I represent Johann Friedrich Otto. I was a private in the 3rd Company, 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born on June 27, 1744 in Oesdorf, Pyrmont Province, and I underwent a name change: I was baptized as Johann Friedrich Otten on on July 2 1744 but confirmed in 1760 as Friedrich Otto. I gave my father’s name as Conrad Otten. I was married and my religion 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. I had eleven years’ previous service in the 2nd Waldeck Regiment when we sailed to North America in 1776. On August 16, 1777, Chaplain Waldeck baptized the twins my wife had delivered. After two years of heavy action we were sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. 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. 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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