German Fusiliers - Romen3
Subject: German Fusiliers
From: Romen3
Date: March 26, 1999


Because I have gotten so many requests on the information of the German
Fusiliers I cannot answer each one individually, so I'm going to post the rest
of the information on this site, as I did the last information.

                                        AT PORT ROYAL AND SAVANNAH

During the years of 1776 and 1777 the Fusiliers werre constantly in active
service in and around Charleston.  In the latter part of 1777 Capt. Gillon,
who was the first commander of the company, and Lieut. Kalteissen, who was
also one of its first officers, resigned, the former to take charge, as
commander of the vessels of war in the State, and the latter having been
appointed Wagon-master-General of the Provincial Army in the State.  Wm.
Livingston was then elected Captain, Gideon Dupont First Lieutenant and Jocob
Sass, Third Lieutenant of the company.  In 1779, Gen. Lincoln, of the
Continental Army, having been placed in command of the state troops, made a
call for the militia: in response to which the Fusiliers, numbering sixty-four
privates, with a full completement of officers, non-comissioned officers and
musicians, took the field.  They bore a prominent part in the disastrous
expedition to Port Royal: at the return of which Capt. Livingston resigned his
commission, and Major Charles Sheppard was elected to fill the vacancy.
Shortly after this Count D'Estaing, the French ally of the Americans, appeared
off the coast with his fleet, and the allied forces determined at once to lay
siege to Savannah, at that time in the hands of the British troops.  Orders
were accordingly again issued for the militia of South Carolina and George to
rendevous in the neighborhood, and the Fusiliers promptly took the field with
seventy-five men, of which the following is the roll at the siege of Savannah:
Charles Sheppard, Captain

                                                      Lieutenants
             Daniel Strobel                     Jacob Sass
Josiph Kimmel
                                                       
                                                      Sergeants
             Henry Timrod                      Philip Werner
Christian Martin

                                                      Corporals
             Christian Gruber                  Henry Lindaur
Francis Cobia
                                                      Charles Gruber

                                           David Gruber, Acting Secretary
                                              Two Drummers a one Fifer
                                                George Hahnbaum, Doctor
                                       
                                                             Privates

Adam Petsch   Martin Miller   Charles Burckmyer   Joseph Beiler   George Beil
John Ernst   Jacob Frick   George Young  Frederick Maltuse   Adam Gitsinger
Thomas Harris  John Kuchner   Florian D. May   William Schneider   Henry
Gefken   Daniel Kaufman   John Kelly   Adam Meilander   Herman Nufer   Philip
Naser   John Philips   George Gitsinger   John Gruber   Michael Herman   Henry
Harting   Louis Geile   Frederick Jacobs   John Mathus   Philip Mintzing
Abraham Markley   George Neithammer   Daniel Rupel   John Strobel, Sr.   John
Smith   John R. Switzer   Paul Sletter  Henry Leibekentz   William Bockran
Michael Cobia   Daniel Cobia   John Dalke   Phil Dorzenbacher   John Hoff
John Horlbeck   George Hamel   Elias Hansen   Peter Keister   Frederick Rote
Jacob Shatterling   John Leckley   Adam Mining   Robert Beard   Herman Groning
Casper Erhart   Frederick Kaloff   Frederick Nann   Lawrence Simon   John
Slatler   Charles Frisch   Henry Grim

The incidents of the struggle before Savannah are well known.  Gen. Lincoln in
concert with the French allies, laid siege to Savannah in the early part of
Sept. A month afterwards, on the 9th of October, a general advance was
ordered, and allied forces marched to the assault, under a heavy fire.  It was
a disastrous attack, and although the troops fought gallantly, the commander
found it necessary to ordere a retreat.  Before this, however, the South
Carolina troops had carried the enemy's ramparts.  Among them were the
Fusiliers, whose Captain Sheppard, refused to obey the order to retreat.  At
his command the Fusiliers continued to advance, marking each step of their way
with blood, until their brave leader was shot down, when a retreat took place.

In this campaign Lieut. Joseph Kimmel was killed, and a number of the members
of the company killed and severly wounded.  The corps ultimately reached home
under the command of Lieutentants Strobel and Sass.

                                 A REVOLUTIONARY RELIC

Soon after these events, 1780, Charleston fell into the hands of the British,
and the "Continental" Fusiliers not being in good order with the Royal Army,
were compelled to disband.  In accordance with the terms of the surrender, the
company gave up the one hundred superior muskets which had been presented to
them by the Provincial Government.  The arms were deposited in the magazine at
the Southeast corner of Magazine and Mazyck Streets, which was subsequently
destroyed by an explosion of gunpowder, together with all the muskets, except
one, which was saved in the following manner:  Mr. John Horlbeck, one of the
privates, an original member of the company, dropped his gun between the
wainscoting of his house and the wall, on the North side of Horlbeck's Alley,
being in the Western tenement of buildings destroyed in the fire of 1861, and
carried another musket and surrendered that to the British military
authorities.  Hr. Horlbeck had carried this gun in the siege of Savannah, and
did not relish giving it up.  So "he hid it," as has been related, and it has
been preserved in the family ever since.

The German Fusiliers are still in active existance as a volunteer military
corps, but what is most gratifying, is that there should be on the roll of a
century ago so many names which are familiar in Charleston today as borne by
worthy descendants of the sturdy Revolutionary stock.

Copied from Charleston Year Book, 1885

H.H. Cawley
Savannah, Ga.

I thank you for the response that has been given and it has been a priviledge
to be 
able to help those whose ancestors are among the lists of Fusiliers.

My sincere regards,    Rachel

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