Author: Howard F. Horne, Jr.
HENRICH HORN
Served with 5th Company von Knyphaussen Regiment as a Private
Served with Company 2, 3rd Battalion, Pennsylvania Continentals
Served in Pulaski's Legion as a Captain
Served with 4th Virginia Regiment, Troop of Horses as a Private

Henrich (Henry) Horn was born October 15, 1758 near Horn, Hesse Kassel, Germany. He arrived in America as a Hessian soldier. His services were conscripted by the Landgraff of Hesse-Kassel. The Landgraff or Prince was a cusin of King George III of Great Britain, thus the regiment fought for the British. Agents of the Landgrave rounded up approximately 17,000 young men to serve as Auxiliaries of the British Army. The Regiment fought in the Battles of Long Island, Boston, Brandywine and were garrisoned in Trenton, New Jersey.

General Washington gathered his forces on Christmas Day, 1776 and that night crossed the Delaware and attacked Trenton where approximately 1000 Hessians were captured. Approximately 200 were from the Von Knyphaussen Regiment, including Henrich Horn. The captives were marched to Lancaster, Pennsylvania (A journey that took nearly four days). Not long after his capture Henry Horn escaped and joined Company 2, 3rd Battalion, Pennsylvania Continentals. Shortly thereafter the Regiment marched to Winter Quarters in Valley Forge. In March, 1778 Henry Horn joined Pulaski’s Legion. Henry Horn was with the Legion when it left Valley Forge and proceeded to New Jersey and engaged the British at Monmouth. Following this battle the Legion proceeded south through Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. During this time Henry Horn was promoted to Captain and began serving as a spy for Pulaski. Pulaski was killed at the Battle of Savannah and the Legion was disbanded.

Pulaski’s Forces were asked to join Armand’s Corps following Pulaski’s death. Henry Horn elected not to do so. Instead, he made his way north to Loudoun County, Virginia where he enlisted on 24 December 1778 in the 4th Virginia Regiment as a Private in the Troop of Horses under the Command of Captain John Stith. He served as a spy and an aide for the duration of the Revolutionary War. He was adept at locating the enemy and able to quickly return to his unit to report the whereabouts of enemy forces and describe their activities. At the war’s end he returned to Loudoun County where he exercised his right to bounty land in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Shortly after the end of the war Henry Horn returned to Loudoun County where he met and subsequently married Elizabeth Pretsman in Baltimore, Maryland in 1782. The Horns’ attended Methodist Church services in Leesburg, Virginia and in time converted to Methodism. Henry Horn was Ordained a Minister of the Methodist Church at a meeting of the Baltimore Conference by Bishop Asbury and assigned as a Circuit Rider in Western Pennsylvania. The Horn family, including 7 children (an eighth child was born in Bedford County) moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1798. Henry Horn and his sons built the Horn Church in Alum Bank, Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1802. Henry Horn died 8 May 1845 in West St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Pretsman Horn died 6 October 1840. They are buried across the road from the Horn Church next to each other.

I, Howard F. Horne am descended from Henry and Elizabeth Horn’s sixth child, Andrew Horne. All but one of the Horn Children spelled their name HORN – My ancestor spelled his name HORNE.

In 1997 my wife Nancy and I had Henry and Elizabeth Horn’s tombstones repaired. Both were in considerable disrepair!