I represent Johann Ludwig Wilhelm von Hanxleden. I was a Colonel, commissioned in 1776, and the commander of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in Gershausen, Waldeck Province and my religion was Evangelical (which, in this case, means “Protestant”). My parents were Johann Wilhelm and Charlotte Wilhelmine von Hanxleden. The 3rd Waldeck Regiment was hired by the British from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. I sailed for North America with the regiment in 1776, along with my son, Wilhelm. After two years of heavy action we were sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. In early January 1781, a few months after the Spanish had captured Mobile, General Campbell sent a group of Waldeckers, Maryland and Pennsylvania Loyalists, and indigenous warriors to The Village (on the eastern shore near the head of Mobile Bay) in an attempted counterattack against the Spanish. The attack ended in defeat and we retreated back to Pensacola. The attempt was not without loss of life, including my own. I was buried under a large tree, but quickly, given the unfavorable circumstances. The Spanish later put up a fence and honored me as a brave man.
Sources: 7, 11, 13, 26, 54