[page 61]
45.
45.
Worauf die Americaner das Platz eroberten und in Besitz nahmen und noch biß dato besitzen.
Den ersten 7br brachen wir wiedrum auf 12 Meillen biß Trenthaun ein schönes Ort in einer gantz flachen Gegend an einem schiffreichen Fluße mit Namens Tellawar wir schlugen das Lager gantz nahe am Fluße auch ohne weit von der Stadt.
Den 2. brachen wir auf und passierten den Pristoller Wald und kamen auf Pristoll ein gantz kleines Städtlein am Gebürge, selbigen Tag machten wir 11 Meillen wir gingen noch von Pristoll biß zum Rothen Löwen ein schönes Wirthshauß an der Straße wir schlugen das Lager gantz nahe dabey. Alda fangt die Profintz Phinselpania an.
Den 3ten brachen wir alda wiedrum auf 12 Meillen biß Philadelphia welches ist die Haupt- Stadt von gantz Nord America. Selben Tag passierten wir ein schön Städtgen mit Namens Franckfort in einer angenehmen Gegend : ohne weit von dem Fluße Tellawar. Alda traffen wir zum Erstaunen Deutsche Leuthe an welche uns gleich auf der Straße als Landsleuthe begrüßten.
[réclame]
weilen
Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 61.
Notes
132. Note the ingenuousness on the author’s part concerning the concept of the campaign’s military strategy, or even that of the era. His point of view is inadequate, or anachronistic in the sense that whether or not a “place” was under one’s possession did not serve any serious goal in the war conducted by the Americans or the English. The town of Princeton in and of itself held no strategic value, not because it was relatively small, but simply because the American War of Independence was not based on invasions, or on the possession of disputed territories (as was the case in the wars opposing two European powers). The aim of the two sides was rather to demoralize the enemy, to break their will to fight: for the Americans, it was to have the British Parliament recognize the independence of the North American colonies; for the British, it was to annihilate the rebel forces, by demonstrating the superiority of the British army, so that Congress would step down and to reintegrate the colonies into the British Empire.
133. The colony, which would later become the state of Pennsylvania, is located south of the colony of New York, west of New Jersey, north of Maryland and Virginia. The low valley of Delaware was the first region of the future colony of Pennsylvania to be occupied by the Europeans. The Dutch set up trading posts as early as 1624. These trading posts saw a short period of Swedish colonization (1638-1655) before being forcefully integrated into the Dutch Empire. In 1664, England acquired the whole of the Dutch possessions in North America, thus occupying the totality of the Atlantic coastline, from Boston to the Carolinas. On March 4, 1681, Charles II granted William Penn, a Quaker, this large territory to the west of New Jersey to pay for a debt the king owed to William Penn’s father. William Penn himself established the political system of his colony, a representative system that guaranteed religious tolerance. Throughout the eighteenth century, the colony attracted an ever-growing number of immigrants, most often Scottish, Irish, or German, who had left Europe both for economic and political reasons. The German presence in the south of Pennsylvania was clearly identifiable, as shown by the names of towns such as Germantown and Frankfurt near Philadelphia. Pennsylvania had a central role, both geographically and politically, in the organization of the movement against the coercive legislation of the London Parliament, Philadelphia having become the seat of multiple “Continental Congresses”. The Battle of Brandywine and Germantown took place on this territory during the war.
134. Philadelphia was founded by William Penn in 1681. It became the capital of the colony of Pennsylvania. The name of the town means “City of brotherly love” in Greek. As the seat of the government and the principal port of the colony, the city of Pennsylvania experienced sustained growth, making it the most populated North American city from the second half of the eighteenth century (45,000 inhabitants in 1780). The city was the meeting place of different congresses that had brought together the delegates of the Thirteen Colonies since 1774. It was in Philadelphia, on the 4 of July 1776, that the Declaration of Independence was signed. Philadelphia could have been considered “the capital of all of North America” for several reasons, economically, demographically, and above all politically and symbolically since the congress representing the Thirteen Colonies met in Philadelphia. The architecture of the city described by Flohr (page 186), and its size in the sketch (pages 70-71), clearly illustrate what capital meant in the author’s eyes. However, Philadelphia could not have been nominally considered as the capital of “all of North America”, given that Canada remained loyal to the Crown, and most of the West and the South of the North American continent were under the Spanish Crown. Perhaps Flohr did not have access to this information and possibly considered, as one can sense in theerklärung (supra, page 7) , that the Royal Deux-Ponts was involved in a war between “England and America”. His relative ignorance, then, probably explains the fact that he considers Philadelphia as the capital of all of North America, without taking into account the political implications i.e. that all of America is at war with England, and the fact that therefore Flohr adopts a unilateral vision, typical of Whig ideology. Cf. Pavel Petrovitch Svinin, Philadelphia From Across the Delaware River, Watercolor on paper, late eighteenth – early nineteenth century, [reproduction en ligne - RMN]
135. The German term Landsleute, which today means “compatriots” appeared in Théophile Frédéric Ehrmann’s French-German dictionary, printed in Strasbourg in 1787, with the translation villageois, or “villager” (Op. cit., p.123). Yet Flohr certainly is referring to compatriots, highlighting once again the early development of a feeling of German nationalism that preceded the dictionary entries.