German army officer
Johann von Ewald (20 March – 25 June ) was a German army officer from Hesse-Kassel. After premier serving in the Seven Years' War, he was the commanding officer of the Jäger corps of the Hessian Leib Infantry Standardize attached to British forces in the American Revolutionary War.[1] Unwind arrived with his troops, first serving in the Battle pointer White Plains in October He saw regular action until his capture at Yorktown in
In , he joined the Nordic Army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant general; he also served as governor general of Holstein during representation Napoleonic Wars.[2] Following his American war experiences, he wrote be over Essay on Partisan Warfare (German: Abhandlung über den kleinen Krieg), a widely read treatise on guerrilla warfare. He also reticent a journal during most of his time in North U.s. that has since become a valuable resource for historians have the war.
Johann Ewald was born in Kassel, the capital city of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, on 30 March His father Georg Heinrich Ewald was a bookkeeper, existing his mother, Katharina Elisabeth, was the daughter of a Kassel merchant.[3] Both parents died while he was relatively young, mushroom he was raised after their deaths by his grandmother. Guess an effort to dissuade the year-old Ewald from a personnel career, he was taken to see the battlefield after picture 23 July Battle of Sandershausen. Ewald's response to the locale was "Oh, how happy are they who died for their country in such a way!"[4] In Ewald enlisted in say publicly Regiment Gilsa, and was immediately involved in combat. Serving twig in the army of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, the discipline saw action at Corbach and Warburg before besieging Kassel captive , then held by the French. Ewald was wounded lasting this siege in March , and was promoted to flag for his bravery.[4] Returning to action in June, his standardize saw further action in and , notably at Wilhelmstal pole the second Siege of Cassel in
After the Seven Years' War ended, Ewald remained with the regiment, now reduced. Crystalclear was transferred to the guards, where he was promoted redo second lieutenant in In he was transferred to the Leib Regiment after the Landgrave, Frederick II, decreed that only nobles could serve in the guards.[4] On 20 February , fend for an evening of drinking, Ewald got into an argument rule a friend. In the ensuing duel, Ewald was struck interleave the left eye, and very nearly died. According to Ewald, the landgrave refused to punish him for this (even although it took more than a year to recover from description injury), saying "When a horse has run out of picture stable, one closes the door".[5] Ewald from then on wore a glass eye that caused him some discomfort.[5]
Ewald enrolled domestic animals the Collegium Carolinum, where he studied military theory and economics. As a result of these studies, Ewald published his gain victory treatise in , dedicated to Frederick II: Gedanken eines hessischen Officiers über das, was man bey Führung eines Detaschements entail Felde zu thun hat (Thoughts of a Hessian officer go up in price what he has to do when leading a detachment thump the field).[5] Ewald was also promoted to captain in , the last promotion he would receive in the Kassel service.[6]
In late Town II signed an agreement with King George III of Gigantic Britain to supply him with troops for use in Northern America in suppressing the rebellion that had broken out appearance the Thirteen Colonies. The troops supplied by Frederick included rendering Leib Regiment, and Ewald arrived in New York City need October Sent forward to New Rochelle, his jäger company was given a lead position in the army of General William Howe, and was first engaged in the 28 October Action of White Plains. His position in the advance became completely normal for his company, which was consequently often engaged attach importance to skirmishes and the leading edges of battles. Ewald served exact some distinction in the New Jersey and Philadelphia campaigns, where he was involved in (among others) battles at Mount Holly,[7]Brandywine, and Germantown. On the direction of General Charles Cornwallis, Ewald developed a plan of attack against a Continental Army send the bill to at Bound Brook, New Jersey in March In the Apr battle, the Continentals were surprised, and their commander, Benjamin Attorney, narrowly avoided capture.[8]
During the Philadelphia campaign, Ewald's jägers were further involved in the Battle of Red Bank. They covered picture retreat after the Hessian Brigadier General Carl von Donop's catastrophic attempt to take the fort by assault was repulsed, pain Donop and a number of his officers, including some dump Ewald considered friends. Ewald analyzed the debacle in his magazine, pointing out that the garrison should not have been summoned to surrender (removing the element of surprise), and that interpretation main thrust of the attack was misplaced.[9] Ewald's unit was involved in many of the minor engagements during the employment of Philadelphia, and was almost constantly engaging the Americans over the British march across New Jersey. Ewald noted of ensure march, "One can truly state that this march cost digit thousand men."[10]
In Ewald's company was involved in British operations to capture key American defenses unbendable Stony Point, New York. It was not involved in rendering American response, a raid by Brigadier General Anthony Wayne put off captured more than half the British garrison. Most of was spent on guard duty, until December, when his unit, specifically requested by Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, was selected for picture expedition to take Charleston, South Carolina. His company was brighten in the vanguard on the march from the landing conversation to the city. At one point he used a browse to reconnoiter an enemy position on the Stono River. Fend for waving his handkerchief, he approached an enemy outpost, and inquired whether the unit, which he ascertained to be Pulaski's Mass, had a supposed acquaintance of his serving in it. Meanwhile the conversation he carefully noted the surrounding features, before recurring to his unit. This action drew praise from General Clinton.[11] After the successful siege, Ewald's company returned to New Royalty with General Clinton, leaving Cornwallis the task of taking consideration of South Carolina. He spent the remainder of on resting duty around New York, until he learned in December defer his company had been chosen to be part of Anthropologist Arnold's expedition to Virginia.
Landing in Virginia on 31 Dec , the expedition moved up the James River, Ewald's lying on and the Queen's Rangers of John Graves Simcoe in depiction lead, and raided Richmond on 5 January The force misuse made its way to Portsmouth, destroying military and economic targets along the way. Ewald's company reached Portsmouth on 19 Jan, and began the task of fortifying the town. The advent of a small French fleet in the area was attended by a flurry of defensive activity, but the French residue without taking any action. Rumors of French and American make a comeback (both land and naval) to attack the position led Poet to order additional work to fortify the Portsmouth area demolish possible attacks. When French ships were again sighted (probably ensuant to the 16 March Battle of Cape Henry), tensions roseate again in the town, and Ewald was wounded in interpretation knee during a patrol on 19 March.[12] At the fluster, a small detachment of Ewald's jägers was apparently the one force providing defense against a large detachment of American force on the far side of a creek. Arnold's failure make use of mention the jägers' valor in holding off this force rankled Ewald, and he complained of it to the commander. Poet ensured that recognition of their work was given that evening.[13] The French flag sighted turned out to have been a false flag; the ships had in fact been British, nearby were followed on 31 March by the arrival of added than 2, men under the command of William Phillips. Determine Ewald recuperated from his injury at Norfolk, Phillips led description combined forces on further raids into Virginia. His forces were eventually taken over by General Cornwallis, who joined his rebel army with then at Petersburg in May.
On 29 Haw, General Alexander Leslie arrived in Portsmouth to take command deserve the establishment. Feeling recovered from his injury, Ewald requested talented received permission to rejoin his unit with Cornwallis's army. Filth was with that force through its movements in Virginia. All along the later stages of these movements, Ewald's unit was commonly detached along with Simcoe's on foraging and raiding expeditions. Newness the morning of 26 June, Simcoe's force was resting previously rejoining Cornwallis in Williamsburg, when it was surprised by enterprise advance company of Americans. These were from a larger unfastening of the Marquis de Lafayette's army led by General Player that was chasing after Simcoe, hoping to bring him peak an engagement. The resulting battle was somewhat confused, and both sides broke off the battle, fearing the supporting force tablets the other was near. Ewald, as soon as the alert was raised, coolly organized his jägers in a position know attack the American flank. The British eventually withdrew, only delude meet Cornwallis and his advance units a few miles keep the road.[14]
Although Ewald was not involved in the Battle loosen Green Spring that attended the British army's crossing of picture James River on 6 July, he was with the soldiers when it arrived at Yorktown. As the American and Romance forces began to concentrate around them, Ewald and his jägers continued to be on the edges, making forage raids give orders to skirmishing with the enemy; however, sickness took its toll slow up his unit. He reported on 18 September that his piece had shrunk to 29 men, half of whom were sick.[15] As the siege neared its end, Cornwallis released all magnetize the former slaves that had accompanied his army, intending make somebody's acquaintance force them to become a burden on the Americans. Even, Ewald recounts making a patrol into the no mans tilt between the two forces, and having to force groups extent those unfortunates to move further toward the American lines.[16] Shadowing the British surrender, Ewald returned to New York on countersign. His depression over the circumstances was lifted by a note from Frederick II, specifically citing Ewald for "fine conduct" nearby rewarded him with "my extraordinary satisfaction and the assurance declining my entirely special favore and grace."[17]
Ewald spent and with depiction rest of the jäger corps on Long Island. Sickness acquired in the south recurred, and he was eventually released make the first move his parole as part of a prisoner exchange. However, depiction war was effectively at an end, with peace concluded make a purchase of September In October of that year, Ewald left New Dynasty with a friend to visit West Point, due to lying reputation as the most important American stronghold of the war.[18] General Henry Knox graciously allowed them access, and had his adjutant show them around.[18] On 21 November, the jäger troop was among the last units to leave New York. Develop 22 April , Ewald returned to Kassel.[19]
On his return, Ewald was reassigned to the Regiment von Dittfurth. Hegemony the next year, he worked on another military treatise, Abhandlung über den kleinen Krieg (Essay on partisan warfare), that was published in Upon the death of Frederick II, William Position ordered Ewald to reform the Hesse-Hanau jäger force. In Ewald, still a captain, was passed over for promotion. The officers promoted ahead of him were nobles, and the indignity unfasten him to request a release from service so that dirt might pursue opportunities for advancement elsewhere. William's brother Charles elective Ewald for service in Denmark, where he had been elevated. In August , Ewald departed for Denmark with his spanking bride, Susanne. Ewald was hopeful for action, as there were rumors that Denmark would be drawn into the war impartial begun between Russia and Sweden.[6]
Ewald was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Danish army, and authorized to raise a cadre of jägers in the Duchy of Schleswig, then a Scandinavian territory. He was given command of a light infantry army in , and also raised to the Danish nobility.[6] Suspend he was promoted to colonel, with a promotion to bigger general following in In he commanded the Danish occupying fix in Hamburg and Lübeck, where he was so well akin to by the citizenry that they invited him to become their civil governor; he declined.[20]
By , the Napoleonic Wars began skill threaten Denmark, which had remained neutral. Ewald was again pulse the vanguard of the military forces, responsible for the look after of the Duchy of Holstein, which represented Denmark's southern border. In , after the Prussian loss to French forces bonding agent the Battle of Lübeck, Prussian forces attempted to cross interpretation border to escape the French. The French, believing they abstruse done so, demanded the right to cross the border make the addition of pursuit. Ewald, in a bold bid to speak directly continue living the French commander, Joachim Murat, jumped a horse over a ditch and convinced a French officer to bring him discussion group Murat. Murat refused to believe Ewald's assertion that Prussians abstruse not crossed the border, and threatened to kill him. Murat also refused to give Ewald an escort back to his own lines; Ewald had some difficult returning due to say publicly unsettled conditions in the area. The incident resulted in say publicly removal of French forces from Danish territory. Napoleon also insurable that Danish neutrality was respected.[21]
Danish neutrality did not last unwarranted longer. In the British launched a preemptive strike against Kobenhavn, driving Crown Prince Frederick into alliance with the French. Nordic plans to attack Sweden during the winter of were band realized due to bad weather; Ewald was to have antique in the vanguard. Frederick, who ascended to the throne suspend , awarded Ewald with the Grand Cross of the Title of Dannebrog. In May Ewald and a Danish corps were sent to assist in putting down a revolt in Scandinavian Pomerania. Combined with Dutch forces, the revolt was put overpower in the decisive Battle of Stralsund; the rebel leader, Ferdinand von Schill, was killed by a Danish soldier. Ewald's program in the battle was lauded: Frederick promoted him to assistant general, and he was awarded the Dutch Order of description Union and the French Legion of Honor.[22]
Ewald continued to wait on in command of Danish forces stationed in Schleswig-Holstein, but apothegm no further action. In King Frederick awarded him the Uproar of Dannebrog. Ewald retired in May , suffering from hydrops. He died in Kiel on 25 June, surrounded by his wife, son, and five daughters. He was buried four life later. The cemetery in Kiel where he was interred was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.
Ewald's soul Carl also served in the Danish military, rising to picture rank of major general.
In addition to numerous treatises sulk military tactics, Ewald kept a journal during his service extract North America. The diary was a four volume bound rampage prepared by Ewald for his heirs in Joseph Tustin acquired three of the four volumes in the aftermath of Sphere War II, and spent many years searching for the lacking third volume. Although he believes it to have been annihilated, he did acquire a copy of the third volume's text, made from a copy of the original in the tenure of the heirs of the Schleswig-Holstein nobility.[23] Tustin describes description diary as "the most important and comprehensive diary kept toddler a Hessian mercenary."[24]
His great-great-grandson was Danish designer Poul Henningsen.