Description:

Revolutionary War



Hessian Commander During American Revolutionary War Warns of War with France

Hessian commander Wilhelm von Knyphausen details the opening preparations for the War of the First Coalition. The recipient may have been Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester, whom Knyphausen knew from service in North America during the American Revolution.

 

WILHELM VON KNYPHAUSEN, Letter Signed, as Military Governor of Cassel, to Secretary [Guy Carleton?], May 13, 1792, Cassel. In German. 1 p., 7.75" x 9.75". Expected folds; some foxing.

 

Complete Translation

            Well-born Sir,

            most honorable Mr. Secretary

In keeping with my promise, I shall not fail to inform your wellborn sir hereby that from all indications, war against the French nation actually will come about. The imperial forces, against which France has already taken aggressive action, are in full motion heading toward Brabard [Brabant?] and perhaps some of them also toward the Rhine. It appears that Corps Friessen will soon be on the move as well, and of the Hessians, 7 to 8 thousand men are on the march to the Rhine area to take sovereign control of our borders, and also perhaps, depending on the circumstances, to join with other units. If the latter and also the sons of Mylord Dorchester join one of these units to be present, should war break out, it will best serve the attainment of our ultimate goal, I believe, to address oneself to one of the envoys in London. With our [Hessians?], in that case, I don’t think there would be any problem if Kutzleben were to make the report to [?]. With assurance of my most devoted respects to Mylord, I commend myself to further good relations and remain very respectfully

                                                            your most devoted and faithful

                                                            Knyphausen

Cassel, the 13th of May 1792

 

Historical Background

In August 1791, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II (1747-1792) and King Friedrich Wilhelm II (1744-1797) of Prussia announced their support for King Louis XVI (1754-1793) of France against the French revolutionaries. On April 20, 1792, France declared war on the Hapsburg monarchy of Leopold II, brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. This action brought the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, the Dutch Republic, and other allies into combination against France in the War of the First Coalition from 1792 to 1797.

 

In this letter, military governor Wilhelm von Knyphausen provides details of the early movements in Hesse-Cassel. Charles William Ferdinand, the Duke of Brunswick, gathered an allied army at Koblenz on the Rhine River and began an invasion of France. His army of mostly Prussian veterans quickly seized the fortresses of Longwy and Verdun. The Duke of Brunswick issued a declaration late in July declaring that he would restore King Louis XVI to his full powers and treat opponents as rebels condemned to death. This declaration led to the storming of the Tuileries Palace and the fall of the French monarchy in mid-August. The allied invasion stalled at the Battle of Valmy in September, more than a hundred miles east of Paris, and the allied army withdrew. Meanwhile, French armies occupied Savoy and Nice in Italy and all of Belgium by the beginning of winter.

 

Knyphausen specifically mentions Baron Christian von Kutzleben (1749-1798), who was the minister from Hesse-Cassel to Great Britain. Kutzleben married the daughter of a British baron.

 

The recipient of this letter may have been Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester (1724-1808). Carleton was an Irish Protestant who joined the military in 1742. In 1757 and 1758, Carleton served as part of an Army of Observation consisting of German troops whose duty it was to protect Hanover from French invasion. He later served as an aide-de-camp to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. Carleton served as Governor of the Province of Quebec from 1768 to 1778 and Governor General of British North America at the same time. He commanded British troops during the American Revolutionary War and was commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America in 1782 and 1783. He likely met and interacted with Wilhelm von Knyphausen in both Hanover and North America. Carleton was raised to the peerage in August 1786 as Lord Dorchester and served as Governor General of the Canadas from 1786 to 1796. He left Canada for Britain in August 1791 and took his seat in the House of Lords in February 1792, where he remained until leaving again for Canada in August 1793. In 1772, he married Lady Maria Howard, who was nearly three decades younger than he. Over the next twenty years, she gave birth to eleven children. Their two oldest sons were killed serving in the military in France in 1793 and 1794.

 


Wilhelm von Knyphausen (1716-1800) was born in East Frisia and educated in Berlin. He entered the Prussian military service in 1734 and by 1775 had become a general officer in the army of Frederick the Great. In 1776, he came to the American colonies as second-in-command of an army of 12,000 men called “Hessians” under the command of General Leopold Philip de Heister (1716-1777). Knyphausen commanded Hessian troops in the Battles of White Plains, Fort Washington, Brandywine, Germantown, Springfield, and Monmouth. When Heister returned to Germany at the end of 1776, Knyphausen took command of all German troops under British General William Howe. In 1779 and 1780, Knyphausen commanded New York City, held by the British. Knyphausen returned to Europe in 1782, and became the military governor of Cassel in 1788.

 

 

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