Germanna Revolutionary War Patriots Address by J. Marc Wheat, President, Germanna Foundation Culpeper Courthouse Lawn Culpeper, Virginia July 4, 2011 Mayor [Chip] Coleman [of Culpeper], Chairman [Bill] Chase [of the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors], President [Lance] Lyngar [of the Culpeper Minute Men Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution], fellow patriots: Imagine with me that it is 1781. Morale is low. General George Washington’s office corps tries to rekindle that “Spirit of ‘76” when feelings ran high, and patriotic fervor swelled the ranks with recruits who were determined to fight for our liberties. But that was five years ago. The war has not gone well. Few battles have been won. The army is indifferently supplied and infrequently paid. In truth, the American cause is near collapse. In May 1781, under pressure from the Redcoats, Lafayette’s forces withdrew from Richmond, but link up with forces commanded by Generals von Steuben and Anthony Wayne. In a series of withdrawals, Lafayette’s united force moves through Orange County, crossing into Culpeper County on June 8 at Germanna Ford. After the Germanna crossing, Lafayette’s moves become aggressive, and pursues that British over the next four months to a place called Yorktown. Today, at the Yorktown Victory Center, a museum dedicated to interpreting the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, visitors can see a display on exhibit dedicated to the settlement of Fort Germanna by German colonists who comprised the first Europeans to settle in the Virginia Piedmont. There were about 3,000 German-Americans who fought for George Washington at Yorktown, including Germanna descendants Jesse Rector and John Wilhite. Christopher Tanner, also a Germanna descendant, has the distinction of giving his life for his country at Yorktown. Who are these people of Germanna, and what makes them deserving of attention by the Yorktown Victory Center? Frederick Jackson Turner influenced generations of American historians, through his path-breaking book “the Significance of the Frontier in American History.” He wrote that the settlement of German-speaking families along the Rapidan River on the frontier of the British Empire by Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood was critical to the development of the character of families with traits needed to survive at the juncture of civilization and the untamed wilderness – self-reliance, initiative, a neighborly spirit, and a love of freedom. But the frontier experience is only part of the story. Their love of freedom predated settlement on the frontier. The first group of Germans to arrive at Germanna in 1714 were of the Reformed faith, Calvinist in theology, people we might call Presbyterian. In their homeland in the Siegerland in modern-day North Rhine Westphalia, they faced intermittent uncertainty punctuated by persecution as the ruling house of Nassau-Siegen alternated between Catholic and Protestant rulers. The sympathies of Rev. Johann Henrich Haeger, pastor of the first colonists, were clear: translated an account of the persecution of a French protestant and his escape to the Netherlands where he could worship freely. The second group of colonists to arrive at Germanna in about 1717 came from the Lutheran belt of Germany, centered on the Kraichgau region of what is now northern Baden-Wuertemburg. When we recall that the German-speaking lands were divided into hundreds of statelets under the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, the Kraichgau was divided into even tinier realms, in some cases even by hereditary knights. In order to attract and retain a reliable workforce, the rulers in the Kraichgau had adopted policies of religious toleration that attracted Swiss Anabaptists and other Pietists seeking freedom. During the reign of Queen Anne, the British had been intensifying their effort to persuade German Protestants to settle in their North American colonies to offset the Catholic French. A successful approach employed by British agents was to recruit colonists through protestant congregations. As families prepared for the hazardous journey across the Atlantic with fellow church members, surely they focused on the Old Testament accounts of the Israelites being led out of the land of Egypt to the promised land. In the years 1764 and 1767, at about the same time that chapters of the Sons of Liberty were being organized in New England, the Germanna colonists considered what it meant to have lived in America for fifty years. They probably heard sermons on Leviticus 25:10 – “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.” If those words ring familiar to you, they should. It is the verse quoted on the Liberty Bell at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelpia? And isn’t it fitting that the Director of that National Park Service unit is Cynthia Macleod Harnsberger, wife of Germanna descendant and Germanna Foundation trustee Doug Harnsberger? By the time 1775 and 1776 arrived, the Germanna colonists did indeed proclaim liberty throughout the land! The volunteers of the Germanna Foundation have identified over 100 Germanna patriots who served the American cause – and we’ve not found one Tory. It is perhaps ironic that the British Crown’s greatest colonial governor, Alexander Spotswood, had two grandson’s who were officers under George Washington: Captain John Spotswood, and General Alexander Spotswood. The father of these American officers, John Spotswood, is buried in the Germanna Foundation’s Memorial Garden. Their ancestral home, Salubria, is owned by the Germanna Foundation and is open to the public. Germanna descendants served in the Culpeper Minute Men, whose green hunting shirts were emblazoned with the battle cry “Liberty or Death.” Lon Lacey, who is portraying a Culpeper Minute Man for us today, descends from Germanna patriot Jesse Wilhite. Germanna descendants who served in other units included: 1st Virginia: Daniel Delph, Nathan Holtzclaw 4th Virginia: Samuel Martin (died in service) 6th Virginia: Gabriel Wilhoit 10th Virginia: Samuel and Thomas Yowell, David Jacoby, and Joshua Wayland (drummer and fifer) 11th Virginia: Jesse Wilhite, a member of the Virginia Riflemen under General Daniel Morgan, suffered with Washington in the bitter cold of Valley Forge. Germanna descendants John Back, Jacob Holtzclaw, and Abraham Thomas served under George Rogers Clark, who was sent by Governor Patrick Henry in July 1778 to attack the Redcoats in what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois. British prisoners from that expedition were delivered in 1779 to Governor Thomas Jefferson. Why is it important that we invoke the memory of these patriots on Independence Day? Why do we invite our friends and families to remember patriots who were born over 250 years ago? Isn’t it because we know that each human life is infinitely important, and that each of us plays a role that is only clear to divine Providence? Isn’t it because the sacrifices of earlier generations merit emulation by our generation? The patriots who won the field for liberty were young men – George Washington was younger than I am now when he took command of the Continental Army; Joshua Wayland, the fifer and drummer of the 10th Virginia, was no more than a boy. These patriot families were also among the pioneers who settled across the mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Ohio Valley. They were founders of the Republic of West Florida, the Republic of Texas, and the Republic of California. One Germanna descendant, Buzz Aldrin, was the first man to speak on the surface of the moon as an Apollo 11 astronaut. How do we keep their example of duty and sacrifice before the present generation? Volunteer with the Culpeper Minute Men Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution or the Mine Rune Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution – they have been very helpful in identifying the contributions of Germanna’s generation of patriots. If you have patriot ancestry, join them. In my capacity as president of the Germanna Foundation, I exhort you to keep green the memory of those who fought so nobly in a noble cause. In a short time, July 15-17, the Germanna Foundation will be holding its 54th Annual Germanna Conference and Reunion. You don’t need to be a Germanna descendant to join us. Come to learn new skills. See lands once farmed by the families of these patriots. Hear speakers weave the story of Germanna families into the fabric of American history, and get inspired to do the same with the heritage of your family for the rising generation. Use our resources to root your family in America’s heritage. The Germanna Foundation preserves Siegen Forest, 179 acres of the colonial Germanna settlement on the Rapidan River. We own the Peter Hitt cemetery in Fauquier County, the final resting place of a soldier of the American Revolution. And come to enjoy Salubria, a home built by the Governor Spotswood’s widow at the outset of the French and Indian War. But perhaps the most valuable resource for you is our Conference. As you learn more about the place in which you live, take time to welcome home to Virginia the many descendants who are returning to explore Germanna country, many of whom may never had come had they not learned of their connection to Germanna and Culpeper County. When Germanna descendants gather in reunion, we always remind ourselves of the immortal words of T.S. Eliot, which I now share with you: We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.