Author: Charles Darwin Dobias

Johann Peter von Hachenberg was born in Germany in 1741, allegedly the third son of a minor prince in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the age of 23, Peter immigrated to Philadelphia and in 1765 married Anna Elizabeth Siphers. Over the next 15 years, the couple had seven children (three boys and four girls). Peter was a schoolmaster, teaching Latin, Greek, French, and German, and he also worked as a surveyor. He moved his family several times through the years, apparently following available surveying jobs in good weather and teaching during the winters. 

In July 1776, as the American Revolution intensified, Peter enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia and was commissioned as an Ensign and assigned to a “flying camp,” a mobile reserve force assigned to the Continental Army. His unit was soon sent to Fort Washington, a critical American stronghold on Manhattan Island. The Patriots still held Manhattan at the time, but the British had captured Long Island and White Plains and were quickly moving toward Fort Washington and Manhattan. 

On 16 Nov, the British and their Hessian allies attacked. The greatly outnumbered Americans put up a gallant resistance but were forced to capitulate. Ensign Hachenberg was taken prisoner along with several hundred others. As an officer, he was not incarcerated but was paroled on Long Island, which was occupied by the British. He remained a prisoner for virtually the remainder of the war.

Family tradition asserts that in about January 1781, Peter broke his parole briefly in order to visit his wife and family. The story is that Peter came home and hid in the barn until his wife came outside to hang laundry. Peter promptly whistled and hit her with a thrown apple into which he had carved his initials. Official records support the claim, as they verify that Peter broke his parole but later “...voluntarily returned to captivity agreeable to orders.” A record listing him as a prisoner dated the 18th of March 1780 noted that he was eligible for release, but other records show him still a prisoner on the 5th of August 1782.

When Peter Hachenberg was actually released is unknown. His youngest child, Sophia, was born in October 1781 (apparently after he had broken his parole), but by 1785 Peter and his family had settled in Freeburg in what is now Snyder County, Pennsylvania. His wife died in 1808, and at the time of his death in 1820, Peter was living in Middleburg. He was buried beside his wife in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Freeburg.

 

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