Don -- You have some obvious errors in your accoun: > My ancestor, Conrad Kremer, is cited in two Virginia local histories as a > "Hessian deserter from British service." He was born about May 1778 in > Hesse-Kassel and may have served in Grenadier Regiment von Rall and > captured at Trenton. > His true surname may have been a variant of Kremer, perhaps Krammell, or > Kram. <<CLIP>> He was not born in May 1778 and taken POW in Dec 1776. The only man with a name similar to this taken in Rall's Regiment was Conrad Cramm/Kram from Burguffeln. In the various accounts in HETRINA III his birth is listed as 1745/46, 1746/47 (3 times) and 1755/56., He was captured at Trenton and imprisoned at Lancaster. He was named on a list of POWs sent from Lancaster to Philadelphia on 29 July 1778 under escort of the 9th Pennsylvania Regiment. He is listed as a deserter in April 1779, then ransomed and arrested for desertion in May 1780, then released from Arrest in Nov 1780 and then in July 1783 he again is listed as a deserter. > While a prisoner of war he enlisted in the American Army in May 1777, at > Valley Forge, as a Private in the Company of Artillery commanded by Capt. > Bartholomew von Heer (Col. Procter's 4th Artillery Regiment). He > reenlisted in July > 1778 in Captain von Heer's newly organized Company of "Marechausee Corps" > and > became Quartermaster Sergeant. There may have been other former Hessian > soldiers > in the Marechausee Corps. Conrad was discharged from the Marechausee Corps > in > July 1780 at Reading, PA. To the best of my knowledge, there was no American presence at Valley Forge before Washington elected that place for his winter quarter during the winter 1777/1778. The fact that you "Conrad Kremmer" ended up in two American artillery units suggests prior artillery experience. There were a number of members of the Hesse-Cassel Artillery captured at Trenton including one Heinrich Kramer; however he is listed on the 17 June 1778 list of POWs sent from Lancaster to Philadelphia to be exchanged. I do not own the HETRINA index covering the Hesse-Cassel Artillery. Also captured at Trenton were Christoph Kramer of the Regiment von Loßburg (of Soldorf, born 1754-55), Heinrich Cramer/Kramer from Regiment von Knyphausen (of Loshausen, born 1751/52) and Grenadier Francis Kramer (probably from Waldeck). Christoph was named on the 17 June 1778 exchange list but never shows up again in the regimental roles. Heinrich went home to Germany at the end of the war. He, too, was on the 17 June 1778 exchange list. Sorry, but that is all I have on that name(s). Bob Brooks