I represent Peter Kaus. I was a private in the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born in 1732 in Beckerswill, Hechingen. I was Catholic and stood 5′ 9″ tall – a veritable giant compared to the other men in my regiment. 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. I had 27 years’ previous service with the Prussian army when the Waldeckers sailed to American 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 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 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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