King's German legion

[Demonye]

I found this and was wondering is anyone Has any ever heard of any of the kings German legion fighting in Canada?

 

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[Kray Gelder]

Part of the British Army from 1803 to 1816. Could not find any info on being in Canada, doesn't mean they weren't. Cool find!

 

[Retired Sarge]

Fought with the British during the Napoleonic Wars against the French, established in 1803 and disbanded in 1816. Most likely either an immigrant brought it with them, as a lot seem to be found in Canada and the Northern most US States, or brought back from Europe by a GI as a souvenir.

 

[Mackaydon]

King's German Legion (KGL) Officers' Breastplate © Museum Nienburg/Weser

Great save; and welcome to treasurenet !
Don.....

 

[invent4hir]

Man what a great find! Bet it has an interesting back story. Research who lived there and perhaps you'll come across the most likely man who once owned the brooch.

 

[Demonye]

Thanks guy that the same kind of stuff I found out about it I was just hoping that someone might have read about them stealing officers from them or something around those lines

 

[Gambrinus]

Maybe this would be helpful in your search. The Hessians were German mercenaries.

The Hessians served in Nova Scotia for five years (1778–1783). They protected the colony from American privateers, such as when they responded to the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). They were led by Baron Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann von Seitz.

 

[BLK HOLE]

Welcome aboard from Northern Virginia I have read about the King's German Legion fighting in the Napoleonic Wars but never heard of them being on this side of the pond.

 

[DCMatt]

Here's a little something to show some King's German Legion officers spent time in Canada:

DeGAUGREBEN (Gaugreben, Gaugräbe), FRIEDRICH (Frederick), army officer and military engineer; b. c. 1777, apparently in Germany; d. 6 Jan. 1822 in Kassel (Federal Republic of Germany).Apart from his military service with the British army, little is known of Friedrich DeGaugreben’s life. A Roman Catholic, he became a second lieutenant in the engineer corps of the King’s German Legion on 14 Nov. 1809, no doubt after receiving a grounding in the principles of military engineering. On 22 Feb. 1811 he was promoted lieutenant, and spent that year on the island of Jersey. In mid October of the following year he arrived at Quebec as part of the reinforcements for the troops in the Canadas, an unusual assignment since the King’s German Legion itself served in Europe. DeGaugreben was soon on his way to Upper Canada, and early in 1813 was at Prescott, where Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Henry Bruyeres*, commanding engineer in the Canadas, had directed him to erect a blockhouse. When Christopher Alexander Hagerman*passed by in November he noted that Fort Wellington, as the work had become known, was “a very deep mound of Earth thrown up enclosing a strong blockhouse said to be bomb proof,” but claimed that since the fort had been “very badly constructed” by DeGaugreben, it was “falling to pieces very fast.” DeGaugreben’s duties were not, however, confined to construction. His commanding officer, the aggressive Lieutenant-Colonel George Richard John Macdonell*, mounted an attack on Ogdensburg, N.Y., on 22 Feb. 1813, and DeGaugreben took charge of a field piece, receiving Macdonell’s commendation for his conduct.
By the end of that year DeGaugreben found himself on the Niagara frontier, where on 19 December he accompanied the troops in the successful assault on Fort Niagara (near Youngstown), N.Y. He remained at the fort improving the defences, but by March 1814 Major-General Phineas Riall*, commanding on the frontier, was complaining to Lieutenant-General Cordon Drummond*, “I shall get nothing done if [DeGaugreben] is to continue the head of the [engineer] Department here.” DeGaugreben’s inactivity seems to have been caused by an attack of ophthalmia, and in April Drummond sent him back to the less demanding post of Prescott. There DeGaugreben remained for the rest of the war. He seems to have been no favourite with the local inhabitants, who remembered with displeasure his allegedly severe treatment of farmers when martial law had been proclaimed by Major-General Francis de Rottenburg in November 1813 to enable the army to purchase food forcibly.
By mid 1815 DeGaugreben was in Lower Canada as commanding engineer of the Montreal district. At this time he penned two memoirs on the defence of the Canadas for the inspector general of fortifications of the Board of Ordnance, Lieutenant-General Gother Mann. In one he made the suggestion that a canal be constructed to link the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario. It seems likely, however, that the first person to hit upon this idea had been Macdonell, who saw it as a more permanent means of ensuring Upper Canada’s military communications. DeGaugreben appears to have given technical advice about routes and designs, but there is no evidence to support a case that the canal idea was his, and he did not accompany Macdonell and Reuben Sherwood, a captain in the intelligence department, on the initial surveys.
Nevertheless, when the military authorities sought to implement Macdonell’s scheme, DeGaugreben, now a second captain (from 5 March 1814), was ordered by Rottenburg in January 1815 to make preliminary surveys for a canal at Lachine which would be the first part of a military water-way to Lake Ontario. Although the general complained that DeGaugreben was doing too little, by May he had produced and submitted the first detailed plans of part of what became the Ottawa-Rideau canal system [see John By*]. If DeGaugreben did less than hoped for, it was perhaps because he saw no real military need for the Lachine canal, and also because the few engineers in the Canadas were overburdened by their duties in other departments, as DeGaugreben and captains Samuel Romilly and Matthew Charles Dixon pointed out to Mann in June. Their complaints helped persuade the Duke of Wellington, master general of the Ordnance, to reorganize the board, and the improved department’s officers subsequently carried out many projects and services of great value to colonists in the Canadas.
DeGaugreben himself left Quebec late in 1815. The King’s German Legion was ordered disbanded in December, and in April 1817 it was recorded that he had reached Hanover (Federal Republic of Germany) and had been placed on half pay. Unlike many of his fellows, DeGaugreben did not enter the newly constituted Hanoverian army. His career until his death is unknown.

 

[namxat]

Imho thats a great historic find.

I vote Banner!

This having said, it is not unique

https://www.pinterest.de/miles_blair/figuren/

There is the same plague marked as "found in Canada".

I remember that during the Napoleonic times, the king of England was at the same time Prince-Elector of Hannover, where these troops and some were from "sourced". So its at least thinkable that Hannoverians (or maybe vterans only) had rights to Settlement in Canada.

P.S: Ernst Jünger was doing his WW1 stunts in a Uniform with a "GIBRALTAR" sleeve-band since the Regiment was by Hannoverian extraction and took part in the defense of Gibraltar for the Brits against the French and Spanish somewhere ehhm 1780ish to 1820ish. So these things were not forgotten for a long time.

Greets

Namxat

 

[ironhorse]

I've also discovered KGL in Canada
Not as obscure as some others but it is a decent find you got there
I got this button earlier this year

 

[Hawks88]

Interesting find. Congrats

 

[tdemelle]

I found this and was wondering is anyone Has any ever heard of any of the kings German legion fighting in Canada?

I found your post searching for connections between the King's German Legion and Nova Scotia. I've been trying to trace back my ancestry and am stuck at my Great^4 Grandfather, Levi Dimmell, who I believe was a veteran of the King's German Legion who received a landgrant in the Sherbrooke settlement in Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia in 1822. I suspect KGL veterans may have been extended landgrant opportunities in Nova Scotia.

Very cool artifact!

 

[Reanm8er]

Welcome Demonye nice recovery in very good condition! You would think they would have learned from the way they treated
the Hessians. The British basically abandoned them in the field. Some of them were actually sold to private citizens after
the war!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I didn't think "Germany" was a place until Prussia and Austria formed a confederation with 37 other kingdoms in in 1815 to form the Deutscher Bund ("German Confederation").

I guess it's possible others called the whole Region "Germany" before the locals formed up.

 

[A2coins]

Thats freakin cool I might also vote banner but need more info like where did you find it how did you find... Well done great piece of History

 

[yaxthri]

I didn't think "Germany" was a place until Prussia and Austria formed a confederation with 37 other kingdoms in in 1815 to form the Deutscher Bund ("German Confederation").

I guess it's possible others called the whole Region "Germany" before the locals formed up.

To be precise that would have been the Romans, "Germania" they called an extended region that was where now Germany is and Julius Caesar first wrote down the word...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germania