I represent Ludwig Schmidt. I was a private in the 4th company of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in Erfurt. We were hired by the British from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. The rest of the Regiment reached North America in 1776. After two years of heavy action they were sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. I came to America with the 1778 recruit shipment, and we had a pretty miserable time, arriving already sick from our journey. Many of us died of illness within weeks of arrival. After the surrender of Pensacola, we were sent by the Spanish to New York, on our honor not to fight against the Spanish again until we were exchanged. My wife and I boarded the Santa Rosalia on May 29, 1781 to make that voyage. We lived in encampments at New Town on Long Island. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July of 1782, and a year later, in July of 1783, I and the Waldeck Regiment, 418 men and women and 13 children, left New York to return to Europe. I was released at Bremen on September 19, 1783.
Sources: 26, 54