America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army

3. A True Pell-Mell of Human Souls: The Germans in the Continental Army

C HAP T E R T H R E E A True Pel!-Mel! of Human Souls: The Germans in the Continental Army O n a hot July day in 1775, John Adams and several other members of Congress commiserated about the recruitment of men for the Continental army. An idea came to Adams, however, when a German citizen of Pennsylvania walked through the front doors of Independence Hall. Wearing the full uniform of a Prussian "deaths-head" Hussar, the German soldier "appeared like an apparition." "He was the most warlike person" Adams had ever seen. After proclaiming that he could raise fifty other men just like himself, the German strode out the doors of Congress determined to recruit some of his countrymen for Continental service. Adams later remarked to a fellow member of Congress that he thought that the Continental army should make use of the "multitude" of Germans who had immigrated to the colonies during the years leading up to the Revolution. Admitting that he "was not fond of raising many Soldiers out of New England," Adams decided that "by engaging their own (German) Gentlemen and Peasants they shall rivet their People to the public Cause." I Recent scholarship on colonial history has demonstrated that British America was not simply an English but rather a multicultural society. Far from being a homogeneous monolith, colonial society comprised many divergent races and ethnic groups. For some, the war was an opportunity for social and economic mobility. Others may have been inspired by the rhetoric of colonial revolutionaries. It appears, however, that revolutionary fervor had little to do with the reasons why certain 44 A True Pell-Mell ofHuman Souls • 45 ethnic groups chose to enter the struggle or remain neutral. More often, their decisions were a matter of survival or a way to even a score with an old enemy. This chapter will show how American and British recruiters vied with each over a source of military labor they could not ignore. Ethnic Germans, the largest non-Anglo-Saxon ethnic group to emigrate from Europe in the prewar years, enlisted in both armies during the Revolution. Pietistic religious sects like the Dunkers, Mennonites, and Moravians tried to remain neutral. When a loyalist captain inquired in 1776 whether the Moravians were inclined to "join the other party," he was informed that "it does not accord with [their] character as Brethren to mix in such political affairs, we are children of peace, and wish peace with all men; whatever God lays upon us we bear.,,2 Most Germans, however, were not members of pacifist sects. The Lutheran and Reformed clergy, who led those who constituted 90 percent of the German population, "were virtually unanimous in their support of the movement for American Independence." They often harangued captive Hessian prisoners of war and attempted to convince them to abandon the British and join the Continental army. 3 The Germans and America The large prewar German population of America convinced many that this ethnic bloc was a resource too valuable to overlook. From the beginning of colonial settlement to the year 1760, at least 700,000 immigrants from various nations had arrived in North America. By 1760, however, American shores were flooded by newcomers fleeing famine, war, and pestilence in Europe. Germans affected by the War of the Austrian Succession and the ravages of the Sun-King arrived in record numbers. It has been estimated that nearly 58,000 Germans had come to Philadelphia alone. By the mid-eighteenth century, at least seventeen Philadelphia merchant houses were actively engaged in the German immigrant trade, which accounted for 96.6 percent of all German immigrants to Philadelphia after 1763.4 At least eighty-eight immigrant ships carrying between 120 and 200 souls each arrived at the port of Philadelphia after the Seven Years' War. S Germans seemed to be especially drawn to the colony of Pennsylvania due to high demand for servants and the relative religious freedom afforded them by the state government. As early as 1677, William 46 • A True Pell-Mell ofHuman Souls Penn had toured German principalities to recruit immigrants and indentured servants for his colony of Pennsylvania. Offering religious toleration to sects that were not tolerated in their homeland, Pennsylvania attracted numerous denominations. Thirteen Mennonite families, for instance , founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1683; many other denominations followed. In 1 742, Heinrich Muhlenberg, founder of a large and prominent family...