OBERKALBACH, HESSEN, GERMANY
Village of My Berthold & Ullrich Ancestors
HESSIAN SOLDIERS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
The King of England hired German soldiers to fight on the side of the English in the Revolutionary War from 1776-1784. He paid a rental fee for them to fight and paid a price for each one wounded or killed. Among these approximately 29,000 soldiers were almost 17,000 from the Hesse-Cassel area. Of these 17,000 soldiers, approximatly 6500 were "lost", some of them by desertion in order to remain in America. The German deserters of the English army were promised 50 acres of land. Many took advantage of this offer. Some apparently even sold themselves into indenture in order to remain here.
Soldiers from the Oberkalbach area who remained in America number about 100. In the 6-volume set of reference books titled HESSISCHE TRUPPEN IM AMERIKANISCHEN UNABHAENGIGKEITSKRIEG (HETRINA) a team of researchers led by Inge Auerbach and Otto Froehlich list the German soldiers who participated in the war. From these volumes I extracted the names of those soldier who were from the Oberkalbach area who deserted, were separated in America, or sold themselves into indenture in order to remain here. There were 4 soldiers from Oberkalbach listed, but apparently none remained in the U.S. The names listed with an asterisk were taken from a German book titled BERGWINKEL CHRONIK.
Bellings
Melchior Schmitt b. abt. 1756; deserted
Nikolaus Schmitt b. abt. 1760; deserted Jul 1779
Johannes Seelig b. abt. 1757; deserted Dec 1778
Ulrich Zeth b. abt. 1758; deserted Jan 1779
Breitenbach
Henrich Cress b. abt. 1754; deserted
Nikolaus Linck b. abt., 1748; deserted Jul 1779
Henrich Schumm b. abt. 1754; deserted Dec 1778
Kaspar Spahn b. abt. 1754; deserted Sep 1782
Kaspar Weitzel b. abt. 1754; deserted Jun 1782
Elm
Johannes Hohmann b. abt. 1758; deserted Sep 1783
Gomfritz
Georg Baist b. abt. 1755; deserted Jan 1779
Johann Friedrich Jahn b. abt. 1750; indentured Nov 1782
Gundhelm
Karl Hoefling b. abt. 1758; deserted
Adam Roehm b. abt. 1755; separated in America
Heubach
Henrich Voegeler b. abt. 1751; deserted May 1783
Hintersteinau
Nikolaus Cress/Kress b. abt. 1761; deserted Aug 1783
Johannes Koch b. abt. 1748; deserted Mar 1780
Georg Schlingelhoff b. abt. 1761; indentured Oct 1782
Hohenzell
Johannes Kohlepp b. abt. 1761; deserted Nov 1779
Kaspar Kohlepp b. abt. 1759; deserted Apr 1781
Melchior Kohlepp b. abt. 1750; deserted Feb 1779
Kaspar Rueb b. abt. 1757; deserted 1783
Johannes Weitzel b. abt. 1743; deserted Feb 1781
Nikolaus Weitzel b. abt. 1751; separated in America Jul 1783
Nikolaus Weitzel b. abt. 1757; deserted Oct 1777
Hutten
Henrich Iffland b. abt. 1760; deserted
Johannes Iffland b. abt. 1754; deserted 1783
Kressenbach
Daniel Leibold b. abt. 1754; deserted Mar 1780
Stefan Linck b. abt. 1760; deserted Dec 1778
Johannes Traband b. abt. 1755; deserted Jul 1781
Marjoss
Johann Georg Daefner b. abt. 1747; deserted Jul 1783
Nikolaus Dietrich b. abt. 1756; deserted Nov 1778
Konrad Hahn b. abt. 1753; deserted Oct 1777
Henrich Krutsch b. abt. 1757; deserted Nov 1778
Kaspar Lotz b. abt. 1756; deserted Jul 1783
Johannes Rau b. abt. 1754; deserted Oct 1777
Nikolaus Zehner b. abt. 1751; deserted May 1780
Georg Ziegler b. abt. 1756; deserted 1781
Neuengronau
Gotthard Schaeffer b. abt. 1764; separated in America Jul 1783
Niederzell
Georg Bensing b. abt. 1743; indentured Sep 1782
Philipp Bensing. b. abt.______; indentured Nov 1782
Nikolaus Leibold b. abt. 1758; indentured Nov 1782
Johannes Rosenberger b. abt. 1751; deserted Oct 1777
Reinhards
Kaspar Linck b. abt. 1751; deserted Jul 1779
Copyright 2000-20108 by Sue Foster. Please contact me for permission to copy. I would like to know why you are interested in this information :-)