Where can a post about a block of paint lead to? Well, when you are a historian, any little piece of information can open a whole new window to the past. On Aug. 28, the Petersham Historical Society posted the following on its Facebook page. “We have a block of paint from 1783! ... Our yellow ochre paint block came from a Hessian soldier, who gave it to a town citizen, Mrs. Morse, in 1783. Maybe he was looking for some work, painting houses or barns? The barn (now gone) at the old Bosworth house on the corner of South Main Street was yellow ochre color.”

My first thought was, “Wait, there were Hessians in Petersham?” Curiosity got the better of me and I had to know more. Turns out they were in New Salem and Orange as well.

The British troops who fought during the Revolutionary War also had fighting alongside them 30,000 Germans they had hired, according to Eric H. Schnitzer, park ranger and military historian at Saratoga National Historical Park.

“Of these, over 20,000 came from the Hessen region of Germany, and were thus properly called Hessians. As for the other 10,000-plus, they came from other non-Hessian regions of Germany. That said, all of them were commonly lumped together by the Americans and called ‘Hessians.’ This is still done by Americans today,” he said.

In New Salem, across the street from the Swift River Valley Historical Society, there is a monument to 1,000 Hessian prisoners who marched through the town on Oct. 25, 1777 from Saratoga, New York, to Boston, according to Dot Frye, museum administrator of the Swift River Valley Historical Society. These prisoners were captured at the Battle of Saratoga on Oct. 17, 1777. The road the Hessian prisoners took through the North Quabbin region, according to legend, may have included the roads now known as Hessian Lane in Petersham and Orange.

Burgoyne’s surrendered army at the battle became known as the Convention Army because it surrendered under the terms of the Convention of Saratoga. The final destination for these Germans was Winter Hill, located just outside of Cambridge. They were escorted through Massachusetts by militia, under the overall command of Brig. Gen. John Glover, Schnitzer said.

Most of the men completed the march; very few deserted.

“But you need to remember the prisoners were under the full expectation of being picked up by the Royal Navy and sent home, and so the impetus to desert during the march was rather low,” Schnitzer said. “Most Germans who deserted worked on American farms or at trades and, eventually, became citizens.”

The trek was difficult. Many complained about the march, he stated.

“There are some memorable stories recorded by the Germans during the march,” Schnitzer said. “They complained a great deal about western Massachusetts (while traversing the Berkshires). One mentioned that Greenwood (today’s town of Otis) consisted of ‘seven or eight wretched dwellings’ and that ‘the roads were as bad as we had ever seen in America.’ They were not only very hilly but also stony and rocky and in many places so swampy that the men sank in up to their knees.”

Several Hessians settled in the area, including in Petersham and Orange. The Hessians in Petersham included “George Hatstat, who was born in Englesbach, serving as a Jager in Company 3 of the Hessian-Cassel-Jager Corps. Captured at sea on the transport Favourite, 22 April 1777. He was held in jail in or near Boston until a prison camp was completed at Rutland, Massachusetts in April 1778. He deserted from POW status at Rutland, which had a Revolutionary War POW camp and hired himself out to a local farmer, marrying Beulah Martin of Paxton and settling in Petersham where they had 13 children, 11 reaching maturity,” according to an article in The Hessians: Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association titled “German (so called Hessian) Soldiers Who Remained in Massachusetts and Neighboring States, Particularly After the Battles and Bennington and Saratoga,” by Robert M. Webler.

Also settling in Petersham was Peter Hart, possibly Reinhart, according to Webler’s article. It states the records at Petersham show Hart and Hatstat were both POWs hired out for farming. It continues, “It is not certain that Peter was a German soldier. No one by the name of Hart or Reinhart is listed among the Brunswick and Hesse-Hanau troops who remained in America. It is possible that Peter was a Hessian-Cassel-Jager serving with George Hatstat and captured at sea, but his military records, like most of the Jager Corp, did not survive. Federal census records show Peter living in Petersham in 1790.”

Abraham Schlot also settled in Petersham. “Local records indicate Schlot served as a servant to Capt. Fricke of the Brunswick Dragoons who was quartered in Westminster after his capture at Bennington. Schlot is said to have deserted, married a local woman and settled in Petersham to raise a family. Servants were not listed in the muster rolls,” according to Webler’s article.

“The Brunswick Dragoons were mounted infantry led by Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum. However, they didn’t have any horses, which is one of the reasons they were sent to Bennington, in the hopes of seizing adequate mounts. Baum was in command of the first part of the battle and was mortally wounded, dying two days later,” according to Mike Gabriel, chair of the Department of History at Kutztown University and a board member with the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association.

“The march route of the captured from Bennington was separate and distinct from that later route followed by the POWs taken by Gen. Gates following the battle of Saratoga. Bennington POWs went to areas around Rutland, Massachusetts, whereas the Convention Army captured by Gen. Gates marched overland to Boston and were interred initially at Winterhaven before being marched south to near Charlottesville, Virginia. Most Brunswickers stayed in Massachusetts and did not join the march to Charlottesville, Virginia,” stated Col. Mike Gadue, U.S. Army, retired.

Orange, too, had a Hessian who was living in town. “Fritz Caffiree from Voldagsen was born in 1752, according to the Webler’s article. He served as a musketeer with Capt. Plessen’s Company within the Specht Regiment of the Brunswick Army. Military records show he deserted near Worcester on Nov. 14, 1778, while on a march from Cambridge to Charlottesville, Virginia, According to local history, he was hired out to a local widow although no record has ever been found. He is buried in a cemetery in Orange,” Webler stated.

The Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, according to its website, is dedicated to researching those German auxiliary troops (generically called Hessians) who remained in America after the Revolutionary War. More information about the organization can be found at jsha.org.

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.

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