I represent Christian Knoechel. I was a private in the 3rd Company of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in 1757 in Albertshausen, Waldeck Province. I was Evangelical (which means “Protestant” in this context), and I stood 5′ 7″ tall – which was above average for the men in my regiment. We were hired by the British from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. We sailed to American and arrived in 1776. I was taken prisoner at Springfield, New Jersey on January 5, 1777, and was exchanged at Philadelphia in June 1778. After two years of heavy action we were sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. I died in combat at Ft. George during the siege of Pensacola on April 12, 1781. Given the date of my death, it is likely that the entry for April 12, 1781 in Robert Farmar’s journal of the siege of Pensacola describes me: “[The British] fired several shot at the enemy from the fort and advanced redoubt. A grape shot from the fort killed one of the Waldeck sentries and wounded a sergeant.” I probably still lie in an unmarked grave in Pensacola.
Sources: 54, 28