Just a thought that your Appel ancestor might be related to mine. My Hessian ancestor was Johann Jakob Holzapfel. Johann Jakob Holzapfel (Jacob Holsapple) born in 1749 in the Eschwege area near the river Werra in Hesse-Kassel, Prussia. He was conscripted into the Erbprinz Regiment in 1775 and left Portsmouth, England, arriving in New York in Aug of 1776. His unit was in the Battle of Brooklyn Heights and other battles in the New York area. Jakob was listed on the 1775 Muster Roll as a Private with the Hesse-Kassel Regiment Erbprinz, and is listed as a deserter in August 1781. He remained in the colonies after the peace of 1781.