Friedrich Wilhelm von Knyphausen

“ So much, in great enterprises, often depends upon a happy concurrence of incidents. Henceforth let it be borne in mind that in every battle of the war of independence, hired men of Germany play an important part.
On the 2d of June the second division was mustered into service. On the 18th of October it landed at New Rochelle. It consisted of men, not the trained men of well-knit sinews who formed the first division, but chiefly young men of seventeen or eighteen, who had been raised to serve in America. As general of division we find Knyphausen, whose name soon became familiar to both armies. ”

“ The mutinous spirit which had been evoked by sheer starvation, had been misinterpreted by the British officers in New York; and General Knyphausen must have been very proud of an opportunity to distinguish himself, in the absence of General Clinton, when he conceived of the poor American soldier as an unfortunate hireling waiting for a deliverer. He would become their Moses and conduct them back to the royal father’s embrace. He organized his missionary venture carefully. Accompanied by Generals Tryon, Matthews, and Sterling, he crossed from Staten Island to Elizabethtown Point. ”

“ Friedrich Wilhelm starts from Berlin, with the opening Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops first, Foot to follow at their swiftest; he himself (his Wife, his ever-true "Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the end, at the rate of "sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, finds Konigsberg unscathed. Nay it is even said, the Swedes are extensively falling sick ”

“ Whenever a regiment is to remain more than one night on the same ground, the soldiers must be obliged to cut a small trench round their tents, to carry off the rain; but great care must be taken they do not throw the dirt up against the tents.
One officer of a company must every day visit the tents ”

“ Baron Knyphausen, a Hessian general in the British service during the war of the American revolution, died at Berlin, in Prussia, aged 59.
1791. The city of Anapa, in Asia, stormed and taken from the Turks by the Russians. In the assault many were put to the sword, and a pasha and 14,000 made prisoners.
1793. Brissot and several other members of the convention arrested in Paris.
1795. M. Dambourney died at Rouen; distinguished as a merchant and a man of science.
1802. British house of commons voted Dr. Jenner £10,000 for his discovery of the vaccine inoculation. ”

“ Friedrich Wilhelm's Directorium, well-drilled Prussian Downing Street, every man steady at his duty, and no wind to be wasted where silence was better, did likewise very authentically remain,—and still remains. Nothing of genuine and human that Friedrich Wilhelm did but remained and remains an inheritance, not the smallest item of IT lost or losable;—and the rude foolish Boor-King (singular enough!) is found to be the only one that has gained by the game. ”

“ He lies that night spread out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schonbrunn, Kieslingswalde; [Feldzuge, i. 407 (Bericht von der Action bey Katholisch-Hennersdorf, &c.) .] some ten miles long; parallel to the Neisse River, and about four miles from it, east or Queiss-ward of it. Karl himself is rear, at Schonberg; fierce Lobkowitz is centre; the Saxons are vanguard, 6,000 in all, posted in Villages, which again are some ten or twelve miles ahead of Prince Karl's forces; the Queiss on their right hand, and the Naumburg Bridge of Queiss, where Winterfeld now is, about fifteen miles to east. ”

“ But Friedrich Wilhelm was vigilance itself; and he had his Anhalt-Dessaus with him, his Borcks, Buddenbrocks, Finkensteins, veteran men and captains, who had learned their art under Marlborough and Eugene. The Lion King's fierce sallies, and desperate valor, could not avail. Point after point was lost for him. Koppen, a Prussian Lieutenant-Colonel, native to the place, who has bathed in those waters in his youth, remembers that, by wading to the chin, you could get round the extremity of Charles's main outer line. ”

“ Rall and Knyphausen encountered the most serious obstacles, and met with the most obstinate resistance. Their course lay through woods and underbrush and heavy abattis, felled by the Americans. As they approached Rawlings, his men received them with a destructive and determined fire, which lasted a long time. Rall's force, including the newly arrived Waldeckers, fought desperately, and, as Cornwallis afterwards declared, "to the admiration of the entire British army." [218] Knyphausen led his men and tore down obstructions with his own hands. ”

“ Each regiment will furnish a non-commissioned officer to conduct the sick and lame who are not able to march with their regiments. These men are to repair, at the beating of the general, to the rendezvous appointed, where a sufficient number of empty wagons will be ordered to attend for the reception of their knapsacks, and their arms if necessary. A surgeon of each brigade is to attend the sick belonging to it. ”

“ The only means of keeping the soldiers in order is, to have them continually under the eyes of their superiors; for which reason the commandant should use the utmost of severity to prevent their straggling from their companies, and never suffer them to leave their regiment without being under the care of a non-commissioned officer, except in cases of necessity. ”

“ At last a new subsidiary treaty was concluded with him, and Colonel Yorke was dispatched from the Hague to fix that essential man. Luckily, Kniphausen was on the road, with his assent to the treaty, before Yorke arrived; otherwise the vainglory of Lord Hardwicke could not have imagined a more impolitic step for his country or his son. Every attempt of our sending men of parts to circumvent him had succeeded ill. The King of Prussia was so far a little genius, that he dreaded trying himself against talents. ”

“ Kniphausen diverts himself much here; he sees all places and all people, and is ubiquity itself. Mitchel, who was much threatened, stays at last at Berlin, at the earnest request of the King of Prussia. Lady is safely delivered of a son, to the great joy of that noble family. The expression, of a woman's having brought her husband a son, seems to be a proper and cautious one; for it is never said from whence.
I was going to ask you how you passed your time now at Hamburg, since it is no longer the seat of strangers and of business ”

“ In marching to the front, the men must be accustomed to dress to the center, which they will have to do when exercising in the battalion; and for this purpose a sergeant must be placed six paces in front of the center, who will take some object in front to serve as a direction for him to march straight forward; and the men must look inwards, and regulate their march by him. The captain must exercise his company in different sorts of ground ”

“ The day was the hottest of the year. At dawn General Knyphausen began to march with the first division of the British army, which included the German troops, the 'Hessians,' and the Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists. Clinton with the other division—the flower of the army—did not move until eight o'clock, for General Lee was so tardy in obeying the order of Washington that the enemy had ample time to prepare for battle.
"When Dickinson gave notice of Knyphausen's [299] movement the main body of the Americans began to move immediately. ”

“ Honesty, sobriety, and a remarkable attention to every point of duty, with a neatness in their dress, are indispensable requisites; a spirit to command respect and obedience from the men, an expertness in performing every part of the exercise, and an ability to teach it, are absolutely necessary; nor can a sergeant or corporal be said to be qualified who does not write and read in a tolerable manner. ”

“ When a regiment is on a march, the commandant will order a sergeant and fix men into the rear, to bring up all stragglers; and the sergeant on his arrival in camp or quarters, must make his report to him.
In a word, the commanding officer of a regiment must preserve the strictest discipline and order in his corps, obliging every officer to a strict performance of his duty, without relaxing in the smallest point; punishing impartially the faults that are committed, without distinction of rank or service. ”

“ Knyphausen did not settle Mecklenburg, as we perceive! Neither did Kannegiesser and the unliquidated Heritages prosper, at Hanover, quite to perfection. One Heritage, that of Uncle Osnabruck, little George flatly refused to share: FEUDUM the whole of that, not ALLODIUM any part of it, so that a Sister cannot claim. Which, I think, was confirmed by the Arbitrators at Brunswick; thereby ending that. Then as to the Ahlden ALLODIA or FEUDA,—Kannegiesser, blamably or not, never could make much of the business. A precise strict man, as we saw at the Hanover Council-room lately ”

“ When learning to march, he must take the greatest pains to acquire a firm step and proper balance, practicing himself at all his leisure hours. He must accustom himself to the greatest steadiness under arms, to pay attention to the commands of his officers, and exercise himself continually with his firelock, in order to acquire vivacity in his motions. ”

“ He should be intimately acquainted with the character of every soldier of the company, and should take great pains to impress upon their minds the indispensable necessity of the strictest obedience, as the foundation of order and regularity. ”

“ The commanding officer of each battalion will inspect the sick before they are sent from the battalion, in order that none may be sent but those who are really incapable of marching with their regiments. And the officers commanding the escort will be answerable that no soldiers are permitted to march with the baggage on any pretense whatever, except the quartermaster sergeant of each regiment, as before directed. ”

“ The drummer of the police must attend constantly at the adjutant’s tent, to be ready at all times to communicate the necessary signals; nor must he be absent himself on any account during the twenty four hours, without leaving another drummer to supply his place till his return, nor then, without leave from the adjutant. ”

“ Ay, your genius may be as great as he lists, and for all that stretch himself many a time morning and evening on the green grass, while the fresh breeze floats over him, and stare up into the sky, and not a whisper shall the inspired Muses breathe in his ear. ”

“ A company is to be formed in two ranks, at one pace distance, with the tallest men in the rear, and both ranks sized, with the shortest men of each in the center. A company thus drawn up is to be divided into two sections or platoons; the captain to take post on the right of the first platoon, covered by a sergeant; the lieutenant on the right of the second platoon, also covered by a sergeant; the ensign four paces behind the center of the company; the first sergeant two paces behind the centre of the first platoon, and the eldest corporal two paces behind the second platoon ”

“ The sun of a new gospel sheds its first ray upon the loftiest height in the souls of those few: but the clouds are massed there, too, thicker than ever, and not far apart are the brightest sunlight and the deepest gloom. Everything is necessity—so says the new knowledge: and this knowledge is itself necessity. All is guiltlessness, and knowledge is the way to insight into this guiltlessness. ”

“ A captain cannot be too careful of the company the state has committed to his charge. He must pay the greatest attention to the health of his men, their discipline, arms, accoutrements, ammunition, clothes and necessaries. ”

“ His first object should be, to gain the love of his men, by treating them with every possible kindness and humanity, enquiring into their complaints, and when well founded, seeing them redressed. He should know every man of his company by name and character. ”

“ THE MARCH OF AN OPEN COLUMN.
Column! March! The whole column must always begin to march, and halt, at the same time, and only by order of the commanding officer. After the first twenty paces he should command
Support- Arms!
When the men may march more at their ease, but keeping their files close. Before the column halts, he should command
Carry- Arms! Column! Halt!
Dress to the Right!
When marching in open column, the officer commanding will often form battalion, by wheeling to the right or left, in order to see if the officers have preserved the proper distances between the platoons. ”

“ The arms and accoutrements of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, should be uniform throughout. The officers who exercise their functions on horseback, are to be armed with swords, the platoon officers with swords and espontoons, the non-commissioned officers with swords, firelocks, and bayonets, and soldiers with firelocks and bayonets. ”

“ On the 6th of June, 1780, General Knyphausen, then in temporary command of the British troops in New York during the absence of Sir Henry Clinton at the south, dispatched Brigadier-general Mathews from Staten Island with about five thousand troops, who landed at Elizabethtown Point. He had been informed that the American army at Morristown was much dissatisfied, and ripe for mutiny and treason, and that the people of New Jersey were ready to join the royal standard as soon as ample protection should be guarantied them. ”

“ The average great captain of the rabble, when he is not simply a weeper over irremediable wrongs, is a hypocrite so far gone that he is unconscious of his own hypocrisy—a slimy fellow, offensive to the nose. ”