I represent Kaspar Effe. I was born in Schmalkalden. 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. 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. It’s uncertain whether I came to America with the regiment in 1776 or whether I was a member of a later recruiting class, but by April 1779, I was a cannoneer with the artillery section. After the surrender on May 10, 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. Since we had lost our guns in Pensacola, there was no need for an artillery regiment. I was transferred to the 3rd company in June 1781. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July of 1782, and in December of 1782, I was transferred to the 5th Company. 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 from the regiment, though, in Flatbush, on July 15, 1783.
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