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Author: SETilleman
Surnames: GERLACH
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carlock/39.70.73.2/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Gainor [mailto:jmgainor@ec.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 4:48 PM
To: Susan Tilleman; Mike Gainor
Subject: Re: Exchange of letters between Capt. H. Gerlach and George Washington
Regarding the previously mentioned correspondence between Captain H. Gerlach and George
Washington, I believe that it is certain that it is Captain Heinrich Daniel Gerlach, as
mentioned in the previous email.
If you go to the Thomas Jefferson papers at the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/ (I'm not sure what this link
will do, seeing it has memory in it). At any rate, if you go to the Thomas Jefferson
papers at the Library of Congress, and search for 'Gerlach', you get two
responses: 1. Thomas Jefferson to Heinrich Gerlach, May 3, 1781 2. Heinrich Gerlach and
Friedrich Adolph, Baron von Riedesel to Thomas Jefferson, March 27, 1781, Extracts
The question then becomes, who is this Captain Heinrich Daniel Gerlach? And is he a
descendent of Hans? It's possible that he isn't.
There is a Johann Heinrich Gerlach who arrived in Philadelphia on the Palatine ship Fane
from Rotterdam in 1749.
1749 Fane
[List 144 C] Fane
Captain: Wm Hyndman
From: Rotterdam
By Way of: Cowes
Arrival: Philadelphia, 17 Oct 1749
Palatine, W?rtemberg, Rottenstein. Whole freights: 178.6.
Johann Heinrich Gerlach
There are a few mentions of Captain Heinrich Daniel Gerlach to be found online, but I
haven't found any that provide any information by which his ancestrycan be traced.
----------------------------------------------
From: Mike Gainor
To: Susan Tilleman
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 12:48 PM
Subject: Exchange of letters between Capt. H. Gerlach and George Washington
Re this post from the archives:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GERLACH/2007-04/1176216084
It seems extremely unlikely to have been Hanchrist.
Amrev.org lists Hanchrist as a private
http://www.amrev.org/htdocs/html/fm/Centennialreg/ANCCPage4.shtml
DAR also lists him as a private
http://coloradodar.org/chapters/mountrosa/Patriots.htm
If he was a private in 1776 at age 60 or so, it's not likely that he was a Captain in
1780 at the time of the exchange of letters with George Washington. If he had risen to the
rank of Captain, surely the above two organizations would have made note of it. I can find
nothing online of him with a rank of Captain.
From the context of the letters, it seems more likely that the Capt.
H. Gerlach was Capt. Heinrich Daniel Gerlach.
I find these portions of works via a Google search:
Thomas M. Barker - Hanauer Journale und Briefe aus dem ...
... was von Riedesel's quartermaster-general, Captain Heinrich Daniel Gerlach. ...
George Washington had offered much earlier to exchange Wilhelm Rudolph
-----------
Hessen-Hanau cannoneers including Paeusch, was a consummate cartographer as was von
Riedesel's quartermaster-general, Captain Heinrich Daniel Gerlach
---------------
It requires a subscription to access the complete articles.
And these notes from Questia:
NOTES
1.
Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel, Freiherr von Eisenbach ( 1738-1800) had served
under Ferdinand of Braunschweig in the Seven Years' War. At the outbreak of the
American Revolution, he was a colonel in the Braunschweig army, chief of his own
regiment, and was appointed major general and made commander of the Braunschweig
contingent in America. His wife followed him to America in 1777 and shared his captivity
in Massachusetts and Virginia, along with their young daughters. Riedesel returned to
Germany in 1783 and retired from the military in 1793, returning to his country's
service
during the war with France, when he served as commander of the city of Braunschweig
from 1794 to 1799.
2.
Heinrich Daniel Gerlach, Quartermaster General of the Braunschweig contingent,
served in that post until the surrender at Saratoga; he was reassigned to the Artillery
Battalion in 1783, and was a lt. col. at his death in 1798. ( Elster, p. 457; von
Riedesel,
Memoirs, vol. II, p. 265.)
I wonder if this might be Heinrich, son of Juriaen/George Gerlach, son of Conrad, son of
Hans? He would have been approximately 48-49 years old at the time of the letters. I
wonder if he is the correct Heinrich?
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