The Hessian Soldiers Buried at St. Paul's Church

Soldiers from Hesse-Cassel, a principality in central Germany, died of illness inside St. Paul's Church in 1776 and were buried together in one grave at the back of the churchyard.

The stone at the back of St. Paul's churchyard marking the grave of soldiers of the Hessian (German) army that served with the British in the Revolutionary War. National Park Service.

Soldiers for hire

They were young privates, fighting against the American Revolution through the European soldier trade of the 18th century: small states with good armies, such as Hesse, hired out their forces to larger powers such as Great Britain.

They had landed on Staten Island in the summer and early autumn of 1776, part of a large British and Hessian force sent to crush the rebellion. In August and September Hessian troops took part in the campaign that overran the young American army in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

A church as a hospital

In October a large British force, Hessians among it, invaded Westchester County and fought the Battle of Pell's Point, about a mile from St. Paul's in what is now Pelham Bay Park. Wounded and sick Hessians were moved into St. Paul's, a stone and brick church begun in 1763 and then only half built, which became a field hospital. An account written at the time found:

"no floor, the sleepers are not even down, but along the sides of the building are seen large pieces of timber upon which the sick are sitting or reclining."

An open sand pit at the back of the yard, dug to make mortar, soon became the grave of the men who died in the church.

Five names

Hessian records point to the likely identities of five of the dead. All were privates of the Regiment von Knyphausen, aged 21 to 28:

• Heinrich Euler
• Conrad Roth
• Johann Heinrich Grein
• Daniel Schaef
• Ludwig Juppert

None of them could have been a student, a landowner or a skilled craftsman: Hesse barred all three from its expeditionary force, to keep the most productive part of its society out of harm's way. In 1776 it usually barred a family's only son as well. The five were most likely second or third sons of rural farming families of modest means.

Their world, built on strict loyalty to the ruler and on hierarchy, honour and service, was far from the ideals of the American Revolution. Yet their grave at St. Paul's remains one of the area's most resonant links to the war that founded the United States.

Sources

• National Park Service, Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site, "The Hessians." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-hessians.htm