurie" of Sorel for the Crown,
at the cost of about three thousand louis. On these formerly
French hereditary lands he established "a contingent of Loyalists"
who were still not particularly welcome. The situation,
instead of easing, grew more tense. "Captains of parishes" were
ordered to build storehouses, barracks and a hospital for soldiers
recruited from among the new arrivals.3 The militia captain in
the little village of St. Ours refused and went to jail.

One of the inhabitants planted red, white and blue flowers in
his garden the "rebel" colors as everyone knew.4 He was
arrested, but finally released without a fine. Where was the law
saying what flowers a man might like in front of his house?

New fortifications had been built around the settlement of
Sorel by forced labor from French "inhabitants." General
Riedesel found that old settlers distrusted newcomers who spoke
only English, and newcomers were arrogant toward "natives,"
despising their customs based on French tradition. Refugees
desecrated the French Catholic cemetery by burying an English
Protestant officer there, and disorders would certainly have
resulted had not the Parish priest thought of a way to calm the older
inhabitants. He reconsecrated the cemetery.

To compound a touchy situation, the Indian agent General
Riedesel was given to work with would bear watching. "Lui
Schmidt" this man signed himself, and his letters to General
Riedesel were scribbled in a French phonetically spelled and
atrocious beyond belief.5 His first communication, dated
December 18, 1781, concerned two pairs of moccasins ordered for the
little Riedesel girls and an Indian headdress he had "sent to the
bay for" and would forward to Sorel later. He had acted as guide
at an Indian encampment near Sorel, and said that the "Savages
and their wives" had great joy in seeing Madame de Riedesel.
This letter was written in excessively flattering terms with a hint
that favors might be given and received a style not at all



                   Return to Canada                       373

calculated to please the German General, had "Lui" but known it.

Schmidt was next heard from at the village of St. Francis.
He had put two soldiers into the house of Merchant Piccard
and he had no right to do this, because the quartering of soldiers
was entirely the responsibility of the local militia captain. The
militia captain had complained, and Schmidt said he had been
planning to tell General Riedesel all about it. Piccard was "a bad
Subject of the King" who had "five or six Savages in the village
who used to serve his Excellency well" but Piccard "ruined these
Savages by the large quantity of liquor which he sold them" In
the course of his "explanation," "Lui" committed an error in
judgment, however: ".... And since the women of your troops
also sell liquor, for this reason I dared easily to slip some Rum to
the Savages to get the news and find out what was going on...."

General Riedesel made it clear to Schmidt that strict orders
were going out at once against the selling of rum to the Indians,
by anyone, and that penalties would be severe. He would like to
know the name "of a single soldier" who sold mm. But Schmidt
preferred to accuse women, and his efforts at implicating anyone
in particular were unconvincing. On January 11, 1782, General
Riedesel reminded Schmidt of his promise to send an Indian
guide to the Yamanska Blockhouse to show a scouting party the
road to the St. Francis River. Everything was ready; the party
would set out as soon as the guide arrived.

But Schmidt replied that nothing could be done until the
Indians got over their New Year's celebration. On January 30, the
Riedesels being in Quebec on a visit, one of General Riedesel's
aides wrote from Sorel to know if Schmidt had as yet had the
goodness to send that guide. Schmidt said he had sent the guide
on the twenty-first There was really nothing more he could do
for General Riedesel, because the Indians had all gone hunting
now. But he sent, with his compliments, "four moose muzzles"
and "two moose tongues," because he would like a vacation from
his army duties so he himself could go beaver hunting.



374              The Baroness and the General

Difficulties with the artful "Lui" or Louis Schmidt were not in
General Riedesel's official report, of course. He had placed the
44th Regiment in winter quarters, he told General Haldimand.
"The fleet," consisting of three vessels, were frozen into the ice
at St. Johns, their guns pointed so that they could protect each
other and the fort. Each ship had been surrounded with palisades
"set on a wall of snow" Garrisons were watchful. Orders had
been given to prevent hostile emissaries from coming into the
parishes.

It would have gratified General Riedesel to read General
Stark's letters to Schuyler at this time, but they did not fall into
his hands. Stark was positive that there would be an attack from
Canada, and on October 29 he thought they were on their way.
"The l0th Massachusetts and the 1st New Hampshire Regiments"
had arrived, however, and this "fine body of troops ought to be
able to repel every hostile invasion of any enemy this year," Stark
wrote. The way General Riedesel heard it, the American rebels
were not gathering to oppose an attack they were the ones
massing for a winter invasion.

Two brothers, members of an American scouting party, were
caught. "The Lovells, prisoners, are arrived," Riedesel told
Haldimand. "I hope from their testimonies and from what.... fear may
draw from the delinquents at Ste.-Thérèse, that useful discoveries
may be made though it is astonishing how unsuccessful we
have been in these researches, notwithstanding the pains that
have been taken." The inhabitants of the little parish of Ste.-
Thérèse could not be made to tell any secrets, although "from
their statements, it is but too likely that their wives become
willing agents in supplying Rebel Scouts with provisions," Haldimand
replied. The men arrested on suspicion should be "enlarged and
warned," therefore, because it "would look too much like
oppression to detain them." The Lovells refused to talk.

When other rebel scouts who were caught did decide to talk,
they told tales of a formidable army on its way to General



                   Return to Canada                       375

Riedesel's posts. Riedesel sent out scouts to look for this army,
relying on Louis Schmidt to organize the expeditions. Before
long, he discovered that the Indians took the rum issued to them,
then went off a little way into the woods to enjoy it, and returned
to say they had searched for rebels but couldn't find any. One
party, with provisions for twenty days, returned in three days
very drunk, with all provisions gone. Schmidt said "the English"
had given them rum.

During February, General Riedesel went to Quebec, taking his
family with him. They had "cold, snowy, overcast weather with
bad roads," he said. However, the trip was taken in such short
stages that "Madam and the children did not feel the rigorous
climate and arrived in perfect health." Lady Fritz went to a ball,
to dinners and other festivities. In March, "Madam and the young
ladies went to Montreal." Meanwhile the officers left behind at
Sorel started a club where the "bottle was put about very freely"
and "the Queen's health drunk many times," but "Sorel was no
more Sorel" without Lady Fritz, and "all the gentlemen of the
garrison hoped for her speedy return."

The return from Montreal in March was more speedy than safe.
Lady Fritz and the children drove down the St. Lawrence on the
ice, but the sun was warm and water stood "along the whole of
the track." Branches of trees stuck in the ice marked a safe route,
but by five in the afternoon when they reached Sorel the water
was so deep "it came into the sledge. Next morning when I got
up I saw to my horror a ship under full canvas sailing up the
river in the very track we had come over the night before," the
Baroness said.

When spring really came at last, General Riedesel planted the
finest of all the various gardens he had had during his military
duty in North America. He set out "1200 fruits trees, 406 lindens"
and planted turnips, parsley and carrots. He was disappointed not



376              The Baroness and the General

to get enough turnip seed to plant an acre. Lady Fritz said she
picked over two hundred cucumbers which she "made into
pickles" and since no one in Canada had ever seen any real
German cucumber pickle she made presents of it to all her friends.
"It was, in fact, as if I lived upon a magnificent farm," said Mrs.
General. "I had my own cows, a large number of fowls and Virginia
hogs, which are black, smaller than ours and very
shortlegged. I also made my own butter.

"This was truly the Promised Land for the soldiers. My husband
gave them seeds and it gave us great pleasure to see the way they
kept house, especially their kitchen arrangements a pleasure we
often indulged in when we went walking. They exchanged half
of the salt meat they received for fresh; so that they could boil
both kinds together in a big kettle with all sorts of vegetables and
dumplings.... My husband also had fishnets made, and each
company took turns going fishing. Every time they went they sent
us some of their catch. They could have fresh fish two or three
times a week and every six days they were issued a bottle of ruin,
rice, butter, twelve pounds of Indian meal and every day they
got either a pound of salt pork or half a pound of beef."

Baron Friedrich von Riedesel might not be the world's most
brilliant General although he had had scant opportunity to
prove his ability, one way or the other during the rebellion in the
American provinces. But he would have made a fine leader of a
pioneer colony in almost any country.

Wives of the German soldiers here were now so well off and
contented that it was hard for the Baroness to get any of them
to work for her. She tried the wife of a refugee Loyalist, but
thought the woman was lazy. There was nothing like a good
German woman; General Riedesel had to see to it that at least one
sergeant having a neat, industrious wife, was always stationed at
Sorel.

When General Riedesel arrived in Quebec he brought with him
a plan for conquering the American rebels. This document was



                   Return to Canada                       377

the result of conferences with Generals Clinton and Phillips in
New York. Riedesel laid the plan before General Haldimand and
took down Haldimand's reply. The strategy was to "take three
or four well-fortified places on the coast, so that the Americans,
who are not adapted to making formal sieges and who lack
knowledge and armament for such an enterprise, would not be
in a position to take them. From these posts, we must harass the
Rebels by well followed-up expeditions without insisting on
holding posts in the interior of the country. This sort of war would
force the Rebels to have armies everywhere. Costs of the war
would increase, resources would be exhausted and discontentment
would spread. Then the Rebels would finally open their eyes and
realize that they are the dupe of European powers. They would
join their own compatriots instead of being a whip in the hands
of ambitious powers against their own interests"

In accordance with this blueprint for victory, Lord Cornwallis
had gone to the South to establish one of those "well-fortified
places" at a place called Yorktown. General Riedesel had been
in Canada a little over a month when the Battle of Yorktown
was fought and won by those Rebels not adapted to making a
siege. This news was slow to reach Governor Haldimand, who
relayed it to Riedesel. But neither of them believed it.



There was a special message for Governor Haldimand in the
document which Riedesel brought him from New York:

"To this plan, there must be added a new strategy in Canada
and a reinforcement of at least 2000 men at the different Posts
on the Lakes, at Niagara, Detroit, etc. Under the leadership of
capable officers, detachments of five or six hundred men should
push toward the Ohio.6 It would be necessary to add to these
detachments Savages, to whom must be given carte blanche to do
whatever they will without restriction while striking at the back
of the colonies, especially that of Virginia and Pennsylvania.



378              The Baroness and the General

"Sufficiently cruel though such a plan appears, it is necessary
in the present situation. Panic tenor would increase among the
Rebels and their fine farms and estates would be ruined. Soon
subsistence for the army would disappear and since they would
be distressed on the coast by the expeditions of our army and
exposed in the rear to the depredations of the Savages, they would
find no other resource but to submit to their conquerors.

"I don't mean that the Savages should be an army but simply
that they should spring out wherever forces assemble against them
and fall back on the regular troops posted in their rear. The
Savages will love this kind of fighting. Their natural cruelty will
be satisfied and they will enrich themselves with booty and be
satiated with the flowing of blood. They will regain their former
reputation which they had under French rule"

Someone, and it seems probable that it was General Riedesel
himself, corrected this document, which was in French, and
deleted the part about the "flowing of blood" But the reference
to the "fine farms and estates" of Virginia and Pennsylvania
sounds like the voice of Riedesel's personal experience as he
marched southward, a prisoner of war but still the General,
observing enemy territory. The paragraph concluded with the faint
voice of conscience: "I will admit that such excess seems
extremely cruel but one must sacrifice something to bring about
peace and the common good"

Part of Clinton's plan for Haldimand was to "make a diversion
against Ticonderoga and Albany while the attack toward the Ohio
was going on. Perhaps, as General Riedesel wrote all this down,
he visualized himself as succeeding where Burgoyne had failed.
Haldimand's "Reply to General Clinton's Proposals as set forth
by General Riedesel" dated September 20, 1781, brought common
sense to bear upon the whole ambitious scheme.7

The British were supplying the Indians with "4000 rations per
day at Niagara alone," Haldimand pointed out. "Supplies for an
army of 2000 would have to be conveyed by bateau 200 miles up



                   Return to Canada                       379

rapids, intersected by carrying-places, to the first lake from
thence to Niagara in vessels, then on over a carrying-place of 7
miles and up a rapid of 18 miles to Fort Erie, from whence they
would proceed to Presqu' Isle " Moreover, Haldimand was sure
that the inhabitants on the Ohio would fight.

As to Indians - "In all the excursions taken by Indians in this
war, there has not been a single instance where the Indians have
fulfilled their engagements, but influenced by caprice, a dream,
or a desire for protracting the war to obtain presents, they have
dispersed and deserted the troops."

It all made sense, but there was no use in Haldimand's sending
this reply to Clinton. Sir Henry Clinton had delayed so long in
sending reinforcements to Cornwallis that they never set out from
New York until the day of Cornwall's defeat. After that defeat,
Clinton was recalled and would take up Burgoyne's present
occupation writing out a long explanation of how the Rebels
somehow contrived to win decisive victories. State of the Expedition
Burgoyne called his narrative. "Disagreeable as is the necessity, I
must here again, in justice to my own army, recur to the vigor
and obstinacy with which they were fought by the enemy" he
said. Clinton entitled his work The American Rebellion, and in
it he blamed everyone but himself.

General Riedesel was too practical not to see the logic of
Haldimand's refusal to mount an expedition. There were plenty of
frontier forts to be repaired and improved and he occupied
himself with this duty.

In April 1782, Governor Haldimand got orders direct from the
War Ministry in London to open a correspondence with Vermont,
with a view to annexing that "province," and he turned
the matter over to Riedesel. General Riedesel was "to send a
considerable detachment to the frontiers of Vermont in order to
furnish these people with the opportunity of declaring themselves
openly in favor of Government and if necessary to protect them
against the resentment of Congress."8 Ethan Allen had been



380              The Baroness and the General

exchanged. He had presented the claims "of the Independent
Republic of Vermont" to join the United States in 1778, but Yorkers
in Congress prevailed and he got nowhere. It seemed that here
was an ideal spot to drive an opening wedge in the still somewhat
disunited United States, and both Haldimand and Riedesel liked
the plan. But the whole thing must be done secretly; so Haldimand
gave it out that he wanted to build a much larger fort at
Isle aux Noix on the Richelieu River. Riedesel gathered provisions
and built barracks for troops which arrived at St. Johns "without
anyone suspecting the true aim" Part of the plot was to raise
recruits in Vermont and bring them to Canada for training.

General Riedesel was at his best while organizing an expedition
but the directing of spies was not among his talents. Louis
Schmidt wanted to take some Indians and go raiding now that
spring had come. But of course this would never do while Vermont
was being wooed rather than intimidated. Louis was told to
"observe" but not start anything. So Louis and his Indians just
went out, observed nothing and came back drunk. Letters were
delivered to Ethan Allen at Arlington, Vermont, "by a British
soldier in the habit of an American farmer." But "Aaron Boon,"
who had been sent to "collect recruits ... was taken prisoner,"
and did "much harm to our friends in Arlington by endeavoring
in a public, unguarded manner to recruit." Boon almost "ruined
our principal source of Intelligence," Riedesel was told.

An unsigned letter arrived in Canada from an "emissary going
into Vermont disguised as a land agent." "Unfortunately," he
said, "on my return with 12 recruits, 3 German soldiers and one
Loyalist, besides myself, which made 17 in number, I was
discovered by a Rebel lieutenant and one man with him, which for
safety we took prisoners, but traveling 8 or 9 miles, one of the
prisoners not being pinioned made his escape by running to a
Rebel Major's house and broke open the door before we could
retake him, which occasioned an alarm in the frontier towns. A
body of militia then pursued and took us by which I was obliged



                   Return to Canada                       381

to destroy my papers." This man was tried at Sunderland and made
"prisoner at large" he said. He promptly set up a letter-carrying
service to Canada by which his unsigned letter arrived. But "five
of my recruits now lie in close confinement in Bennington jail"
he added.

Only a few Loyalist recruits came in from Vermont, and "likewise
three or four old, infirm creatures fit for nothing but to
consume rations.... and an enormous assembly of ragged Petticoats
and half-naked children to be clothed and receive the hearty
benediction of His Excellency."

Whenever General Riedesel set out on a tour of inspection, he
left an aide at home to stand guard over his wife and the children.9
It was now Captain Willoe, who was stationed at Sorel in
1782. He wrote his official communications with all the correct
formality of a British officer, but hardly a dispatch went forward
to the General without a private note full of affection for the
little family under his care. "We had a very heavy shower of rain
yesterday and some Thunder which alarmed Madame de Riedesel
a little," he wrote on the seventh of June.

As brave as any General when she was under fire at Saratoga,
Lady Fritz hated thunder and lightning particularly just now.
She was once more expecting a child. Again she was sure that
she would give her husband lie son and heir he so much wanted
and she was happy she tried not to be nervous. "The storm soon
cleared up" wrote Captain Willoe. "He had the pleasure of seeing
her perfectly well in the evening."



             28
              
               The Pretty Ship



GENERAL Riedesel heard of a harpsichord "for sale at 16
guineas" and bought it for his wife. She began to give music
lessons to Augusta and Frederika, who discovered to their surprise
that they must work hard to learn to do what their mother seemed
to do so easily. They were impatient with scales and finger
exercises but much happier when they were allowed to practice a duet
to play for their father as a surprise when he came home.

Of course the new harpsichord meant that the drawing-room
must be redecorated, and Lady Fritz had the split and torn
wallpaper replaced. It was good to have household projects to think
of, because she was worrying constantly about her husband. She
could picture him riding through heavy forest on his way from
one frontier fort to another or afloat on some rapid river in one of
those fearfully unstable canoes. If she had not experienced this
kind of travel herself it would have been easier to feel sure he
would soon return.

During the summer of 1782, the Riedesels again made a visit to
Quebec. They had earned their holiday. Governor Haldimand
took them out to see the summer home he had just built for
himself beside the falls of Montmorency. "This cataract plunges from
a height of one hundred and sixty-three feet," wrote the Baroness.
"It made a frightful din" She looked up "at a cleft in the mountain



                     The Pretty Ship                     383

where the water came through" and remarked that it would
be wonderful to be able to see it from there. "Three weeks
afterwards" when Governor Haldimand invited the Riedesels to
Montmorency again:

"We made our way up the steep path, beside the falls, and
over pieces of rock that were united by little bridges after the
manner of a Chinese garden."

When at last they reached the top, the Governor gave Lady
Fritz his hand to help her "into a little building which hung
directly over the falls itself. He was astonished when she entered the
building "without a moment's hesitation" and commented on her
"courage." Perhaps he had hoped she would be afraid and that
if the General had not been puffing along up the path too close
behind them, he might have held more than her hand. But Lady
Fritz said the right thing. "I assured him that I was not in the
least afraid when he was with me."

This time the Riedesels did not stay with the Murrays but
this implied no rift in the friendship, it was just that Mrs. Murray
had a son, named for General Riedesel, born June 23, 1782.
The Riedesels stayed with Dr. and Madam Mabane, who lived a
little way up the hill behind the Governor's house. They had
dinner with the Governor every day, and this supposedly crusty
old bachelor often kept the Riedesel children with him all the
afternoon. They played in his garden and he called eleven-year-
old Augusta his "little wife" In the evening, after the children
were in bed, the Riedesels went back to the Governor's house for
supper which was prepared with true French elegance and served
with fine wine. Then they played bezique. The language spoken
was always either French or German, for Governor Haldimand
spoke very little English.

General Riedesel spent most of the winter of 1782 looking for
"Hazen's Road." Colonel Moses Hazen, born in Haverhill,
Massachusetts, was a veteran of the French and Indian wars. He had



384              The Baroness and the General

settled in St. Johns, Quebec Province, where he had a prosperous
farm and a sawmill, but he joined Montgomery in the siege of
Quebec and in the retreat from Canada he took Canadian refugees
with him and recruited a regiment called "Hazen's Own." Arnold,
whose expense accounts were always chaotic, accused Hazen of
making off with funds from Montreal; but in a court-martial
Hazen was cleared of all charges. With the idea of mounting
another expedition from America into Canada, Hazen built a
military road from Vermont toward the Canadian border. It
would be the proper route for a "protective" force to go into
Vermont to annex the present "Republic of Vermont," and so
both Governor Haldimand and General Riedesel wanted very
much to find it.

Again and again, Louis Schmidt's Indians went out, consumed
their rations and returned with no report of any road. Louis
explained that the Indians didn't mind taking a canoe down a creek,
but they hated to get into the thick forest with all that
undergrowth. This was fast developing into an embarrassing situation,
when at last came welcome news. The scouts had found blaze
marks on trees for a long distance, indicating a wonderfully
straight trail in the wilderness. Riedesel wrote all the particulars
to Governor Haldimand, feeling pleased with his success.

Haldimand asked Captain Twiss, one of Riedesel's aides, then
in Quebec, to explain to Riedesel what the scouts had really
found. 'The Road you mentioned to be discovered near Point
au Per is neither more or less than the boundary line, marked in
1772 or 73 to divide New York and Canada, its due course is
exactly West but the variation will make it appear by compass
West and North. Mr. Collins was one of the surveyors who marked
it and he tells me they cleared it very wide and that every League
they put a square cedar post. On one side was wrote New York,
on the other Canada and the distance from any particular place
was wrote underneath."1

The laugh was on Louis Schmidt or maybe Louis had known



                     The Pretty Ship                      385

all about the boundary line and thought he could beguile his
German commander with it and not have to go into the unexplored
hinterland any more. General Riedesel did not find the
affair amusing. But an "emmissary," who got caught in Vermont,
broke jail and returned to Canada with the news that "Hazen
may be had. He is artful and enterprising...." There was no use
bothering any more with searching for Hazen's Road if Hazen
himself could be bribed to point it out. Riedesel went back to
his business of building a blockhouse at Pointe au Per and making
Isle aux Noix a strong point. Probably he never learned that
Moses Hazen remained a staunch patriot artful and enterprising,
to be sure, but on the American side.

General Riedesel was at Pointe au Fer when "in the middle of
the night he heard a great commotion." He thought the rebels
had discovered where he was and had come to capture him, but a
subaltern rushed in shouting, "For God's sake, General, run. The
barracks are on fire." Sure enough, he smelled smoke, "the
subaltern did not allow him to gather together any of his things
so he had to run out naked and barefoot through flames upon the
ice." The soldiers got the fire under control, the powder magazine
did not blow up after all, and the General "returned and dressed
himself." This was his wife's account of the affair.

General Riedesel's report was decidedly more dignified. Someone
had built a cook-fire inside the blockhouse, "contrary to
orders." Fire spread so rapidly that in a few minutes the whole
blockhouse and the fortification on the north were in flames.
"But for the extraordinary exertions of the garrison" the whole
fort would have burned.

Captain Willoe was very much annoyed because someone told
Lady Fritz about the accident and she began strongly to suspect
that her husband had met with more narrow escapes than die
knew about. "I was perfectly forlorn," she said. "I had been in the
habit of dissipating my loneliness by driving out in my carriage"



386              The Baroness and the General

and on the first day of October while she was out riding, labor
pains began. She told the driver to turn back, but when she got
home the doctor and the midwife, who were already in attendance,
thought it was all a false alarm. They told her to sit down at
table. "She dined with us, but complained a little and joked with
us," said Captain Willoe. "I went home at seven and at nine
o'clock Madame was brought to bed" The devoted young aide
thanked God that he was able to felicitate his "dear and most
honored General" on the happy event but he never mentioned
whether the baby was a boy or a girl.

Two days later, Lady Fritz "felt so well" that she was able to
write to her husband herself "announcing the new arrival." It
was a little girl. General Riedesel was so sure that this time they
would have a son that he thought his wife was joking. But on
coming home to Sorel on October 5, he once more "found the
little girl so pretty that he was consoled for his disappointment."

This time Governor Haldimand was a godfather, and General
Carleton godfather in absentia, as were General Spaeth and
General Loos - that old friend of the Riedesels who had said that
Lady Fritz had lost her lovely white complexion and her slender
waist. Mademoiselle de Massow, sister of the Baroness and Lady-
in-Waiting to the Queen of Prussia, was godmother and so was
the baby's sister Augusta. The baby was christened by Pastor
Mylius, still the children's tutor, in the little chapel the Riedesels
had fitted up for themselves and the German officers of the Garrison.
They named the new little daughter Luisa Augusta Elizabeth
Canada; "Canada" was the name they would call her by.

For seven years, Frederika Riedesel had shared the hardships
of a military campaign with her husband and her health had been
superb. But by the middle of November, she developed an ulcer
in her right breast and suffered great pain when nursing the baby.
The doctor lanced the ulcer, but pain continued, and at last she
was persuaded to wean the baby. It was against her will, and



                     The Pretty Ship                      387

during the first night she thought she heard a voice crying, "You have
done wrong!" She "sprang from the bed, tore off the bindings
which had been put on her breast to dry the milk and was about
to give her "dear little Canada the breast again" when the nurse
stopped her. Three days later the baby "was attacked by diarrhea"
and the baby's mother was "delirious with milk fever." An English
doctor from Three Rivers came and prescribed strange remedies.
"He had an old hen killed and took out the entrails, which
he had cooked without cleaning them." He gave the baby this
horrible concoction, which "at first seemed to infuse new life into
her." But little Canada died at the age of five months. The whole
family was overcome with grief, and Augusta, the baby's eleven-
year-old godmother, was taken dangerously ill her illness caused
by sorrow, her mother felt sure.

The baby Canada was buried in the cemetery at Sorel, and the
officers of the garrison promised Mrs. General that they would
mark the grave with a stone "which would prevent the inhabitants
from taking up the heretic child from consecrated earth."
Later, the parish priest came and assured Lady Fritz that because
the baby had been christened though not confirmed, she need have
no fear. They would take good care of the grave of the child, who
was now "one of God's angels."

But now Mrs. General, whose courage had never failed her, grew
homesick for Germany. The house, where the height of the
growing children was marked on the chimney no longer seemed
like home. Army. wives and army children never expect to have
a place to call home for long, but to her it seemed wrong to
bring up four little German girls to speak English and French so
much better than German. They could not even remember the
land of their forefathers.

By the middle of March, 1783, news from London reached the
Murrays in Quebec, who relayed it to the Riedesels at Sorel:

"I hear His Excellency [Governor Haldimand] has at last got



388              The Baroness and the General

the King's Speech, that it breathes nothing but Peace and that he
admits the Independency of the American Provinces and this ends
a seven years' war carried on at immense expense of Blood and
Treasure" The Murrays felt sympathy for "the poor Loyalists,
for their situation must be dreadful indeed."

General Carleton, writing from New York where he was Governor,
dated "a letter of farewell to the General and Madam
Riedesel," April 9, 1783. "The preliminaries of a general peace"
had been signed, he said.

Now came the difficult business of rounding up rank and file
who had been prisoners of war. Brunswick soldiers were to be sent
to Halifax so that they could sail home with General Riedesel.
But there was a great shortage of transports in New York; they
would have to wait their turn. Some finally left on the fourth of
July, but the troops imprisoned in Rutland many of them taken
at Bennington did not arrive in time and so were sent from
New York direct to Germany. There had been so many who
escaped and deserted that there were only forty men who finally
came from Rutland. Others known to be near Albany and Boston
simply did not report.

Troops of the Prince Frederick Regiment who had embarked
with General Phillips for the Southern campaign were taken at
Yorktown, after his death, and were imprisoned at Frederick in
Maryland.2 They were in captivity nineteen months, and many
of them hired themselves out to farmers or as artisans. Most of
them were well treated, but some were exploited cruelly. The
regiment marched for New York on May 14, 1783, and on the
way seven noncommissioned officers, three servants, three
drummers, and one hundred thirty-two soldiers deserted. Of course not
a word appears in the official records concerning the women and
children left in New York and forbidden to follow the troops
to the Chesapeake. In an age when many women could neither
read nor write, it would be surprising if the women of this



                     The Pretty Ship                      389

regiment ever found their husbands again or the children, their
fathers.

Governor Haldimand asked to be recalled when he got the
news of the peace treaty. He was shocked and disillusioned
because Detroit and Niagara were given to America, for these posts
were of great importance to the Canadian fur trade. He planned
to sail for England in the same ship with the Riedesels. His recall
did not come in time, but Lady Fritz and the children were in
Quebec with him, walking in his garden, when he "pointed out a
number of vessels just arriving in the lower city."

"They have come to take us all back home," he said.

The 'Tittle ladies" leaned over the garden wall and looked
straight down into the lower town and the ships in the river.
Frederika they called her "Miss Fritza" now that she was nine
picked out an especially "pretty ship" and asked, "Can we have
that one?"

Governor Haldimand explained that if he hired that ship it
would cost the King of England a great deal of money. Frederika
thought the King ought not to mind. After all, he had a wife
and children of his own, so he would want the best ship for his
General's wife and children. Then, judging that this argument
was not having much effect, Frederika took another tack. Since
Governor Haldimand called her sister Augusta his "little wife"
and said he was going to marry her as soon as she was old enough,
"Don't you want your little wife to sail home safely?" she asked.

The Governor laughed and said he'd see.

Two days afterward," Governor Haldimand called at the house
"of the good Dr. Mabane" where Lady Fritz was living. "There
were tears in his eyes. 'You are to go and I am to stay' he said.
I shall miss you very much' " The Governor's request for recall
had been refused.

But Haldimand had already looked over the ship assigned to
General Riedesel and found it "unsafe." He had therefore



390              The Baroness and the General

"assumed the responsibility" of hiring the "pretty ship" which little
Miss Fritza had chosen. An hour later, Major Twiss came to escort
the Baroness aboard so that she could look the ship over and
"order it fitted up" exactly as she wanted it. "It was a large West
India three-decker in good condition. The captain was also highly
praised as an excellent seaman and a courteous, upright man," she
said. The Baroness had not forgotten the sea captain who brought
her to Canada.

Major Twiss "ordered the cannon which were on the gun deck
to be taken away, and a large porthole cut and staterooms built
for the gentlemen of General Riedesel's suite." The Riedesels
"kept the great cabin," having staterooms partitioned off, one for
the children and one for themselves. The governor had "a cow
and a calf" put on board so that the children could have fresh
milk, and a "place on the upper deck he had filled with earth"
to make a garden for growing "salad plants." The Riedesels
themselves loaded "many fowls, sheep and vegetables" on board
because their official "family" numbered twenty-two officers who
would sit down at their table every day.

It was time now for the exchanging of gifts between the
departing Riedesels and Governor Haldimand. General Riedesel
gave him "his favorite mare and her foal." Governor Haldimand
gave Lady Fritz "a magnificent muff and stole of sable" and to
his 'Tittle wife" Augusta, "a beautiful hunting dog." He hoped
that Lady Fritz would stay in Quebec while the ship was being
built over for her convenience and while her husband went back
to Sorel to wind up his business. But Mrs. General said she was
going back to Sorel too.

"You must return soon and give me your company for the
little while that will remain to you before you leave," urged the
Governor. "He then left me, deeply moved," said Lady Fritz.

General Carleton had replaced Clinton in New York. The
Americans felt that he delayed the British evacuation of the city
much too long but he was sending American Loyalists to Canada,



                     The Pretty Ship                      391

helping them to make a new start in life. General Riedesel wrote
him several times, urging that all German troops, their wives and
children then in New York, be sent to Canada at once, but
Carleton explained that a lack of transports made this impossible.
He promised to send the Germans direct to Europe from New
York sometime. Riedesel was sure that his people would be
marooned in New York forever and he was much distressed. As it
turned out, however, Riedesel was delayed and the Germans
reached the other side of the Atlantic ahead of him. This worried
him still more.

General Schuyler wrote to Madam and General Riedesel in
behalf of Mrs. Schuyler and himself. He hoped they would go to
Europe by way of New York City, taking the overland route, and
he wanted to invite the Riedesels to visit him in Albany no
longer as prisoners of war but as friends. It was with real regret
that General Riedesel explained that he was to sail from Quebec.

In Canada, Captain Willoe was inconsolable. He had been
ordered to Fort Niagara, and Haldimand refused him leave to
come to Quebec to say good-by to Lady Fritz and the children.
He blamed Haldimand's "cruelty."3

The Baroness returned to Quebec a few days before her husband
did and found festivities planned for her. The officers of the
garrison gave a play and at the end of it they sang a song "wishing
us a prosperous journey" she said. Governor Haldimand had
attended personally to the alterations on the "pretty ship." There
was a final farewell dinner after "the embarkation of the troops"
and a last "tea" with Governor Haldimand, before "he carried
us himself to the ship, where we took an affectionate and sad
farewell."

The Riedesels set sail "about the middle of August" and got as
far as the Isle de Bee at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, where
they were becalmed for eleven days. After all the farewell parties,
the gifts and the tears, it was an anticlimax, and a great



392              The Baroness and the General

disappointment General Riedesel was upset. He had dispatches from
Governor Haldimand for Lord George Germain and day after
day went by. Ships setting out from New York might have
favorable winds and all the news would reach London before the
General. Besides, they were beginning to worry about equinoctial
storms.

One Sunday Pastor Mylius was holding his accustomed service
on the deck, "praying most fervently that God would grant us a
favorable wind and a happy return to our fatherland" Mrs.
General wrote, "when the ship began to move" The chaplain said
"Amen" just as the "cry went around that the English
commodore had signaled for departure"4

The passage was tedious, however, because the commodore kept
signaling for delays so that slow vessels could catch up with the
fleet. The Riedesels' ship was fast but she was under orders to
stay in line until one day when the signal came for "all ships
to heave to" and the commodore, speaking through a trumpet,
shouted "General, proceed." The General's ship cracked on all
sail and sped away. Just as they left, two doves belonging to the
commodore's ship flew over to the Riedesel vessel "and could not
be driven away." The crew considered this a lucky omen. Where-
upon they ran into a storm that continued "with unabated fury"
night and day for three weeks. Since the ship stayed afloat, the
crew's faith in signs and portents was considered justified. But
Lady Fitz marveled at the superstitions of seamen and was very
much frightened all during the voyage.

As they approached the coast of Ireland a heavy fog set in.
Now the seas were calm and everyone could gather for meals and
to enjoy the music of "the hautboys" from Regiment Riedesel.
Riedesel's military family and his own family "feasted on beef
because the poor cow, although "fastened into a hammock during
the storm," had nevertheless fallen and was so badly hurt she
had to be killed. Now that the weather was calm, Lady Fritz and
the children really began to enjoy themselves but General



                     The Pretty Ship                      393

Riedesel began to worry. He had been calculating the ship's
course and his reckoning and the captain's did not agree.

It was whispered among the officers that General Riedesel had
calculated the ship's course on the outward-bound voyage before
they reached Canada in 1776, and had told the captain that they
must have sailed past Canada in the night. This time, "a gust of
wind drew aside the fog like a curtain" and suddenly there was
"the Isle of Wight and the whole English coast lying just in front
of us." General Riedesel had been right and the captain wrong:
they had entered the English Channel, and were much closer to
shore than anyone had realized.

Their port of destination was Portsmouth, but as they entered
the roadstead known as Spithead there was a grinding shock and
the ship struck something underwater where no shoal or rock was
known to be. They were stuck fast for about forty-eight hours
on the sunken wreck of the man-of-war Royal George. On August
29, 1782, the Royal George, carrying 100 guns, had been loaded at
Portsmouth with supplies, munitions and "about 900 souls
including about 200 women and children" bound for Gibraltar.
Laden as she was, they heeled her over to make underwater
repairs and she capsized "at her anchors," carrying all hands down
with her. It was now about the middle of the month of September
1783, and this tragic wreck still remained, a hazard to other
ships.5

But "our hearts were light as we stepped on shore," wrote Mrs.
General, "and I thanked God for the happy return of us all, and
especially for His having preserved my husband to me."

They hastened up to London and were "magnificently lodged
in a large hotel, the King George. Lady Fritz immediately sent
for a dressmaker. She knew that she would be invited to the
Queen's Drawing Room receptions, and she hadn't a thing to
wear. She could see at a glance that styles had changed: ruffles
were in, and so were scarves of gauze or fine linen; skirts were
narrower and hats had wider brims. Lady Fritz was not going to



394              The Baroness and the General

look like a provincial if she could help it, and the clothes she had
brought from Canada would never do except of course the furs,
but it was not yet the season for them.

Unfortunately, however, the Baroness had made such a favorable
impression upon Queen Charlotte that she had not been
forgotten and her summons came too soon. My Lady Howard,
the Queen's first lady-in-waiting, called personally on the Baroness
to invite her to come to St James's Palace "that afternoon at six
o'clock."

Perhaps only a German Baroness and one quite fond of clothes
would have done such a thing but Frederika Charlotte Luise
Baroness von Riedesel sent regrets! She had only an Angloise to
wear and she just couldn't be seen in it her new court dress
wasn't ready yet, and she would come later.

The Queen replied, "We do not look at the dress of those
people we are glad to see," and this time Lady Fritz recognized
a command when she heard it The Riedesels were entertained
at St. James's Palace as informally as though they had been
members of the royal family themselves. The Queen, the Princesses,
Lady Howard and the Baroness sat in a semicircle before the fire.
"Tea and cakes were passed around. I sat between the Queen and
one of the Princesses, and they made me tell a great many of my
adventures," said Lady Fritz.

"I have followed you everywhere and have often asked about
you," the Queen told her. "I was always delighted to hear that
you were well, happy and beloved by everyone."

Poor Lady Fritz had "a shocking cough," which Princess Sophia
noticed. "She went herself and brought me a jelly made of black
currants, which she said was a particularly good remedy, and made
me accept a jar full. At nine o'clock the Prince of Wales came in.
His youngest sisters flocked around him and he embraced them
and danced them around." Everything was so informal that it
was like spending an evening "in a cheerful family circle in my
own station in life."



                     The Pretty Ship                      395

The King and General Riedesel stood in the center of the
group, close to the fire, "where His Majesty conversed much about
America, and in German."

General Riedesel wrote the details of his private conversation
with George III in a letter to Governor Haldimand. His Majesty
"took me aside and began to go over the whole of the last war
and commanded me to tell him all that I had found out This I
did most faithfully. I admit I never would have believed that the
King was so much aware of all that has happened; the mistakes the
Ministry has made as well as those of the different Generals and
the different factions that have caused projects to fail. Better still
did he know to the bottom the capacities and character of all his
officers who have been in service, even the German officers and
finally, he knew all the scandalous stories that have been going the
rounds in the army, especially in the time of Sir William Howe"6
It would seem that the reputation of the beautiful, golden-haired
Mrs. Loring was international.

George III was so pleased with General Riedesel that he granted
him a pension. While in New York, the General's pay was at least
two pounds ten shillings a day, and most of his expenses were
paid. When Captain Freeman, Riedesel's most trusted aide, went
to London he carried funds which he invested for the General.
Riedesel went around to Brooks, Watson and Rashleigh, where
he found a gratifying balance in his account. The modest items
of family jewelry which the Baroness had left with the banker as
security for expenses connected with her stay in London and her
voyage to Canada were returned to her, and General Riedesel went
to a London cabinetmaker, where he ordered fine mahogany
furniture for his wife's drawing-room in Germany such furniture
as she had enjoyed in New York and the destruction of which
still grieved her.

Distinguished people called on the Riedesels every day of their
stay in London. General Tryon was there, and did not fail to put
in an appearance. Lord North called, and so did "Mr. Fox."



396              The Baroness and the General

Charles James Fox had always championed the cause of the
American colonies and he had just become British Foreign Minister.

One old acquaintance failed to put in an appearance. Gentleman
Johnny Burgoyne was now Commander-in-Chief in Ireland,
but had come back to London in 1783 to attend sessions of
Parliament. In London, however, Burgoyne's time was at least
partly taken up with Miss Susan Caulfield, a singer, who had
presented him with a son in 1782.

And there was finally a chance for the Baroness to wear her
new court dress, at a formal reception in the Queen's drawing
room at St. James's.

But Lady Fritz did not forget old friends. "The very first thing
I did, the morning after my arrival, was to hasten to pay a visit
to the excellent Mr. Russell who had showed me so much kindness
and consideration during my first stay in London," she said.
"I took a hackney coach, got in with my four children," and made
sure that these good people knew nothing of my intended visit."
The Baroness must have made an early call, because Mr. Russell
was not yet dressed and his wife was in the shop "weighing out
some sugar." Pretending to be a customer, Lady Fritz walked in
casually and stood opposite. Mrs. Russell glanced up then
stared at her and cried out: "I can't believe my eyes! Is it really
you! But here are four children, and you had only three!"

"I could not restrain myself any longer," said the Baroness.
"My tears of joy betrayed me and I fell on her neck. At this point
someone grasped me from behind and cried out, Tardon, my
lady; I must embrace you!' It was the worthy, honest Mr. Russell.
The good people wept very much when I left them, but I
promised to come back again once more and bring my husband."



             29
              
       Mrs. General Comes Home



LADY Fritz went sight-seeing in London. Conscientiously she
visited "the most noteworthy objects of interest" taking
her three older girls with her and admonishing them to remember
Westminster Abbey and London Bridge. "I might have profited
still more by my stay," she said, "but the news that the fleet
which was to take us to Germany" was ready to sail "changed all
our plans. We went to Deal, where we were to embark" and those
equinoctial storms "which we so much feared, had already begun."

There was a roadstead at Deal, just north of Dover on the
Channel coast, where ships anchored. They were reached by tender
from shore, and when the Riedesels arrived waves lashed the
wharves and boats put off only at high tide. The storm was a
fearsome sight and they decided to wait a day; but next morning it
was even worse. The transports had sailed earlier, and General
Riedesel now pictured the troops arriving at Stade on the Elbe
with no one to take proper charge of them. He decided to go
aboard his ship no matter how it plunged and tossed at anchor
so near and yet so far.

A boat was drawn up on the beach and the passengers got into
it. Seamen stood alongside ready to help shove off when the
highest wave of the high tide should set the boat afloat. "I had

397



398              The Baroness and the General

my three-year-old daughter Amerika in my lap" said Mrs. General,
"and around my boat a number of people were standing,"
The whole business seemed "an extremely perilous undertaking"
and suddenly "Amerika cried out in English, Is there nobody
here who will take me?' She stretched out both her little arms and
an extremely well-dressed woman came running up and was on
the point of snatching her from me" At that moment the boat
was shoved off the well-dressed woman must have gotten
soaking wet, while the Baroness had all she could do "to keep hold
on the little girl."

They rowed safely to the ship, but when they reached it the
waves tossed their boat like a cork, the wooden sides of the vessel
loomed high as a house, now near, now out of reach, and from
the deck dangled only a rope ladder. "I thought with our arrival
in England I had escaped all perils," said Mrs. General, "This
unlooked-for danger took away all my presence of mind." She
said she was going to be the last to leave the rowboat The others
must "climb up first," so that she could see all her family safe
on deck.

General Riedesel jumped for the ladder the next time the tender
swung close to the ship. He made it and they helped him over the
rail. Then a sailor took a child in his arms, another took the next,
and these men "climbed with their precious burdens up the little
ladder that hung over the side of the vessel." If "one of the
sailors had slipped, a child would have been crushed between the
ship and the boat," the children's mother said, and she was "in
a constant state of anguish." She had not stopped to think how
she herself was ever going to climb that ladder, in her long skirts
and her voluminous traveling cloak. Moreover, she felt unsure of
her balance because she was once more expecting a child. But
there was activity on deck and she saw they were lowering a chair
for her.

"As soon as I touched the deck the captain came up," He was
the same officer who had brought the Riedesels from Canada, and



                Mrs. General Comes Home                     399

this was the same ship. "I congratulate you' " he said to Mrs.
General. " 'You were in more danger Just now than on the whole
voyage across the Atlantic' "

It took three days to reach the Elbe, and then they "were
obliged to sail to and fro" because they could not make the
channel between buoys, "where large ships can sail only at high tide"
General Riedesel became so impatient that he had himself set
ashore and went ahead to Stade by road. Mrs. General longed to
go with him, but she knew that she and the children would only
be in the way. She said she would follow when the weather
moderated; she waited another day and a night, and still the ship
could not get into the Elbe.

The following morning the captain proposed leaving his ship
with the first mate and personally taking Mrs. General and the
children up the Elbe in the longboat "I was delighted" she said.
"Before leaving, I gave him the present my husband and I had
decided upon two cows, fifteen sheep, six hogs and a considerable
quantity of poultry." These were provisions left over from
the Atlantic voyage, and "for these presents the captain thanked
me warmly."

They set out with six men to row the boat. But the tide was
ebbing and it was no joke to row upstream. The men became "so
thoroughly exhausted" that Mrs. General was afraid they would
have to spend the night in the open boat in the river. It was
eleven o'clock when they reached Stade that evening, and they
were confronted with still another problem. There were so many
transports and merchant ships crowding the wharves that they
could not get near enough to land. The captain, by means of much
hallooing and passing out of silver, got a bridge of gangplanks
laid "from one to the other of three or four ships." Rockel,
who had never left his General's wife in all her travels, now carried
one of the girls; sailors took the others and Mrs. General
crossed to shore in black darkness with only the flickering light



400              The Baroness and the General

of a lantern to show her the planks strung from one boat to
another.

Now they were in Stade, but they had no idea where they
would find General Riedesel. Everyone was either drunk or
asleep, in that riverport city, Mrs. General found. "I thought in
the innocence of my heart that everyone must know the newly
arrived General, because he was so dear to me" She was
"mortified" and felt she had made herself "ridiculous" in front of her
friend the captain, and the sailors, when one man she questioned
on the street said "We don't know any German General' " and
then another laughed, " 'What do we care about him?"9

At last a man offered to guide the forlorn little group to an inn
where he said a German General had gone. They followed him
through so many dark streets that they began to think he was
leading them to some den of thieves where they would be robbed
and murdered. And then at last they came out on a cobblestoned
square and there, in front of an inn door, was a guard of
dragoons. One of them was "a good old man" who, years before,
had been particularly fond of General Riedesel. He instantly
recognized Mrs. General, stepped forward and took her and the
children by the hands. "How good it is to see you safe in
Germany," he exclaimed.

Lady Fritz had often been caustic in regard to inns in America.
She now expressed herself just as strongly concerning the inn at
Stade. She wanted to order some supper for the sea captain and
his men, "but the people of the inn were in a snarling humor,"
she said. The tea was "miserable," the milk had gone sour, the
bread was stale and the butter worse. Everything was "served up
in such a filthy manner" that she found herself apologizing to
the English captain for Germany and its inhabitants. However,
in Brunswick it was different, she assured him. He must not judge
all Germans by the inn at Stade.
General Riedesel was not yet ready to leave with the Brunswick



                Mrs. General Comes Home                      401

division, so Mrs. General went on ahead, spending the next night
at Zelle in the expectation of being in Brunswick the following
morning. She was sound asleep in bed when a light woke her and
there was a "soldier with a fierce-looking mustache" standing at
the foot of the bed with a lantern. I was "terribly frightened" she
said, "and then even more so" when the man handed her a letter.
Something dreadful must have happened to her husband, she
thought, but the letter only asked her "to change her plan of
journey" and go direct to her home in Wolfenbüttel

It was a hired coach and post-horses to be sure, but Rockel was
once more in the driver's seat as Mrs. General and the children
bounced over the road to Wolfenbüttel The Baroness began to
think about her home. You do not leave a house with all its
contents for seven long years and expect to come back to find
everything just as you remember it. The house would be damp and
dark, with shutters over the windows, furniture sheeted to keep
out the dust. There would be dirt on the floors and cobwebs
everywhere. The family silver, locked in vaults, would be tarnished
black. A faithful steward had been left in charge of that stone
house in the city street, but suppose something had happened to
him? The house might have been broken into, and if not actually
looted, then damaged and disordered.

As the coach turned into the familiar street, then through
the arched gate into her own courtyard, Frederika von Riedesel
hardly dared to look. Then she cried out in surprise. The
windows were lighted. There was the sound of music. The door was
flung open, and friends poured out to greet her. A festive supper
had been prepared and everything was bright and shining in
perfect order, "just as I had left it," she said. "I gave thanks to
God for having preserved me through so many dangers, for having
watched over all my family and for the precious gift of my little
daughter, America."

Next day there came a procession of friends to call. Instead of



402              The Baroness and the General

summoning the Baroness to court, her Royal Highness the Princess
Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick, came herself to greet the
General's wife. She was the granddaughter of George I, King of
England, said to be "very affable and remarkably good-tempered"
but this was a great honor and the Baroness Riedesel was
delighted. Surely it meant that her husband was not out of favor
in spite of Saratoga.

A week went by, and finally Mrs. General heard the sound of
hautboys and drums the music of the Brunswick regiments.
General Riedesel was marching into Wolfenbüttel. "It is beyond
my power to describe my emotion," said Mrs. General. "There was
my beloved husband, who had been so tireless in helping those
entrusted to him standing in the midst of his men, who in turn
were surrounded by a joyous and sorrowful crowd of fathers,
mothers, wives, children, sisters and friends all pressing around
him to see their loved ones again."

The troops were dressed in new uniforms, after having gone in
rags. The women, described by the horrified Hannah Winthrop of
Cambridge as tattered and dirty, had been given good clothes
and a chance to wash themselves and their children. There were
fathers and mothers among the crowd who found themselves the
grandparents of children they had never seen before. And there
must have been girls who found strange new women following
the army from Canada or America married by the chaplain to
the men the German girls had been waiting for. There had been
77 women who marched out with the men; 64 returned, but there
were deaths, and new marriages. The fate of some of the Prince
Frederick Regiment's women in New York is still unknown. There
were many in that crowd who searched in vain, called out a name
and no one answered. Out of four thousand Brunswickers who
left Germany with General Riedesel, only two thousand, eight
hundred returned.



                Mrs. General Comes Home                      403

The Duke of Brunswick graciously signified that he would give
these returning men a review.

And so on October 8, 1783, General Riedesel, in dress uniform,
was riding at the head of the first division along the road from
Wolfenbüttel to Brunswick, with a crowd of people hemming in
the troops and marching beside them, when before they reached
Brunswick they heard cheering ahead. The Duke in person was
riding forward to meet them a great honor indeed!

This was not the same Duke who had reviewed the troops when
General Riedesel set out for America. Duke Charles I had died
in 1780; it was his son, Charles II, who rode forward, a man of
considerable ability whose brother had been Riedesel's special
friend and patron. Now it was very clear that General Riedesel
was not to be treated like the Hessian, von Heister, who had died
"of grief and disappointment" because of his defeat at Trenton.
The rulers of the Duchy of Brunswick felt that their General had
done the best he could under adverse circumstances. Saratoga
meant nothing to them, and they cared little whether there was
a new nation or a British colony in North America. Duke Charles
II was giving General Riedesel a hero's welcome.

The following day "we all went to Brunswick," said Mrs. General.
"We dined at Court, where, in the evening, I met almost all
my friends after our long separation. This was great joy" From
now on she was "much in demand socially," and the children were
"admired everywhere."

General Riedesel's father had died in the year 1780, and the
General was now owner of "about seven and a half square miles
considered to be a province." The castle of Lauterbach, where he
was born, was his; and there were other estates and houses. He
longed to go to Lauterbach, "plant cabbages and remember, at
my ease, past times," he said. But this was not to be. The new
baby was a girl! All these estates and a substantial invested capital
would still be inherited by one of the General's two brothers and



404              The Baroness and the General

the General must pay a dowry "conforming to her status" for
each of five daughters, including the new little girl named
Charlotte! It was a great relief when the Duke of Brunswick
"established him lucratively with the title of Lieutenant General" The
Riedesels took a house in Brunswick.

Mrs. General loved to be in command of moving into a new
house. Her husband furnished this one for her "entirely in the
English style." Everything English was fashionable because the
Duchess was English, and Mrs. General was glad that she herself
had been to London. She hung pictures painted in Canada
Montmorency Falls, General Carleton's house. And now of course
it would be a good idea to have everyone's portrait painted.

Tischbein, who had painted Frederika von Massow "representing
Spring" at the time of her marriage, had died soon after the
Riedesels returned to Brunswick.1 A different but competent artist
did a forthright portrait of Mrs. General, not as "Spring" or even
"Autumn," but being just herself: her fine, generous mouth smiling,
her wonderfully deep blue eyes still full of fire. If a becoming
muslin fichu partly hid a double chin, at least her face was
unlined, and a gray-blue silk dress, made in the latest high-waisted
style, fitted tightly over a handsome bosom. A white lace scarf
covered but did not hide her beautiful white hair which may of
course have been powdered, because the Baroness Riedesel was
still only thirty-eight when she moved to her new home in
Brunswick.

A German painter named Schroeder, equally honest but less
skillful, painted General Riedesel. The General was decidedly
overweight. But his smile was cheerful and there was rather a
gleam in his eye. "Toward the fair sex he ever displayed....
knightly gallantry," wrote one of his biographers; and the General,
in his portrait, looked as if he were just about to indulge in a
little "gallantry." The painter did justice to a red uniform crossed
with a broad cerise ribbon, and ornamented with "The Grand
Cross of the Order of the Golden Lion" which was star-shaped.



                Mrs. General Comes Home                      405

Of course the girls had their pictures painted, too. They looked
young and sweet in white, high-waisted dresses, their shoulders
draped in blue muslin except for Augusta who wore blue draped
with white. Little braids perched on top of their heads while short
curls floated free around their faces in artful artlessness. But the
girls were painted later, perhaps by someone more influenced by
the French school.

In May 1784, a young American came to the city of Brunswick.
"The roads were so bad that we were four days and two nights
coming hither" from Hamburg "with six horses and a light
carriage," wrote Francis Coffin to his family back in Boston.2 "I am
now agreeably settled in the Caroline College." There young men
from all over Europe were studying for a military career. "Madam
and General Riedesel live almost opposite the college so I see
them often. They behave in a very kind and friendly manner
towards me." General Riedesel saw that Frank was presented at
court. But in June the Riedesels left for the castle in Lauterbach,
which they made their summer home. Frank was lonely, although
in August there was a fair lasting three weeks, "two masquerades,
a private Ball" and a public one given by the Duke. He ate at a
table with "about six and twenty Englishmen, all of whom except
two or three.... officers in the army," and at table they always
spoke French or German. And then in November "General
and Madam Riedesel are returned," wrote Frank with evident
joy.

"I assure you, my dear Mama," Frank said, "I have often felt
the want of a mother since I left you, but that want is in some
measure supplied by the good Mrs. de Riedesel whom I am sure
you would esteem if you knew her and whom I must beg of you
to love for the kindness she has shewn to your son." When the
Baroness Riedesel was in Boston, people spat at her in the street
She had not forgotten: she had made a promise to herself, and she
was keeping it.

The year 1785 brought a great triumph and a great happiness



406              The Baroness and the General

to Mrs. General and her husband. On April 27 their son was
born!3 What festivities there must have been with barrels of
beer rolled out for all the peasantry on all the estates, crowds
gathering in the street in Brunswick, candles in the windows,
bonfires in the courtyard. Letters of congratulation poured in. Prince
Frederick, later King of Prussia, offered to be the baby's
godfather, and from royalty an offer was a command. He doubtless
provided a handsome gift. But they named the baby Georg Karl.
All the European powers were looking hungrily at the Netherlands
because of their wealth, and in 1788 General Riedesel was
sent in command of Brunswick troops "to support the Stadt-
holder" or Governor in the southern Dutch provinces. He served
for six years in Holland, where tact and diplomacy were fully as
important as military action, and the Duke of Brunswick was
pleased with him. Mrs. General did not share this tour of duty.
After all, the provinces of the United Netherlands were only about
a hundred and fifty miles from the tiny Duchy of Brunswick, a
little less than the distance from Sorel to Quebec or a little farther
than from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Berkeley Springs. The
North American Continent had amended the Riedesels' ideas of
distance, and the General came home fairly often. Besides, it had
been perilous enough to take three little girls under five years old
to America. Mrs. General was not going to risk their three-year-
old only son and heir.

Five years later, General Riedesel at last "retired to his ancestral
castle of Lauterbach" Then came the "reign of terror" in France
after Louis XVI was executed that September; all the hereditary
rulers of all the little dukedoms and principalities soon put their
crowned heads together to see what could be done to stop this
overthrow of kings. The last thing a professional army officer
cared for was a completely secure world, but General Riedesel had
hardly time to see that the peasants on his estates were planting
better gardens, raising more horses and sending more young men



                Mrs. General Comes Home                      407

into the army before he was recalled to Brunswick to become
Commandant of the City.

This was a position of honor, well paid but by no means merely
honorary. With the people of Paris spreading abroad their motto,
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" what the Duke of Brunswick
needed badly was a tactful man to keep an eye on his city. He
was considered a liberal ruler, having actually opened schools for
children of the lowly born. On certain nights the public was
admitted free to the opera which he supported, and he "encouraged
agriculture." But now he must take the field against the French,
who would all too soon be led by a Corsican named Napoleon
Bonaparte.

As the wife of the Commandant, Mrs. General's duty was to
entertain a great deal. And if there was anything she liked better
than going to a party it was giving one. Besides, she had five
daughters. The Caroline College, with its quota of well-born
young men intent on a military education, was a great asset, and
many were the gay dancing parties where the Riedesel girls could
exert their charms under their mother's watchful eye. She was no
matchmaker, but with all her heart Mrs. General wished that her
girls would marry for love as she herself had done and be just
as happy. When Augusta became the Countess Reuss, there was
almost as much rejoicing in the Riedesel family over this first
son-in-law as there had been at the birth of their son.4

Count Reuss, sometimes referred to as Prince Reuss, was the
heir to a good-sized principality. He was attached to the Court
of the King of Prussia at Berlin and lived there in winter. So
naturally enough Mrs. General took her girls to visit their sister
and enjoy a larger social world than their own, from time to time.
She felt that her pretty daughters had but to be seen to be
appreciated.

It was an American, Gouverneur Morris, ex-minister to France,
who described Berlin at this time.5 "The appearance of this town



408              The Baroness and the General

is magnificent and at the same time it has an air of dissoluteness
which is striking.... I observe on driving through this great
unpeopled town that the greater part of it is built of brick
plastered over to imitate free-stone. The plaster already falling off
in places. The effect is emblematical, I think, of want of solidity
and this power.... will soon fade away and figure hereafter in
history as one of those grand operas which have amused generations
long since mingled with the dust, and of which no traces
are now to be found" The time of year was July, and the city of
Berlin was "unpeopled" partly because so many had gone to
summer homes the Count and Countess Reuss to Silesia, for
example. Morris remarked that Berlin "is built on such a dead
level that the gutters do not carry off the water, and of course the
stench is great."

Four months later, on February 15, 1797, Gouverneur Morris
returned to Berlin. He changed from traveling clothes and "went
to Court where I am presented to Their Majesties," he said. The
King asked after President George Washington. He had heard
that the first President of the United States would refuse a third
term, but he did not believe it was it true that Washington
was in bad shape physically? The King seemed to hope so. Morris
told the King of Prussia that Washington, when he last saw him,
was "a hale, robust man, as much as Your Majesty is now, so
how could he be indisposed?" This was to flatter the King, who
looked all worn out, Morris said in his diary.

Morris was just planning to leave so as "to avoid staying to
supper" when "the Queen points out to me a young Mademoiselle
Riedesel who was born in America and christened 'America' She
is a fine girl and when she comes down to dance I tell her, in the
presence of Her Majesty, that I reclaim my Countrywoman."

Mademoiselle America's birthday was three weeks away. She
would be seventeen. She wore a delicate white muslin dress,
highwaisted in the style made all the rage by Josephine de Beauharnais



                Mrs. General Comes Home                      409

now one year married to Napoleon. Her blond hair was cut
short to curl around her face but she also wore a little braid
tucked up on the back of her head. The middle-aged American
diplomat was dancing with the future Countess Bernsdorf
(Bernstorff): one of Mademoiselle America's descendants would one
day be the German Ambassador to the United States.



             30
              
      The Letters of Mrs. General



COUNT von Reuss was still the only son-in-law in the Riedesel
family in 1799. He and his Countess were visiting at the
castle at Lauterbach when he persuaded his lively mother-in-law
to tell him about her adventures in America. Mrs. General had
not forgotten the warning of old Colonel Loos and she was always
watchful lest her reminiscences became a bore. But there was no
mistaking the Count's enthusiasm. He said she ought to write a
book.

Mrs. General had already written almost everything, in letters
to her mother, she said. When the ice closed the St. Lawrence
and when she was in the midst of the American wilderness she
had written her letters journal-fashion, and sent them on in a large
packet with her husband's reports to the Duke of Brunswick.
Count Reuss wanted to see the letters.

Nothing was ever thrown away in the great stone castle at
Lauterbach; there was endless storage space. There were armoires,
some of them with pieces of armor still in them; there were
garderobes filled with ancient gowns and uniforms; and there were
trunks and boxes full of land deeds, genealogies, and letters.
Among the effects of Madame von Massow that were left to her
daughter Frederika, the letters were found. They were passed
around and read.
Augusta, Countess Reuss, remembered how frightened she had

410



                The Letters of Mrs. General               411

been in the cellar at Saratoga when cannon balls came through
the house and rolled along the floor over her head. Frederika
remembered a nice man who could moo like a cow and make little
girls laugh instead of cry. But Count Reuss was interested only in
Burgoyne's historic surrender, and it was only Mrs. General who
remembered that. He was fascinated to find that she had written
it all down.

Mrs. General was surprised to find that her husband was also
interested in her letters. He got out letters of his own and
documents which he had ordered his aides to write for him. Here was
that statement of Burgoyne's that he alone was responsible for
the defeat and that the Germans had fought bravely. Riedesel had
asked all the officers present to sign the paper as witnesses,
because he suspected he would need this evidence and so it proved.

Mrs. General was still not at all sure that she wanted to write
a book, but Count Reuss promised to arrange and edit. Then he
had another good idea: the General must write his autobiography.
At this, the General demurred even more strongly than his wife,
but Count Reuss promised to find a scholarly young man who
would do all the work. The General agreed to arrange his papers
and make some notes.

Not all the time that General Riedesel put in among his papers
had to do with his future Memoirs, however. On October 14,
1799, while the family was still at Lauterbach, "contemplating the
swift passage of human life" he summoned a lawyer and made his
will. First of all, he hoped to be buried in the family vault "here
at Lauterbach." But "if I should die somewhere else, I should be
buried at such place without delay and without undue attention"
General Riedesel assumed that he was not through with
active service, although in June he had celebrated his sixty-first
birthday, which was an advanced age for his era. There would be
no dramatic funeral if he died in action, like Fraser's at the "great
redoubt" at Saratoga fatally delaying the retreat of a whole
army.



412              The Baroness and the General

"I am not permitted to testate about the old family entail and
also not about real estate, buildings and jewelry acquired by our
grandfather and father's brothers. All this property can be
inherited by law only by a male heir" General Riedesel had his
lawyer write down. What a relief and joy it was to be able to say,
"It will therefore be inherited by my beloved son ... at his coming
of age."

But the will really concerned the property that General Riedesel
had himself acquired and which he had a right to dispose of "to
my only son and my five daughters" For years, he had been afraid
that his girls would be left penniless. The chance to make money
had come in America, as he said in his will, without giving details.
But furnishings for the house in Charlottesville must have been
sold at a profit. Wines were many times ordered from Madeira
only to arrive too late because the General had moved on to
another post. They sold well. And there was the fur trade, engaged
in first by Mrs. General and pursued with success as the General
asked young officers to get him "fine marten skins" when they
went to frontier posts. Cash credits at the London banker's were
invested with the advice of Riedesel's brother, "Imperial Court
Assessor Karl Georg Riedesel," who was good at business.

General Riedesel figured that he could give each of his five
daughters "10,000 reichsthalers, payable in twenty-gulden pieces,
out of my capital," he said. No paper money was to be used he
had seen what happened to paper dollars in America. Riedesel
pointed out that Augusta had been given 5000 reichsthalers at the
time of her wedding; this was to be deducted from her 10,000 and
each girl was to be given the same when she married, "in addition
to a dowry conforming to her status."

To Mrs. General was given the "administration of all the property,
including the entailed property of her son until his coming
of age." Georg was now fourteen, probably no longer studying
with tutors at home but away at school. In seven years he must
give his mother "her widow's right of 2000 gulden." And during



                The Letters of Mrs. General                413

her lifetime, Mrs. General was to have the income from the 50,000
reichsthalers left to her girls. Three guardians were appointed to
help her administer what was bound to be a complicated estate.
They were Major-General Hans Conrad Riedesel, the brother who
had once shot young Captain Friederich's horse from under him
not knowing who the captain was. Court Assessor Karl Georg
was another, and a personal friend was appointed to watch over
the girls in case their brother died and the interests of another
heir should "come into collision" with theirs. It was not easy to
provide for a widow and five well-born daughters who could never
earn their keep, or marry without a dowry but General Riedesel
had done well.1

Four months later, the family were all gathered together again,
this time in the city of Brunswick. It was the last day of
December, 1799, and the next morning would usher in not only a new
year but a new century. There was a big New Year's party at the
General's house, with officers from the garrison at Wolfenbüttel,
officers from the Court and students at Caroline College all
flocking to it, to dance with the General's pretty daughters.

General Riedesel was feeling especially well on that last day of
1799. He rode his favorite horse "in the avenue" and then dressed
in his best for the party. The girls enjoyed their new dresses, and
their beaux; and when their father appeared they made him
"dance a few rounds." Mrs. General danced more than a few
rounds and they saluted the year 1800 in champagne.

The General went to the Ducal Palace next day to give Duke
Charles his New Year's greeting. He had caught cold, and Mrs.
General told him he ought to stay in bed. But only those out of
favor would be absent from the royal reception, and General
Riedesel had been the trusted friend of the ruling house of
Brunswick for many years. His absence would cause comment. The
General made his call brief, however, and when he got home he
"had to lie down."



414              The Baroness and the General

On the sixth of January, General Riedesel declared that he was
well again. He played whist in the evening. Count Reuss, who
had brought Augusta to the New Year's party, was still visiting
them and said that Mrs. General's book was at the printer's. There
would be a private edition just for family and friends, and Mrs.
General was pleased when her husband was excited about it and
eager to see it. There was "a joyful 'good-night' " General Riedesel
slept well never to wake.

Eight years of widowhood lay ahead of Frederika von Riedesel.
Friends told her what a comfort her children would be, and this
was true. But she had given all her first thoughts to her husband
for thirty-seven years. He would always come first in her heart, so
now there was a loneliness that never left her.

The Baroness was busy, and for this she was thankful. Her husband,
in his will, had directed her to sell furnishings, horses and
wine, the Brunswick house, and other houses not entailed, and to
live either at Lauterbach or Saxonia. She chose Lauterbach,2 and
there was the task, bound to be sad at times, of disposing of
furniture, pictures, jewels, which she and her husband had bought
together. But they had talked it over and decided that this must
be done to raise cash for the girls' bequests. Then the money must
be carefully invested, and Mrs. General would be in charge of that

There was a renewed pang of loneliness when Mrs. General's
book came from the printer. Her husband had wanted to see it.
Extracts from the Letters and Papers of General, Baron de
Riedesel and His Wife nee Massow, Concerning Their Common Voyage
to America and Their Sojourn in That Country was its title;
it was "compiled and arranged by their son-in-law, Count Reuss.
Printed as a Manuscript for the family." So the title page read.
No one could say that the Baroness had disgraced her sex and her
rank by becoming a woman author. And if the family found that
Count Reuss had left out too much as, for example: the name



                The Letters of Mrs. General                415

of Burgoyne's mistress in America Mrs. General was right on
hand to explain.3

The book was so popular that Carl Spener, a publisher in
Berlin, got out a public edition. He decided to call it The Voyage
of Duty to America: Letters of Mrs. General von Riedesel Written
to Germany on Her Journey and During Her Six Years4 Stay in
America at the Time of the War There in the Years 1776 to 1783.
He said he had shortened the title for popular taste. And if Mrs.
General had any doubts about a public edition being proper she
had but to remember that her husband had wanted her to increase
the family capital if she could.

The book found its way to America, where bits of it were
translated more or less accurately from the original German and used
for the benefit of those writing "reminiscences" of the American
Revolution. It is to be hoped that Mrs. General never saw any of
those first American quotations from her book. Perhaps it would
have amused her to learn that a man by the name of James
Wilkinson claimed to know her well. He had been twenty years
old at the time of the battle of Saratoga, and as aide to Gates he
was somewhere on the scene during Burgoyne's surrender. Mrs.
General had not noticed him. But he claimed that he had "more
than once seen her charming blue eyes bedewed with tears at the
recital of her sufferings."

Strange were the descriptions of her. One author in America
mentioned her "small Dresden China figure" while another spoke
of her as "Amazonian." Could just the beginning of pregnancy
have made all that difference? But when it came to her "distracting
rose-bud mouth" or her "wise little button of a mouth," she
would merely have needed to look in the mirror or at her latest
portrait and laugh.

Much as her own book pleased her, one thing was still lacking.
No studious young man had been found to write her husband's
Memoirs. The Baroness gave her son the papers and told him to



416              The Baroness and the General

be sure to attend to the matter. At long last, Max von Eelking,
Captain in the Saxon-Meiningen Army, wrote the Life of General
Riedesel and made the history of the German troops in America
during the Revolution almost his lifework. But Mrs. General was
not to live to see these books written.

Mrs. General was always "the Baroness" now, though she would
have liked to hear the name her husband gave her when he raised
her to his own rank on setting out for America. Lady Fritz was
a name she also liked, having been given it by Lady Carleton and
her friends in Canada. But in 1808 no one remembered these
things except herself. She was over sixty older than her husband
was when he died, and she knew her children thought of her as
old. They were all married except Caroline. Caroline's brother
Georg would have to remember that he was required to give her a
home, "hunting and fishing rights, gardens, wood and lumber and
food for two horses" at the castle at Lauterbach. Frederika had
married Count von Reden; and Charlotte, Major von Schoening.

The Baroness often visited Count Reuss, who was always her
favorite son-in-law. She never ceased to love parties, and the King's
Court in Berlin amused her. But there was one more grief in store.
In 1805 Augusta, Countess Reuss, died in Berlin, aged thirty-four.
Gentle, serious and conscientious, Augusta had been the one
entrusted with her mother's purse in Canada when she was not quite
six years old. She and her mother were especially close, perhaps
because she was so much like her father.

In the spring of 1808, the Baroness was planning to go soon
to the castle at Lauterbach with children and grandchildren.
But on March 29 the Baroness Frederika von Riedesel died
suddenly in Berlin. She left no will only a last request, which was
granted. They laid her beside her husband in the family vault at
Lauterbach.



              Acknowledgments

              




I want to thank JULIA WARD SUCKLEY first of all, for introducing
me to the Baroness Frederika Riedesel. No historical account
of the Battles of Saratoga is complete without some mention of
the Baroness and she always appears in fiction connected with this
decisive action in the American Revolution. But Mrs. Stickley
piloted me through the intricacies of the National Archives in
Washington, where the Riedesels and their children emerged as
real people in the Force Papers and other documents.

MR. ROBERT W. HILL, Keeper of Manuscripts, Manuscript
Division, New York Public Library, gave me guidance in the early
stages of my research and made available a treasure-trove of
material in the Riedesel Papers, Bancroft Collection. The many
volumes of Brunswick Journals and the Schuyler Papers alone
illuminate all printed sources such as the firsthand accounts of
Mrs. General Riedesel and her husband.

At Mr. Hill's direction, I wrote to Colonial Williamsburg and
received their kind permission to use in New York the photostats
of the British Headquarters Papers, with their "secret documents,"
letters to be "put into cypher" and letters to be read through a
mask. I also want to thank MRS. SHIRLEY SPRANGER for her
unfailing assistance in the American History Room, New York
Public Library.

I am indebted to the STAFF AT THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL
SOCIETY LIBRARY for much help as I worked with the voluminous



417



418 Acknowledgments

Gates Papers and the smaller collections of manuscripts of officers
on Gates's staff. To the NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
SOCIETY I am grateful for guidance concerning the family
background of Americans encountered by the Baroness.

Of great importance as a source are the Canadian Archives at
Ottawa, Canada. I wish to express appreciation for the kindness
my husband and I received there as we read many volumes of
hand-written records and made selections for photostating. In
Quebec, our good friend M. JEAN-CHARLES BONENFANT gave valuable
information on early Canadian affairs. I wish also to thank
ANTOINE PELLETIER, Assistant Librarian of the Provincial Museum
of Quebec. In Montreal, M. JULES BAZDST, Head Librarian, Civic
Library, City of Montreal, provided me with information I am
sure I could not have found anywhere else.

Most important for the American side of this story are the
papers deposited by MR. HALL PARK McCuLLOCH at the library
of the Bennington Museum. I am especially grateful for Mr.
McCulloch's permission to use manuscripts he has collected and to
MR. ALLEN D. HILL, Genealogical Consultant, for his assistance.

MR. FRANCIS S. RONALDS, Superintendent, Morristown National
Historical Park, placed at my disposal the large collection of
papers to which I have referred in notes as "Morristown
Transcripts" and I am most grateful to him and to MR. HANS MEYER,
Librarian, for this addition to my research material. I shall not
soon forget the friendly staff at the Morristown museum.

Once more, as so often before, MR. STEPHEN T. RHJEY, Director
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has placed me in his debt
by calling my attention to unusual manuscripts. I want to thank
Miss CAROLINE JAKEMAN, Librarian, Houghton Library of Harvard
University, for calling my attention to the Dearborn Papers. At
the Alderman Library, University of Virginia, my husband and I



Acknowledgments 419

met with most cordial assistance. At my own home-town library
in Darien, Connecticut, I can always count on the kind efforts of
the staff, and at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut,
Miss GRACE WALMSLEY, reference librarian, always has an answer
to my questions.

At the Schuyler House in Schuylerville (once Saratoga), New
York, my husband and I had the good fortune to find MRS.
DANIEL BARRETT, of the local Historical Society, author of a series
of articles on Schuylerville history. Mrs. Barrett told us we must
see "the Riedesel house" and arranged an appointment for us
with the owner, MRS. KENNETH BULLARD. No one could have been
kinder than Mrs. Bullard, and we had the happy experience of
coming as strangers and leaving as friends. I am also indebted to
Mrs. Bullard for pictures of the Riedesels, as indicated in Notes
(Ch.29).

I want to speak with especial appreciation of my translators,
MRS. CONSTANCE BRUZELIUS and DR. CLEMENTINE ZERNICK. Their
fine work is noted where their work for this book is used. DR.
HAROLD BOWDITCH contributed a translation from a German
medical work, as noted, and MRS. LOVELL THOMPSON called my
attention to the mention of "Miss America Riedesel" in the Diary and
Letters of Gouverneur Morris, edited by Anne Gary Morris (New
York, 1888 Scribner).



                 Chapter Notes
              




                     1 : THE BARONESS



1. Johann Heinrich Tischbein the elder (1722-1789) studied in Paris
under Watteau and shows Watteau's influence.

2. Pronunciation "Ree-day-zel" is from Riedesel, Stone.

3. Riedesel was an ensign at the age of nineteen, a captain after the battle
of Minden. See Memoirs and Letters and Journals of Major General Riedesel
During His Residence in America, translated from the original German of
Max von Eelking by William L. Stone (Albany, 1868: Joel Munsell) here-
after called Riedesel, Stone.

4. Cash paid by Great Britain to the Duke of Brunswick is from The
Hessians and Other Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War,
by Edward J. Lowell (New York, 1884: Harper) hereafter called The
Hessians, Lowell. Cash values have been recalculated for modern currency.

5. Acland is the spelling according the Encyclopaedia Americana and other
modern sources, although it is Ackland in William L. Stone, B. J. Lossing,
Mrs. Elizabeth F. L. Ellet and other early writers.

6. For the numbers of women camp followers, see The Hessians, Lowell;
also Women Camp Followers of the American Revolution, by Walter Hart
Blumenthal (Philadelphia, 1952: McManus).

                     2: MRS. GENERAL

1. Brunswick sent a total of 5723 troops, including later recruits, according
to The Hessians, Lowell.

2. See "Memoirs of a Hessian Conscript: J. G, Seume's Reluctant Voyage
to America," translated by Margarete Woelfel; William and Mary College
Quarterly Historical Magazine, October 1948, pp. 553-670 ( Williamsburg).

3. The ages of the Riedesel children are from Riedesel, Stone, Vol. I, p. 8,
footnote. Further genealogical material has been culled for me by Dr.
Clementine Zernick, from German sources.



420



                         Chapter Notes                              421

4. Beer soup: According to A Short History of the German People, by
Ernest F. Henderson, Vol. I, p. 201 (New York, 1902: Macmillan). Frederick
the Great told his subjects that coffee was bad for them. He put a duty
on it of 250 per cent, sent "sniffers" around to detect illegal coffee drinkers,
and said that he himself had been raised on beer soup.

5. Material for this chapter comes directly from Letters and Journals
Relating to the War of the American Revolution and the Capture of the German
Troops at Saratoga by Mrs. General Riedesel, translated from the original
German by William L. Stone (Albany: 1876: Joel Munsell) hereafter
called Madam Riedesel.

                     3 : THEY POINT THE FINGER

1. In response to my query, J. L. Purchase, Secretary to the Lord Mayor
of Bristol, England, very kindly sent the following letter: ".... The Mayor of
Bristol in 1776 was Andrew Pope, a sugar-baker.... There were several
members of the Foy family who were merchants of Bristol in the eighteenth
century. One of the most notable was Nathaniel Foy, councillor, 1756-1783,
who became an alderman in 1776.... Mayor, 1772-1773.... By his will,
made 21 December, 1779, which is preserved in the City Archives Office, the
chief beneficiaries are Hannah Foy, 'widow of my late nephew Captain
Edward Foy deceased, and her only child, Nathaniel Foy, who was a minor
in 1779."

2. "Sunday the 26 ult Capt. Foy was married to Miss Hannah Van Home,
daughter of John Van Home Esq. of Kills-Hall." New York Journal,
Aug. 6, 1772.

'The Arethusa, Capt. Hammond, is shortly expected" from New York, "in
which.... will come.... Captains Campbell and Foy and some other ladies
and gentlemen." Virginia Gazette, Oct. 8, 1772.

For a description of Van Home houses near Middlebrook, Bridgewater
Township, New Jersey, see Pre-revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families by
Rosalie Fellows Bailey (New York, 1936: William Morrow).

Children of John Van Home were Hannah, Elizabeth and Catherine. See
Jan Wallace Cornelius Van Home and His Descendants, by Charles Selwyn
Williams New York: 1912, Philip Van Home, brother of John, had four sons
and three daughters. The Marquis de Chastellux stopped at the John Van
Home's in 1780 and met "three daughters." References to "five daughters"
in some sources must have included some of the Philip Van Home cousins,
who lived nearby.

                     4: MEANWHILE, THE GENERAL....

1. Sir Guy Carleton succeeded Sir James Murray as "Governor of Canada."
Carleton is often called "Governor of Quebec," as though someone else



422              The Baroness and the General

outranked him; but this title comes from a royal proclamation of 1763 dividing
territory acquired after the French and Indian War into regions called
Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Granada. Carleton's territory
included the Ohio and Mississippi River regions. See The Tercentenary History
of Canada from Champlain to Laurier by Frank Basil Tracy (Toronto, 1908:
P. F. Collier and Son).

2. For Canadian background material, I am indebted to Cinq Femmes et
Nous by B. DuFebre (Quebec, 1950: Belisle) and Un Général Allemand au
Canada, le Baron Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel, by Georges Monarque
(Montreal, 1946: Imprimerie Populaire Limité.).

3. Arnold's letter describing the American retreating army is from The
Life and Times of Philip Schuyler, by Benson J. Lossing (New York, 1883:
Henry Holt) hereafter referred to as Schuyler, Lossing.

4. For a description of the British point of view as to what happened at
Three Rivers, see The British Invasion from the North: The Campaigns of
Carleton and Burgoyne from Canada, 1776-77, with the Journal of Lieut.
William Digby of the 43d or Shropshire Regiment of Foot, by James Phinney
Baxter. (Albany, 1887: Joel Munsell) hereafter referred to as Digby.

5. "Indians.... walked freely through our camp...." See Digby.

6. "Carpenters ordered...." See Digby.

In August 1935, work was begun to raise the gunboat Philadelphia. This
boat, with everything that was in her remarkably preserved, may be seen near
Willsboro, New York Route 22.

7. Job Cook's letter is from the Schuyler Papers, Manuscript Division, New
York Public Library hereafter abbreviated as Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

8. Riedesel to the Duke of Brunswick re Howe is from the Force Papers,
Washington Archives, Washington, D. C. Riedesel spells Howe "Hau"

9. Riedesel to the Duke re British finances is from the French in the
Riedesel Papers, Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib. All translations
from Riedesel's French are my own.

                     5: THE FIRST THRUST

1. Captain Christopher Carleton "of the 31st English Regiment" was
"first Aide-de-Camp to his uncle ... has lived among the Indians" and "had
an Indian wife. His present wife is a very pretty woman, a My Lady, the
sister of General Carleton's wife," according to Letters from America 1776-
1779, Being Letters of Brunswick, Hessian and Waldeck Officers -with the
British Armies during the Revolution, translated by Ray W. Pettingill, Ph.D.
(Boston, 1924: Houghton Mifflin.) hereafter called Pettingill.

2. For further details of what the Indians did and did not wear, see
Hadden's Journal and Orderly Books, A Journal Kept in Canada and Upon



                         Chapter Notes                              423

Burgoyne's Campaign in 1776 and 1777, by Lieutenant James M. Hadden,
Roy. Art., also Orders kept by him and issued by Sir Guy Carlton, Lieut.
General John Burgoyne and Major General William Phillips, in 1776,
1777, and 1778, with an Explanatory Note by Horatio Rogers, Brevet General
U.S.V.... etc. (Albany, 1884: Joel Munsell) hereafter referred to
as Hadden.

3. The Whitcomb story is told in Hadden, in Digby, and in Riedesel,
Stone. His own report is in American Archives, (5 Series) Vol. I, p. 828:
"A Journal of a Scout from Crown-Point to St. John's, Chambly etc. etc...."
Whitcomb set out with four men, but "the two Frenchmen" were afraid to
approach St. Johns so he told them to interview some former neighbors and
return to Ticonderoga. He later sent his other men back, with further
information; and eventually he returned alone via the west bank of Champlain,
which he said was difficult "without a compass"

4. The Battle of Valcour Island is from The Journal of Captain Pausch,
Chief of the Hanau Artillery during the Burgoyne Campaign, translated
and annotated by William L. Stone (Albany, 1886: Joel Munsell) here-
after called Pausch.

5. For the American point of view, see The Traitor and The Spy by James
Thomas Flexner (New York, 1953: Harcourt, Brace).

6. "Butonmole Bay:" See Riedesel, Stone, Vol. I, p. 80. But remains of
the Congress and four gun boats were found in "Ferris Bay, now called
Arnold's Bay" in the township of Paton; 'The British arrived before the
Congress exploded and fired on the men on shore, and at the house of
Squire Peter Ferris, which was struck by one cannon ball and several grape
shot" Parts of the Congress could be seen in the lake, and local citizens did
a thriving business selling walking canes made from wood taken from the
wreck. See clipping (William L. Stone clipping-book, Library, Fort
Ticonderoga, dated Vergennes, Jan. 28, 1861 an article by Philip C. Tucker).

                     6: WINTER IN LONDON

1. For a scholarly picture of the period, see George III, The Story of a
Complex Man by J. C. Long (Boston, 1960: Little, Brown).

2. "Apart from a handful of close friends," Queen Charlotte "was
generally disliked." See Love and the Princess by Lucille Iremonger (New York,
1960: Crowell). If this is true, then the Baroness was among the Queen's
"handful" of friends.

                     7: WINTER IN CANADA

1. Carleton's marriage, see Cinq Femmes Et Nous by B. Durebre.

2. All letters from Mich Murray are from the Morristown Transcripts.



424              The Baroness and the General

These transcriptions were made for William Van Vleck Lidgerwood at the
archives at Marburg and Wolfenbüttel, and cover the years 1775-1784. The
"Hessian Transcripts" were given by Mr. Lidgerwood to the Washington
Association of New Jersey, and by them to the Morristown National Historic
Park. They may be consulted at the library of the museum, Morristown, N.J.
Letters in German and French have, in some cases, been translated, but for
the French I have made my own translation. This valuable material will
hereafter be referred to as "Morristown Transcripts."

3. For carioling, see Digby, and Pettingill.

4. The dead "pending burial": See Travels through the Interior Parts of
America in a Series of Letters by an Officer, by Thomas Anburey, Vol. I pp.
161-162 hereafter referred to as Anburey. Thomas Anburey was a volunteer
in the British army in 1776, with the 29th Regiment of Foot. His book
is written as a series of letters, supposedly from the scene of action. Anburey
undoubtedly used some of his own letters but he included incidents
observed by others, claiming them as his own experiences, and he borrowed
liberally from contemporary travel books. His book was first printed in 1789
with two English editions, three French, and a German edition following.
See Thomas Anburey's 'Travels through America,' a note on Eighteenth-
Century Plagiarism, by Whitfield J. Bell, Jr. in the Bibliographical Society of
America Papers, 37: No. i, pp. 23-36, 1943

5. Rum at Ticonderoga: See Varick to Schuyler, Nov. 20, 1776, in
Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

6. Riedesel to the Duke of Brunswick, May 6, 1777, is headed à  mettre en
chiffre. See Riedesel Papers, Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

                     8: "WELCOME TO THE CANADIAN CONTINENT"

1. For distances in Canada I have used The Dominion of Canada....
Handbook for Travellers, by Karl Baedeker, a 1900 edition. But roads are
often rebuilt and all distances are approximate. In The Brunswick Journal,
kept by officers of General Riedesel's troops, distances are accurately set
down according to the German system. The Brunswick Journal, partly in
French, partly in German, is in the Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub.
Lib.

German distances were usually measured in feet and rods. A German mile
was 4.6 English miles. "To find the length of a rood in the right and lawful
way and according to scientific usage, you shall do as follows: stand at the
door of a church on a Sunday and bid sixteen men to stop, tall ones and
small ones, as they happen to pass out when the service is finished; then
make them put their left feet one behind the other, and the length thus
obtained shall be a right and lawful rood to measure and survey the land
with, and the sixteenth part of it shall be a right and lawful foot" according



                         Chapter Notes                              425

to Koebel. See The New International Encyclopaedia (New York, 1916;
Dodd Mead).

2. Les Ursulines des Trois-rivières depuis leur Etablissement jusqu'à nos
Jours, by A. M. D. G. (copyrighted by the Ursulines in 1888) gives an
interesting picture not only of the establishment but of the town. Les Cahiers
des Dix, Number 22, 1957, tells of American prisoners at the Ursuline
hospital whose bills were never paid.

3. Neither General Riedesel nor Mrs. General understood place names in
Canada accurately, but George Monarque in Un Général Allemand au Canada
has identified towns and villages mentioned.

                     9: SECOND THRUST

1. For the mislaid orders to Howe, see Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne,
Misadventures of an English General in the Revolution, by R. J. Huddleston
(Indianapolis, 1927: Bobbs-Merrill).

                      Sir William, he, snug as a flea,
                         Lay all this time a-snoring,
                      Nor dreamed of harm as he lay warm
                         In bed with Mrs. Loring.

                                    -From "The Battle of the Kegs" by
                                     Francis Hopkinson, lawyer and
                                     signer of the Declaration of Independence.

3. Joshua Loring; see Vol. XI of the Dictionary of American Biography
(New York, 1928: Scribner's) hereafter referred to as D. A. B.

4. All statistics are approximate. For Burgoyne's army, see Hadden, p.
LXIV. See also The turning point of the Revolution, or Burgoyne in America,
by Hoffman Nickerson. (Boston, 1928: Houghton Mifflin Co.).

5. For Governor Livingston's satirical poem, see Ballads and Poems
Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign, annotated by William L. Stone (Albany,
1893: Joel Munsell).

6. Gilliland or Guilliland wrote a series of letters demanding a guard for
his property and demanding '"boats or carriages" for his transportation to
Albany. See Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div. N. Y. Pub. Lib.

7. The dragoons' gun was "a rifle," according to The Hessians, Lowell, p.
195.

8. Brunswick uniform: See Visits to the Saratoga Battle-ground, by William
L. Stone (Albany, 1895: Joel Munsell series no. 23) hereafter called
Visits, Stone.

                     10: WITHIN THE WALLS

1. For troubles with Congress, see Schuyler, Lossing.



426              The Baroness and the General

For Schuyler as a man, an affectionate father, a much-loved general, see
Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div. N. Y. Pub. Lib.

2. Schuyler's integrity is still being debated. I found only one questionable
incident. On April 24, 1777, Lt. Moses Robinson wrote to Horatio Gates:
'Tour Honor may remember that at your request I march'd a part of my
regiment to Ticonderoga last October. For which service I never rec'd any
pay. The pay rolls have been made up and attested to, application made to
Genl. Schuyler for a warrant to draw the money but he refused to sign
the same unless we acknowledged we were in the State of New York. Which
people on the Grants are not willing." Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub.
Lib.

3. For Ticonderoga after Schuyler was superseded, see Gates Papers, New
York Historical Society.

4. See Fort Ticonderoga, A Short History by S. H. P. Pell. See also The
Narration from Mt, Defiance by James M. Lonegan; (1953- Historic Mt.
Defiance, Inc.).

5. Richard Varick (1753-1831) was devoted to Schuyler and also
worshiped Arnold as his hero. He was appointed aide to Arnold at West Point
and was "prostrated" by Arnold's treason. Acquitted of complicity with
Arnold, he was chosen to record Washington's letters. In 1788 he was
attorney general in New York, and was mayor of New York City in 1789.

6. Henry Brockholst Livingston (1757-1823) was aide to General St.
Clair as well as to Schuyler. In 1779 he went to Spain as private secretary
to John Jay, who was his brother-in-law. On his return he was captured at
sea by the British. While awaiting exchange he studied law in New York.
He opposed the Jay Treaty, his friend Varick taking the other side.

7. Letters of Varick and Livingston are in the Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div.
N.Y. Pub. Lib.; and at the Massachusetts Historical Society. See also Letters
on the American Revolution in the Library at 'Karolfred,' edited by F. R.
Kirkland (New York, 1952: Coward-McCann) hereafter referred to as
Letters, Kirkland.

                     11 : THE FALL OF TICONDEROGA

1. William Twiss was exchanged immediately after the Battle of Saratoga
and went back to Canada, where he designed and built fortifications. He
eventually became a General in the Royal Engineers. See Hadden, p. 171,
footnote.

2. Henry B. Livingston to his father after the fall of Ticonderoga: "....
in short, we retreated or rather fled, so precipitously that not an individual
article, except the military chest, was saved, not a single officer saved any of
his baggage but what he had on...." Sparks transcripts, Houghton Library,
Harvard College.



                         Chapter Notes                              427

3. For the escape of the invalids, see The American Revolution from the
Commencement to the Disbanding of the American Army: Given in the Form
of a Daily Journal...., by James Thacher, MIX (New York, 1860: American
Subscription Publishing House).

4. For Ebenezer Fletcher, see The Narrative and Sufferings of Ebenezer
Fletcher of New Ipswich (New Hampshire) Written by Himself and
Published at the Request of His Friends (1827: Charles L. Bushnell).

5. Oxen "half skinned....": See Patrick Cogan to Colonel Stark in A
Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire by Howard Parker Moore
(1949: privately published).

6. For the memorandum of Riedesel to Burgoyne on horses, see Riedesel
Papers, Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.; in French.

                     12: THE BARONESS AT FORT EDWARD

1. Many letters of Philip Skene and other documents have been collected
by Mr. Hall Park McCulloch and deposited at the Bennington Museum
Library. I quote from these papers with Mr. McCulloch's kind permission and
I wish I had space to tell Skene's story in more detail. Philip Skene of
Skenesborough, by Doris Begor Morton (Granville, New York, 1959:
Grastorf Press), presents Skene in a more favorable light than his own
letters indicate, in my opinion.

2. Fort George is described as "near" Fort William Henry, now carefully
restored. On exhibition at Fort Ticonderoga is a charming toy, a whistle made
of china in the shape of a shepherd boy, found during excavations. It is
supposed that it could have belonged to the Riedesel children. But they did
not go to Ticonderoga, and there were plenty of other children with
Burgoyne's army.

3. Old Fort Edward before 1800: An account of the historic ground now
occupied by the village of Fort Edward, New York, by William H. Hill
(Fort Edward, 1929: privately printed) contains a careful sifting of fact
from legend.

4. Reminiscences of the Revolution, or Le Loup's Bloody Trail from Salem
to Fort Edward, by Arthur Reid (Utica: 1859) gives details of Indian attacks.

5. At the library at Fort Ticonderoga, in William L. Stone's book of
clippings, is a printed letter by Dr. Asa Fitch to Dr. E. B. O'Calligan, 1850.
The McNeil house is described as "some 16 feet by 20 in size, built of round
logs with a door on the east side only, an old-fashioned fireplace without
jambs at its north end, on one side of which were ladderlike stairs leading to
a loft overhead and rather to the south of the center of the floor, a trap door
opening into an unwalled cellar-hole beneath." It was "demolished in 1809."
It was "about 60 rods north of the fort."



428              The Baroness and the General

                     13: BENNINGTON

1. "Weights from sundry clocks": See Heath Papers, Vol. VI,
Massachusetts Historical Society.

2. The American side of the Battle of Bennington is told in the Hall Park
McCulloch Papers deposited at The Bennington Museum Library,
Bennington, Vt. (See 1211).

3. Burgoyne's collecting flour sacks is from a letter of Francis Carr
Clark, aide to Burgoyne, to Riedesel, August 8, 177?, in Morristown
Transcripts.

4. Orders for Baum's detachment....: See Riedesel, Stone, Vol. I p.
262. See also The German Allied Troops in the North American War of
Independence, by Max von Eelking, translated by J. G. Rosengarten (Albany,
1893: Joel Munsell) hereafter called Von Eelking.

5. Baum's orders written down by Riedesel are in the Riedesel Papers,
Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

6. References to modem roads are from personal observation, but
distances are only approximate because of the many route changes throughout
the years.

7. In 1756 "no duty was to be paid on Pot and Pearl Ashes from America,"
and "British wool manufacturers, glassmakers, linen weavers, clamored for
more and more American potash." It was one of the few exports permitted to
the colonists, and commanded a high price. See Vermont Tradition by
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Chapter 10 (Boston, 1953: Little, Brown).

8. The Bennington expedition cost Burgoyne "between 800 and 850 of all
ranks, including Tories and Indians." See The Turning Point of the
Revolution, by Hoffman Nickerson.

                     14: THE ROAD TO ALBANY

1. Burgoyne sent Mrs. Higgins to Lord Howe with a letter and a secret
verbal message. Howe offered to exchange "her husband and Mr. Clarke, both
Deputy Commissaries under the Convention of Saratoga" for one American
deputy commissary. Howe referred to her as "the fair lady." See British
Headquarters Papers; the Headquarters Papers covering the period of the
American Revolution were acquired by Rockefeller for Colonial Williamsburg.
They were photostated, one copy being given to the Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.
I am indebted to Colonial Williamsburg for permission to quote from these
papers, which will be hereafter referred as B. HQ. Papers, Photostat, Ms.
Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

2. "Half Moon" was named for Henry Hudson's ship. Riedesel wrote
it "Half Mohn." Camp Van Schaick, or Half Moon, is at the intersection of



                         Chapter Notes                              429

Park and Van Schaick Avenues, Cohoes, New York. The Van Schaick mansion,
Gates's headquarters, is open to the public. See New York, A Guide to
the Empire State, (New York, 1956: American Guide Series, Oxford Press).

3. "Captain Whitcomb returned last evening after a scout of eight days.
He says the main body of the enemy are between Fort Edward and Fort
Anne with their baggage and stores.... He had several hair-breadth escapes
but kept himself and his party (consisting of four privates) safe till they got
between this and Fort Miller. They were then surprised by a few Indians
who have taken or killed all his men." See Kirkland, Livingston to Varick,
Aug. 3, 1777; Vol. II, Letter 24.

4. For Skene's financial affairs, see the Hall Park McCulloch Papers,
Library, Bennington Museum Library.

5. Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral) John Schank built the boats for the
Hudson bridge at Crown Point, 70 miles away. He equipped them with
chains, so they could be fastened together, and with mast and sail for the
lake crossing. He is also credited with the invention of the centerboard
sailboat. See Hadden, Appendix 18, also p. LXXVI.

6. "Boundless forests": See Digby p. 235.

7. "Camp life was irksome": H. B. Livingston to Schuyler, September 19,
1777. Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

8. A map of 1877 shows the Schuyler house on the west side of the
highway to Stillwater. It is on the east side of the new road at Schuylerville
and is being restored as a public monument, open to visitors.

                     15: THE BATTLES OF SARATOGA

1. The battle fields of Saratoga attracted visitors as early as 1780. 'The
woods continually rise toward the west.... with eminences but no summits,"
see Travels in North-America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782, by the
Marquis de Chastellux hereafter called Travels, de Chastellux.

"A great part of the battle field was occupied by lofty trees, principally
pine, with here and there a few cleared fields of which the most conspicuous
was Freeman's Farm.... Many gigantic trees still remain.... shew wounds
in their trunks and branches...." See Remarks on a Short Tour between
Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819, by Benjamin Silliman (1820:
Converse).

Today, the Saratoga National Park provides guide service and publishes
information with helpful maps. But the park does not include the field of
Burgoyne's last stand, nor his place of surrender commemorated by the
Saratoga Monument at Schuylerville (the original Saratoga) and marked
with tablets,

2. Riedesel, Stone, contains an account of Saratoga; but I have used a



430              The Baroness and the General

manuscript in French from the Riedesel Papers, Bancroft Collection, Ms. Div.
N.Y. Pub. Lib. as more colorful.

3. The house where the Baroness lived during the action at Freeman's
Farm and Bemis Heights was recently burned. A guide at the Saratoga
National Park kindly pointed out its location and my husband and I visited the
spot a cellarhole near the Hudson. But the house had been moved; it was
once much nearer the great redoubt. A photograph shows the house to have
been remodeled in the Victorian manner.

4. Burgoyne to Powell, see Gates Papers, New-York Historical Society.
Brigadier Powell to Burgoyne: see B. HQ Papers, Photostat, Ms. Div. N.Y.
Pub. Lib.

5. German-American letter, see Gates Papers, New-York Historical Society.

6. It was a four-pronged advance at Bemis Heights according to Visits,
Stone, and Travels, de Chastellux. But it looked like three prongs to Riedesel,
who did not count Fraser's advance corps.

                     l6: MRS. GENERAL IN COMMAND

1. The story of Lady Acland's joining her husband after he became Gates's
prisoner is told in The Women of the American Revolution by Elizabeth
F. L. Ellet, Vol. I Chapter X. (New York, 1848: Baker and Scribner). But
she was a sort of female Parson Weems, using her imagination freely. Her
tales have caused historians a good deal of trouble. Major Acland was not
killed in a duel he died of natural causes. Lady Acland was not "deprived
of her reason" for two years because of "the shock of his death," and she did
not marry Chaplain Bradenel but remained a widow until her death. Wilkinson
in his Memoirs and Fonblanque in his biography of Burgoyne both have
her married to Bradenel, but William L. Stone wrote to the Acland family in
England and "exploded the theory." See Hadden, LV, footnote.

2. William L. Stone includes the first-hand account of "General Ebenezer
Mattoon" in his Visits.

3. The Diary of Captain Benjamin Warren on the Battle Field of Saratoga
was transcribed by David E. Alexander, from the Jared Sparks Collection of
Manuscripts deposited in the Library of Harvard University, and published
in the Journal of American History, Vol. 3, p. 201, 1909, no. II second
quarter. In 1909, the whereabouts of the original diary were not known.
Benjamin Warren was born in Plymouth, March 1740, son of Captain
Benjamin Warren, descendant of Richard Warren, Mayflower immigrant.

4. Reynels (Stone) or Reynal (Hadden).

5. Madam Riedesel, Stone, says that it was "Captain Thomas Bloomfield"
(not "Major Plumfield") who was wounded through his cheeks.



                         Chapter Notes                              431

                     17: TROOPS OF THE CONVENTION

1. For Digby, see Chapter 4 Note 4.

2. An account of the proceedings just before Burgoyne's surrender was
written by Heinrich Urban von Cleve, adjutant of the Brunswick troops and
aide to Riedesel. This manuscript is in Volume R of the Force Papers,
Manuscript Library, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. There is an abstract in
English and, through the kindness of Mrs. Julia Ward Stickley of National
Archives, I have had it compared with the original by a German translator.
Another account is in the National Archives, Ottawa, Canada.

3. The hollow bullet recovered from Daniel Taylor is on display in the
museum at Fort Ticonderoga. Accounts of Taylor's capture are from the
Gates Papers, New-York Historical Society, New York City.

4. The burning of Kingston is from the Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div., N.Y.
Pub. Lib., and The American Rebellion, Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative of His
Campaigns, 1775-1782, - with an Appendix of Original Documents, edited by
William B. Willcox (1954: Yale University, New Haven).

5. Wilkinson in his Memoirs.... places Gates on horseback not so
Digby, nor the anonymous German who described the scene, wigs and all,
in Pettingill.

                     l8: OVERLAND JOURNEY

1. The Schuyler mansion in Albany is open to the Public and is well
worth a visit.

2. Burgoyne's "Official" letter is from the Canadian Archives, Ottawa,
Canada. His "separate and private" letter is from the B. HQ., photostat copy,
Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

3. John B. Church was associated with Alexander Hamilton in
establishing the National Bank.

4. For "bundling board," see Bundling, Its Origin, Progress and Decline
in America by Henry Reed Stiles. (Privately printed, no date.)

                     19: THE BARONESS IN CAMBRIDGE

1. "Colleges illuminated." See Diary of the American Revolution from
Newspapers and Original Documents, edited by Frank Moore, Vol. II, p. 513
(New York, 1858: Scribner's).

2. General Heath refers to himself as "our General" in his autobiography,
Heath's Memoirs of the American War, written in 1789 (New York, 1904:
and reprinted by A. Wessels Co.). This was supposed to be just a literary
device, but Hannah Winthrop's letters show that "our General" was what
his neighbors called him.

3. All correspondence to and from Heath is from the Heath Papers,
Massachusetts Historical Society.



432              The Baroness and the General

4. As commander in chief in Boston in 1776, Gage had a salary of ten
pounds per day, and Burgoyne, as major general, two pounds ten. B. HO.
Papers photostat, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

5. The Riedesel house in Cambridge is still standing, Number 149 Brattle
Street. Dr. Harold Bowditch and Mr. Howard Turner have kindly supplied
me with material concerning it. The house has been moved across Riedesel
Avenue from its original site, and extensively remodeled.

6. The Journal of Ernst Johann Schuler von Senden was presented
anonymously by a descendant to American Heritage and given by them to the
Morristown National Historic Park. Mr. Hans Meyer, Librarian of the
Morristown Museum Library, has compared it with a printed version in German
at the New York Public Library and has found interesting variations. He
translated portions of it; the untranslated sections relating to my subject
I have had translated especially for this book by Mrs. Constance Bruzelius.

                     20: PEACEFUL CAMBRIDGE

1. In the Morristown Transcripts is a list of articles Captain Willoe bought
for General Riedesel. They were received on board the Schooner Industry,
which was held so long in Halifax that it arrived in Boston after the Riedesels
left. There was "a box anchovies and mustard.... raisins, oranges & citron,
A Box Linnen, Chip hats etc.," probably summer hats for the Baroness and
the little girls.

2. The description of the Henley trial is from Pettingill, p. 137.

3. Burgoyne's departure is from the Bulletin of the Newport Historical
Society, No. 86, Jan. 1933: '"Newport Harbor and Lower Narragansett Bay,
Rhode Island, during the American Revolution" a paper read by Mrs.
Elizabeth Covell.

4. The letter describing "masks" for secret communications is from B.HQ.
Papers, photostat copy, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

5. The punishment for desertion was to be "forever degraded and afterwards
punished by running the gantlet through 200 men, 12 times in 2 days,
6 times each day." Haldimand Papers, Canadian Archives, Ottawa, Canada.

6. Armand's letter to Riedesel, 31 May, 1778, is in the Gates papers, New-
York Historical Society Library. See also, The New-York Historical Society
Quarterly, Vol. XLV (January 1961), Number 1, "Colonel Armand and
Washington's Cavalry," by John H. Statesman, Jr., with a portrait of this
astonishing gentleman by Charles Willson Peale (c. 1783).

                     21: MARCHING ORDERS

1. For the French Fleet, see Memoirs of General Heath (Chapter 19, Note



                         Chapter Notes                              433

2. For John Hancock's breakfast party, see The Memorial History of
Boston, edited by Justin Winsor (Boston, 1886: Ticknor).

3. This decidedly mysterious letter, Phillips to Riedesel, "si nous avions
attaqué...." is from Morristown Transcripts.

4. Correspondence with the British concerning money goes on at great
length, with itemized accounts, in the B.HQ. Papers, Photostat, Ms. Div.
N.Y. Pub. Lib.

5. Angelica Schuyler Church's son: See Schuyler Papers, Ms. Div. N.Y.
Pub. Lib.

6. For the departure of Mrs. Hamage, see Gates Papers, New-York
Historical Society.

7. Refusal of permission to go into Boston: See above source.

8. The story of the German march southward is from The Journal of Du
Koi the Elder, Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Service of the Duke of
Brunswick, 1776-1778. Translated from the original German Manuscript in
the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., by Charlotte S. J. Epping.
American Germania, edited by M. D. Learned, No. 15, University of
Pennsylvania (New York, 1911: D. Apleton). The University of Pennsylvania
Press kindly gives permission to quote.

                     22: THE LONG ROAD

1. I have endeavored to identify the places mentioned by Du Roi on
a moderm road map and my husband and I took the journey to Charlottesville
by the route described. It was a long road, even by car, but a most interesting
one.

2. Robert Troup to Gates, Gates Papers, New-York Historical Society.

3. John Laurens (1754-1782) was born in Charleston, South Carolina.
He had been studying law at the Inner Temple in London, but came home
to join in the American struggle for independence, becoming a volunteer
aide to Washington in 1777. He was "angered by the constant personal
abuse of Washington" by Major General Charles Lee, according to the
official story. It was said that Lee used his slight wound to avoid duels with
other challengers, and everyone seemed to forget that Washington had
forbidden dueling. John Laurens was taken prisoner at Charleston, South
Carolina, exchanged, and sent to France as "envoy extraordinary" at the age
of twenty-six. "Recklessly" brave, he stormed a British redoubt at Yorktown,
and was eventually killed in the "irregular warfare" which thereafter
continued in South Carolina.

                     23: THE BARONESS IN VIRGINIA

1. Two water color sketches by von Senden show a Charlottesville hut



434              The Baroness and the General

before and after completion. They accompanied von Senden's Journal and
are at the library of the Museum at Morristown.

2. Negotiations for Colle are from the Morristown Transcripts.

3. Letters to and from General Riedesel are in the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson, edited by Julian P. Boyd, Vol. II (Princeton, 1950: Princeton
University Press).

4. Some of the prisoners borrowed books from Jefferson's library. Other
young officers quartered in Charlottesville underestimated the potency of
peach brandy and one "Robt. Dobson" was obliged to apologize. "I am
informed I made use of the word Reptell," he wrote. He said he had not
meant it to be "injurious to my acquaintance in Virginia." Bland Papers,
University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia.

5. For weather, see Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, 1776-1824,
annotated by Edwin Morris Betts (Philadelphia, 1944: The American
Philosophical Society).

6. For Mazzei's auction, see William and Mary College Quarterly Historical
Magazine, William and Mary College Press, Vol. IX, second series, October,
1929, No. 4, second installment, "Memoires of Philip Mazzei" translated by
Dr. E. C. Branchi.

7. Monticello as the Baroness saw it, see Old Pictures of Monticello, by
James A. Bear, Jr., Curator of Monticello, University of Virginia Press, 1957.

8. Because there is no mention of the Jeffersons in Madame Riedesel's
published journal and because of Jefferson's assumption that Riedesel's horses
ruined Mazzei's grapevines, it has been concluded that the two families were
not friends. Letters indicate the contrary. See Riedesel Papers, Bancroft
Collection, N.Y. Pub. Lib.

                     24: THE NEW YORKERS

1. Descriptions of Frederick or Berkeley Springs are from George Washington,
a Biography, by Douglas Southall Freeman, Vols. Ill and VI, (New
York, 1954: Scribner's).

2. In Madam Riedesel's published journal the name is "Mrs. Garel."
When a search of Maryland records failed to uncover such a name, it was my
husband's idea to consider Carroll. A check showed that Mary Darnall Carroll
was twelve years younger than her husband (Charles Carroll, signer of the
Declaration), that she had four children at the time of the Baroness's visit,
that she was living at Doughoregan Manor with her father-in-law as one of
the family. He was Charles Carroll of Annapolis of the "princely family of
the Carrolls of Ely of Carroll, Kings County, Ireland," seventy-seven rather
than eighty-four which was the only item which does not fit Madam
Riedesel's description. See The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, by Kate



                         Chapter Notes                              435

Mason Rowland (2 vols.; New York, 1898: Putnam's); Charles Carroll of
Carrollton, by Joseph Gum (New York, 1932: Kenedy); History of Carrollton
Manor, by William J. Grove (Frederick, Md., 1928: Marken and Bieldfield);
History of Maryland, by J. Thomas Scharf (Baltimore, Md., 1879:
J. B. Piet).

3. "Great desertion" is from Morristown Transcripts. Mention of Halifax
may refer to Halifax, North Carolina.

4. In the Sparks Papers, Houghton Library, is a list of officers and servants
"belonging to Major General Riedesel and his Family." It is dated Sept. 12,
1779, and therefore refers to their journey toward New York. Women have
no names!

Return of the names of the Officers and Servants belonging to
General Riedesel and his Family

Lady Riedesel & three children one Chamber Maid

Rubel Cook

Rockel Servant

Glockenthen Coachman

Fisher Postillion

Lieut. Freeman, Aid-de-Camp to General Riedesel

Backer

Forrens Servants

(are now at the Spring and meets with General Riedesel at Leesburg)

Major General Riedesel goes with General Phillips

Miller Servant

Paez Groom

Capit. (sic) Poellnetz Depy Adjt. Genl goes with General Riedesel

John Hueter

Hallman Servants

Dr. Pralle goes with General Riedesel

Carl Roetger

Foerster Servants

Buerig, Steward to General Riedesel goes with the Baggage and the
following Servants

Cruse

Valentin

Nordez

two kitchen women

The list continues with aides Gerlach and Cleve, each with two servants;
Pastor Mylius and Secretary Langemeyer, two servants apiece; two clerks
attended by one servant.

5. Information leading to the identification of the houses given the



436              The Baroness and the General

Riedesels for quarters is from Iconography of Manhattan Island, Vol. V, by
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (New York, 1915-1928: Dodd Mead) at New-York
Historical Society hereafter referred to as Iconography. Mr. Arthur
Carlson, New-York Historical Society, Map Room, most kindly found a
watercolor of the John Marston house for me.

6. Captain Willoe. Captain Sam Willoe was a member of General
Riedesel's military family for seven years, by his own account. This was
however an interrupted service. He was sent to Canada to forward officers'
baggage to Cambridge, Massachusetts, General Burgoyne requesting a passport
for him, February 11, 1778, according to British Headquarters Papers.
The passport was not granted until June 14, 1778, and on October 2
"nothing further is known" of Captain Willoe, sent to Canada. This does
not mean that the young man wrote no letters. He wrote to General
Riedesel, heading his letter Quebec, June 16, 1778 (Morristown papers)....
"Judging of the state that your trunks might be in, from the miserable
condition in which I found my own, I had them brought to the Grand
Vicaire's and opened; I was agreeably surprised to find everything safe
and Madame de Riedesel's large Band Box in very good order and dry
to the bottom." Willoe was afraid he could not have "all the fine things"
packed up "in the same good order."

Willoe was in Quebec October 7, 1778 still trying in vain to expedite
baggage. "I hope Madame de Riedesel and the three dear little Graces are
well" he wrote. He was not exchanged as he expected and in August 24,
1779, he was still in Quebec, "extremely unhappy at not having the
Honor of hearing" from General Riedesel. On October 9, he headed his
letters "New York," and was "concerned and surprised" because Burgoyne
"omitted to mention" him to Howe. He was finally exchanged September
6, 1780.

Captain Willoe was once more aide to General Riedesel when the
Baroness arrived in New York although still a prisoner of war. He
negotiated for "a Pipe of Madeira" for the General on October 20, 1779,
and carried the message from General Phillips that Riedesel was invited by
Haldimand to dine "at Black Sam's at four o'clock...."

                     25: MISS AMERICA

1. See note 5 previous chapter.

2. The Queen's birthday: See New York Mercury, January 24, 1780, also
Iconography and The Memorial History of the City of New-York from its
First Settlement to the Year 1892, edited by James Grant Wilson (New
York, 1892: The New-York History Company). See also The Memorial
History of the City of New-York, Vol. II, p. 500: "The oppulent De
Lanceys occupied many fine mansions in the city and vicinity. The founder
of the family built that which later became Fraunces' Tavern on the



                         Chapter Notes                              437

corner of Pearl and Broad streets.... Stephen De Lancey also built a
large house on Broadway just above Trinity Church, which later became
the City Arms." See also Iconography. The De Lancey mansion, 115
Broadway was the Province Arms; New York Arms; City Arms; Hull's Tavern (and
had still other names.) It was taken by W. Hick on January 17, 1778 and
the name changed to The Bunch of Grapes but called (William Smith's
Diary) Hick's Tavern. Supper given there in honor of the Queen's
Birthday, Jan. 18, 1780.

3. William Smith (1728-1793) was born in New York City, graduated
from Yale College in 1745 and studied law in his father's office. His History
of the Province of New-York from the First Discovery to the Year M.DCC.
XXXII was published in London in 1732. He continued to write, but the
years covering the Revolution remain in manuscript in the New York Public
Library. When New York was evacuated, William Smith went to England,
then to Canada where he became a chief justice. Quotations are from Smith's
manuscript as published in the Iconography.

4. Letters of General Pattison are in The New-York Historical Society
Collections, Vol. 8, 1875.

5. Dr. Harold Bowditch has sent me a translation from The Physician and
the Healing Art in Past Days, Herman papers, Leipsig, 1900. Seite 200.
"However, the inoculation with the human smallpox lymph seems to have
been very risky. The wife of General Riedesel.... experienced a smallpox
epidemic in New York. In her letters she writes that her child nearly lost its
life owing to inoculation...."

6. Thomas Jones (1731-1792) was born on Long Island, graduated from
Yale College and "probably" studied law with his father. He was a Loyalist
with much to lose, "a fine residence called Mount Pitt on the highest point
in lower Manhattan," and "a magnificent country place" at Fort Neck, Long
Island. For suspected Loyalist activities, he was imprisoned and parolled by
Governor Trumbull of Connecticut. During the period of his parole he wrote
The History of New York during the Revolutionary War and of the Leading
Events of the Other Colonies, 1879. His estates were confiscated and he
went to England.

7. For exchange of Phillips and Riedesel for Lincoln, see B.HQ. Papers,
Photostat, Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

                     26: PROGRESS IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION

1. "This service was performed with a trifling loss, and the men who are
missing, through excessive fatigue, are hourly expected in." Kivington's
Gazette Mar. 4, 1779.

"I ordered the few troops that came from Stamford to pursue them, thinking
they might have an opportunity to pick up some stragglers. In this I



438              The Baroness and the General

was not disappointed, as Your Excellency will see by the list of prisoners."
General Israel Putnam to Washington, in Diary of the American Revolution,
by Frank Moore.

2. For scheme for liberating officers, see Riedesel Papers, Bancroft Coll.
Ms. Div. N.Y. Pub. Lib.

3. Riedesel to Jefferson; for flag of trace for ship Riedesel, see Jefferson
Papers, Vol. 5.

"Captain Gerlach begs me to interest myself for him with your Excellency
as he is excessively sick at sea, to permit him to return to this place by land
as soon as his affairs are settled" Dearborn Papers, Houghton Library,
Harvard. General quartermaster of the Brunswick infantry, Captain of
Engineers Heinrich von Gerlach, came home safely and became Commander of
artillery in Brunswick. He died in 1798. See Riedesel, Stone, Vol. II, p. 265.

4. On August 22, 1781, there was a total of 23,489 men, 3615 women and
4127 children "victualled at New York and the outposts." In the "Germanic
Regiments there were 10,251 men and 679 women." See Women Camp
Followers of the American Revolution by Walter Hart Blumenthal,
MacManus, Philadelphia, 1952.

5. Delays in sailing: See The American Rebellion, by Sir Henry Clinton.

6. For death of Phillips, see Hadden, Appendix I. Lafayette's father was
killed at Minden at the age of twenty-seven. Lafayette believed that his father
was killed by a ball from the battery commanded by General Phillips, and
he thought that a ball from his own battery killed General Phillips. See
Adrienne, the Life of the Marquise de La Fayette by André Maurois. (New
York; 1961: McGraw-Hill).

7. "Mr. Ludlow...." Morristown Transcripts.

                     27: RETURN TO CANADA

1. 'Had not Mr. Washington without any just cause....": See Canadian
Archives, Ottawa, Canada.

2. '"By the United States in Congress Assembled. April 3, 1781. Resolved,
That the Commander in Chief be and is hereby directed to recall Lt. Gen.
Burgoyne...." B. HQ., photostat copy, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

3. "Other than the officers, none of the Convention troops were restored
to their native countries until the war was over." History of Prisoner of War
Utilization by the United States, 1776-1945, by Lieutenant Colonel George
G. Lewis and Captain John Mewha. Department of the Army pamphlet No.
20-213. Hereafter called Utilization.

4. Red, white and blue flowers Canadian Archives, Ottawa.

5. Letters from "Lui" or Louis Schmidt: See Morristown Transcripts.



                         Chapter Notes                              439

6. "Plan of an Expedition to the Ohio": See Riedesel Papers, Bancroft
Collection, Ms. Div., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

7. For "Reply to General Clinton's Proposals....": See Vermont Historical
Collections; Haldimand Papers, Vol. 2, p. 343, 20 Sept. 1781. Canadian
Archives, Ottawa, Canada. Hereafter called Haldimand Papers.

8. Riedesel offered amnesty to all deserters if they would come in. (July 19,
1782, Morristown Transcripts.) Driven to desperation by fresh desertions,
Riedesel also offered a "reward of Half a Joe [Johannes] for every Deserter
or Deserter's scalp" from St. Johns Blockhouse, or Isle aux Noix. (Dec. 30,
1782 Haldimand Papers, Canadian Archives, Ottawa, Canada.) A Johannes
was a Portuguese goldpiece worth about sixteen dollars.

9. Letters to and from General Riedesel and General St. Leger concerning
St. Leger's son, "petit Jean": See Morristown Transcripts. Petit Jean
played a German version of drop-the-handkerchief with the Riedesel little
girls. But a servant girl played a different sort of game with "petit Jean,"
and he was sent home in disgrace. It was childish innocence on the boy's
part, and his father arranged for the doctor to explain matters. General
Riedesel's letter (in French) was most tactful: "In the eleventh year, he
feels what I only began to feel when I was fourteen, my joy then being
one of my mother's maids."

                     28: THE PRETTY SHIP

1. See the Vermonter, Nov. 1906, "Hazen's Road," by Frederick W.
Baldwin.

2. Advertisements were put in local papers to recall prisoners who had
found jobs for themselves. "German soldiers.... were permitted to ransom
themselves for 80 Spanish milled dollars.... Those who could not raise the
money usually found some Americans who were willing to advance it in return
for labor for a fixed term.... Approximately 6000 Hessians [Germans]
remained in the United States after the Revolutionary War." Utilization, p. 20.
No distinction between Hessians and Brunswickers is made here.

3. While in Canada with the Riedesels, Willoe found himself ordered
to Fort Niagara. At Fort Erie on the 5th of July, 1783, he learned that
he would not be allowed to say good-by to the Riedesels. He was in "a State
of Mind and Agitation of Spirits not easily described...." (Morristown
papers.)

Captain Sam Willoe remained devoted to the Baroness and the General,
as the last letter from him in the Morristown papers shows. It
is headed London, December 14, 1786, and he was doing errands as usual.
"I have sent two pairs of spectacles and four pairs of glasses (of different
focuses) to be changed in case these now in the frames should not suit
her R. Highnesses Eyes...." It seems probable that "her R. Highness"



44              The Baroness and the General

was the Duchess of Brunswick and that the Baroness Riedesel has been
extolling the virtues of English glasses. Willoe '"bespoke the Spectacles at
Mr. Watkins's, who, wishing to execute her R. H.'s Orders in the best
manner, desired a few days' time"

4. Madam Riedesel tells the story of the voyage home, as indicated.

5. The Royal Navy by Sir William Laird Clowes, Sir C. Markham, A. T.
Mahan and others (London, 1899-1903: S. Lowe, Marston and Co.), Vol. 4,
tells of the foundering of the Royal George, a hundred-gun ship. Rear
Admiral Kempenfelt and Captain Martin Waghorn were lost, but of course
there is no record of rank and file and women and children who were
drowned.

6. Interview with King George: See Haldimand Papers.

                     29: MRS. GENERAL COMES HOME

1. When Count Bemstorff was Ambassador to the United States he visited
Schuylerville, New York, to see the house where his ancestress, the Baroness
Riedesel, had taken refuge during Burgoyne's last stand. Afterwards, he
ordered copies in oil of the portraits of the General and of Mrs. General,
which he presented to Mrs. Kenneth Bullard's father, owner of the house.
Mrs. Bullard kindly allowed me to have the portraits photographed.
Photographs of the portraits of the daughters, reproduced here, were sent from
Germany at the same time. No artist is given but, with the exception of
Augusta, they seem to be by the same hand.

2. Letters from Francis Coffin are in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

3. Information on the birth date of Georg Karl and other family dates for
this period has been painstakingly gathered for me by Dr. Clementine Zernick.

4. Georg Karl married a cousin, Caroline Friederike, in 1808. He was
twenty-three and she a year younger. The marriage month is not given, so it
is impossible to say whether Georg's mother lived to enjoy this happy
occasion. Their daughter, Marie Caroline, was born July 4, 1809. I am
indebted to Dr. Clementine Zemick for her search in German genealogies and
to Widener Library, Harvard College, for sending rare German volumes to
the New York Public Library for her use.

5. The Diary and Letters of Gouveneur Morris, edited by Anne Gary
Morris (New York, 1888: Scribner's) . Vol. 2 (1797) tells of his meeting with
Miss America.

                     3O: THE LETTERS OF MRS. GENERAL

1. A photostat of the will of General Riedesel was sent to me by Baron
Dr. von Galera, from Lauterbach. The handwriting, the archaic German and
the legalistic language made it most difficult to translate; but Dr. Clementine



                         Chapter Notes                              441

Zemick, herself a lawyer, has made a most excellent English translation
for me.

2. A note in Riedesel, Stone, tells how the castle at Lauterbach was burned
in the insurrections of 1848. Baron Dr. von Galera, in a letter to me, says
that it was only the woodwork inside the castle which was burned and that
"the fortress itself, under the rebellion, did not suffer."

3. It seems that we have Count Reuss to thank for the suppression of the
name of "the wife of the commissary" who was Burgoyne's mistress in
America.



Index



ACLAND, LADY CHRISTIAN HENRIETTA CAROLINE (called Harriet),
   xi, 14, 145, 175, 188, 209, 212-215, 243
Acland, Major John Dyke, xi, 14, 145, 175, 188, 189, 198, 203, 212, 243
Adirondack Mts., 111
Albany, N.Y., 71, 103, 104, 106, 111, 119, 121-123, 125, 146,
   152, 163, 177, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 188, 193, 198, 231,
   232, 235, 237-240, 243, 249, 263, 278, 288
Allen, Elian, 113, 115, 379, 380
Allen family, 154
Amboy, N.J., 352
Amenia, N.Y., 298
Amerika ("Miss America"), See Riedesel,
   Baron and Baroness von, children of
Amherst, Lord Jeffrey, Gen., 112, 113, 119
Anburey, Lt. Thomas, ix, 84, 99, 123, 125, 136, 137, 213, 224,
   244, 245, 272, 424; encounters bundling, 244-245
André, Maj. John, 358
Ann, 352
Annapolis, Md., 328
Anspackers, 254
Anstruther, Capt, 151, 264
Apollo (ship), 72
Appomattox River, 358
Apthorp, the Reverend East, 260, 261, 274
Arbuthnot, Capt., 101
Arlington, Vt., 162, 380
Armand, Col. (assumed name of the Marquis de la Rouerie), 279, 280
Arnold, Gen. Benedict, ix, 44, 47, 57-60, 110, 113, 115, 116, 177-
   179, 190, 193, 195, 205, 240, 243, 357-359, 364, 384
Arnold's Bay, 423

BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN, 334
Badely, Mrs., 351
Balcarres, Lord, 203
Baltimore, Md., 116, 306, 307, 328, 330, 359
Barber, Gen. Francis, 86
Barner, Major; 170, 171
Barnes family massacre, 154
Bartlett, Col, of New Hampshire, 159
Batten Kill, 162, 164, 165, 170, 203, 225
Baum, Lt. Col. Friedrich, xi, 42, 162-164, 166-170, 172, 173
Beauharnais, Josephine de, 408
Beekman, Dr. James, 339
Beer soup, 421
Bemis Heights, Battle of, 203
Bennington, Battle of, 158, 165-167, 170-174, 177, 181-183, 214, 278,
   388; expedition to, 162, 428; Meeting House, 172; town of, 140, 157,
   160, 161, 163, 164
Berkeley Springs, W. Va., 323-325, 327, 332, 406
Berkshires, the, 143, 244, 248, 297
Berlin, Germany, 10, 407, 408, 415
Bernsdorf (Bernstorff), Countess von See Riedesel,
   Baron and Baroness von, children of, Amerika
Bernstorff, Johann Heinrich, Count von (German Ambassador to U.S.
   1908-1917), 440
Bertier, Canada, 95-97
Bethlehem, Pa., 331, 334-336

445



446                                                Index



Bland, Col. Theodorick, 316, 327.
Blandford, Mass., 248
Blandford Churchyard, 359
"Blenheim," 318, 319, 327
Blonde (frigate), 22, 45, 46, 72, 74
Blondell, daughters of, 35 1
Bloomfield, Capt., 430
Bloomfield, Maj., 192
Blue Ridge Mts., 307, 309, 315, 320, 326, 340
Boleyn, Anne, 67
Bomoseen, Lake, 134
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 407
Boon, Aaron, 380
Borland, John, 261
Boston, Mass., 21, 61, 62, 115, 122, 242-244, 251, 253, 255, 256, 262,
   263, 267, 268, 273, 274, 278, 281-283, 288, 289, 291, 296, 388, 405;
   Common, 282; Harbor, 269, 277, 283; Old South Meeting House,
   256, 283
Bouquet River, no, 125
Braddock, Gen. Edward, 118
Bradstreet, Gen. John, 117
Brandywine, Battle of, 252
Brattleboro, Vt., 163
Brattlebury, Vt See Brattleboro
Brewer, Col., brigade of, 124
Breymann, Lt. Col. Heinrich, 170-172, 182, 205; Grenadier battalion
   of, 43; his corps, 162, 205
Bridgewater, Mass., 140
Bristol, England, 33-39, 176; Lord Mayor of, 421
Broglie, Victor Francois, Due de, 6
Brooklyn, N.Y., 353, 360
Brooks, Watson and Rashleigh, 395
Brown, Lt. Richard, 276
Brown, Maj., 347, 361, 362
Browning, Mr., British loyalist or spy, 182
Bradenel, Chaplain, 210, 213, 214
Brunswick, Augusta, Duchess of, 402
Brunswick, Charles I, Duke of, xi, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 20, 101, 231,
   242, 268, 295, 403, 442; Riedesel letters to, 4, 47, 53, 61, 62, 87,
   100, 103, 105, 141, 173, 177, 181, 196, 205, 241, 410
Brunswick, Charles William Ferdinand of (Prince, Duke after 1780
   as Charles II), xi, 8, 42, 403, 45-407, 413
Brunswick, Ferdinand, Duke of, field marshal, brother of Charles I, and
  uncle of Charles William, xi, 8, 12, 17, l8, 20, 40, 48
Brunswick, Germany, Duchy of, xi, 9, 12-14, 16, 20, 23, 31, 33, 63, 79,
   150, 248, 335, 400, 401, 403-407, 413
Brussels, Belgium, 23, 28
Bryant, Joseph, a Mohawk Indian, 182
Bull, James, of Hartford, Conn., 293
Bull, Mr., a Loyalist, 166
Bull, William, ex-Governor of South Carolina, 363
Bullwaga Bay, 112
"Bundling," 244-245
Bunker Hill, Battle of, 21, 115, 139, 167, 194, 267, 278
Burgoyne, Gen. Sir John ("Gentle-man Johnny") , xi, 4, 22, 42, 45, 46,
   52-54, 70-72, 76, 87, 89, 103-105, 112-114, 123, 126, 133, 137, 138,
   140, 143-148, 152, 154, 158, 161-167, 170, 173-175, 177-179, 101,
   187-190, 192, 236, 239, 240, 242, 249, 251, 339, 354, 355, 364, 368,
   371, 378, 379, 396, 411, 415; reads a proclamation, 106109; addresses
   the Indians, no, in; unjust to Riedesel, 139; fails to control the
   Indians, 155, 156; entertains his mistress, 176; delays his march,
   181-184; at Saratoga, 193-196, 198-205, 210, 212216; surrender,
   222-233; in Cambridge, Mass., 254-261, 264, 268-274; leaves for
   England, 275; mistress of, 215, 415, 441
Burgoyne, Lady Charlotte Stanley, 175
Burick, Sgt., 148
Büttcher, William, 278
Buttonmole Bay, 60, 423

CABENAC, Miss, "cousin" of the vicar of Three Rivers, 98



Index                                               447



Caesar (ship), 281
Calais, France, 21, 23, 28, 29, 32
Cambridge, Mass., xii, 115, 118, 121, 251, 253-257, 260, 261, 271, 272,
   277, 278, 280, 286, 289-291, 316, 328, 402; Bishop's Palace, 269;
   Bradish's Tavern (Blue Anchor), 254, 259, 260, 271; Brattle St.,
   261; Cambridge Common, 251; Christ Church, 260, 261; Harvard
   College, 255; Harvard Square, 259; Tory Row, 253, 261; Watertown
   Road, 261
Cambridge, N.Y., 161, 165, 171
Camden, S.C., 355
Camp followers. See Women with the regiments
Camp Van Schaik, 178
Carleton (frigate), 51, 56-58
Carleton, Capt. Christopher, 52, 56, 80, 422
Carleton, Lady Anne, 80
Carleton, Lady Mary (Maria), xi, 14, 21, 80, 90, 91, 109, 366, 416
Carleton, Sir Guy, Baron Dorchester, Governor of Canada, xi, 21, 42
   44, 46, 47, 49, 52-54, 56, 58-60, 62, 77, 79, 80, 83, 87, 96, 100,
   103, 104, 113, 116, 119, 144, 145, 267, 270, 272, 386, 388, 390, 391,
   421, 422
Caroline College, 405, 407, 413
Carr, Capt., 135
Carroll, Charles, of Annapolis, 328
Carroll, Charles, "the barrister," 329
Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, xii, 329, 330
Carroll, Mrs. Mary, of Canollton, 325, 328-330
"Carter." See Church, Angelica Schuyler, and Church, John Barker
Carter, Col. John, 318
Carter, Edward, 318
Cassel, Landgrave of, 17
Castleton, Vt., 135, 136, 138, 140
Caulfield, Susan, 396
Chambly, Canada, 46-48, 51, 55, 77, 95-97, 145
Champlain, Lake, 44, 47, 48, 56, 57, 60, 62, 71, 85, 89, 103, 109,
   110, 112, 113, 115, Il6, 119, 121, 123, 126, 128, 131, 132, 144, 146,
   149, 150; canal, 146; Wolf's Island, 150
Charleston, S.C., 353
Charlestown, Mass., 253, 257, 267; ferry, 256
Charlestown, N.H., 158, 159
Charlotte, N.C., 355
Charlotte Sophia, Queen of England, xi, 68-70, 80, 81, 108; birthday,
   259; birthday ball, 343-345, 394, 396
Charlottesville, Va., xii, 291, 308, 310-313, 316, 317, 319, 326-328,
   331-333, 336, 371, 4o6, 412
Chase, Col., 257
Chastellux, Francois Jean, Marquis de, 421
Chatham, 332, 334
Chimney Point, 112
Church, John Barker ("Carter"), 242, 243, 263, 264, 285, 289
Church, Mrs. Angelica Schuyler, 242, 243, 262, 263, 289
Cilly, Col. Joseph, 184; brigade of, 124
Clark, Maj. Gen. (British), 368, 369
Clark, Peter, Justice of the Peace of Lyndeboro, N.H., 167, 172
Cleve, Adj. Heinrich Urban, ix, 226
Clinton, Gen. George, American Governor of N.Y, 17771795, 229
Clinton, Sir Henry, General, xii, 176, 177, 229, 230, 239, 252, 265, 276,
   277, 282, 284-286, 291, 299, 303, 327, 331, 336-338, 340, 350-355,
   358-360, 362, 365, 368, 377-379, 390; and Mrs. Badely, 351; and
   the daughters of Blondell, 351
Coffin, Francis, 405
Cogan, American Quartermaster, 136
"Colle," estate at Charlottesville, Va., 312-314, 317, 319
Concord, Mass., 255
Congress (American gunboat), 55, 60
Congress, Continental, 116, 118, 119, 121, 122, 175, 228, 252, 258, 269,
   270, 273, 277, 284, 288, 298, 303, 332, 335, 367, 368
Connecticut, 290, 296, 338; River,



448                                                    Index



Connecticut continued 141, 143, 163, 291-293; Valley, 164
Convention of Saratoga, 230, 231, 239, 240, 258, 269, 270, 274, 278,
   284, 354, 362; army, 231, 240, 241, 243, 255, 265, 269, 270, 277,
   282-284, 288, 293, 303, 313, 326, 332, 355, 356, 360, 368, 438
Cook, Lt. Job, 60, 61
Cornwallis, Lord Charles, Maj. Gen., 331, 336, 337, 355, 364, 365, 377, 379
Corson's Inlet, 356
Crone, Christian, German deserter, 278
Crown Point, 47, 59-62, 105, 111-113, 117, 121, 126, 128, 146, 154, 158
Cramer, Jane, 221, 232
Cumberland Head, 105, 106, 109
Curler, John, 283

DARNALL, MARY. See Carroll, Mrs. Mary of Carrollton
Deal, England, 397
Dearborn, Maj. Henry, 194, 213
Delaware River, 105, 120, 303
Derby, Earl of, 175
Detroit, Mich., 377, 389
Dewey, Capt., militia company of, 167
Digby, Lt. William, ix, 152, 188, 223, 224, 233
Distances, German measurement, 424
Dobson, Robert, British prisoner of war, 434
Dohlenberg, Grenadier, German  deserter, 277
Dorchester Heights, Mass., 251
Dorset, Vt, 138
Doughoregan Manor," Carroll estate in Md., 328, 329
Douglas, Sir Charles, Commodore and later Adm., 21, 22; family of, 39
Dover, England, 20, 21, 23, 29, 31, 397
"Dovogat's house," near Saratoga, 189, 190, 196, 213
Duer, William, 175-176
"Duer's house" 175-176
Dufais, Lt., 58
Dunmore, John Murray, Earl of, Gov. of Va., 35, 39
Du Roi, Lt. August Wilhelm, ix, 278, 295-296, 297, 298, 303-307,
   310, 320, 433; describes Gen. Washington, 299; describes Pa.,
   Md., 304-307; opinion of New England and its women, 291-292;
   opinion of Va. and its men and women, 311-312

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y., 353
East River, 339
Eastern Department, 252, 288, 293
Edmonston, Capt., 19, 289, 290, 301, 308, 309, 327, 364
Eelking, Max von, 416, 420
Effingham, Kenneth Alexander  Howard, Earl of, 80
Eighty-ninth Regiment of Foot, ix
Elbe, the, 12, 17, 19, 23, 397, 399
Elizabeth, N.J., 331, 336, 353-354
Elizabethtown. See Elizabeth, NJ.
Ellet, Mrs. Elizabeth F. L., 430
Enfield, Conn., 291
Entrott, Andrew, German deserter, 278
Esopus. See Kingston, N.Y.
Estaing, Charles Hector, Count d', Adm., 281-283

FAIRFAX, LORD THOMAS, 324
Fairfield, Conn., 338
Farmington River, 295
Farnsworth, Josiah, American scout, 159, 160
Fawcitt, Col. William, 12, 17, 18
Fellows, Gen. John, 225
Ferguson, Capt., 137
Fermois, Brig. Gen. Laroche de, 119, 120, 132
Field, Jesse, Loyalist at Bennington, 167, 168, 171, 172
Fifty-third Shropshire Regiment of Foot, ix, 152
Fink, Gen., cashiered by King of Prussia, 226
First New Hampshire Regiment, 374


Index                                                  449

Fishkill, the, 187, 214, 223; town of, 299
Fletcher, Ebenezer, American soldier at Ticonderoga, ix, 134, 135
Fort Anne, 134, 139, 140, 146, 181, 182, 185; Carillon See Ticonderoga;
   Dayton, 178; Edward, 139, 140, 148, 151-156, 159, 162, 173-
   175, 179, 181, 182, 184, 203, 217, 225, 267; Erie, 379; George, 151,
   162, 180, 182, 343; Herkimer, 118; Independence, 200; John, 150;
   Miller, 156, 162, 181, 182;  Montgomery, 229, 230; Niagara, 391;
   St. Frederick, 112; Schuyler,  106, 177-179, 183; Stanwix--See
   Schuyler.
Forty-fourth Regiment, 374
Forty-second British Infantry, 356
Four Winds, 110
Fox, Charles James, 395, 396
Foy, Capt. Edward, commissary, xi, 5, 19-21, 34, 35, 37, 49, 52, 421
Foy, Mrs. Edward (Hannah Van Home), xi, 19, 21, 34, 35, 37-39,
   72, 75, 89, 90, 176, 333, 367, 421
Foy, Nathaniel, 421
Francis, Col. Ebenezer, 135-137; Brigade of, 124; widow of, 137
Franklin, Benjamin, 312
Fraser, Brigadier General Simon, 133, 136-139, 154, 185, 189, 190, 194,
   198, 202, 204, 205, 209, 210, 411; advance guard of, 130
Frederick the Great, 421
Frederick, Md., 388
Frederick, Prince, later King of Prussia, 406-408
Frederick-Spring. See Berkeley Springs
Fredericksburg, Va., 316, 318
Freeman, Capt., aide to Riedesel, 327, 330, 331, 395
Freeman's Farm, Battle of, 194-196, 198-201, 205, 213, 224, 240;
   farmer Freeman, 193
French and Indian War, no, 117, 118
Frenchtown, 303
Frischborn, Germany, 7
"Fritschen." See Riedesel, Baroness von
"Fritz, Lady." See Riedesel, Baroness von

GAGE, GEN. THOMAS, 21, 253, 432
Gall, Gen. von, 130, 189
Gallatin, Albert, 313
Gates, Gen. Horatio, xi, 14, 57, 85, 115-122, 145, 179-181, 185, 188-
   190, 193, 200, 201, 203, 212-214, 216, 224, 225, 227-233, 235, 240,
   252, 254, 287-290, 302, 303, 324, 355, 365, 415; son Bob, 289
Gates, Mrs. Horatio, 119, 287
Geismar, Capt, 212, 221, 316, 325
General Riedesel (ship), 356
Genesee Valley, 290
George I, King of England, 402
George II, King of England, 7
George III, King of England, xi, 8, 11-13, 19, 42, 55, 61, 68, 69, 108,
   246, 264, 275, 395
George, Lake, 85, 131, 148, 151, 162, 181
Gerish, Col., 270, 271
Gerlach, Capt. Heinrich von, 438
Germain, Lady Betty, 67
Germain, Lady Diana, 67, 68
Germain, Lord George, xi, 5, 37-39, 67, 70, 71, 88, 103, 104, 148, 355,
   367, 368, 392
Germain, Sir John, 67
Gibraltar, 12
Gilliland's Creek. See Bouquet River
Gilliland, William, no, in
Giovannetti (Giovanni, servant to Mazzei), 327, 336
Glover, Gen. John, 272
Godecke, British paymaster, 101, 102
Goodrich's Privateers, 326
Gordon, Brigadier General Patrick, 54, 55
Gortz, Count, 307
Grampus (ship), 275
Grand Isle, Canada, 57
Grand Vicar, M. Saint-Onge, 94, 95, 98
Grants, the, 122, 124, 161, 369
Gianville, N.Y., 160
Great Barrington, 248



450                                                     Index


Green Mountain Boys, the, xii, 113, 115, 160
Green Mts., 143, 244
Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, 14, 181, 365
Greenwich, Conn., 354
Guilard, Mr., 79

HADDEN, Lt. JAMES MURRAY, ix, 113
Haldimand, Sir Frederick, Gen., xii, 364, 365, 367, 369, 372, 374, 377-
   380, 382-384, 386, 387, 389-392, 395
Hale, Capt. Nathan, 339
Hale, Col. Nathan, of New
Hampshire, 139
Half Moon. See Camp Van Schaik
Halifax, N.C., 326, 435
Halifax, Nova Scotia, 61, 62, 117, 363, 388
Hamburg, Germany, 405
Hamilton, Alexander, 289
Hamilton, Gen. James, 202
Hampstead, N.H., 139
Hanau Artillery, ix
Hancock, Governor John, 228, 282, 283
Hancock, Mrs. John, 282
Hanover, Germany, 12, 33
Hanover, Pa., 306
Hamage, Maj. Henry, 175, 197, 204, 211
Harnage, Mrs. Henry, 175, 197, 219, 220, 235, 289
Hartford, Conn., 293, 294, 303
Harvie, Col., 316, 318
Haverhill, Mass., 383
Hayward, Susannah, 140
Hazen, Col. Moses, 383-385;
"Hazen's Own" Regiment, 384; Road, 383, 385
Heath, Gen. William, xii, 252, 255-258, 261, 262, 266, 268-274, 276,
   277, 279, 280, 283, 286, 288, 290, 333, 431
Heister, von (Hessian general), 403
Helmuth (clergyman), 305
Henley, Col. David, 270-272
Henry (ship), 73
Henry VIII, King of England, 67
Henry, David, farm of, 167
Henry, Patrick, 311, 316
Herkimer, Gen. Nicholas, 177, 178
Herkimer, N.Y., 178
Hesse-Cassel, Landgrave of, 6, 13
Hesse-Hanau, Germany, 13, 79
Hessians, 13, 87, 168, 171, 172, 180, 254
Higby, Dr. Moses, 229
Higgins, Mrs., 176, 428
Hill, Lt. Col., 139
Hinüber, Madam von, 33
Hoaksley, Mr., 333
Hogback Mt., Va., 324
Holbein, Hans, 67
Hooper, Thomas, 172
Horse Neck, Conn., 354
Housatonic State Forest, Conn., 295
Howe, Lord Richard, (Earl), Vice-Adm., 269
Howe, Sir William, (Viscount), Gen., 48, 61, 62, 71, 86, 103-105,
   239-241, 263, 268, 283, 338, 339,
Hubbardton, Vt, Battle of, 134, 136-138, 145, 194, 196
Hudson River, 46, 61, 71, 104, 106, 116, 129, 132, 134, 140, 147, 151,
   152, 154, 156, 160, 170, 175, 178, 181, 183-185, 188-190, 192, 193,
   204, 211, 213, 216, 221, 223-225, 229, 237, 238, 243, 246, 248, 270,
   297, 299, 301, 336
Hume, Mr. (British courier), 182

Inflexible (frigate), 51, 56-58
Invincible (ship), 129
Irving, Maj., 312, 313
Isle aux Noix, Canada, 47, 48, 56, 60, 369, 380, 385
Isle aux Sonnettes. See Rattlesnake Island

JACKSON, COL., Brigade of, 124
Jackson, Gen. 7 British Commandant, 359
James River, 358
Jefferson, Martha, 316, 317
Jefferson, Mary, 317
Jefferson, Mrs. Thomas, 316, 318


Index


Jefferson, Thomas, xii, 311-313, 315-318, 320, 322, 323, 356, 359
Jemima, and bundling, 245
Jerusalem, Abbé of, 42
Jonathan, and bundling, 245
Jessup, corps of, 143
Johnson, Sir William, 117
Johnston, Mrs., belle of Quebec, 81, 82, 92
Jones, Lt. David, 154, 155
Jones, Thomas, ix, 351, 360, 437

KEAN, MR., British courier, 182
"Kill's Hall," N.J., Manor of John Van Home, 34
King's Bridge, 351, 354
Kingston, Maj., 227
Kingston, N.Y., 230, 231
"Kitty V. R." See Schuyler, Mrs. Catherine Van Rensselaer
Knox, Gen. William, 104, 121, 296
Knyphausen, Gen., 343, 347
Kosciuszko, Col. and later Gen. Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura,120, 121, 160, 196

LACHINE RAPIDS, 48
Lady Mary or Maria (schooner), 56, 58
La Fayette, Gen. Marquis de, 279, 287, 293, 294, 359, 438
Lancaster, Pa., 304, 305, 330
Lane, Capt. ("stripped by Indians"), 182
Languedoc (ship), 281
Lansing, John, Sec. to Schuyler, 186
Laprairie, 48, 49, 53, 54
Laurens, Col. John, 303, 433
Laurens, Henry, President of  Congress, 269, 303
Laurentian Mts., 45
Lauterbach, xi, 7, 11, 18, 411, 416; Castle of, 403, 405, 406, 410, 416, 441
Lee, Maj. Gen. Charles, 303, 433
Leeds, Duke of, 117
Leggett, Isaac, 193
Leggett, Mary, 193
Lehigh River, 334
Leifert, Germany, 16
Leipzig, Germany, 17
Lena (maid to the Baroness), 214
Lerned, Gen. Ebenezer, 195
Levis, Canada, 42
Lexington, Mass., 252
Lincoln, Gen. Benjamin, xi, 161, 165, 352, 353, 355
Little Seal (ship), 362-364
Livingston, Henry Brockholst, ix, 125, 126, 179, 186, 243, 426
Livingston, William, Gov. of N.J., 108, 126
Lloyd's Neck, Long Island, 353
L'Oiseau, Cap, 45
London, England, 29, 31-34, 40, 64, 67, 69, 70, 87, 101, 104, 256, 262,
   275, 364, 387, 392, 393, 395-397, 404; London Bridge, 397; St.
   James's Palace, 33, 67; St. James's Park, 33, 34, 394; Westminster
   Abbey, 397
Long Island, 61, 337, 338, 351-353, 360; Battle of, 290, 294
Loos, Gen., 351, 386, 410
Lorenz, 50
Loring, Commissary, 339
Loring, Mrs., 62, 105, 395, 425
Louis XVI, 406
Lovells, the, Americans captured, 374
Ludlow, Mr., Governor Bull's emissary in retaking slaves, 363
Lyndeboro, N.H. See Clark, Peter

MABANE, DR., 383, 389
Mabane, Madam, 383
Maine, 253
Manchester, Vt., 159, 161, 162
Marburg, Germany, 7
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, 25
Marksmen, Yankee, 224
Marseilles (ship), 281
Marston, John, 342
Martha (ship), 44
Martin (warship), 46
Maryland, xi, 306, 307, 328-330
Massachusetts General Court, 252, 288
Massachusetts, Province and Commonwealth of, 121, 160, 292, 293, 296



452                                                  Index



Massow, Com. Gen. von, 5, 13
Massow, Fiederika Charlotte Luisa von. See Riedesel, Baroness Frederika
Massow, Madam von, 23, 410
Massow, Mademoiselle von, 386
Mather, the Reverend Moses, 355
Mattoon, Gen. Ebenezer, ix, 217, 231, 232
Maurice, Prince of Saxony, 226
Maxen, Battle of, in Seven Years War, as precedent for Burgoyne, 226
Maybaum, Maj., 361
Mazzei, Philip, xii, 312-315, 324
McCrea, Jane (Jennie), 154-156
McCrea, John, 154
McNeil house, Fort Edward, N.Y., described, 427
McNeil, Mrs. Sarah, 154, 155
Meddenburg-Strelitz, Princess of. See Charlotte Sophia, Queen of England
Medford, Mass., 135. 253
Merket, Capt., 277
Messereau, Joshua, 332
Middlesex Parish, Conn., 354
Minden, Germany, Battle of, in Seven Years' War, xi, 5, 21, 24,
   420, 438; town of, 5, 6, 13, 19
Minorca, 12
Mohawk Biver, 105, 106, 116, 125, 177, 178, 183; Valley, 118
Monis, Judah, 260
Monocacy Creek, Pa., 334
Montcalm de Saint-Véran, Marquis Louis Joseph de, field marshal, 43
Montgomery, Gen. Richard, 43, 44, 384
Monticello, 312, 313, 317, 319
Montmorency Falls, 382, 404
Montreal, Canada, 21, 42, 44, 47, 48, 52, 53, 55, 77, 84, 95, 96
   101, 105, 145, 179, 375
Moravian Brethren, 331, 334; Collegium Musicum, 334
Morehouse, Col., 303
Morgan, Col. Daniel, 194; Rifles, 193; troops of, 180
Morris, Gouverneur, describes Berlin, 407-408
Morristown, N.J., 302; Transcripts, 423, 424
Morristown National Historic Park, 432
Mt. Defiance, 121
Mt. Hope, 129, 133
Mt. Independence, 85, 120, 121, 123, 125, 126, 131-133, 144
Müller (Gen. Riedesel's servant), 20
Mulligan, James,. 332
Murray, "Mich" (Riedesel's friend at Quebec), 82, 87; "Mrs. Mich,"
   80, 367, 383; the Murrays, 81, 387, 388
Murray, Sir James, 421
Mylius, Pastor, 337, 346, 35o, 386, 392

NANCY (servant to Mrs. Foy), 76
Neuhaus, Germany, 8, 9
New Boston, N.H., 172
New England, as seen by German soldiers, 244-249
New Hampshire, xii, 86, 117, 121, 125, 158, 160, 161, 181, 184, 371;
Assembly of, 159, 161; President of, 121
New Ipswich, N.H., ix
New Jersey, 87, 290, 302, 303, 331, 338, 339
New Rochelle, N.Y., 117
New Windsor, N.Y., 229
New York (City), 19, 34, 35, 48, 50, 62, 71, 103, 105, 117, 118, 122,
   146, 175, 182, 183, 238, 240, 243, 252, 265, 270, 273, 276, 282, 284,
   288, 290, 299, 303, 328, 331, 332, 335-337, 342, 345, 349, 350, 352,
   353, 357, 358, 360-364, 368, 378, 388, 390-392, 395; the Battery,
   339; Beekman house, 339, 350; Broad St., 342; Brooklyn Bridge,
   337; Canal St., 349; De Lancey Mansion, 344; 52nd St., 339;
   Fraunce's Tavern, 436, 437; Pearl St., 337; Provost Prison, 290;
   Queen St. See Pearl St.; Royal Governor of, 337; Walton house,
   337, 339, 342, 348; Water St., 342
New York (Province and State), 49,


Index                                                     453



   86, 103, 124, 246, 290, 298, 338, 339, 369, 371, 384; State line, 303
Newburgh, N.Y., 229, 299
Newfoundland, 74
Newport, R.I., 269, 270, 273, 274, 281, 282, 284
Niagara, 377, 379, 389
Ninth Regiment, 195
North, Lord (Prime Minister), 32, 108, 395
North Hoosic, N.Y., 166
North River, 351, 358
Northern Dept., 115, 116, 118, 119, 122, l80
Norfolk, Conn., 296
Norwalk, Conn., 338
Nova Scotia, 253

O'CONNER, CAPT., 288
Oder River, 295
Ohio River, 377, 379
Oker River, 11
Oneida, N.Y., 117
Oneidas, 178, 179, 180
Onondagas, 180
Oriskany, Battle of, 177
Orleans Island, 369
Oswego, N.Y., 117
Otter Creek, 111, 162

Pallas (ship), 18, 21, 22, 35, 42, 44, 74
Palmer, Mass., 249
Pattison, Maj. Gen. James, 336, 337, 343, 344, 347, 359
Pausch, Capt. Georg, ix, 50, 57-59, 77, 83-85, 195, 196, 203, 205-207
Pennsylvania, Province and State, 45, 304, 339, 377, 378; Germans, 307
Perna, 226
Peters, Provincial Corps of, 143, 162, 164
Petersburg, Va., 358, 359
Petersham, Lord, Capt., 212, 216
Philadelphia (ship), 422
Philadelphia, Pa., 86, 116, 122, 252, 284, 303, 306, 327, 339
Phillips, Maj. Gen. William, xi, 5, 22, 52, 53, 60, 84, 85, 113, 128,
   129, 189, 191, 192, 195, 197 202, 204, 214, 215, 233, 256, 257, 262,
   272, 276, 277, 280, 282-286, 291, 299, 316, 318, 322, 323, 326, 327,
   331, 332, 335, 343, 347, 352; exchanged, 353, 354, 355, 357-360,
   367, 377, 388
Phyllis (servant to the Riedesels), 363
Piccard (merchant), 373
Pigot, Gen., 274
Pittsfield, Mass., 160
Plattsburg, N.Y., 105, 111
Plumfield, Maj., 222
Plymouth, England, 72
Plymouth, Mass., 254
Porpoise (man-of-war), 72, 74
Portsmouth, England, 18, 21, 22, 37-40, 61, 72, 129, 393
Portsmouth, Va., 358
Potomac River, 324
Potts, Dr., 118, 119
Powell, Brig. Gen., 200
Pownal, Capt. (of Pallas), 91, 92
Presqu'Isle, 379
Price, Capt., 304
Princeton, Battle of, 194
Prospect Hill, Somerville, Mass., 253, 267, 268, 270, 276-278
Prussia, King of. See Fink, Gen., Frederick
Prussia, Queen of, 386

QUAKERS, 193, 306
Quebec, Canada, 21, 28, 41-44, 46, 49, 52, 64, 71, 77, 80-83, 86, 87,
   89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 100, 101, 103, 106, 176, 194, 272, 364, 366, 369,
   371, 375, 376, 382, 384, 387, 390, 391

RAPIDAN RIVER ("Rapid Anne"), 510
Rappahannock River, 326
Raritan River, 34
Rattlesnake Island, 150
"Red Hazel." See Riedesel, Baroness von
Red House, 153, 156, 174
Reden, Count von, 416



454                                                   Index


Regiment, Hesse-Hanau, 189, 191, 203; Prince Frederick, ix, 42, 48,
   291, 356, 358, 388, 402; Rhetz, 191, 192, 195; Riedesel, 43, 77,
   191, 195, 321, 337, 392; Specht, 189, 190, 203
Reuss, Count von, 408, 410, 411, 414
Reuss, Countess von. See Riedesel children, Augusta
Reynels, Lt, 175, 219, 222
Reynels, Mrs., 175, 219, 220, 235, 289
Rhode Island, 291
Richelieu River, 46, 47, 71, 77, 95, 105, 145, 148, 149, 151, 369, 380; Rapids, 45
Richmond, Va., 316
Riedesel, Baron and Baroness von, children of, Amerika ("Miss America"),
   xi, 348, 349, 371, 398, 408, 409, 412; Augusta, xi, 10, 23, 33,
   34, 92, 97, 99, 148, 153, 232, 259, 289, 309, 317, 319, 331; 349, 350,
   357, 371, 382, 383, 386, 387, 389, 405, 407, 408, 410, 412, 414, 416;
   "Canada" (Luisa Augusta Elizabeth Canada), xi, 386, 387; Caroline,
   18, 24, 30, 39, 66, 92, 97, 153, 232, 259, 297, 298, 309, 317,
   319, 335, 341, 371, 416; Charlotte, xi, 404, 416; Christian Charles
   Louis Ferdinand Henry William Herman Valentine, 10; Frederika,
   xi, 10, 24, 30, 34, 92, 93, 97, 99, 148, 153, 211, 220, 232, 259, 309,
   317, 319, 371, 382, 389, 390, 416; Georg Karl, xi, 406, 412, 440;
   Philippina, 10
Riedesel, Baron Johann Wilhelm von, 7
Riedesel, Court Assessor Karl Georg, 413
Riedesel, Frederika Charlotte Luisa von Massow, Baroness von
    (nick-named Fritschen, Lady Fritz, Mrs. General, Red Hazel), ix, xi;
   marriage, 3-9; first children, 10-11, 13-20; set out alone with
   children for America, 22-25; in fear of highwaymen, 25-27; European
   journey toward England, 28; meets crook, 29; Channel crossing, 29-
   32; stared at in London, Bristol, 33-36; trouble with Mrs. Foy, 37-
   39; misses the boat for America, 40, 50; in London, 64-66; meets
   Queen Charlotte, 67, 68; kissed by George III, 69; cordial relations
   with Queen Charlotte, 70; voyage to America, 71-76; arrives Canada,
   88-91; follows husband, 92-98; at Three Rivers, 99-102; with
   Burgoyne's army, 144, 145; frightened by rattlesnakes, 149, 150; reaches
   Fort Edward, 151-154; at Fort Edward, 156; guests, 174, 175;
   hears of Burgoyne's mistress, 176; refuses to return to safety, 183,
   184; crosses the Hudson, 185-187; in camp, 188, 190; eyewitness of
   Battles of Saratoga, 196-199,- 201, 202; close to action, 204; describes
   death and funeral of Fraser, 205, 208, 210; in the retreat, 211, 212,
   214, 215; scolds Burgoyne, 216; under fire, 217; with women, children
   and wounded, 218-222, 227, 228; at Burgoyne's surrender, 232,
   235, 236; and the French doctor, 237; visits the Schuylers, 249;
   leaves for Cambridge, Mass., 249-250; at Cambridge as prisoner of
   war, 259, 260-263; gives a ball, 264; life in Cambridge, 273, 274,
   280, 283, 284; regrets leaving Cambridge, 286; has knavish cook, 287;
   begins journey south, 289, 290; entertains La Fayette, 293, 294;
   hungry and in danger, 297-299, 307-309; makes a conquest, 301,
   302; at Charlottesville, Va., 313-316; acquaintance with Jeffersons,
   317; charms Gen. Phillips, 318, 319; narrow escape, 320; activities
   and appearance, 321; expects a child, 322, 342; goes to Berkeley
   Springs, 323-326; sets out for N.Y. City, 328-332; in Bethlehem,
   Pa., 333-335; in N.Y., 336-341; represents Queen Charlotte
   at Queen's birthday ball, 343-345;



Index                                                 455



   wartime N.Y., 346, 547; birth of "Miss America," 348; smallpox,
   348-353; good-by to Phillips, 357, 359; guards the Gen., 360, 367;
   reviews the troops, 361; returns to Canada, 362-366, 367; pleases
   Gov. Haldimand, 369, 382-383; housekeeping at Sorel, 370, 372,
   375; daughter "Canada" expected, 381, 385-386; birth and death of
   "Canada," 386-387; voyage to England, 388, 389, 391-393; calls
   on Queen Charlotte, 394-397; returns home, 398-404; her son,
   406, 412, 413; marries off her daughters, 407-409; prepares her
   American letters and journals for publication, 409, 410; widows'
   rights, 412-413; widowed, 414; publication of Extracts.... and
   of Voyage...., 414, 415; death, 416
Riedesel, Gen. Friedrich Adolphus, Baron von, ix, xi, 69, 70, 74, 77-
   81, 83, 87, 90, 93-96; his marriage, early career, 5-8, 11; sent to
   America, 13, 14; voyage, 16-24, 34, 35, 40; arrives Quebec, 41-44;
   pursues retreating Americans, 42-47; poor opinion of American
   army, 48; prepares for winter in Canada, 4951; at Indian pow-
   wow, 52, 53; reports kidnaping, 54-56; Battle of Valcour Island,
   57-63; with his wife and children, 97, 98, 99102; opinion of Burgoyne,
   Howe, 103-105; crosses Lake Champlain, 109, no, 112,
   113; at Ticonderoga, 126, 133; saves British at Hubbardton, 136,
   137; suggests foray for horses, 140-143; and Lady Harriet Acland,
   145; sends for wife and children, 148, 156; prepares plan for Bennington
   foray, 158, 162-164; and Burgoyne campaign, 170, 173, 175,
   177, 181; foresees trouble, 183; march down Hudson, 184, 185,
   188; builds bridges, 189-191; saves British at Saratoga, 192, 194-196;
   at Freeman's Farm, 198, 199; at Bemis Heights, 203, 205; in
   retreat, 216, 217, 225, 228, 230; at Saratoga surrender, 231, 239; offers
   to resign command, 241, 242; after surrender, 243, 249, 250; in
   Boston, Mass., 256; in Cambridge, Mass., 260, 261, 264, 266-268,
   270, 272; troubles with deserters, 277280; other incidents and
   troubles in N.E., 283, 285-287, 289, 291; sent to Charlottesville,
   Va., 293, 302, 308; in Charlottesville, 312-321; illness, 321-322,
   335; goes to Berkeley Springs, 323, 325-327; fails of exchange, 333;
   in New York, 338, 340, 342. 343, 346-348, 350, 352; exchanged,
   353, 354-356, 358-361; returns to Canada, 363-365; health
   improves, 367; dangers, 368-386, 388; goes to England, 390-393; talks
   with George III, 395; returns to Germany, 397-400; honored by
   Duke of Brunswick, 403, 405; son and heir, 406, 412; army service
   in Europe, 406, 407; will, 411, 412, 413; death, 414
Riedesel, Maj. Gen. Hans Conrad von, 413
Riedesel servants, 435
Robinson, Lt. Moses, 426
Rockel, Riedesel coachman, xi, 24, 26, 27, 35, 39, 75, 94, 96, 216,
   222, 233, 250, 289, 290, 327, 350, 399, 401
Rockingham, Vt., 162, 163
Rome, N.Y., 177
Ross, Capt., 86
Roxbury, Mass., 252, 255
Royal George (man-of-war), 128, 133, 393
Royal Savage (ship), 57
Russell, Mr. and Mrs., xi, 66, 396
Rutland, Vt., 140, 282, 388

SACKVILLE, GEORGE. See Germain, Lord George
St. Anne, Canada, 83
St. Clair, Maj. Gen.: Arthur, ix, 119, 123, 125, 126, 131, 134-136, 138,
   140; young Master, 114, 125



456                                            Index



St. Francis, Canada, village of, 373
St. Francis River, 373
St. Helena, island of, 72, 74
St. Johns, Canada, 47, 48, 50, 51, 54-56, 113, 123, 129, 374, 380, 384
St. Lawrence River, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 48, 50, 53, 71, 77, 82, 83, 91,
   93, 95, 99, 105, 148, 364, 366, 368, 369, 375
St. Leger, Lt. Col. Barry, 81, 105, 177, 179, 183; "Petit Jean," 439
St. Omer, Canada, 28
St. Peter, Canada, 46
Ste. Thérèse, Canada, 374
Salisbury, Conn., 296
Sancoik Mill, near Bennington, Vt, 166, 171
Saratoga, Battles of, 228, 231, 243, 252, 270, 287, 290, 335, 361, 364,
   381, 402, 403, 415; Falls, 183, 187; field of, 188, 189, 198, 209, 231,
   241, 267, 411, 429; first battle of, 194; Monument, 429; National
   Park, 429; second battle of, 203, 205, 214, 217, 240. See also Bemis
   Heights, Battle of, and Freeman's Farm, Battle of
Saratoga, N.Y., city, 1875 springs, 187
Saratoga Village (now Sxhuylerville), N.Y., 116, 160, 161, 186, 214,
   216, 223, 224, 289
Saunders, Quartermaster Alexander, 55
Scammell, Col. Alexander, 194; brigade of, 124
Schaghticoke, N.Y. 246
Schank, Lt. John, 429
Schieffen, Gen., 32
Schlagenteuffel, Capt. von, 173
Schmidt, Henry, 278
Schmidt, Louis ("Lui"), 372-375, 380, 384
Schmidt's Town, Long Island, 353
Schoening, Maj. von, 416
Schroeder (portrait painter), 404
Schuyler, Gen. Philip, ix, xi, 61, 85, 86, 110, 111, 115-119, 121-123,
   126, 132, 138-140, 152, 156, 160, 161, 165, 178-181, 186, 188, 235,
   239, 243, 289, 374, 391
Schuyler, Mrs. Catherine, 125, 186, 187, 238, 239, 242, 391
Schuyler children: Betsy, 242; Cornelia, 242; John Bradstreet, 242;
   Philip Jeremiah, 242; Rensseker, 242
Schuyler's Creek, 231; house,
Saratoga, 187, 188, 215, 218, 223, 232, 429; Island, 59; mansion, Albany, 238, 431
Schuylerville, 183, 186
Schuylkill, 304
Senden, Ernest Johann Schuler von, ix, 263, 267, 311, 320
Seume, Johann Gottfried, 17
Seven Years' War, 5, 8, 12, 40
Shelbourne, Lord, 104
Sherwood, Capt., 162
Silver Eel (ship), 74
Simsbury, Conn., 295
Skene, Col. Philip, 138, 146, 147, 157, 159, 163, 166, 171, 172, 182
Skenesborough (Whitehall), N.Y., 60, 131-134, 138, 140, 141, 146,
   148, 153, 156, 157-159, 182; house, 147
Smith, William, 346, 437
Sophia, Princess, 394
Sorel, Canada, 46-51, 77, 95, 97, 105, 367, 369, 371, 372, 375, 381,
   387; Seigneurie of, 372
South Carolina, 363
South Hampton, Long Island, 353
Southern Dept., 355
Spaeth, Gen., 386
Specht, Col., 203, 209
Spencer, Carl, 415
Spithead, England, 20, 21, 393
Springfield, Mass., 160, 248, 249
Stade, Germany, 17, 18, 397, 399,

400

Staderman, Anthony, 278
Stalker, Mr., 182
Standish, Samuel, 155
Stark, Brig. Gen. John, xii, 158-161, 165, 224, 352, 374
Staten Island, N.Y., 351
Stillwater, N.Y., 160-162, 165, 177, 178, 180, 181, 188, 190, 213, 243



Index                                               457


Stirling, Gen. Lord William Alexander, 302
Stockbridge, Mass., 160; Indians, 179
Stringer, Dr., 118, 119
Suffield, Conn., 292, 293
Sugar Loaf Hill, 114, 120, 121, 127, 129-131, 133, 138
Sullivan, Gen. John, 47, 51, 304
Susan, 352
Susquehanna River, 305
Sussex Court House, 302
Sword's House, 189-191

TAYLOR, DANIEL, 229
Tenth Massachusetts Regiment, 374
Thacher, Dr. James, ix, 131, 133, 134, 139, 427
Thames River, 40
Three Mile Point, N.Y., 126
Three Rivers, Canada, 42, 44-46, 63, 77, 78, 81, 82, 93-96, 98-101,
   144, 148, 149; rue Notre Dame, 98
Ticonderoga, N.Y., and Fort, 55-57, 60, 61, 85, 86, 89, 105, 113, 114-
   116, 118-125, 128-133, 136-138, 141, 144, 145, 151, 159, 180, 194,
   200, 241, 244, 378; American fortification of, 120-125; Battle of, 194
Tischbein, the elder, Johann Heinrich, 3, 4, 8, 404, 420
Tobago, 40, 64
Tonnencourt, Miss, 81
Tournai, 28
"Travelers' Rest" (Gates plantation, W. Va.), 118
Trenton, Battle of, 87, 105, 194, 403
Trevelyan, Sir George, 104
Triton (frigate), 45, 46
Troup, Col. Robert, 289, 290, 293, 301-303
Trumbull, Jonathan, Governor of Conn., 121
Tryon, Gen. William, 337, 338, 343, 344, 346-349, 354, 395
Tudor, Lt. Col., 272
Tuscany, 312
Tuscaroras, 180
Twenty-first Regiment, 195
Twenty-fourth Regiment, 204
Twiss, Lt. William, 129, 130, 138, 384, 390, 426
"Tye Landing" (Ticonderoga), 200
Tyler, Mr., 182

URSULINE CONVENT, Canada, 98; Sisters, 99, 100

VALCOUR ISLAND, N.Y., 57, 59, 84; Battle of, 57, 63, 121
Valentine (servant to Riedesel), 20
Valley Forge, 252, 279, 282, 303, 304
Van Home, Hannah. See Foy, Mrs. Edward
Van Home, John, 34; children of (Catherine, Elizabeth, Hannah),
   34, 421; manor of, Kill's Hall 34, 421
Van Home, Miss (a sister of Hannah), 35, 37, 38
Van Home, Philip (uncle of Hannah), 35, 333, 421; children of,
   35, 333, 421; manor of, Phil's
Hall ("Convivial Hall"), 35, 333
Van Home family, 34-35, 331, 421
Varick, Col. Richard, ix, 85, 123-125, 128, 135. 136, 188, 239, 462
Vassall, Maj. John, 253; house, 253
Vaughan, Gen., 231
Vermont, 86, 117, 158, 159, 165, 181, 371, 379, 381, 384, 385;
   Independent Republic of, 380, 384
Versailles, Court at, 80
Virginia, Province and State, 49, 119, 283-286, 311-313, 324, 335, 336, 356, 377, 378

WALDECKERS, 254
Walloomsac River, 167, 169, 171
Walpole, Horace, 364
Walton, William, merchant, 337, 338
Warm Springs Ridge, 324
Warner, Col. Seth (Gen., 1778), xi, 124, 136, 140, 141, 159-161, 165,
   172; brigade of, 124; "Col. von Werner," 136, 164
Warren, Capt. Benjamin, ix, 180, 217



458                               Index



Warren, Mrs. Mercy Otis, 254, 272
Washington, Gen. George, 14, 87, 104, 115, 116, 118-121, 152, 156,
   160, 228, 252, 253, 276, 277, 279, 282, 284, 285, 290, 299, 303, 312,
   324, 325, 328, 332, 333, 337, 367; Mrs. Martha, 303; President
   George, 408
Washington, Maj. John Augustus, 324
Washington (ship), 69
Watertown, Mass., 277, 290
Webb's Connecticut Regiment, 229
Weser River, 5, 6, 12
West Indies, 71
West Point, 358
West Virginia, 324
Westfield, Mass., 249
Whitcomb, Lt. Benjamin, 54, 55, 370, 423, 429
Whitehall. See Skenesborough
Whitmarsh, 252
Whittington, Dick, 71
Wilbraham, Mass., 292
Wilkinson, Gen. James, 121, 189, 213, 415
William Henry, Prince of Wales, 360, 394
Williams, Maj. Griffith, 199, 206, 209, 210, 312
Williams, Mr., of Pittsfield, 160
Williamstown, Mass., 244
Willoe, Capt. Sam, 3d, 148-150, 175, 192, 195, 212, 221, 267, 341,
   381, 385, 386, 391, 432, 436, 439-440
Willsboro, N.Y., 110, 111
Winchester, Va., 356
Winter Hill Barracks, 253, 266-268, 277, 278, 283
Winthrop, Mrs. Hannah, ix, 254, 255, 259, 262, 272, 402
Wolfe, Gen,, 43
Wolfenbüttel, Germany, 8, 9, 11, 14, 23, 25, 36, 63, 96, 263, 401-403, 413
Wood, Col. Joseph, 86
Wood Creek, N.Y., 134, 140, 146, 153
Women with the regiments, 14, 49-50, 83, 199, 218, 221, 228, 232-
   233, 254, 268, 290, 357, 376, 388-389, 402
Worcester, Mass., 249
Wright's Ferry, 305
Wrightsville, 305
Wurmb, Col., 348

YAMANSKA (YAMASKA) BLOCKHOUSE, 373
York, Pa., 328, 331
York Island, 351
"Yorker," 117, 121, 123, 161, 165, 303, 380
Yorktown. See York, Pa.
Yorktown, Battle of, 377, 388
Yost, Hon, 178, 179
Young, Capt., 40, 64, 66; Mrs.
Young, 64, 66, 67
Young, Lt., 197

ZELLE, 401