American Prisoners of the Revolution

ame was Magdalene von Schlegel. These Germans, whom we have already mentioned, moved, in 1762, to the neighborhood of the little hamlet, then called M

of riflemen was raised at Shepherdstown by the gal

rt of Denmark in 1853, left a short account of his father's early history, which we will quote in this place. He says: "When the war of the Revolution commenced my father's eldest brother Henry was about twenty-two years of age. His next brother,

e was thus very reluctantly compelled to remain at home. At the expiration of about twelve months his brothers returned home, and when the time for their second departure had arrived, the wonderful tales they had narrated of their life in camp had w

y on foot, and now appeared before them, haggard and weary and half starved by the lengths of his march. * * * My father was taken prisoner at the battle of Fort Washington, and the privations and

or G. M. Bedinger was not in service at that time, but must have received the account from one or both of his brothers. Dr. Draper says: "In the action of Fort Washington Henry Bedinger heard a Hessian captain, having been repulsed, speak to his riflemen in his own language, telling them to follow his example and reserve their fire until they were close. Bedinger, recognizing his mother tongue, watched the approach of th

the officers, that, though taken prisoner, he was promoted to an ensigncy, his commission

ison ships, with the most cruel treatment, in filthy holds, impure atmosphere, and stinted allowance of food. With

as released from the filthy prison ship, limited on his parole of honor to certain limits at Flatbush, and decently provisioned and better treated, and it is pleasant to add that the British officers having charge of these matters were faithful in the proper applic

dinger in his extreme old age. We have already given Henry Bedinger's own acount of his

d to New York, and Daniel was lodged with many others, perhaps with the whole company, in the Old Sugar House on Liberty Street. Here he very nearly died of exp

A gentleman, confined with him in the Old Sugar House, used to tell his descendants that the most ter

ns of communicating with his young brother, and even of supplying him, sometimes, with food.

o die. How bitterly he must have regretted the home he had been so ready to leave a few months before! And now the

anged, they twice passed the poor boy as too far gone to be moved. But he, with a sudden revival of hope and the desire to live, begged and entreated the Hessian so pitifully not to leave him behind, that that young man, who is said to have been an officer, declared that he would be responsible for him, had him lifted and laid down in the bottom o

m. Major Bedinger's son, Dr. B. F. Bedinger, wrote an account of the meeting of these two brot

. On inquiry if there were any (that had been) prisoners there a feeble voice respo

im in his arms. He then bore him to a house where he could procure some comforts in the way

k, and carried him some miles into the country, where he found a friendly asylum for him in the house of some good Quakers. There

hile my father walked by his side, with his arm around him to support him. Thus they travelled from the neighborhood of Phi

the spring of 1817, not more than one year before his death. Our uncle, Henry Bedinger, was also a prison

he war. He was made Lieutenant, and I have heard my father speak of many battles he was in, but I have f

guards over the prisoners near Winchester. He afterwards fought with Morgan in the southern campaigns, was in the battle of the Cowpens, and several other engagements, serving until the army was disbanded. He was a Knigh

Hon. Robert Rutherford, of Flowing Springs, in what is now Jefferson

oubled him ever after his confinement as a prisoner in New York. He hated the British with a bitter hatred, which is not to be wondered at. He was an ardent supporter of Thomas Jefferson, and wrote much for the periodicals of the time. Withal he was