I represent Christian Bergmann. I was a private in the 3rd Company of the Waldeck Regiment after having originally enlisted as a drummer. I was born in 1760 in Furstenberg, Waldeck Province. I was Evangelical (which means “Protestant” in this context) and stood 4’8″ tall – which sounds very short, but most of the men in my regiment were only a few inches over 5 feet. 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 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. After the surrender, 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. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July of 1782, and a year later, in July of 1783, I and the Waldeck Regiment, 418 men and women and 13 children, left New York to return to Europe.
Sources: 54