I represent Franz Mueller. I was a private in the 5th Company, 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in 1761 in Reitzenhagen, Waldeck Province. I was Evangelical (which, in this context, means “Protestant”). 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. 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. Along with most of the 5th Company, I was taken prisoner by the Spanish at Baton Rouge on September 21, 1779. I deserted from prisoner status in New Orleans on July 11, 1780 and joined the Spanish army. I then deserted back to the 3rd Waldeck on April 10, 1781, when the Spanish siege of Pensacola were well under way. 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. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July of 1782, at which time I was transferred to the 3rd company. 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.
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