Reflections of a Hessian

By Richard Leighton

The book probes the reasons why my Hessian ancestor came to this country to put down the Patriot rebellion, then defected to make the Patriot cause his cause. Except for his birth and death dates and the year of his defection, nothing is known about this man prior to his desertion, after which he became a farmer in what's now West Virginia. The manuscript creates his background in his German state and traces his journey through battles of the Revolutionary War, an incident that led to the death of a fellow countryman for which he felt responsible and his tutelage by an American woman who would become his wife. His course of action is contrasted with that of a childhood friend, also a Hessian soldier, who spent five and a half years in American prison camps but felt obligated to return to his home country. This book should be of interest to the many Cale descendants and to devotees of American history, especially to people who are interested in the history of the American Revolutionary War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781642377224

Book preview

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Prologue:

DECEMBER 31, 1824

My name was Christian Kahl. I say was because in my 40s, at my wife’s insistence, I changed my name to Christopher Cale. Why the change in name? I had a past life that was intimately associated with my given (you might say Christian) name that I needed to leave behind me. It was a past that had once been a source of pride to me, but no longer. My name of Kahl in German means bare, naked or barren. When I reflect on what I did in my early years, perhaps those meanings apply more than I realized to the direction of my life at that time.

I have written this narrative in an attempt to inform you of my background and upbringing and of how I came to this country which I have grown to love. My hope is that the telling of my story will help you understand why I had to change the direction of my life and how I was able to accomplish this transformation. I know I can never completely erase the guilt I have felt for my misdeeds, but I believe that the mere act of writing about them has helped me live with my past.

Chapter 1:

CASSEL

I was born and raised in Cassel, located on the river Fulda, a tributary of the Weser River, 144 kilometers northeast of Frankfurt am Main. The year was 1741. While my birthplace was German, it was not a part of a unified country. Rather, Cassel was the capital of the Landgraviate or state of Hesse-Cassel. Each landgraviate was ruled by a prince and our leader or Landgrave was William VIII until his death in 1760 when he was succeeded by Frederick II.

An Apotheker

My family was not of the noble class. Neither were they poor. My father was an apotheker, or in English an apothecary: a pharmacist. He acquired his knowledge of herbs and medicines by serving an apprenticeship. I loved being in his shop, inhaling the aromas and watching him put together and measure out the remedies for townspeople who were sent to him by physicians. I also listened as he gave them some of his own medical advice. He put in long hours, even working on weekends so except at dinnertime, I seldom saw him.

At home, my mother managed the household and she was ably assisted by my two sisters: Anna who was two years older than me and Birgit who was 5 years my senior. I was the youngest in the family and the only boy so they looked out for me, made sure I was fed and clothed. They encouraged me to do well at school and though I proved to be not much of a scholar, I did master a basic knowledge of European history, mathematics and the rudiments of science as it was known then. I certainly became proficient in the German language and I even gained a basic understanding of English and French, though I was far from fluent in either tongue.

My father would have liked to have his son follow in his footsteps as an apotheker but he was so busy with his preparations and with serving his clientele that he had little time to mentor me. While I appreciated the satisfaction he got from helping the townspeople with his ministrations, I found his occupation too confining. I wanted a more active life.

Religious Dispute

I was fortunate to have an uncle who played a key role in my upbringing. Two years younger than my father, Onkel Rudolph, known affectionately in the family as Rudi, had moved to Hanau before my birth. At that time Hanau was not part of our state. Rather, it was the capital of our neighboring state, Hesse-Hanau. Separation of the two states had come about through a religious dispute. Before he became our Landgrave, Frederick II had converted from Calvinism, the predominant religion of Hesse-Cassel, to Catholicism. In fact, my family members were Calvinists and regular churchgoers though during my military years I harbored no firm religious views.

In order to limit Frederick’s eventual authority, his Calvinistic father granted the Landgrave position in Hanau to Frederick’s underage son where this son’s mother, estranged from Frederick II, ruled as his legal guardian. Ironically, with Frederick’s death in 1785, this boy succeeded him as Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and eventually the two states merged.

Onkel Rudi

My Onkel Rudi became a forester or gameskeeper in Hanau, working to maintain the large nearby wild park, Alte Fasanerie, named after the many pheasants that inhabited the park. One of his tasks was to keep the population of potentially dangerous wild animals to a minimum. He did so by shooting wild boar and wolves.

Onkel Rudi was single. Since he had no children he took a great liking to me. Once a year, usually in the summer, he would come to Cassel to pay us a visit. When I became 12 years old, my parents let me spend a month each summer with Rudi. He would travel the 307 kilometers to Cassel by horse for his annual visit, then I would return to Hanau with him and a month later he would accompany me back to Cassel. The trip was a long one, so we always stayed overnight in Marburg, a midway point for us. I loved these journeys because I liked being with Onkel Rudi. I especially enjoyed our stays in Marburg, an interesting city with the picturesque old castle, the Marburger Schloss, that dominated the town from its lofty position.

During my month in Hanau, Rudi would let me accompany him on his hunts and when I was old enough to hold a rifle, he taught me how to shoot and how to maintain the gun. Later these skills became very important to me.

French Occupation

In the summer of 1757 when I was but 16 years old, a French army succeeded in seizing and occupying Cassel. This action was part of what came to be known as the Seven Years War. The French, allied with Austria, Russia, Sweden and Spain were opposed by an Allied army of Prussian, Hanoverian, Hessian and British troops. During that time the French came to occupy large portions of the German states, not only my home state of Hesse-Cassel, but also the neighboring states of Hanover and Westphalia.

When the French soldiers first appeared in our streets, I would try to engage them in conversation as a way of improving my French speaking skills. I would offer them greetings like, Bonjour or Comment ca va? but my greeting attempts were usually met with either silence or with jeers and/or curses. At times it appeared the French soldiers were making threatening moves, so I soon gave up and simply avoided them as much as possible.

At age 20 my sister Birgit had married a local man named Andreas. Andreas was older than she, perhaps he was 30. He had finished his training as a mortician and he had opened his own place of business in Cassel. The two of them were living with his parents until they could establish a home of their own. So Anna and I continued to live with our parents. When the French came to Cassel Anna had just finished her schooling and while she was looking for job opportunities she spent most of her time at home, helping our mother with household chores.

The French had seized some public buildings in Cassel and converted them into barracks for their enlisted men but the officers became quartered in individual homes. These arrangements, of course, were made not at the invitation of the homeowners. Thus my father was notified that we would be hosting a French lieutenant who would be occupying what had been Birgit‘s room.

A Fatal Confrontation

The lieutenant’s name was Jean-Loup Duval and he appeared on our doorstep one day in August. I would guess that he was about 25 years old. He carried an authoritarian demeanor and he spoke very little German. When I offered to help him with our language, he curtly dismissed my efforts. He had very little to say to any of us. Apparently he expected our family either to wait on him or to stay out of his way. He expected my sister Anna or my mother to serve him his dinners though he refused to come to our family table. His meals were to be served in his room where he ate in isolation. From the beginning of his stay, it was obvious that he had an eye for Anna. Anna was a pretty girl but she had no special interest in any man, especially the lieutenant so she tried to ignore his advances.

The roof of my school had been damaged by the French bombardment and it had not been repaired so it was prone to leak when it rained. One afternoon we had such a heavy thundershower that the downpour in our classroom precluded further studies so the schoolmaster dismissed us early.

It was an afternoon when my mother usually went to the local market where she could find provisions for the following week. When I returned home I expected to find Anna alone in the house. Yet I was immediately surprised to hear screams coming from her room. Alarmed, I ran to her room. When I opened her door I saw the lieutenant on top of her on the bed. He was holding her down and was groping her and she was resisting as best she could, crying and screaming.

The lieutenant was attempting to remove his pants while he held her and as a result, he had laid his pistol on a table at the foot of the bed. I had entered the room behind him so he had not seen me and because of her cries, it was apparent that he had not heard me either. I was not going to let this man rape my sister so, almost instinctively, I seized his pistol and shouted, Arretez! Arretez ou je vais vous fusiller! I knew the pistol was loaded and I knew how to fire it because my Onkel Rudi had a similar firearm that he had shown me how to use.

Quickly the lieutenant let go of Anna and turned on me with a dagger that he had drawn from his belt. I could tell that he didn’t believe I could fire his pistol. I had no time to give thought to my next action. It was his life or mine so I fired and the bullet struck him in the chest. He gasped and a look of disbelief crossed his face as he fell back. The bullet must have pierced his heart because he died instantly. A red stain covered his white blouse and the sheets on the bed.

Anna rose from the bed and for a moment that seemed like an eternity we both stood transfixed, staring at the dead lieutenant. I was too shocked and frightened to say anything, but Anna quickly regained her composure and spoke: We must find a way to hide his body. I was in a daze. I couldn’t think. Finally, I responded, But, how?

Go get Andreas she replied. He will know what to do. I wouldn’t have thought of Andreas but she was right. He was a mortician whose job it was to deal with dead bodies and we certainly needed his help. Quickly I wrapped the pistol in a blanket and stuffed it under her bed while Anna removed the blood stained sheets. Then I left the house and ran all the way to Andreas’ place of business.

Fortunately, he was there and as he listened to my breathless story, his eyes widened with surprise. Then he assumed a more serious mien as he slowly sat down, staring at the wall before him. Finally, he spoke. In our local cemetery, there is a section where paupers are buried in unmarked graves. Under the cover of darkness, we must take his body and bury it there. There is a gravedigger who works for me who will dig the grave and will ask no questions. Then we must accomplish the burial. I will contact my man now. You must return home. Speak to nobody but your family and wait for me there. I’ll come to your back door.

The Cover-Up

I returned home to find my mother had arrived and had been apprised of the situation by Anna. I told them of Andreas’ plan. My mother said, We need to discuss this with your father. As dark descended on the town, my father arrived, not expecting to be confronted by this scene. When we explained what had happened he became quite concerned. Our police are working with the French, he said. They will be here in the morning and we will have a lot of explaining to do.

We had a hurried dinner during which we formulated a plan. The lieutenant’s belongings were still in Birgit’s room with his body. In the morning my father would go to the police and tell them we had become concerned because the lieutenant had not appeared for dinner the night before. He had not missed a dinner in our house since he was first quartered with us, so we feared that something had