Frederika Charlotte Louise von Massow, Baroness (Freifrau) Riedesel zu Eisenbach (1746-1808) was a German writer. She was the wife of General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel of Brunswick. She accompanied him during the Saratoga Campaign in the American Revolutionary War and kept a journal of the campaign. In the histories sponsored by the Riedesel family, she is referred to as Charlotte. [1] It was common for Germans at the time to be called by one of their middle names.
Charlotte was born on 11 July 1746 at Brandenburg. Her father, Valentin von Massow, was a Prussian official, [2] but had been a Lieutenant General in the Prussian army. Charlotte had travelled with the Prussian army as a child, and learned the hard life of a camp follower. [3]
In 1762, Charlotte helped care for Lieutenant Colonel Riedesel, who had been wounded in battle during the Seven Years' War. They were married that same year; Charlotte was sixteen years old. [3]
Friedrich Adolph Riedesel was a member of the line of Riedesel zu Eisenbach, and like all his male cousins had the title of Freiherr or Baron. He was not "the Baron" or "von Riedesel." Upon their marriage Charlotte gained the title of Freifrau or Baroness Riedesel zu Eisenbach. She was described as looking more like an unmarried school girl than a married woman. [3] She would grow into a red-haired [4] baroness, "full in figure and possessing no small share of beauty." [5] In the following years, the Riedesels had two daughters, Gustava and Frederica, and Charlotte was pregnant with a third, Carolina, in 1776 when Brunswick signed a treaty to support Great Britain in the suppression of the rebellion in their American colonies. Friedrich was promoted to General and named commander of the Brunswick army, and he referred to Charlotte as "Mrs. General". [3]
General Riedesel sailed for the Americas in 1776, with the understanding that Charlotte would join him as soon as the new baby could travel. Carolina was born in March, and the family sailed to England in May. Charlotte took with her some antiques to sell in England, where the demand for such items would provide them with needed money for their travelling expenses. [6]
"Mrs. General" Riedesel was well received in England in court, but she and her daughters suffered abuse in public, on account of her fashions being mistaken for French. Charlotte awaited her ship to Canada in Bristol, where she is said to have learned the English language and customs within six weeks. [7] General Riedesel insisted she travel with a companion, however, and she could not set sail for Canada until April 1777. [8]
Charlotte arrived in Canada and was reunited with Friedrich in June at Trois-Rivières. She received permission to accompany the army South, on General John Burgoyne's campaign to capture Albany. Her journals reveal her military background, and she was critical of the lack of security at camp. [9]
Charlotte and her daughters followed the army in a calash. She was with the army on 19 September and was an eye-witness to the Battle of Freeman's Farm. [9] Her journals describe her evening in a nearby house, where wounded soldiers came to rest, and where a young English officer slowly died during the night. [5]
Baroness Riedesel was preparing a meal on 7 October when the Battle of Bemis Heights began. The table, with its meal, was cleared to make a bed for General Simon Fraser. Charlotte spent the night tending to wounded soldiers, other women, and her own children. [10] General Fraser died the next morning, and that afternoon, the house caught fire, and the Riedesel family was forced to evacuate. General Fraser had requested that his body be buried at a redoubt, and Frederika observed the funeral under American cannon fire. [10]
Immediately thereafter, the British, fearing imminent defeat at the hands of the Americans, determined upon retreat to Canada. "Mrs. General" Riedesel was very critical of General Burgoyne, and broke with 18th-century customs to remind the General that his men were starving. [11]
After marching north through torrential rains with their equipment mired in mud the Baroness took refuge near Saratoga, present day Schuylerville, in what is now known as the Marshall House, a large wooden structure where yet is preserved the stone cellar where Charlotte sheltered with her small children, women accompanying the army and wounded officers and men.
Elsewhere in the house remain beams shattered by American cannon fire and bloodstains in the floor left by "one poor soldier", in the words of the Baroness, whose leg was struck off in the cannonade. Three of eleven cannonballs recorded by Charlotte as having hit the building are displayed. She spent days managing a crowded cellar which became a shelter for women and wounded soldiers as the battle continued. A German soldier described her as an "angel of comfort" who "restored order in the chaos." [12]
The heroic and tragic events that took place in the Marshall House are vividly described in Baroness Riedesel’s celebrated diary. The Marshall House was placed upon the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Erected in 1770 it is the sole remaining structure in the area predating the Battles of Saratoga. It remains today a private home.
Following the British surrender on 17 October, Charlotte and her daughters became the guests of General Philip Schuyler. [13] The Riedesel family traveled with the defeated army to Boston, where they were to sail back to Europe. The terms of surrender were rejected by Congress, however, and the prisoners spent the next four years as the Convention Army.
The Convention Army was moved from Boston to Virginia in 1779. Here, General Riedesel collapsed while working in the garden, and Baroness Riedesel spent her time as his nurse. Until he returned to Germany, General Riedesel could not sleep unless Charlotte was with him. [14]
In late 1779, the Riedesels were allowed to move to New York City. While residing there in 1780, Charlotte gave birth to their fourth daughter, whom they named America. [16] That same year, a smallpox epidemic broke out, and Charlotte again became the nurse to her household, perhaps even saving the life of her husband, who had asked to die. [17]
Finally, in July 1781, the Riedesel family was permitted to leave New York, and travelled to Canada. Here, Charlotte gave birth to a fifth daughter, named Canada, who did not survive. [17] Before departing Canada, General Riedesel took his wife to review the English soldiers who were under his command. The English greeted Charlotte with military honors. The Riedesels left for Germany in 1783. [17] Charlotte is credited with saving the Braunschweig regimental colors by hiding them in her mattress, and she returned them to Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand. [18]
The Riedesels had four more children - nine total - of whom six survived past their first year. After a further campaign in the Netherlands from 1788 to 1793, General Riedesel died in 1800. Charlotte returned to Berlin and published her journals from the war that same year. Her book became an important first-hand account of the Saratoga Campaign. [19] Baroness Riedesel died 29 March 1808 in Berlin. [20] She was buried with her husband in a family grave in Lauterbach.
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion army of 7,200–8,000 men southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the goal was to take Albany, New York. The southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York 15 miles (24 km) short of his goal. He fought two battles which took place 18 days apart on the same ground 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. He gained a victory in the first battle despite being outnumbered, but lost the second battle after the Americans returned with an even larger force.
Schuylerville is a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The village is located in the northeastern part of the Town of Saratoga, east of Saratoga Springs. The Village of Victory is adjacent to Schuylerville to the southwest and the Hudson River forms the village's eastern border. The population was 1,370 at the 2020 census. The village was incorporated in 1831 and is named after the Schuyler family, a prominent family of Dutch descent in colonial America.
Simon Fraser was a British general during the American War of Independence. He was killed in the Battle of Bemis Heights during the Saratoga Campaign. The shot that killed Fraser is often attributed to Timothy Murphy, of Daniel Morgan's Rifle Corps, which was assigned to the Left and under the command of Benedict Arnold, who was leading Morgan's men as well as Dearborn, Cilley, Poor, and the rest of the American left wing, which was attempting to push back the reconnaissance in force led by Simon Fraser on the Barber Wheatfield.
Freiherr Friedrich Adolf Riedesel Freiherr zu Eisenbach was a German officer who served in the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence. He was the commander of the Braunschweiger Jäger, a regiment of soldiers from the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that was among the German units hired by the British during the American War of Independence. He then commanded all German soldiers in the Saratoga Campaign.
The Convention Army (1777–1783) was an army of British and allied troops captured after the Battles of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War.
Charles William Ferdinand was the prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a military leader. His titles are usually shortened to Duke of Brunswick in English-language sources.
The Battle of Hubbardton was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought in the village of Hubbardton, Vermont. Vermont was then a disputed territory sometimes called the New Hampshire Grants, claimed by New York, New Hampshire, and the newly organized, not yet recognized, but de facto independent government of Vermont. On the morning of July 7, 1777, British forces, under General Simon Fraser, caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga. It was the only battle in Vermont during the revolution.
The Riedesel family is a German noble family that began to appear in legal documents in the early 13th century. They were of the knightly class, though not all had the official status of Ritter or knight. Its exact geographical and temporal origins are uncertain. However, all of the early references are from the area of Hesse, and many served as vassals of the Margrave of Hesse in Marburg. In later centuries, the men served a wide variety of higher nobility as men-at-arms, administrators, and counselors.
Saratoga National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located in the Town of Stillwater in eastern New York, 30 miles north of Albany. The park preserves the site of the Battles of Saratoga.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden was a German pioneer in mining and metallurgy. He was born in Hamelin in the Electorate of Hanover and died in Schloss Buchwald in Prussian Silesia.
August Ludwig Karl Georg Friedrich Freiherr von Bibra was director of the business affairs of Hermann, prince of Wied. He became general manager of the Adelsverein, or Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas.
The northern theater of the American Revolutionary War also known as the Northern Department of the Continental Army was a theater of operations during the American Revolutionary War.
People of German ancestry fought on both sides in the American Revolution. Many of the small German states in Europe supported the British. King George III of Britain was simultaneously the ruler of the German state of Hanover. Around 30,000 Germans fought for the British during the war, around 25% of British land forces. In particular, 12,000 Hessian soldiers served as mercenaries on the side of British. However some Germans who were supporters of Congress as individuals crossed the Atlantic to help the Patriots.
The Hauke-Bosak is a German-Polish noble family. Originally a German middle class family, they settled in Poland at the end of the 18th century and achieved great importance and titles of nobility in the Kingdom of Poland, the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
Old Fort House is a historic house at 29 Lower Broadway in Fort Edward, Washington County, New York. The house is owned by the Fort Edward Historical Association and operated as a local history museum. The Old Fort House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Marshall House is a house in Schuylerville, New York listed on the National Register of Historic Places for both its place in American history and its architectural significance.
Captain Christian Theodor von Pincier, later known as Theodore Pincier, Esquire, or as Theodore de Pencier, was a Brunswick Army Officer who served on the British side during the American Revolution. Following the peace treaty, he became a settler and well-known surveyor in colonial British Quebec. He was the illegitimate son of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who was adopted into the Pincier von Königstein family, known as von Pincier in German and Swedish, then to dePencier & Depencier. Theodor was the adopted child of Braunschweig Army General von Pincier.
Friederike von Reden (1774–1854), was a German noblewoman, philanthropist and salon-holder. She is known as the Mutter des Hirschberger Tales.
Brunswick troops in the American Revolutionary War served as auxiliaries to the British Army during the American Revolutionary War, in accordance with the treaty of 1776 between Great Britain and the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Four regiments of foot, one regiment of dragoons, one grenadier battalion, and one light battalion with a Jäger company were dispatched to British America. Most of the Brunswick troops fought at the Battles of Saratoga, where they were forced to surrender as part of British General John Burgoyne's army. A total of 5,723 soldiers were sent overseas, and 2,708 returned to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Part of the difference can be attributed to casualties, but the rest chose to remain in the United States or Canada instead of returning to Europe. Over the course of the war, the British government paid the Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a total of £750,000 for the use of his army.
Friedrich Karl Emanuel Hauke was the son of Ignatius Hauke (1705–1784) and Maria Franziska (1718–1785), an illegitimate daughter of Baron Georg Riedesel zu Eisenbach. Friedrich is a direct ancestor of the British and Spanish royal families. Three of his sons were elevated to the rank of count within Poland–Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
