EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MARYLAND THROUGH THE
EYES OF GERMAN TRAVELERS
By PAUL G. GLEIS
If as Americans we knew almost
nothing about Old Maryland's exter-
nal appearance, culture, industry and
history, we could still easily satisfy
our curiosity by merely reading books
by European travelers who visited
America. We could often gather val-
uable information from their descrip-
tions, journals and accounts. Some,
for instance, are by prominent and
competent German scholars who vis-
ited Baltimore and the surrounding
country during the last 200 years and
returned to their home country, Ger-
many, Switzerland, Austria, as the
case might be, in order to set down
their reminiscences, impressions and
experiences. Some German authors
would sometimes only hear or read
about the new world and then indulge
in novelistic and historical efforts re-
garding it.¹
ZSCHOKKE
To the latter group belonged the
German-Swiss novelist, historian and
statesman, Heinrich Zschokke (1771-
1848). He knew America only from
hearsay and from reports of returning
adventurers or a few history books.
No wonder that in his pleasant story
about Maryland, "The Founding of
Maryland" (1820) he confused the
establishment of the port of Balti-
more, by the Maryland assembly, on
the Patapsco River, in 1729, with the
founding of the Maryland colony, by
Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore,
whose younger brother Leonard led
English settlers aboard the famous
ships Ark and Dove to St. Mary's
City in southern Maryland, in 1634.
To Zschokke the name "America"
and "Maryland" symbolized a land
of a glorious future, of the happy and
free as opposed to what he called (in
1817) "Europe's Decline." The same
spirit permeates his other American
novels too: "The Princess of Wolfen-
büttel" (1804) and "The Planter
from Cuba" (1832).²
Zschokke's enthusiasm for America
even influenced later German novel-
listic admirers of North America, like
Charles Sealsfield, Karl Spindler,
Ernst Willkomm. In his epistolary
story of Maryland, Zschokke claims
to base his account on the family
papers of the Lords Baltimore. He
colored his interesting novel with ro-
mantic notions on the alleged arrival
of Cecil Calvert in the Patapsco,
October 3, 1633. The landing by
Leonard Calvert on Blackiston's Is-
land was really March 25, 1634.³
Composed of twenty-three chapters,
Zschokke's story recounts the pre-
paratory activities of Cecil Calvert in
England, his leave-taking, his journey
across the ocean, and finally the ficti-
tious landing at "Baltimore" while
cannons roar and Indians welcome the
strangers in the beautiful harbor. The
following quotation is from a "letter,"
written in Baltimore, by Cecil Cal-
vert, to his friend Harry Oham in
England, dated 1633:
"My first greetings from the new world to
you, o dear Harry! We landed in Chesapeake
Bay and sought the harbor, which my father's
1
P. G. Gleis, "Baltimore vor 100 Jahren im Urteil einiger Dichter und Denker Deutschlands," Sonder-
Abdruck des Baltimore Correspondent, 30. Nov., 1935. Seite 14-20, (Zschokke, Jos. Winckler, Fried. List,
Nikolaus Lenau, Gust. Frenssen).
2
See: "The Concept of America in the Works of Heinrich Zachokke," (M. A. diss. by Sr. Laurene
Marie Kochert, Catholic University, Washington, D. C., 1947).
3
See: Erich Albrecht, "Heinrich Zschokke's Version of the Founding of Maryland," in American
German Review, VIII (1942), 15 ff.; Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans, (Princeton, N. J., 1948), 11-12.
We also want to refer our readers to a recently published historical novel dealing with George Calvert, the
first Lord Baltimore: Der ewige Traum, by Josef Feiks, (Benziger, Publ., Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 1950).
[44]
papers had presented as the most excellent in
the world. Indeed we went through a very
narrow passage into a second wider body of
water, whose low banks were picturesquely
surrounded by bushes and meadows. Here
there would have been room enough for over
a thousand ships! As we sailed through the
passage, cannons thundered their greetings to
us. On the banks we saw huts and men, the
smoke and the welcoming fires. It was a
splendid summer morning. Our ship returned
the salutation of the cannons. Oh, what a view
unfolded before my eyes when I landed and
was welcomed by our friends and the peaceful
aborigines who jubilantly exclaimed: 'Free-
dom! Long live freedom!', a cry which was
simultaneously echoed also from those on the
ship. Then they conducted me to an eight-
room wooden house, in which they had ar-
ranged my furnishings most comfortably."
LEDERER
Quite different and quite realistical
and historically true are, however, the
reports by early German explorers
and travelers of the 17th and 18th
centuries. John Lederer of Hamburg,
Germany, a highly educated man, was
in Calvert County, Maryland, about
1671, trading and observing geo-
graphical, geological and ethnological
matters, and writing down his ex-
periences in Latin. His own manu-
script is lost but Sir William Talbot,
a nephew of Cecil, Lord Baltimore,
secretary of the Province of Mary-
land, preserved it in an English trans-
lation under the title The Discoveries
of John Lederer, London 1672. In
1675 Lederer was on his way home
to Germany.
4
Other German explorers of Mary-
land were Jesuit missionaries of the
18th century,
5
but they apparently
left few written notes. During the
Revolutionary War, however, three
other highly placed German individu-
als crossed Maryland or visited the
new city of Baltimore, two so-called
"Hessians" and one not a "Hes-
sian" but a defender of American
independence. They were all army
men. They jotted down their impres-
sions in letters sent home or in per-
sonal journals.
RIEDESEL
The first of these is the well-known
commander of the German "Hes-
sian" troops fighting on the English
side, Baron Friedrich Adolf von Rie-
desel (1738-1800)
6
and his wife Fried-
erike
7
who accompanied him in per-
son to America and shared his trials
and tribulations.
General von Riedesel really was a
Hessian by birth, but he served as
officer in the army of Duke Ferdinand
of Brunswick in the Seven Years'
War. Later, he was general adjutant
of Duke Karl when the latter (in
1776) entered into an understanding
with England regarding furnishing a
"Hessian" corps (of
4,298 men) for
England's war against the American
colonists. As a major general he left
Brunswick early in 1776 and arrived
in Quebec in Canada in June 1776.
His wife followed him in 1777 to Que-
bec, keeping a diary. Both partici-
pated in Burgoyne's campaign in
New England, (Lake Champlain, Ti-
conderoga, Bennington, Albany) and
witnessed the capitulation of Bur-
goyne at Saratoga, October 18, 1777,
to the army of the American general
Gates. This battle and the Hessian
surrender contributed much to the
ultimate establishment of American
freedom. Riedesel himself was taken
prisoner, with his German troops
(about 1500 of them) but was per-
sonally absolved from blame. The
"Hessians," including General and
4
Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans, 30-39.
5
Cunz, op. cit., 88-89; Gleis, SHGM, Reports, XXVI, 33-36.
6
Max von Eelkuig, Leben und Wirken des . . . General-Leutnants Friedr. Adolf Riedesel, (3 vols),
Leipziz, 1855; Volume 2 translated as Memoirs, Letters and Journals of Major General Riedesel by Wm.
Stone, New York, 1868; Lina Sinnickson, Frederica, Baroness Riedesel, Philadelphia, 1906. Clemens de
Baillou, " Baron Friedrich von Riedesel," Monatshefte, XLIV (1952), iv/v, 212-216.
7
Friederike Charlotte Luise (von Massow), Freiherrin von Riedesel, Die Berufs-Reise nach America.
Briefe der Generalin von Riedesel in America auf dieser Reise und während ihres sechsjährigen Aufenthaltes in
America zur Zeit des dortigen Krieges in den Jahren 1776-1783, (Berlin, 1801.) English edition: Letters and
Memoirs relating to the War of American Independence and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga,
by Madame de Riedesel, transl. from the original German, (New York, 1827, second ed. 1867.) "Riedesel,"
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 28, p. 531.
[45]
Mrs. Riedesel, were sent to a camp in
Cambridge, Mass. In 1778 they re-
ceived orders from Congress in Phila-
delphia to move south to a camp in
Virginia, near Charlottesville.
General Riedesel, with his family,
left Cambridge, November 28, 1778
and crossed the Hudson River where
with his adjutants he left his family
to overtake his troops. The German
army meanwhile marched through
Jersey and Pennsylvania to the Sus-
quehanna River and York, Pa. and
reached the Maryland border Decem-
ber 26, 1778, at Tawneytown, where
it found good quarters. The weather,
however, was bad, the roads were
worse. December 29th they were in
Frederick, Md. and the next day near-
ing the Potomac River, not far from
Sugar Loaf Mountain. The river at
this section forms the boundary line
between Maryland and Virginia.
Speaking of Maryland the "Jour-
nal" of General Riedesel makes the
following observations:
Maryland, as far as regards cultivation, is
very similar in appearance to Pennsylvania, al-
though it is far behind the latter. The country
on the Potomac is beautiful and fertile. The
Germans and English are here about in the
same proportion. There are here perhaps a few
Tories, but they are not allowed to manifest
their feelings openly. Fredericks-Town is a
pleasant country town. On New Year's eve
(Dec. 31, 1778) the German troops first stepped
on the soil of Virginia, a country which had
been described by the people around Boston
as a real El Dorado. The soldiers crossed the
Potomac near Knowland's Ferry, and biv-
ouacked during the night in the woods in
Loudoun County.
8
Mrs. Riedesel, in the meantime,
pursued a disagreeable journey
through a hostile population to Lan-
caster, Pa., and Maryland, begging
people for food and shelter, with her
children weeping from cold and hun-
ger, with admirable resignation finally
reaching Charlottesville in February
1779, being twelve weeks on her way,
covering 678 miles.
During the year 1779 an exchange
of officer prisoners was arranged
(though later revocated by Congress)
between superiors of the armies. Rie-
desel hoped to be permitted to rejoin
the British at New York or in Can-
ada. He journeyed north again, to
York, Pa. and Elizabeth, N.J. and
arrived here when his hopes were
dashed because Congress wanted to
keep a general of Riedesel's reputa-
tion. He wished to assume the com-
mand of the new German troops in
Canada which had just arrived there.
He was sadly disappointed at the end
of the year 1779. Finally, in October
1780, he was exchanged and in 1781
he commanded the flower of the Eng-
lish troops on Long Island and later
in Canada. He returned to Bruns-
wick, Germany, on October 8, 1783.
His wife left Virginia separately for
the north passing through Maryland
and visiting friends on her way to
York, Pa. In her diary for 1779 she
wrote the following remarks on her
experiences in Maryland.
I left Frederick-Springs, Va. in August 1779
to join my husband in Yorktown in Pennsyl-
vania. Captain Freeman, one of my husband's
aids-de-camp, remained with me. Mrs. Garel,
an amiable lady—having begged me to pay her
a visit on her estate in Maryland whenever I
should pass in the neighborhood I chose the
present occasion to visit ... I had given
Madam Garel notice of my arrival, and she
sent a man on horseback to meet us.—We
rode through a fine avenue towards the beauti-
ful mansion-house where the whole family
waited for us and received us most cordially
. . . Not far from this country-estate was a
city named Baltimore which I was told was
a very beautiful town and the residence of
several amiable families. One of Mrs. Garel's
intimate lady friends, a pleasant, talkative
lady, came to pay us a visit. When I saw
them together I could imagine that I wit-
nessed the meeting of Rousseau's Heloise with
her lady friend. The old father reminded me
of the husband of Heloise. Madame Garel was
like her in warmth of feeling . . . We spent
eight or ten days with her and departed
with real regret. She furnished us with the
best of provisions which there was little
prospect we should want for a long time;
that liberality was almost superfluous; for the
royalists received us with frank hospitality,
from political sympathy, and those of oppo-
site principles gave us a friendly welcome,
merely from habit; for in this country it
8
Eelking, vol. II., (German edition), p. 302; Engl. edition, vol. II., p. 61. Eelking read "London"
county for " Loudoun " county.
[46]
would be considered a crime to behave other-
wise, to refuse a welcome to a stranger. . . .
We at length reached Yorktown, Pa., where I
found my husband. We had travelled through
beautiful country, part of which was inhabited
by Moravians, and was extremely well culti-
vated.
9
Another baby was born to Mrs.
Riedesel, in 1780, in New_ York. She
went back to Germany with her hus-
band, in 1783, and later collected her
notes and letters for publication.
After Yorktown (1781) British
rule was practically at an end. The
soldiers laid down their arms waiting
for the peace which came in 1783.
Beside General Riedesel other high
"Hessian" army officers kept notes
or sent letters home to Germany,
among them Von Cochenhausen, Von
Urff, De Loos, Von Wurmb, Bauer-
meister, Knyphausen, Scheffer, and
they no doubt mentioned Maryland
and Baltimore. But it is impossible
to record them all. Riedesel's " Briefe
und Berichte, in den Jahren 1776-
1783 geschrieben," were republished
in 1881 and 1893 and attracted wide
attention.
SCHOEPF
In the same "Hessian" army was
a prominent young army physician, a
German, born in Wunsiedel in 1752.
He was chief surgeon (in Ansbach, in
1776) to the troops sent to help Eng-
land in America. He had, besides
medicine, studied botany, mineralogy,
forestry in Erlangen and in Berlin.
An able and reliable scholar and phy-
sician he wrote books and articles on
zoology and botany of the new world
after he returned from America in
1784. His name is Dr. John David
Schoepf. He arrived in New York,
June 4, 1777, but was restricted in
his experience and activities to Phila-
delphia and to the military English
hospitals or to attending British gar-
risons in Rhode Island and Long Is-
land until an armistice and peace was
made in 1783. Then he received a
leave of absence for exploring the rest
of the country, especially the South
which on his return he described in
detail in two volumes: Reise durch
einige der mittlern und südlicken ver-
einten Nordamerikanischen Staaten,
(Erlangen, 1788) .
10
The trip lasted a full year starting
in New Jersey, in July 1783. It took
him from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Kentucky, to Maryland (Frederick,
Hagerstown, South Mountain, Balti-
more, Annapolis, Georgetown, Bla-
densburg) and back to Wilmington
and Philadelphia, in November 1783,
and again in 1784 from Philadelphia
south to Virginia, North and South
Carolina, East Florida and the Ba-
hama Islands, and back to Europe
(England, France). He arrived in
Bayreuth, October 1784 and died
there in 1800.
He gives us a wealth of informa-
tion on Maryland, its cities, people
and lay of the land, really too much
to be repeated here in toto. Coming
from the western regions along the
Ohio River he reached Maryland at
Hancock on the Potomac and visited
the nearby Berkeley Springs, a famous
resort. However, he called its thera-
peutic effects "superstition"; the
water was not warm at all, according
to his findings and it was common
water at that, having normal temper-
ature. Hancock had 12 houses at that
time. He passed through Shepherds-
town on the Potomac, to Frederick,
where the greatest part of the inhabi-
tants were German, including a Dr.
Fischer. He also noticed the glass
works near "South Mountain" (on
the Monocacy River), expressing
doubts as to its quality and its
future.
11
Regarding Baltimore, he
said:
9
Berufs-Reise, p. 234 f. (Engl. ed. p. 221 f.)-The "Madam Garel," mentioned here, was actually
Mrs. Carroll, of the well known and distinguished Carrolls of Carrolton in Maryland. Charles Carroll,
perhaps the wealthiest man in the colonies, signed the Declaration of Independence.
10
English version, Travels in the Confederation (1783-1784), from the German of Joh. David Schoepf,
translated by Alfr. J. Morrison, (Philadelphia, 1911; 2 vols.).
11
Dorothy M. Quynn, "Johann Friedrich Amelung at New Bremen," Maryland Historical Magazine,
XLIII (1948), iii, 155-179, Harriet N. Milford, " Amelung and his New Bremen Glass Ware," Maryland
Historical Magazine, XLVII (1952), i, 1-10. Dieter Cunz, Maryland Germans, 163-166.
[47]
It is hardly thirty years since the town was
established and already may be counted among
the larger and richer cities. It numbers almost
2000 houses, for the most part built of brick,
neatly and conveniently, and this number is
very nearly equal to that of all the houses in
the remainder of the province of Maryland.
The inhabitants are estimated at 12,000 and
more, and again at 15,200. The advantageous
situation of the harbor at the mouth of the
Patapsco River, and at the upper end of the
Chesapeak-Bay, gave the first occasion for the
founding of the city. It is sage and com-
modious . . . Baltimore has already drawn to
itself the whole trade of southern Pennsyl-
vania ... it got to itself the name of one of
the most important trading towns in the whole
of Chesapeak-Bay. But nothing was so favor-
able to the commerce of the place as the last
war. The situation of the harbor assured it
against the sudden attack of hostile craft . . .
During the first years of the war the Congress
for some time fixed its seat here . . . more
houses were built, and house rents rose un-
commonly high, as they are at the present
time. The extraordinary price paid for ground
in the city is an argument showing how
profitable trade has hitherto been . . . There
was building in all parts of the town, and
at the same time care is taken for beautifying
the pavements and lights. Work and activity
were to be seen everywhere. "Fell's Point" is
the south-eastern end of the town, a narrow
tongue of land extending into the Bay, this
part of the town, being distinguished by the
water and masts surrounding it. There es-
pecially is all the shipping business done.
Whenever, according to the first plan, this
point is wholly united by buildings with the
rest of the city, the length of the city will be
nearly two miles; but at this time a marshy
channel still divides the two parts and is
neither ornamental nor contributary to good
health. In the harbor there were lying at the
time some fifty vessels . . . Baltimore exports
chiefly flour, maise, salted meat and other
articles of food, all kinds of timber, and to-
bacco. For this last article there is an inspec-
tion-house at the "Point"—the object of the
merchants of Baltimore . . is exports and im-
ports. They neither intend nor desire to be
manufacturers . . the price of labor is high;
the working hands are few, and those few
lazy . . . The advantages which Baltimore
has hitherto derived from its trade, as the
most productive source of its prosperity, will
arouse envy and the imitation of others . . .
The merchants of Baltimore . . . have ex-
pressed the wish that a Board of Trade, or
commercial collegium, be established . . .
He continues to refer also to indi-
vidual inhabitants of Baltimore. The
French from Arcadia lived in the most
unsightly section of the town they
being in general neither well-to-do
nor enterprising. A Roman Catholic
Church stood on one of the heights
outside the city where two other
churches, but half in ruins, were to be
seen also. According to a report in
the Berliner Monatsschrift, no. XI,
1786, at that time, (October-Novem-
ber, 1783), " a German Society was
established at Baltimore by a Ber-
liner in behalf of needy Germans who
had gone there without due care."
12
Dr. Schoepf knew apparently nothing
of this society at the time of his stay
in Baltimore but he had the pleasure
of knowing Dr. Charles Frederick
Wiesenthal (1726-1789), first presi-
dent and prime mover of the "Ger-
man Society of Maryland."
13
"He
has been here since almost the first
beginning of the town, and for his
private character as well as his attain-
ments is generally esteemed. It is a
pity that his years and infirmities
restrict his activities too narrowly, al-
ready obliging him to take in a " part-
ner.' This is very usual as a custom
in America . . ." He investigated the
flora and fauna and minerals in the
region about Baltimore and found it
not poor.
From Baltimore, Dr. Schoepf under-
took an excursion to Annapolis, Bla-
densburg, Georgetown, Great Falls of
the Potomac, Alexandria, and made
his own keen observations again. He
passed, as he says, monotonous woods
(p. 349); very little cultivated land
could be seen along the road to An-
napolis. The corn appeared every-
where in bad condition, small and
thin like the poor soil. The roads
were, or were intended to be, he says,
kept up at public expense, but were
not well cared for. The bridges and
ferries were impracticable.
In Bladensburg he noticed the Sun-
day-laws but also a man having two
wives living together in sisterly man-
ner with children from both. " Booze "
12
Schoepf; Engl. ed., p. 339, note.
l3
See Cunz, Maryland Germans, 108-111, 120-121, 181. Cf. also "Genealogical Notes on Charles
Frederick Wiesenthal," pp. 82-85 of the present Report.
[48]
was given to children to put them to
sleep; a boy, 5 years old, was drunk.
In Georgetown a case at law was
pleaded and decided in the open on
the porch of a tavern; the costs were
paid in punch. The river at that spot
was two miles wide, with high banks
containing iron ore, and was rich in
fish, especially near the Little Falls
and Great Falls. No mention is made
of the Jesuit College, nor of any Ger-
mans; the tobacco-trade here was in
the hands of Englishmen who left
when the war broke out. Ever since
Georgetown was a poor place nobody
having money or credit enough to
start a trade. He crossed the river to
Alexandria, eight miles away, a to-
bacco settlement with straight streets,
200 not unpleasant houses and with
people formerly wealthy owning ships
and warehouses, engaging in a flour-
ishing trade.
Returning to Bladensburg he no-
ticed only two or three public houses
but people in animated discussion of
an election for the Maryland Assem-
bly of 1783; they debated the doubt-
ful duty to pay the debts of the new
government to British merchants;
they discussed the new constitution
and its obligations. The river at
Bladensburg was fit only for small
tobacco-boats. The planters took
their tobacco to Bladensburg to be
examined here as to its quality. The
receipts served as bank notes. The
price for a hundred pounds was 29-32
shillings in Pennsylvania currency.
Freight for a ton of tobacco to be
shipped to England was costing seven
pounds sterling or 35 shillings a hogs-
head. An acre of good land cost one
hogshead of tobacco.
Near Bladensburg was an iron-ore-
spring but otherwise the climate was
unhealthy from the swamps which
caused obstinate fever. Negroes, lov-
ing southern indolence, raised a little
cotton but mostly lived of sweet pota-
toes and "been-nuts" with oil which
were also used for the pigs. Dr.
Schoepf remained in Bladensburg a
few days watching the improvised life
in the taverns and homes which in-
cluded hunting for fire wood for heat-
ing and baking and which considered
only the bare necessities for daily ex-
istence. Among the guests in the
tavern there were a tailor, a saddler,
a shoe-maker, a colonel, and a lady;
three negroes, servants, smelling from
dirt, were half-naked; it was a repul-
sive sight.
Crossing the South River Dr.
Schoepf came to Annapolis (Nov.
1783). There were 400 fine looking
houses. The State House on an
elevation, with a cupola and four
wooden columns, was not splendid
but handsome, built of brick, two
stories high. The large hall on the
ground floor was not spacious but
tasteful; it had raised seats in the
form of an amphitheatre. Next to it
was a little one story building meant
for the public treasury, with well-
barred windows but now empty. The
real treasuries were the tobacco ware-
houses. Taxes were paid in tobacco
and other produce because the people
had no hard money. At one end of
the town stood the house in which
the Governor lived; another one, ex-
tensive and designed for the Gover-
nor's residence, begun by Governor
Bladen, was not finished; it was too
costly; its bare walls remained known
as "Governor's Folly." The streets
were seen as running radially towards
a common central point, the State
House. They were not yet paved and
with the sandy soil this occasioned
great inconvenience in summer, in the
opinion of our German visitor.
Annapolis boasted of a play-house
then but of no church—says Dr.
Schoepf—as indeed in everything re-
garding luxury the town was inferior
to no other and surpassed most of
them. There was little or no trade—
the harbor was empty, worms eating
through ship-bottoms; there was no
ship at this time.—The country be-
tween Annapolis and Baltimore was
flat. A ferry led over the Patapsco.
Annapolis had the honor of setting up
the first mint. Congress was invited
to Annapolis for interim sessions.
Maryland enjoyed a good soil and cli-
[49]
mate on the bay, was rich in tobacco
and agriculture and divided into 16
counties.
Dr. Schoepf considered some of the
Germans and some other inhabitants
of Maryland as the "most unman-
nerly people to be found far and
near" (II, 26) but as a member of
the British allied troops from Ger-
many he could scarcely expect invari-
able courtesy on the part of the peo-
ple speaking his language. As a whole
he never complained and he appre-
ciated the progress and courage evi-
denced on all sides.
CLOSEN
The third member of our group of
war time visitors from Germany was
also connected with the military ser-
vice, this time on the American side,
a personal friend of General George
Washington, Baron Ludwig von Clo-
sen, a German from Mannheim in the
Palatinate, an adjutant to General
Rochambeau. The latter, in 1780,
was dispatched from Brest in France
at the head of an army of 6000 men
of French and German nationality to
cooperate with George Washington.
In July 1780 he landed in Rhode Is-
land. Rochambeau intrenching him-
self at Newport held his position until
June of the following year when in
pursuance of a plan of campaign ar-
ranged between himself and Wash-
ington the French-German troops
marched through Connecticut and
joined the American army on the
Hudson whence was begun the well-
known southward march for York-
town in Virginia.
In a "Journal,"
14
written in French
which he kept, Closen described this
march in detail, mentioning first the
city of Providence, R. I., after they
left Newport, June 14, 1781, then, in
stages, Peekskill, Westpoint, Hacken-
sack, Princeton, Trenton, Bristol, and
the entrance into Philadelphia. Here
he greets his German countrymen
and welcomes the German language
in America: "la langue allemande
qu'on parle dans cette partie de la
Pennsylvania, de préférence a 1'an-
glais; la maniere de cultivir et de
bâtir, tout m'y rappeloit mon chèr
pays-natal (Vol. I. page 288); je me
croyais, ma foi, transplanté tout à
coup au milieu du beau palatinat."
He praises the neat appearance of the
"rich and grand German villages"
and houses, the good roads but
laments the absence of good Rhine
wines; the applecider here was quite
delicious, however.
Closen and Rochambeau continued
the journey from Philadelphia by
ship, on the Delaware River, to
Chester (p. 307) where George Wash-
ington welcomed them once more very
heartily especially since the good news
had arrived that the French admiral
de Grasse was now in the Chesapeake
Bay. On foot the French brigade
marched to Wilmington and reached
Elkton, Maryland, September 7, 1781,
Red Clay and Christiania. The Amer-
ican troops here demanded their pay
and finally got it through the efforts
of Rochambeau who (Sept. 9) with
his army left for the south. Von
Closen decided to follow the land
route desiring to see something of the
country and its people. The army
marched over land towards Baltimore
and Annapolis where it hoped to find
large ships taking it to the James
River in Virginia (p. 312) .
First the Susquehanna River had
to be crossed. There was no ship or
boat at Liddle Ferry. Rochambeau
therefore ordered the horses of officers,
the artillery and the Lansun-Legion
toward a ford in the river, five miles
upstream. This detour (Sept. 9) took
them four more miles further up where
the river was two miles wide. The
river scenery was pretty but the cross-
ing itself was "diabolickal." Rocks,
the current and the rapids were an-
noying and dangerous; the horses
14
An unpublished handwritten copy, in 2 volumes, is in the Manuscript Room of the Library of
Congress in Washington, D. C. The original seems to be in Germany in the hands of some heirs. Little
information is available on this rich source material.
[50]
stumbled taking false steps, but
finally the other side was gained with-
out mishap.
Baron von Closen and his officer-
camerade de Bourg joined the rest of
the tramping army at Bushtown (p.
314), 18 miles south of the Susque-
hanna, and the army camped here for
the 32nd time, on the right (south)
side of the river. The brigade had
made only 15 miles on the first day,
and 12 miles the second while the
two friends had covered 36 miles.
Bushtown was rather ugly and situ-
ated in a swampy territory. While
the first brigade slowly advanced to-
ward Baltimore by way of White
Marsh the two officers rode directly
to Baltimore.
The country between Bushtown
and Baltimore was covered with
forests (I, 314). The roads were not
at all of the best. The author con-
tinues:
Baltimore is a very beautiful city filled with
handsome buildings. Its
trade is flourishing.
The bay is only a mile from the city and
connected with it by a river known as Pa-
tapsco. In this city there are some Germans,
Dutch and Irish and there is a section called
"the French quarter," inhabited only by poor
Arcadians, of French origin who were brought
here by the English government after the
Seven Years' War. The army joined us in
Baltimore on
the 12th (of September). The
legion stayed here for a while yet.
Von Closen was anxious to reach
Virginia ahead of the armies for which
there were no incoming ships immedi-
ately available at Baltimore while the
French commander de Viomenil de-
cided to march to Annapolis. He and
his friend therefore left Baltimore the
same evening (Sept. 12) to proceed
in a hurry on the shortest route trust-
ing their good horses and thus hoping
to get to Williamsburg in Virginia
eight days ahead of the others. They
were only one or two days in Balti-
more loading ten horses with baggage
and taking along two supervisors and
four servants at heavy expense but
foreseeing pleasant adventures. How-
ever, they were meeting trouble soon
enough. Two miles from Baltimore,
they found at the shore of the Pa-
tapsco River which here was 1½
miles
wide that the ferry boats were on the
other side of the water. It took an
hour before they came over. Fortu-
nately, the weather was pleasant.
Two boats were completely filled.
The heavy load made the crossing
slow, and oars were used against the
stream. They lost a whole night to
reach the other shore, and then no
guide could be found to take them
six miles to the inn of a Mr. Bryan.
In spite of Closen's eloquence in Eng-
lish and all the promises of reward in
hard cash no one, not even of the
colored men of the ferry could be per-
suaded to conduct them there. The
evening came and it began to rain.
There was nothing to be done but to
go on at random. They got lost in
the woods in the darkness. Closen
left most of his group at this spot and
accompanied by a negro discovered a
house where he was hospitably put up
for the night by a Mr. Walker and his
family who accepted no money except
a few shillings for the fodder for the
horses. But that was an exception.
Normally Closen was charged 4 to 6
crowns for one night and "for the
trouble."
On September 13th, 1781, riding
over bad roads and through forests
south of the Patapsco, Closen's group
came, 10 miles further on, to King's
Tavern where they had breakfast and
after 17 miles on horseback to Queen
Ann's (page 322) where they had
dinner and crossed the little river of
the same name on a ferry. There
were only 10 to 12 houses in Queen
Ann's. Ten more miles and Upper
Marlborough caused them to sing
spontaneously the French popular
song: "Malbrouk s'en va-t-en
guerre." This place with about 20
homes assembled around a meeting
house was very pleasant. Two adju-
tants of George Washington, Smith
and Humphries, met them there with
a message.
On September 14 continuing their
trip they found better roads and
[51]
charming habitations—among them
the home of a rich Mr. Dean, father-
in-law of Governor Lee,—and superb
horses, and after riding 16 more miles
they were in Port Tobacco (p. 324)
at the foot of a hill on a stream of
water. Here they rested their horses,
had a good supper and good beds but
were exploited out of 21 dollars or
five "Louis de France" (325). They
noticed a church on a hill dominating
the country view. From Port Tobacco
they came to the Wicomico River and
to Charleston on the shore of the
Potomac and through beautiful and
fertile lands, with fruit trees and
vegetables, to a lodging house on the
Potomac where the river was five
miles wide opposite Virginia and to
the ferry of a Mr. Hore. The food
consisted mostly of corn cakes (ga-
lettes) and corn fritters. The Poto-
mac was crossed Sept. 15.
In 1782 after Cornwallis had sur-
rendered on Oct. 19, 1781 at York-
town, Virginia, Rochambeau was to
take his troops north to New York.
The army was brought safe and well
to Baltimore, in summer 1782, and
marched slowly along the shore the
same way back. In Baltimore the
army let warm weather pass by and
the sick recover. Von Closen visited
Fredericksburg, Va., and Alexandria,
Va. in April 1782, crossed the Poto-
mac to the Maryland shore at Alex-
andria in a ferry, reached Bladens-
burg, "a small place with isolated
houses" and then Baltimore where he
was received by the consul of France
and a war commissioner and left May
2, 1781, for Bushtown, on bad horses
but this time better roads, 27 miles
north of Baltimore, crossed the Sus-
quehanna on a ferry, got to the head
of the Elk River, to Chester, Wil-
mington, Philadelphia, Sussex Court
House, Elizabeth and New York.
Von Closen revisited Virginia and
Maryland in 1782-83. He mentions
Mt. Vernon, Madame Washington
and Mr. Custis, Bladensburg and
Georgetown, and "Great Falls," danc-
ing in Bladensburg, leaving Bladens-
burg-camp July 23, 1782, for " Spen-
cer Tavern," the Patapsco and Balti-
more (119-120), White Marsh, Bush-
town, Wilmington and other places.
15
As we noticed, the portrayal of
Maryland by prominent visiting Ger-
mans in the 18th century was fair,
considerate, objective and sympa-
thetic. General von Riedesel and his
wife were impressed by the over-
whelming American hospitality, the
culture of the higher classes, the
rapidly rising and flourishing cities.
Dr. Schoepf had a delightful trip.
Baron von Closen met George Wash-
ington and his aides and found Balti-
more and Annapolis beautiful and
promising places. The country was
young and full of vigor. Most visitors
were pleasantly surprised. The poet
Zschokke, though never having been
in America, was not wrong after all
in praising Maryland and the new
world as a haven of liberty and
progress.
Most German visitors of Maryland
in the 19th and 20th centuries made
the same gratifying discovery. They
found Maryland, and especially Balti-
more, a center of education, science,
beauty, liberty, industry and trade.
Big beautiful ocean ships plowed the
high seas between Bremen and Balti-
more and promoted the interchange
of ideas between two great peoples.
The present writer collected relevant
material from about thirty distin-
guished German visitors and authors
who often reveal intimate glimpses
and information on churches, schools,
general progress, and individuals like
Edgar Allen Poe, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Calvin Ellis Stowe, Charles
Follen, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott
Key, James R. Randall, Johns Hop-
kins, John W. McCoy, George Pea-
body, John McDonough, Enoch Pratt,
Philip M. Wolsieffer, Albert Schu-
15
Von Closen returned to Europe in June 1783. He became a Maréchal de Camp in the French military
service and died at Mannheim in 1830. His son Freiherr von Closen, born in 1786 at Zweibrücken, studied
in Vienna and Landshut, entered the Bavarian government and its legislature, was a member of the
Frankfurt Parliament in 1848, wrote books on educational affairs and died in 1856 as the last scion of
his line which can be traced back to medieval history.
[52]
macher, Wilhelm Knabe, J. G. Wes-
selhöft, Charles Karthaus, Justus
Hoppe, Ferdinand R. Hassler, Karl
Ludwig Fleischmann, We learn from
these German visitors much about
political conventions in Baltimore,
about the German Society, Zion
Church, Baltimore Street, Johns Hop-
kins University, museums and monu-
ments, the city administrations, the
harbor and the shipping industry,
Mt. Vernon place, the women of
Baltimore (ranking as the most
beautiful), the surrounding territory,
the libraries, the railroads, the press,
the laws. Historians, diplomats, min-
isters, teachers, soldiers, poets, jour-
nalists, from Switzerland, Austria,
Germany, came to observe the cus-
toms and general aspects of life in
Maryland up to more recent years.
Social and cultural forces of historical
significance are often hidden away in
these foreign German books of fact,
fiction and travel. These treasures
deserve to be lifted from the obscurity
of cellars, attics, archives, studios and
cemeteries to enrich our knowledge of
the history of Maryland.
[53]
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