RC (DLC); at head of text: “To Thomas Jefferson Esqr. President of the United States of America”; endorsed by TJ as received 21 Apr. and so recorded in SJL.

A former Prussian officer, Bartholomew von Heer offered his services to the United States in 1776. From 1778 until the end of the war, he commanded the Maréchaussée Corps, a troop of light dragoons that served as part of George Washington’s personal guard. Heer remained in America after the war, settling in Pennsylvania, and spent much of his time seeking compensation from Congress for his wartime services. On 22 Apr. 1802, the House of Representatives received Heer’s most recent petition, praying that he be placed on the list of pensioners in consideration of the wounds he received during the war, which rendered him “incapable of obtaining his livelihood by labor.” The House tabled the petition. The Committee of Claims rejected a nearly identical petition from Heer in January 1800 (Washington, Papers description begins W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Philander D. Chase, Theodore J. Crackel, and others, eds., The Papers of George Washington, Charlottesville, 1983–, 53 vols. description ends , Pres. Ser., 3:328–9; Heitman, Register description begins Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1793, new ed., Washington, D.C., 1914 description ends , 561; Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 34 vols. [Washington, D.C., 1904–37], 28:64–5; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 3:535, 561; 4:213).