I represent Johann Philipp Gossman. I was a private in the 4th Company, 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born about 1752 in Wetterberg, Waldeck Province, I was Evangelical (which in this context means “Protestant”), and I stood 5′ 4″ tall, which was about average for the men in my regiment. The British hired our regiment from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. We reached North America in 1776. After two years of heavy action we were sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. On April 22, 1781, during the siege, I and another member of my regiment were out in woods near Pensacola cutting branches for abattis. (Abattis are large branches or small trees stuck into the ground at an angle to make a spiky fortification for your position.) Both of us were shot and killed by hostile indigenous warriors. We both lie in unmarked graves in Pensacola.
Sources: 28, 54