MEMOIRS, AND LETTERS AST I) JOURNALS, cK M MAJOR GENERAL RIEDESEL, DURING HIS RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. TRANSLATED PKOM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN OF MAX VON EELKING. WILLIAM L. STONE, AUTHOR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, BART. LIFE AND WRITINGS OF COL. WILLIAM L. STONE, ETC., ETC. VOL. I. ALBANY: J. MUNSELL, 82 STATE STREET. 1868. C V. \ Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1868, BY J. MUNSELL, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of New York. TO MY FRIENDS RICHARD L. ALLEN AND WILLIAM HAY SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y., WHO HAVE SO KINDLY AIDED ME IN MY HISTORICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Volumes AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. PREFACE. 1 The life of General Riedesel, during his residence in America, is a more complete and accurate history of the CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL BURGOYNE than any that has yet appeared. The statements of our ablest historians concerning the movements of the British in that campaign are, necessarily perhaps, extremely while those of our school histo- vague ; pictorial and ries, respecting both the British and the Americans, are full of gross errors. The present work, however, is based on the private and official journals of Riedesel and his officers, and presents the campaign with a minuteness of detail, which must, hereafter, make it a standard authority upon the subject of which it treats. After I had translated the work, and before placing it in the hands of the printer, I spent several days in going over the battle-grounds. With RiedesePs jour- nals in one hand, and the maps drawn on the spot by Burgoyne's chief engineer in the other, I began 1 This name has been universally mispronounced in this country. It is composed of two German words, Tied and esel, and is pronounced Re-day-zel, with the accent on the second syllable. yi PREFACE. my investigations at the place where the British army crossed the Hudson, and traced every step of its move- merits down the river to the scene of the last battle of October 7th, 1777, and back again to the site of the surrender. In the course of this tour two important facts were elicited : 1st. That the face of the country has undergone scarcely any change. The same trees, the same brooks, and even the same stones remain in the precise locali- ties where they were sketched by the British. 2d. That the term Battle of Semis's Heights, which has hitherto obtained when designating the scene of the action, is entirely erroneous, and only calcu- lated seriously to mislead. The first action, on the 19th of September, was, as is well known, fought on Freeman's farm. But, with a few exceptions, it has always been supposed by the best informed writers upon the subject, that the second battle on the 7th of October, was fought on Bemis's heights. The maps, however, show, that the action began on ground about two hundred rods southwest of the site of the first Battle of Freeman's Farm, and ended on the same ground on which the first action was fought. Thus Bemis's heights are fully one mile and a half south of the battle ground. In fact all the interest which at- taches to these heights, is, that they were the head- quarters of General Gates during and a short time PREFACE. yji previous to the battle. The origin of this mistake, as the maps clearly demonstrate, was in the belief that the army of Burgoyne began the advance in two columns from Taylor's house, the ruins of which are yet standing a few rods north of Wilbur's basin. It is now, however, ascertained that the advance began in three columns from Sword's house, the site of which is about one mile and a half north of the Taylor house. As the historical student will readily believe, I found local tradition, as a general thing, entirely un- reliable. By the aid, however, of the journals and the maps I think I succeeded in all I set out to accomplish, viz : to verify tradition when possible to overthrow it when but in case to the matter necessary ; every put beyond the peradventure of a doubt. The results of my investigations in detail will be found in the notes to the present translation. This work also contains valuable information in regard to the movements of the Brunswick troops, while residents of America, and affords a clear view of the condition and internal relations of Canada dur- ing the latter part of the revolutionary war points which have, hitherto, been involved in obscurity. My thanks are due to Henry A. Fisher, Esq., of New York city, for valuable aid in the translation of these volumes to ; George Washington Greene of East viii PREFACE. Greenwich, R. I., for copies of General Riedesel's the late letters to General Nathaniel Greene ; and to Theodore Dwight of Brooklyn, for interesting docu- 1 ments relating to the engagement near Beunington. If this translation shall assist in correcting the errors that have hitherto obtained in relation to an event which, in its results, was the most important of any in our revolutionary annals, the object of it will have been accomplished. WILLIAM L. STONE. Saratoga Springs, January 1st, 1868. 'These documents will be found in the appendices. SKETCH OF MAJ. GEN. RIEDESEL. The baronial family of Riedesel is one of the richest and oldest in the interior of Germany. The first mention of it is in the year 1226, although previous to this period a Conrad Von Riedesel is referred to as having lived in the second half of the 12th century. Of three lines into which the family were originally divided, two soon became extinct, leaving only the third one, the Melsunger, the direct ancestor of the subject of the present sketch. By a fortunate marriage, the family rapidly advanced in wealth and position. A Herman Riedesel, marry- ing the only surviving heiress of the Hessian Marshal Eckart Van Rohrenfurth, obtained by this union the rich possessions and the hereditary office of land marshal that prince generously resigning his right of confiscating the fief, which had become vacant by the extinction of the male line. Eisenbach was the most of the Rohrenfurth and from this important possessions ; time the lords of Riedesel retained the title of hereditary mar- shals, and signed themselves Reidesel-Eisenbach. By marriages, purchase and other fortunate circumstances, the Riedesel family have accumulated such a large landed estate, that it comprises at the present time an area of seven and a half square miles, inhabited by upward of twenty thousand people. These pos- sessions lie principally in both the Hessias and on the Vogels- berg, and are entitled to all the privileges of a sovereignty without the lords of Riedesel being sovereigns. In the year 1680 the Riedesel estate was constituted an independent pro- vince, and the Riedesels, themselves, made barons of the empire. 1 2 MAJOE GENERAL EIEDESEL Friederich Adolphus Riedesel. the subject of this sketch, was born on the 3d of June, 1738, in the ancestral castle at Lauterbach, in Rhinehesse. His father, John William, was at that time government assessor and page to the prince of Eisenach. His mother, Sophie Hedwig, was the daughter of Baron Van Borke, a Prussian lieutenant general and governor of Stettin. Of the early youth of Riedesel, very little is known with certainty, except that his father sent him, with his younger brother, to a clergyman in Frischborn (a village near Lauter- bach) to be educated. This was done with a view of giving him such literary knowledge as should prepare him for the profession of the law, to which he was destined by his father. Accordingly, at the age of fifteen, he left the quiet parsonage to attend a law school at Marburg. There happened to be at this time a Hessian battalion of infantry in garrison at Marburg, which, like all the troops of the landgrave, was particularly distinguished for its splendid martial appearance and drill. The sight of these troops was an entirely new experience to the youth, who, with his natural activity and lively disposition, soon conceived a strong passion for a military life as a natural he was oftener seen on the ; and, consequence, parade ground as a spectator, than at the law school as a listener to the lectures. Nor, indeed, was it a great while before he entirely threw aside the gown and wig for the sword and musket and joined the regiment. He was led into this step both by his own inclination and the persuasions of the wily major in command of the battalion, who represented that he had written to his father and obtained his consent. The deceit, however, was soon discovered, and his father, in his first ebullition of anger, " wrote him a letter concluding as follows : Since you, as a taken the nobleman, have oath, you must stand by it, but you must get along the best you can, for you need not look for further aid from me." But the father could not long remain estranged from the son, and he accordingly soon became reconciled, allow- IN THE AMEE1 CAN BEVOL UTION. 3 ing him a certain sum with which he was enabled to meet his necessary expenses. The regiment of which Riedesel was now a vice ensign was soon after received into the English establishment and billeted on a town in the vicinity of London. Ensign Riedesel had brought with him letters of introduction to several families of wealth and but as he English position ; knew neither English nor French, they were at first of little use.