The commanding officer of a company would usually be a captain, although it could be a lieutenant if there were vacancies. If the listed birth date is correct, then the Captain was really 22 or 23 when he enlisted, which would have made him 30 by the end of the war in 1783. Not a particularly young officer. If the birth date is wrong and he enlisted at 16 in 1775 or 1776, then the Captain would have been 23 or 24 at the end of the war, which would make him a young Captain, but not impossibly so. It is also possible that the Captain wasn't a captain when his company took charge of the prisoners, but was by the time they finished their mission. The furnished information does not mention his rank when he enlisted, although the term would seem to imply not as an officer. However, rank could be quite fluid in the American Army, so that doesn't mean he couldn't have enlisted as a private. Its also possible that Mr. Downey wasn't telling the truth about his enlistment age, or his rank at the end of the war, or both. Just a thought. -----Original Message----- From: S9359338@aol.com Sent: Mar 16, 2005 9:29 AM To: AMREV-HESSIANS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HESSIAN] General K In a message dated 3/15/05 11:58:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, JeanShar40@aol.com writes: page 605 Mr. Downey came out of the Revoultion as a captain, having enlisted in his sixteenth year. He was one of the guard to escort to Frederick Town the Hessian prisoners captured by Washington at Trenton NJ. page 609 John Downey, the grandfather was born Aug 20, 1753 and died 26 September, 1825. He enlisted in the army at the beginning of the Revolution, and served throughout the entire war, coming out with the rank of captain. He was detailed with his company to guard the Hessian prisoners taken at Trenton and sent to Frederick. If he were born in l753 his 16th year would appear to be l760 or 1770. which would seem to be much earlier than the beginning of the revolution although those dates may be compatible? I am quite surprised that a 16 year old could rise to Captain in such a short time as that would seem to be a very high rank for the time. I suspect that was quite uncommon for the time but realize that there were almost no professional soldiers in the American side of the Revolutionary War. He must have been quite talented. Possibly the report of "His Company" did not mean that he was ranking officer in that company, but it seems to imply that. On a biography it could mean that he was just a member of that company and his rank came afterward. I am not sure of the rank of a Company ranking officer. Charles Severs ==== AMREV-HESSIANS Mailing List ==== The Source HETRINA has been discussed more often than anything else, you find the explanations by checking the key word archive. You can find it by typing in "26 feb 1999" and look for HETRINA. Or check the Threaded Archives for February 1999 - Hetrina publication. You can search the archives for a specific message or browse them, going from one message to another. To search: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/?list=AMREV-HESSIANS To browse: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/AMREV-HESSIANS-L ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx

> page 605 > Mr. Downey came out of the Revoultion as a captain, having > enlisted in his sixteenth year. > He was one of the guard to escort to Frederick Town the Hessian > prisoners captured by Washington at Trenton NJ. I am not aware of any of the Hessians captured at Trenton in 1776 being sent to Frederick town (Maryland). I think prehaps the only German ("Hessian") POWs marched to Frederick were those taken at Yorktown or transferred there at the close of the war. Looks to me like the old boy's memory wasn't too good -- or maybe he didn't want to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Bob Brooks