1. According to his court-martial defense, Herman Zedwitz was a former Prussian cavalry captain who was hired to recruit German riflemen for the British service during the Falkland Crisis of 1770–71. He was not paid, and, after returning to Germany, he made his way to New York about 1773. In July 1775 he was appointed a major of the 1st New York Regiment. Injured in the attack on Quebec, he was promoted, but in August 1776 he was tried by a court-martial on charges of conducting a treasonous correspondence with Gov. William Tryon. Zedwitz claimed his correspondence had been a ruse to obtain the money he was owed from the British, but he was found guilty and cashiered. He was imprisoned until July 1779, when Congress allowed him to leave the country (Force, American Archives, description begins Peter Force, ed. American Archives. 9 vols. Washington, D.C., 1837–53. description ends 5th ser., 1:1159–62; JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 14:826). After hearing of Zedwitz’s court-martial, Hartmann wrote to GW in 1778 and to Benjamin Franklin in 1778 and 1779, asking for assistance in recovering the losses incurred when Zedwitz had disappeared with some diamonds that Hartmann had given him in London to sell (see Hartmann to Franklin, 15 June 1778, Franklin Papers, description begins William B. Willcox et al., eds. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. 42 vols. to date. New Haven, 1959–. description ends 26:624). Whether Hartmann’s earlier letter reached GW is unknown, and neither it nor any reply has been found.