Champer Ederson was an African American soldier from Rhode Island. In January 1779, during the American Revolution, he enlisted in the Fifth Company of the Hessian Knyphausen Regiment, serving as a drummer. When the British and Hessian troops abandoned Rhode Island in October, 1779, he sailed with them to New York City. He would not live to see the war’s end, his regiment’s rolls showing that he died of disease in 1782. His service with the Hessian Regiment illustrates a little-known fact that German officers filled vacancies in their units by enlisting black soldiers. After centuries of neglect, the history of African Americans who served on both sides during the American Revolution is just now beginning to garnish the attention it deserves.
Many African Americans, especially freed slaves, played an active role in early protests against British rule. So too did escaped African American slaves seek refuge with the British. The first to die for the patriot cause was martyred on the streets of Boston in 1770. Crispus Attucks, an African American dockworker, was shot down during protests against British occupation. When hostilities erupted five years later, many African Americans were at the forefront of armed resistance. By the time Washington accepted the reigns of the newly formed Continental Army in July of 1775, there were already African Americans in every regiment. However, the Americans did not actively seek the recruitment of black soldiers and former slaves. In fact, one of Washington’s earlier orders restricted blacks from joining the army. However not so for the British.
Lord Dunmore, British Royal Governor of Virginia, actively recruited not just black freeman, but so too current slaves of colonial patriots and militiamen. In his November 7, 1775 Proclamation, he promised freedom to all slaves of proclaimed revolutionaries who made it to British lines. He gave these men uniforms and weapons and formed the first black regiment of the war; naming them the Ethiopian Brigade. When General Washington faced a shortage of new recruits, he was persuaded to allow the enlistment of African Americans, though he still did not support arming slaves. As the war progressed, British Supreme Commander, General William Howe, continued Dunmore’s promise of freedom to slaves who gave their support to the British cause; however, he did not arm these black recruits – instead using them as support named ‘pioneers’. Later too, American States turned to African Americans to meet soldier recruitment requirements; ie the 1st Rhode Island Regiment – the first American black regiment of the war and who the French Commander General Rochambeau considered the finest, most soldierlike regiment in the entire American Army.
German Mercenaries from Brunswick and Hesse became an intricate part of the British army. They were present during most of the British campaigns from General Burgoyne’s northern army, General Howe’s main army in and around New York City, and later with General Clinton’s invasion of the south. Losses due to death and disease kept most German units understrength during the American Revolution. Death on the transports to American often claimed thirty to forty soldiers per thousand. Losses from battle and disease decimated many units. Adjutant General Carl Baurmeister, staff officer at the Hessian headquarters in New York, reported as early as 1777 that the officers of the Erbprinz Regiment tried to fill vacancies in that unit by enlisting Blacks. According to his report, some of these blacks deserted, while others were identified as runaway slaves. Hessian regiments enlisted African Americans as musicians, laborers, and private soldiers, though far more numbers were musicians (who dressed as soldiers and carried a sword) and support.
Blacks enlisted into German units held the same rank as some white soldiers, such as grenadier, piper, drummer, or laborer. They made up a small, yet highly visible element of the Hessian troops. The records of the troops from Hesse-Cassel show that one hundred and thirty-one clearly identifiable African Americans enlisted and served some period of the war with the Hessian forces. Ninety-four enlisted as drummers in regimental bands, twenty-five others were carried on the rolls as laborers, four served as pipers to complement the drummers, one in the provost marshal’s department, one as a grenadier, one as a musketeer, and three as privates. Three names do not list ranks. Three drummers later switched to fusiliers and privates; these were clearly armed fighting men. Most of the identifiable black soldiers from American can be reconstructed from the regimental records as they appear in Hetrina; five volumes published between 1972 and 1976 listing the rolls of soldiers from Hesse-Cassels and Waldeck, however not approximately 11,000 soldiers of Hesse-Hanau or Brunswick.
It is difficult for researchers to find black soldiers within Hessian records because all names were recorded in their German equivalent. Therefore, John, Lewis, or Charles, once in Hessian service, would become Johann, Ludwig, and Karl. Distinctly non-Germanic names (like Possum or Prince), or explicit notation of an individuals’ race are generally relied upon to make the distinction.
Though there were sparse numbers of black German soldiers in northern regiments, when the war moved south, Hessian commanders actively recruited African American freemen and former slaves; most particularly while stationed in South Carolina. After the fall of Charleston to the British in May, 1780, the British and Germans confiscated large numbers of rebel slaves. On June 30, 1779, Major General Henry Clinton issued the “Philipsburg Proclamation”. This encouraged slaves to flee rebel masters and earn their freedom through service with the British Army. (It is worth noting that the Army would return enslaved people to the Tory master, or held until the master could be found.) When the British moved south and took Charleston in 1780, enslaved people flocked to the British and Hessian forces.
They were employed as non-enlistees in many capacities from manual labor to servants, including sexual favors among the officers. Captain Johann Ewald, company commander with the Hessian Jaeger corps (riflemen) wrote of British General Cornwallis’ army in North Carolina in 1781: “I cannot deny that the enormous train of the army astonished me considerably… the army looked to me like a migrating Arabian or Tartar horde… Lord Cornwallis had agreed that the company officers could keep two horses and one Negro…But since there was no strict control, this arrangement got out of hand…each officer had four to six horses, three to four Negroes and sometimes one or two Negresses as cook or mistress.” It seems this arrangement went beyond company commanders. Ewald went on to write, “Each corporal’s guard had one or two horses and Negroes and each corporal had two horses and a Negro. Indeed, I can say that each soldier had his Negro to carry his food and his bundle.” It is estimated that over four thousand former slaves followed Cornwallis’ British and German troops to Yorktown in 1781.
To conclude, the majority of black enlistments in Hessian units served in non-combatant positions, freeing white troops for combat duty. However, some did serve in the infantry among the rank and file. Scant literary evidence indicates that black soldiers served among German ranks only as long as they wished. Deserters generally were discharged, even though returning to their units and many blacks received a discharge before the war was over. Some who willingly served with the Germans returned with them to Germany. Johann Carl Buttner, an enlisted man with the Hessian forces, recalled that at the end of the war, the black musicians in his regiments were brought backc to Germany, where they caused great excitement. So too, a Brunswick officer noted in 1783 that a battalion of troops in the city of Brunswick included a drum corps made up of blacks brought from America by General Riedesel.
Besides German troops, the French also utilized those of Africa and ancestry to fill their ranks. They formed the Chasseurs-Volontaires on March 12, 1779, from West Indies Islands, to support the Continental Army in America. Among these volunteers were eight hundred African American soldiers, named the Gens De Couleurs; born freemen of Haiti. During the Battle of Savannah, October 18, 1779, they were considered one of the most efficient allied group, fighting the British with obstinacy and boldness – afterwards, representing the largest part of French casualties.
RESOURCES
The Negro Soldier in the American Revolution, W. B. Hartgrove, The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1916), pp. 110-131 (22 pages)
Black Hessians: American Blacks as German Soldiers, Elliott W. Hoffman, Negro History Bulletin Vol. 44, No. 4 (October–November–December, 1981), pp. 81-82, 91. Published By: Association for the Study of African American Life and History
The Negro in the American Revolution., Benjamin Quarles, 1961: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC
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