ACTO THI EN FOO A American Monthly Magazine VOL. XXVI. WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY, 1905. No. 1. BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE WAR. By Mrs. Jane S. Owen Keim. National Number, 48. Ex-Vice President General. The valley of the Rhine for centuries had been the battle ground of Europe. The unconquerable valor of the German tribes had, time and again, given the legions and cohorts of Rome more than their equal. The beautiful cities along the banks of that picturesque and historic stream had their origin in the legionary camps established to hold the Germans in check against the lines. of communications between the Mistress of the World on the banks of the Tiber and the northwestern limits of the empire at Trinobantes and London, on the Thames, in Britannia. It was the incessant conflicts of the nation for territorial, religious and dynastic reasons, particularly with Spain and France, Mrs. deB. Randolph Keim, vania. culminating in the 30 years' war of religion and the devastating Dragoonades of Louis XIV in the Palatinate which started the tide of German emigration from the same region to the shores of the Delaware, in America. This racial movement, beginning with the little Mennonite colony of Pastorius simultaneously with the first arrival of the great Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, was followed by small bodies, among them Johann Keim, of near Speyer, in 1698, whose ancestor had fought under Bernhard von Weimer in the cause of Evangelical Germany, and an increasing list of pioneers similarly spoiled of religious freedom and temporal . estate. The expansion of this incoming of Germans by the year 1720 had become so great that Pennsylvania threatened to become a foreign province. Lists were then required by the imperial and provincial authorities to be submitted and the oath of allegiance was exacted from all male adult emigrants before the authorities at Philadelphia upon certification of the captains of vessels. This German migration continued in formidable proportions down to the American Revolution, and later exerted a pronounced influence in bringing Pennsylvania so conspicuously in line with the other 12 colonies in that portentious struggle. It was the Germans of the frontier counties of Berks, Lancaster and upper Chester, then forming the region which now also includes Dauphin, Lebanon and Lehigh, who took a decided stand against the non-combatant theories of the Quaker rulers of the province which led to the overthrow of the Tory state government and the substitution of a new organic form in harmony with the purposes of the first Continental Congress and its successors during the struggle. A similar experience was had during the colonial wars, when the provincial assembly refused to vote men and supplies to the king to fight the French and protect the borders of the German frontier settlements from Indian depredations. A body of 1,200 Germans from Berks and the other counties settled by sons and daughters of the Fatherland, suddenly appeared at the doors of the legislative assembly at Philadelphia, with notification to adopt forthwith measures to protect the families and farms on the fighting line of civilization or they would apply such remedies as seemed best. It took all the arts of Franklin and others in sympathy with him to persuade the German frontiersmen to desist, which they did only upon promise of redress and a free hand to protect their firesides and plantations. The fresh crisis was carried to a finish. The provincial governor was sent into exile, the political authority of the Penns was declared at an end, elections were held, fighting patriots were put on guard and Pennsylvania took her place with Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia as the four states which bore the brunt, in men and means, of the struggle for American Independence. The warlike spirit of the people of Berks, almost wholly German by birth or descent but one generation removed, was manifested in the promptitude with which they sprang to arms upon hearing the news from Lexington, marching to the seat of war, the very first in response to the call of the Continental Congress, their sacrifices and sufferings in the invasion of Canada, the valor of their riflemen at Boston under the admiring eye of Washington, and the qualities of their German blood on the disastrous field of Long Island, delaying the overwhelming force of the British, which alone saved Washington the loss of his entire army and possibly the failure of the Continental cause. The population of military age in the county of Berks during the war of the Revolution numbered about 4,300. For purposes of organization the county was divided into six districts. To the military movements of 1775-6 Berks contributed seven battalions, commanded in numerical order by Haller, Bird, Lutz, Gheer, Patton, Hunter (Iaeger) and Levan, all Germans but two. This force was up to the full quota, or approximately so. It is an established fact that Berks regularly contributed more than its proportionate share of fighting men. In the campaign of 1777, which included Brandywine, the operations on the Schuylkill menacing Reading, the battle of Germantown, the forays of the British from Philadelphia, and the winter quarters of the Continental army at Valley Forge, Berks had six battalions, commanded by Hunter (laeger), Udree, Lindemuth, Lutz, Weaver and Spyker, of eight companies each, aggregating about 4,000 men. During the military movements of 1778, which embraced the forcing of the British out of Philadelphia, their flight across New Jersey and defeat at Monmouth, leaving over 300dead on the field, Berks continued its organization of six battalions, with commanders and numbers: Hunter (Iaeger), 642 men; Udree, 565; Lindemuth, 722; Hiester, 756; Weaver, 645 (in his battalion the captains were McMurray, Harris, Keim, Bishop, his brother-in-law, Graul, Sands and Morgan); Spyker, 728, or a force of 4,058 men by actual enrollment, a higher percentage of actives than found in statistics of military age anywhere else. This may be accepted as the average strength of the battalions of Berks. The same glorious response of fighters in other counties and states would have enabled Washington to clean up British and Hessian military operations in the vicinity of New York, or at all events, in the excellent fighting area of New Jersey, before the ink on the signatures on the Declaration of Independence was dry. The Germans of Berks, besides their qualities of war, inherited from generations in the Fatherland, were a constant menace to King George's Hessian mercenaries, owing to community of blood, language, prestige and characteristics. In the race across New Jersey with Washington on their heels over 2,000 Hessians deserted to the American lines and were sent into the German counties of Pennsylvania to make good citizens. In July, 1778, at the close of the British run from the Delaware to the Raritan, King George's army of 33,000 men held only New York and Newport, against less than half that number of Continentals and militia. The organization of Berks in 1780, a year of practically no campaigning in the Middle States, the seat of war having been transferred to the South, was maintained on its usual basis of efficiency. There was some shifting and appointment of new commanders in numerical sequence, Eley, Spyker, Jones (Jonathan), Lindemuth, Cunius and Hiester. In the year 1781, which witnessed the culmination in the death of the Lion and the Unicorn fighting for the crown at Yorktown, "Old Berks" was in readiness for operations, but was not needed. Lafayette, with Wayne and his Pennsylvanians, had cornered Cornwallis in the neck of York, in Virginia, and held him there until Washington, in supreme command with his Continentals, Rochambeau, with his Frenchmen, and DeGrasse, with his ships, made the Britishers and Deutschers lay down their arms to the tune "The World Turned Upside Down." The military service of Pennsylvania in the war for American independence was not only distinctive, but had about it a decided air of romance. In the 13 and two added regiments of the Pennsylvania Continental line, were several commanded by veteran foreign officers, as the German regiment of Colonel Nicholas Hausaggar, in which was a company of Berks Heidelbergers, commanded by Benj. Weiser, son of the celebrated provincial Indian interpreter, besides enlistments in other companies. In Von Heer's Light Dragoons a number of enlistments were made in Berks, among them is mentioned a trumpeter who doubtless sounded the clarion notes of battle so that they could not be mistaken. In Count Von Ottendorff's corps of the Continental line, which was all German, Jacob Bauer commanded a company recruited in Berks, besides enrollments including a number in other companies. In Count Armand's Partisan Legion, Berks Germans were largely represented. This organization was as famous as Count Lauzun's legionaries in whipping the British marauder, Tarleton, in Virginia. The martial spirit of the Germans of Berks was also represented in the famous Count Pulaski's legion of troopers. In addition to their field service the inhabitants of Berks, and particularly of Reading, as early as 1776 and repeatedly |