The Trenton NJ Prisoners 1778-1778 in Winchester VA
We are curious if any Hessian prisoners or British prisoners from the Trenton battle were ever held at the dilapidated remains of Fort Loudoun? We do not find hard evidence of that. Possiblities, but nothing solid.
We are also curious what remains of any construction of the contracted big 2 story prisoner barrack or of any of the huts. We have not found hard evidence that either the big barrack or the huts remain.
To help us on those two curiosities, we want to track the movement of these Trenton prisoners.
The first group of Holy Roman Empire prisoners to arrive in Winchester VA were some of the 1000 Hessians captured at Trenton, New Jersey, December 26, 1776.
1776-1777 Winter and Spring Prisoners from that Trenton battle are held at Lancaster Pa and officer prisoners at Dumfries VA.
Aug 15, 1777 Sir William Howe heads to Chesapeake enroute to Philly.
This proximity to the prisoners is threatening.
Orders are given to move the prisoners captured at Trenton.
Different sources indicate different paths for the prisoners.
One source states that Congress orders prisoners to Lebanon and Carlisle PA .
Worthington C Ford ed. Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 (34 vols.; Washington 1904-1937) 8:665 (hereafter cited as JCC)
https://www.loc.gov/item/05000059/ volumes 1-7
Another source states those prisoners went to Carlisle PA and Yorktown PA (now known as York PA).
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llscd/lljc008/lljc008.pdf Volume 8 Ctrl F to page 664 On that page, the document mentions to move the prisoners to Virginia and on page 665 to move those prisoners to Carlisle PA and Yorktown (now known as York Pa), not to Lebanon PA.
Another sources states the prisoners went to Newtown PA.
August 25, 1777
An English fleet arrived in the harbor of the Elk river in Maryland and as many Hessian soldiers escaped , particularly in Philadelphia, and some joined the Englsh forces, but many were recaptured but they had difficulties to get them all. The men they caught, they transported to Newtown, settled them into a church September 20 We stayed in this church until the 26th.
Reuber's Diary, scroll down to page 24
September 26, 1777
The Commanding General issued an order in Newtown, that 300 Hessians and 300 English prisoners were to be marched to Virginia, near the border. and we left the same day, the rest of the Hessians and English remained in Newtown.
Reuber's Diary, scroll down to page 24
After his December 26, 1776 morning march to Trenton, and before the Battle of Princeton, Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington made his headquarters in Newtown.
Sept 20, 1777
300 to Winchester
6 footnote
Rev PC Bader, "Extracts from the Records of the Moravia Congregation at Hebron, PA 1775-1781," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 1894) 18 ; 454;
https://www.jstor.org/stable/i20083612 volume 180
Sept 20, 1777.- Colonel Grubb called this afternoon and notified the Hessians that twenty men out of each company are to leave tomorrow for Winchester, Virginia, and the others are to be removed to town
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20083617?seq=6 Scroll down to page 454
William Duane ed.,. Extracts from the Diary of Christopher Marshall, kept in Philadelphia and Lancaster during the American Revolution 1774-1781 (Albany, 1877 pp 123-124.
Sept 21, 1777 prisoners depart from Lebanon or Yorktown (now called York Pa) and Carlisle PA
Sept 30, 1777 prisoners arrive in Winchester -- parcelled out to the people, some went out to the public works -- does that mean Fort Loudoun or the courthouse area?
Exiles in Virginia p 160
Oct 4, 1777, Continental Congress authorized building of a prisoner barracks at wherever the VA Gov should approve
Oct 7-13, 1777 another 150 Germans together with an equal number of British prisoners captured in New Jersey
According to one Hessian, 300 Germans and 300 English prisoners reached Winchester in October. However these figures appear to be high when compared with later accounts and official returns. See "Johanne Reuber''s diary" , Journals of the Johannes Schwalm Historical , vol 1, no, 3 (1979) p 9; and Exiles in Virginia, p 174
Picture of Hessian:
Oct 8, 1777 Reuber's Diary: " had freedom of the city that . . . in Winchester, we Hessians each received a room in a citizen's house and daily one lb. of meat and an allowance from which we had to buy one vegetables. The English were put in prison, and should one of them want to got to town, he was accompanied by a watchman. We Hessians could 4 or 6 hours walk around and none of the inhabitants bothered us as enemies, but friends of the Americans."
Reuber's Diary, scroll down to page 24
Oct 23, 1777 Roughly 750 prisoners accumulated in Winchester VA.
Virginia Council advised VA Gov Patrick Henry to move 100 prisoners each to Martinsburg, Shepherdstown, Strasburg (Stobers Town) and Woodstock (Millers Town), leaving 350 some to remain in Winchester VA.
The Virginia Council also authorized build a stockade and prisoner barracks, using Continental Congress money.
Thursday October 23, 1777
The Virginial Council authorized 2 actions.
The first action was to relieve Winchester of the burden of 750 prisoners.
So they authorized moving 100 to Martinsburg. It is interesting the Council called Martinsburg the town of Martinsville. The reason might be that this town was not officially established by the House of Burgesses until December 1778.
One hundred prisoners were authorized to Shepherdstown.
One hundred each to two towns in Dunmore County of [soon to be renamed Shenandoah County because Lord Dunmore, the last colonial Governor of Virginia, was very much hated.] Those two towns in Dunmore were Millers Town (Woodstock) and Stobers Town (Strasburg).
That left 350 prisoners to stay in Winchester VA.
The second action authorized by the Virginia Council was to authorize "Colonel" David Kennedy to contract with some one to build prisoner barracks with a stockage yard. There's a whole story on how that contract fell apart in this link.
"The Board being informed that upwards of Seven hundred & fifty Prisoners of War are now at Winchester , being sent there by Congress , & that it is distressing to the Inhabitants of that place to provide for so large a Number they do advise his Excellency to order two hundred of the said prisoners to Berkeley County , one hundred of which to be lodged at the Town of Martinsville [Martinsburg] & a hundred at Shepherds Town [Shepherdstown] ; Also to order two hundred to Dumore [ now Shenandoah ] County , one hundred of which to be lodged at Millers Town [now Woodstock] , & a hundred in Stobers Town [now Strasburg] , and to direct that the remainder continue at Winchester until proper Barracks can be provided for the reception of the whole of them . And the Board do further advise his Excellency to empower & direct Colonel David Kenneday to have log Barracks , with a Stockade Yard , built at , or near , Winchester , on the best Terms he can , on Continental Account , capable of accomodating One thousand Men agreeable to the Directions of Congress : And to give Orders to Lieutenants of the aforementioned Counties , where any Prisoners are stationed , to take proper care of the said Prisoners until the Barracks are done , and to invest the said Lieutenants with discretionary powers of calling out guards of the Militia when Occasion may require."
Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia volume.2, page 15 hathitrust 1777-1778
This timetable is not complete.
More updates to come.
Researched Oct, Nov 2023, first posted 2/11/202
August 25
An English fleet arrived in the harbor of the Elk river in Mary-land and as many Hessian soldiers escaped , particularly in Philadelphia, and some ,ioined the Englsh forces, but many were recaptured but they had difficulties to get them all. The men they caught, they transported to Newtown, settled them into a church September 20 We stayed in this church until the 26th.
September ?6
The Commanding neneral iss11ed an order in Newtown, that 300 Hessians and 300 English prisoners were to be marched to Virginia, near the border. and we left the same day, the rest of the I-Jessians and L~nglish re-mained in Newtown.
October 4
Passed tht, capital Baltimore, by rights, we were to stay there and even settled down in city hall, but the citizens of Baltimore were so in-censed, they were ready to kill us including the watch crew. rrhe captain was irate and spoke to us Hessians and Englishmen, to break up and proceed another hour, and he ordered the City fathers to give us axes pots and pans, anc'l_ send them to us into the f'orest nearbywhere we stopped. Here we had stopped to rest and the City of Baltimore was compelled to deliver the goods to the forest. vie construced huts and the captain in command said: Dear Hessians and Englishmen, it was better to proceed for one more hour than staying in Baltimore where our lives were in danger. The congress of Maryland has his seat in this city, that is the reason why the ci-tizen are so embittered.
Octoher 6
Arrived near tl1e Blue 1110m ta ins and came to the " Suss Johann and ,Johannes Stocke " 3 streams which ,ioi_n at this spot ancJ make a terrible noisi like the Ocean.
East of us were the Blue Mountains and rocks so high, making 11s believe, t11 they would fall, the read was hardly wide enough to accomodate a wagon and on the other side was water, so the road must have been cut by man. That was thereason of the terrible noise, as the water passed over the boulders. We marched along this road almost the entire day, until we were able to cross. rrwo streams divide l/aryland and Virginia here and we transferred to the Virginian side.
Our Commander ana his watch had orders not to proceed further, as they were Pennsyl vBnians and a new Virginian Carnr11and fron! Winchester was to take over, but they were not here. The old command fired shots and returned to Lancaster.
We 500 men had no supervision or comnand, except an old captain who was with the transport. He lined us up and said: We must march forward, with-out watch or commander and if we behave properly on this march, we will be rewarded accordingly.
He said, he could no longdr remain with us , had to go to Winchester,
to get a new platoon of men, who would supervise, and he would return within 3 days. So we Hessirnls anci Englishmen marched by our-s eves and when we were tire, , we stopped and cooked and marched again and stopped to obtain food and firewood, The next day we marched again but the Ent1;lishmen had a nlifferent idea. Some swam across the stream and and wanted to (ldesert and join the English arrr.i.y. But in vain, they all were recapture,1 by the American inhabitants.
The 3rd day at noon the old captain returned f from Winchester
with a new watch from Winchester. The new commander took over, all 500 Hessians were present, not a single man was missing • Vve had stopped in front of an inn and. were rewarded by our old captain wit a half can of Brandy, each. As far as the Englisl~en were concerned, many of them were missing.
The new contingent of watchmen marched us forward towar;~ Winchester, and our old captain went along and delivered us to the com-mander of Winchester, asking to take care of us 300 and give us our free-dom.
The Englishmen were put into prison , while we Hessians had the free-dom of' the city.
October 8
In Winches~er, we Hessians received each a room in a citi!Z.en's house and daily one pound of bread and one lb. of meat and an allowamce fro·, which we had to buy our vegetables. The English were put to prison, and should one of them want to go into town, he was accompanied by a watchman. We Hessians could 4 or 6 hours walk arouns and none of the inhabitants bothered us or treated us as enemies, but friends of t ,he Americans. '11hey all were of the opinion that the Hessians wo,ld never return to the Eng-lish army and rather remain in America, and many remained there, married but the remaining prisoners , Hessians and English, were still in Pennsylvan ia, but we were 500 vales deeper in the country. C..:Bme Spring, farmens from the countryside came and hired Hessian soldiers to work on farms, and the last day of the month we received our bread and meat.
This continued untlill Summer 1778.
There was a rumor, that the prisoners should be exchan-ed, and this rumor went around until August, when thw order came that all Hessians must be gathered together. All who wanted to come could do so but the Hessians not returned , had to pay. 'f'he farm er.s returned their prisoners, many deserted again and returned to se~ve their masterR, remai-nned in America and maJ•ri8d.
DIARY OF A HESSIAN SOLDIER, JOHANNES REUBER typescript & translation by Herbert H. Freund
A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution BY JOHANN CONRAD DÖHLA Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by BRUCE E. BURGOYNE From the 1913 Bayreuth edition by W. BARON VON WALDENFELS
footnote 13
Contract of William Hobday with David Kennedy, Jan 31, 1778, Papers of Continental Congress (National Archives microfile (M247), item 147, vol 3, p477, 479-48.(hereafter cited as PCC).
footnote 14
"Estimate of Prisoners from Returns," n.d. (c. early 1778), Elias Boudinot Papers, 3:27, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
footnote 17
General von Kyphausen to Landgrave of Hessen-Kessel, January 21, 1778, Lidgerwood Hessian Papers, Letter G, box 10, Morristown Historical Park.
footnote 18
Bernhard A Ulendorf, trans., Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals 1776-1784 of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick, NJ 1957), p 151 ; "Journal de hochloblichen Fuselier-Regiments von Alt Lossber." Lidgerwood Hessian Papers, Letter M, box 30; Report of Quartermaster Kitz, February 1778. om Correspondence of General von Kyphausen, 1776-1779 Lidgerwood Hessian Papers, letter G, box 10.
footnote 19
Ross H. Schwalm, President, Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, Inc.
