Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 5

From Caleb Davis

From James Warren
The Board of War to the Officer in Charge of Hessian Prisoners, 16 September 1777 JA Continental Congress, Board of War Officer in Charge of Hessian Prisoners

1777-09-16

 The Board of War to the Officer in Charge of Hessian Prisoners, 16 September 1777 Adams, John Continental Congress, Board of War Officer in Charge of Hessian Prisoners
The Board of War to the Officer in Charge of Hessian Prisoners
sir Philadelphia Septr. 16. 1777

I am directed by the Board of War to desire you, to deliver to Coll. Bird1 forty of the Hessian Prisoners2 in your Custody, to work with him as Artifficers and Labourers, if they consent. I am your humble sevt.,

John Adams Chairman 287

RC in JA's hand (DLC); docketed: “Order from Warr Office 16th Septr. 1777 to deliver 40 Hessians to Col. Bird.”

1.

Col. Mark Bird, who ran a cannon foundry in Berks co. ( JCC , 8:495–496; Morton L. Montgomery, “Early Furnaces and Forges of Berks County, Pennsylvania,” PMHB , 8:60 [March 1884]).

 2.

Hundreds of German mercenaries had been captured at the Battle of Trenton and had been sent to Lancaster, Penna., where they were guarded by militia but permitted to be hired out to work on the farms for pay. Late in August, because of the approach of the British, the prisoners were scattered about in such towns as Reading, Carlisle, and Lebanon (Lucy Leigh Bowie, “German Prisoners in the American Revolution,” Md. Hist. Mag. , 40:187–188 [Sept. 1945]).