1. Johann von Ewald was a German army officer from Hesse-Kassel.
20 Facts About Johann Ewald
1. 2.
Johann Ewald saw regular action until his capture at Yorktown in 1781.
3.
Johann Ewald kept a journal during most of his time in North America that has since become a valuable resource for historians of the war.
4.
Johann Ewald's father Georg Heinrich Ewald was a bookkeeper, and his mother, Katharina Elisabeth, was the daughter of a Kassel merchant.
5.
Johann Ewald was transferred to the guards, where he was promoted to second lieutenant in 1766.
6.
Johann Ewald enrolled in the Collegium Carolinum, where he studied military theory and economics.
7.
Johann Ewald was promoted to captain in 1774, the last promotion he would receive in the Kassel service.
8.
Johann Ewald served with some distinction in the New Jersey and Philadelphia campaigns, where he was involved in battles at Mount Holly, Brandywine, and Germantown.
9.
Johann Ewald analyzed the debacle in his journal, pointing out that the garrison should not have been summoned to surrender, and that the main thrust of the attack was misplaced.
10.
In 1779 Johann Ewald's company was involved in British operations to capture key American defenses at Stony Point, New York.
11.
At the time, a small detachment of Johann Ewald's jagers was apparently the only force providing defense against a large detachment of American militia on the far side of a creek.
12.
Johann Ewald was with that force through its movements in Virginia.
13.
However, Johann Ewald recounts making a patrol into the no mans land between the two forces, and having to force groups of those unfortunates to move further toward the American lines.
14.
Johann Ewald spent 1782 and 1783 with the rest of the jager corps on Long Island.
15.
On his return, Johann Ewald was reassigned to the Regiment von Dittfurth.
16.
Johann Ewald was hopeful for action, as there were rumors that Denmark would be drawn into the war just begun between Russia and Sweden.
17.
Johann Ewald was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Danish army, and authorized to raise a corps of jagers in the Duchy of Schleswig, then a Danish territory.
18.
Johann Ewald was given command of a light infantry battalion in 1790, and raised to the Danish nobility.
19.
Johann Ewald was again in the vanguard of the military forces, responsible for the defense of the Duchy of Holstein, which represented Denmark's southern frontier.
20.
Johann Ewald continued to serve in command of Danish forces stationed in Schleswig-Holstein, but saw no further action.