This DAR Memorial was placed in 1926. This site was one of two Allentown locations of a POW camp for Hessian soldiers, German mercenaries hired by the British Crown to fight in America. The prisoners housed at both these sites were said to have been captured at the famous Battle of Trenton, where Washington crossed the Delaware and surprised them on Christmas Day, 1776. The other site is not memorialized. It was placed on the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Trenton.
The 1920s were a busy period for the Liberty Bell Chapter of the DAR. Several important historical sites were identified and marked. On Oct. 11, 1926, they placed three markers around Allentown in one day. This is one of those markers.
From a local television station's website, more details are provided:
"Barely able to care for his own men, Washington ordered the Hessian prisoners sent to Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence had particularly accused George III of using hired foreign mercenaries in its list of causes for America breaking with Britain. It was hoped by patriot leaders that this display of the hated enemy would rouse the people to their cause.
For at least some of the Hessians, this whole war was a nightmare that they felt was not their affair. One of the Hessians captured at Trenton who kept a diary stated that he and his comrades had been told that they were going to America to defend settlers from Indian attacks. They were shocked to discover, he claimed, that they were ordered to kill Americans to put down a revolution.
The Hessians captured at Trenton were placed in makeshift prisons. The major location in Allentown was a log stockade at the corner of 8th and Hamilton. How long it was used for this purpose isn't known. But it must have been strongly made, because it lasted until 1873, when it was blown apart in a cyclonic wind storm.
Even less is known of the Gordon Street site. Writing in the Anniversary History of Lehigh County, designed to celebrate Lehigh County's 100th anniversary in 1912, Charles Rhoads Roberts had this to say. "Early in the year 1777, a number of Hessians taken prisoner at Trenton were brought to Allentown and kept in tents. The camp was located in the northern part of the town in the neighborhood of Gordon Street according to the testimony of an old citizen."
The fate of many of the Hessian prisoners was to be sent off as farm laborers. Although in the case of the Lehigh Valley, where they were surrounded by fellow German speakers, this was apparently not always a boon. To many Pennsylvania Germans they were Americans and, despite their ancestry, the Hessians were the enemy.
On the other hand, there are stories that at times a farmer seeking a good farm hand, and possibly a match for his daughter, would ask the prison guard to turn his head while he picked a potential laborer or husband. There is no way of knowing how much of this went on but, there are the numbers."
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