To George Washington from Colonel Johann Christoph Koehler, 21 March 1780
From Colonel Johann Christoph Koehler
Rutland [Mass.] 21st March 1780
Sir
My bad State of health, which Since I came to this place has been daily improving puts me under the necessity of troubling Your Excellency wt. my present address.
Sometime before I had the misfortune of becoming a prisoner of war, I made application to the Prince of Hesse for leave to return to Germany:1 His Royal Highness (in consideration of my long service for forty two years, & the want of health, which renders me incapable of active Service) will I have no doubt grant my request, & orders for that purpose, I am convinced have long or now been sent to New york.
From the above motives, I presume to Solicit Your Excellency for leave to go to New york on parole, and remain there, till such time as an Exchange for me takes place, or a Genl one is Settled.
Lt Studenroth and Ensn Pa[u]li both officers belonging to the Same Regt wt. me, were taken prisoners wt. me last april,2 the former is my nephew, a young man, who has been always under my protection, & I wish if possible to bring along wt. me to Germany; Should Your Excellency think proper to attend to my requisition, including these two Gentlemen in the parole, will add greatly to the obligation.
I take the liberty of inclosing a letter for Genl Knyphausen, which I request Your Excellency will order to be forwarded3—I hope Your Excellency, will pardon me for the trouble I give, & impute it to my situation.4 I have the Honor to be Sir Your very obedt humble Servant
J. C. Koehler Colonel of the Hessian Troops
LS, PHi: Gratz Collection.
Johann Christoph Koehler (Köhler; born c.1719) began his service in the American Revolution as lieutenant colonel in a Hessian grenadier battalion that served primarily around New York City. He was promoted to colonel in late 1777.
1. Koehler’s letter to Prince Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel has not been identified.
Frederick II (1720–1785) married a daughter of King George II of Great Britain, commanded Hessian troops in Scotland, and converted to Catholicism before 1750. Upon formal separation from his wife in 1755, Frederick joined the Prussian army. He became prince of Hesse-Cassel in 1760 and ruled until his death. Frederick gained notoriety for the number of troops from his landgrave that he hired out to Great Britain for service in the American Revolution.
2. Koehler, Lt. Wilhelm Studenroth, and Ensign Philip Reinhold Pauli arrived at Rutland on 29 April 1779 after having been captured at sea while en route to Savannah (see , 131–32; The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser [Philadelphia], 27 April 1779; and , 267–72, especially 272).
Philip Reinhold Pauli (1742–1815) remained in the United States after his Hessian military service and worked as a tutor in Philadelphia. He subsequently became a Reformed minister and spent most of his career at a church in Reading, Pennsylvania.
3. Koehler’s letter to Lt. Gen. Wilhelm von Knyphausen has not been identified, but see , 287–91, especially 289.
4. Koehler again wrote GW from Rutland on 28 Oct. 1780: “I did myself the Honour to write to your Excellency a Letter in March Last wherin I took the Liberty to Inform you that I had the Misfortune to be taken on my Passage to Georgia on the 7th of April 1779 and Brought up to this Place, where I Have remain’d ever Since.
“A Little Before my Departure from New York I sent a Petition to the Prince of Hesse Cassel requesting the favour of Him to Permit me to Quit the Service & return Home being now an Old Man of Sixty One years of age, & above Forty Two years in the Service.
“The Cause of my Troubling your Excellency with this Letter ⟨a⟩t Present, is to Implore your Goodness in Granting me Permission ⟨to⟩ Go into New York on Parole along with Lieut. Studenroth who is my Nephew and Taken with me at the Same time, As I am much ⟨a⟩fraid of the Winter, having Suffer’d so much by the Severity of ⟨the⟩ Last Years.
“Your Excellencys kind Complyance to the Above ⟨r⟩equest will alwise be faithfully Acknowledg’d” (LS, PHi: Gratz Collection; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW; letters lost along the left margin on the LS have been supplied in angle brackets from the Sprague transcript, with the exception of the final paragraph, which does not appear on the Sprague transcript).
Hessian major Carl Leopold Baurmeister reported the exchange of these three officers in his dispatch written at New York on 28 March 1781: “Ensign Pauli of d’Angelelli’s Regiment has not arrived yet from his imprisonment in Rutland, where, on the 26th of October last year, he was exchanged along with Colonel Köhler and Lieutenant Studenroth. A memorandum on this matter has been sent to the commissioners of prisoners. Colonel Köhler has become quite weak and feeble during his imprisonment” (, 417–21, quote on 420–21).