Heinrich von Breymann

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Friedrich Heinrich Christoph von Breymann (* 18th century ; † October 7, 1777 in Bemis Heights ) was a German officer who fought on the side of Great Britain in the American War of Independence (1775 to 1783) .

Life

Von Breymann was a son of Heinrich Julius von Breymann (born 1697 in Salder ) and Christina Marie von Hudenbergen.

He was one of the officers who took part in the Saratoga campaign . The Brunswick family was among the first German states to sign a contract with Great Britain for the delivery of troops (4,300 men in total). The Brunswick relief troops in support of the American struggle for independence embarked in Stade to cross over to Québec , where they arrived on June 1, 1776.

Von Breymann was colonel of the grenadier battalion named after him "Breymann" and commander of the advance corps, which consisted of the troops from Hessen-Hanau ( artillery ), the light battalion "Barner" and his Brunswick hunters and Breymanns grenadiers.

John Burgoyne , the commander in chief of the troops, sent von Breymann with around 650 men on the morning of August 15 to support Lieutenant Colonel Baum. They had only light luggage and two smaller field guns with them and the distance to be covered was only 24 miles. Nevertheless, von Breymann only covered half the distance in rainy weather and bad roads. They did not reach the battlefield until the next day when tree fell and his troops were already in captivity. Von Breymann therefore began to retreat after a skirmish in which he lost a third of his men. When Burgoyne found out about this, he set out to save von Breymann. The Americans, meanwhile, took around 780 prisoners, including almost 400 Germans. Breymann's corps had 231 dead, wounded and missing. He was criticized by Burgoyne for bringing his troops in too slowly and thus not saving the expedition that served to feed the troops.

Von Breymann was wounded in Bennington and finally killed at Bemis Heights in the redoubt named after him (Breymann's Redoute) by a shot by his own troops.

literature

  • James Murray Hadden, Horatio Rogers, Guy Carleton Dorchester, John Burgoyne, William Phillips: Hadden's journal and orderly books: a journal kept in Canada and upon Burgoyne's campaign in 1776 and 1777. J. Munsell's Sons, Albany 1884, p. 66f. OCLC 2130358 .
  • Edward Jackson Lowell: The Hessians and the other German auxiliary troops in the war of Great Britain against America 1776–1783. (Translated by OC Freiherr von Verschuer). R. Sattler, Braunschweig 1902, OCLC 3798228 .
  • Johann Bense: Diary of the grenadier Johann Bense from the Braunschweig Grenadier Battalion "Breymann" in North America from 1776–1783. (Translated by Claus E. Reuter). In: Publications of the German-Canadian Museum of Applied History. SR Publ., Scarborough around 1994, ISBN 0-9698169-0-1 .
  • Claus Reuter: The Brunswick Troops in North America, 1776–1783: Index of all soldiers who remained in North America. In: Publications of the German-Canadian Museum of Applied History. SR Publ., Scarborough around 1997, ISBN 0-9696169-6-1 .
  • Michael P Gabriel: The Battle of Bennington: soldiers & civilians. History Press, Charleston 2012, ISBN 978-1-609-49515-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Battle of Bennington: soldiers & civilians. on books.google.de
  2. ^ Friedrich Heinrich Christoph Breymann on wikitree.com.
  3. ^ Edward J. Lowell: The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries in the war of Great Britain against America 1776–1783. on gutenberg.org.
  4. ^ Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann on gilesallison.blogspot.de.
personal data
SURNAME Breymann, Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breymann, Friedrich Heinrich Christoph von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Braunschweig officer
DATE OF BIRTH 18th century
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1777
Place of death Bemis Heights