I represent Martin Heidorn. I was a bombardier in the artillery section of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in 1737 in Pyrmont Province I was Evangelical (which, in this context, means “Protestant”), and I stood 5’2″ tall – just below average among the men in my regiment. I was married and had two children, and I was a locksmith by trade. The 3rd Waldeck was hired by the British from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. I had three years’ previous service in the Wuerttemberg army when I sailed with the 3rd to 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. After the surrender in May 1781, we were sent by the Spanish to New York, on our honor not to fight against the Spanish again until we were exchanged. We lived in encampments at New Town on Long Island. After the regiment surrendered its guns in Pensacola, there was no need for an artillery section, so I was transferred to the 3rd company. In December 1782 I was transferred to the 5th Company. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July 1782. A year later, in July of 1783, the Waldeck Regiment, 418 men and women and 13 children, left New York to return to Europe. I was released at Korbach, Waldeck on October 16, 1783.
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