Benjamin Franklin

From the original portrait painted from lije Benjamin Wilson in 17.59 and laken from Franklin house in Philadelphia, July 1778by Major, Indre and restored to the Nation April 1990 by Earl Grey Governor General of Canada

[The wife of the general in command of the Brunswick and Hessian troops hired by the king of England for the purpose of conquering her revolted colonies in America, would from this fact alone interest us. When there is added to this the pleasure of knowing that the lady actually followed to this continent her husband, on the " voyage of duty," as she herself calls it, and being the gifted daughter of a distinguished soldier, adapted herself to circumstances and such society as the vicissitudes of war allowed, and became the friend of such men of Revolutionary fame as Washington and Schuyler, there seems a special reason for presenting a sketch of this bright, observing woman, taken from her letters. One almost regrets that Fate decreed such a lovable and charming woman to be on the "other side" in that struggle for so great a cause as American independence. However, time changes the face of many things in the course of events, and it was in the Riedesel house in Leipzigerstrasse, Berlin, now the War Office, that it was decided, a few years ago, that a German should be the commander of the allied forces sent to China, and the American troops were among those under this command.]

Frederika von Massow, afterwards Baroness Riedesel, was born in 1746 in Brandenburg, in Germany. Her father, von Massow, was commissioned by Frederick II, governing president of the allied army, and acting as commissary in chief was obliged to remain a long time at the VOL. 30-25.

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separated from his Though he himself

theatre of war, and not wishing to be family, had them domiciled near him. seems to have been a genial gentleman and his wife an amiable and hospitable lady, it is evident that the beautiful and lovely daughters, not only by their grace and unaffected manners drew many young officers to their house, but even bewitched the older and more experienced generals.

Frederika or Fritschen-as she was known among her family-met in this way the young cavalry captain Baron Riedesel, to whom, after the various and adverse circumstances due to the war permitted, she was married when she was little more than sixteen years old.

From her portrait, painted by the celebrated Tischbein, she looks very much the smart demoiselle of the court of Versailles, with a slim and tapering waist, and decked out in all the loveliness of silk and lace so dear to the feminine heart; from what is said of her from the very earliest time she seemed to have been possessed of innumerable charms as well as good looks. That she was a most noble, devoted and intelligent wife and mother is attested not only in her own life and letters, but by those of her husband and children. The child-like faith in Providence, which led her to leave a luxurious home and powerful friends, and follow her husband across a pathless sea into a strange land, then almost a wilderness, for the sake of sharing with him his trials and hardships, affords an example well worth study and admiration. Nor can one read such touching records of devoted, conjugal love, chastened and sanctified by an unaffected religious experience, without the consciousness of a high ideal of faith and duty.

On the twenty-first of December 1762 she was married at Neuhaus, when her popularity and the esteem in which her young husband was held by the Duke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Brunswick, seem to have made of it, for the whole town and garrison, a gala day.

This was an age of war and warfare, for shortly after the few short years of respite from the hostile strife of the