09 | Johann Wolfgang Becomes a Hessian Soldier, Comes to the US to Fight for the British!

It’s impossible to know the conditions which motivated Johann Wolfgang to make a decision that would change his life forever. But if I had to guess, this is what I’d say.

“Johann Wolfgang had some weaving and milling experience, but when his mother died in 1764, he was given her grocery store to run-a source of good income. However, Johann felt a new sense of importance and wanting to be accepted in the community, he spent a lot of time and money in the local pub. Finally, by law, the pub owner took Johann Wolfgang’s grocery in payment for the large liquor bill he had built up. With his estate gone, Johann was in dire circumstances, and needed support for his family. Desperate, Johann accepted the offer that the persistent recruiters gave him, and signed on to be a Hessian soldier, and go to the United States to fight with the British in the Revolutionary war. He gave the money he received for enlisting to his family, and left for America.”

Whether this happened or not, it is certain that Wolfgang signed up as a Hessian soldier. Often, people who were in need of money were ripe for being conscripted by the Crown Prince of their region to serve as mercenary soldiers to fight for other countries. Wolfgang evidently fell into this category.

So in the fall of 1777, Johann joined the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiment of Hession soldiers and left to fight with the British army in the revolutionary war in the United States. On October 25, 1777, English Colonel William Faucitt mustered Hessian recruits at Frisdorf, in Ansbach. Johann Wolfgang Odoerfer was among them. Experiencing a great deal of difficulty getting to the British Ships, and then enduring almost intolerable conditions as the went on to America, it took these recruits nearly a year to get there, and they arrived in port at Long Island, NY, on September 30, 1778.

It is amazing to me to see the type of uniform the Hessian soldiers wore. It almost seemed that they were ready to go to a costume ball, rather than to fight in battle. It is said that the Hessian soldiers were professionals, and always dressed well and had good equipment.

Another great genealogical find was a couple of diaries written by soldiers who fought in the same regiment as Johann Wolfgang. They were A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, by Johann Conrad Dohla, translated and edited by Bruce E. Burgoyne, and A Hessian Officer’s Diary of the American Revolution, originally written by Johann Ernst Prechtel and translated and edited by Bruce E. Burgoyne. These diarys gave a facinating description of the life of soldiers like Johann Wolfgang Odoerfer during their time as Hessian soldiers, and many of the comments about Johann Wolfgang’s experience to follow are adapted from those books.

For example, on p.91 of Dohla’s book, the following appears.

November 13,1778 – “Punishment was conducted at our regiment. Two grenadiers had to run the gauntlet: Private Raufelder, who had attacked an artillery guard, ran eight times, and Recruit [Wolfgang] Ohdorfer ten times, for disrespect.”

Evidently Johann Wolfgang had come to the end of his rope after the harrowing trip, and the famous “Odaffer temper” flared just a bit!

Johann Wolfgang spent the next 4 years as a soldier, fighting for the British in the Revolutionary war. From 1778 to the fall of 1982, Johann Wolfgang was in the Ansbach Regiment which was attached directly to the British Army Units commanded by Generals Howe, Clinton, and Cornwallis. He fought battles in Philadelphia, Newport, R.I., and Yorktown, VA. He often found himself in terrible conditions, and had to fight against German immigrants in the American army who had much the same background as he did. It must have been devastating to leave ones family and fight against fellow Germans in a far away country.

In October,1781, Johann Wolfgang was fighting for the British, under General Cornwallis, in the most crucial battle of the Revolutionary War in Yorktown, VA. On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered to the American and French armies, and Johann Wolfgang was taken prisoner. From October 21st to Nov 5, 1781, he marched with other prisoners 240 miles from Yorktown to Winchester, VA, where he was housed in a terribly inadequate facility called the Barracks (or The Hessian Barracks, or The New Fredrick Barracks.)

Dohla says the following in his diary, p.189.

If this is to be our winter quarters, may God have mercy upon us: Numerous wretched huts built of wood and clay, most of which neither have no roofs or poor roofs, no cots, only poor fireplaces, neither windows nor doors, and lie in the middle of a forest. We already had many sick and fatigued people, which is not surprising.

In October, 2001, my wife Harriet and I visited the battle site at Yorktown and drove the trail along which Johann Wolfgang marched to the Barracks in Winchester. It is now called the Washington-Rochambeau trail because it is also the trail these famous generals marched their troops along on their way to the battle of Yorktown. We felt strangely akin to my ancestor. What a satisfying trip!

Johann Deserts the British Army!

Wolfgang stayed at the Winchester Barracks for about a year, and on October 12, 1782 he defected from the British army to join the American Light Horse Division, led by the French General Armand, as indicated on p. 215 of Dohla’s Diary.

On November 15, 1783, Johann Wolfgang Odoerfer was honorably discharged from Armand’s legion, and given property in Ohio, which was then a part of Virginia. (According to the book, Virginia Soldiers of 1776, by Louis A Burgess, Vol. 3, p. 1253.) I assume that at this time he stayed near Clear Spring, Maryland.

In all, Ansbach-Bayrueth provided 2,353 soldiers to the British cause. Of this number, 1183 returned home, 1170 died, deserted in America, or were released- some remaining in America. Wolfgang was one of an estimated 676 Hessian soldiers from the Ansbach-Bayrueth regiments that deserted the British army and settled in the United States.

What an amazing experience! There were many times that Johann Wolfgang’s life was severely threatened, from the cannon ball barrage for several days at the battle of Yorktown to the severe potential to disease in the prison at Winchester. His “life hassle factor” was higher than most of ours, and I consider myself lucky that my ancestor’s life was somehow spared.