Col. Nicholas Haussegger and Elizabeth [Unk]

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Husband Col. Nicholas Haussegger ^{1 2}

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           Born:  - Kingdom of Hanover, Germany
     Christened: 
           Died: Jul 1786 - near Lebanon, Lebanon Co, PA 3
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 

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Wife Elizabeth [Unk] ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft Jul 1786
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 F Sarah Haussegger ²

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Daniel Weidel (      -      ) 2 3

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2 F [Unk] Haussegger

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Nicholas Krehl (      -      ) 3

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General Notes: Husband - Col. Nicholas Haussegger

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He was 1st Commanding Officer of a Pennsylvania German Regiment in the Revolutionary War. He later deserted to the British, for whom he had fought in the French and Indian Wars. [LFA, 69]

He came to America as a subaltern officer during the early struggle between England and France, about 1744. He was a native of the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, which may probably account for his being in the British service. He subsequently resigned and came to Pennsylvania, where we find him during the French and Indian war as lieutenant of Capt. Atlee's company of the Pennsylvania regiment, commissioned May 6, 1760. It is more than probable he was in the previous campaign under Gen. Forbes, but the rolls of officers for that period are incomplete. On the 11th of November, 1763, he was commissioned captain in the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by the Hon. John Penn, Esq., having distinguished himself at the battle of Bushy Run, in the expedition under Bouquet. During the summer of 1764 he was stationed on the frontiers in Heidelberg township to guard against Indian forays from the northward. For his services in the Provincial war he participated in the land grants by the Proprietaries, and became possessed of a tract of land containing five hundred and thirty-three acres located in what is now Liberty township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. This he seems to have disposed of before 1774 to Thomas Willing, of Philadelphia. Prior to the Revolution he purchased a farm near Lebanon, where he lived and on which he ended his days. At the commencement of the war for independence he entered heartily into the contest, and was commissioned major of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion, Col. Anthony Wayne, Jan. 4, 1776, and until the 18th of September following shared in the fortunes and privations of that command at Three Rivers, and in the Canada campaign. Congress by a resolution, June 27, 1776, directed four companies of Germans to be raised in Pennsylvania, which was subsequently increased to five, which, with four companies in Maryland, were to compose the German battalion, and of which Maj. Nicholas Haussegger was commissioned colonel, to rank from July 17, 1776. The regiment was in the field and engaged at Trenton and Princeton, and in May, 1777, was in Debore's brigade, Sullivan's division. It is stated in the "History of the Pennsylvania Line in the Revolution" that Col. Haussegger "deserted to the British after the battle of Monmouth, and nothing can be ascertained of his subsequent history." This statement was obtained no doubt from somebody's memoirs, which must always be taken with a few grains of allowance. As the records of the Revolution are exceedingly meagre, it is impossible to state when and how Col. Haussegger left his command. During the Sullivan expedition of 1779, Lieut.-Col. Weltner was in command of the German regiment. He is not alluded to as colonel commanding, which would have been the case had Col. Haussegger deserted to the British or resigned. The probabilities are that he was absent on sick leave, and that, until the regiment was mustered out of service, he was really the commanding officer. He was in 1780 on his farm in Lebanon township, where we would not have found him had he become the traitor we are led to believe; the patriots of that section would not have tolerated his presence, and his estate would have been forfeited. He died on his farm near the borough of Lebanon, in and must have been ill a long time. Another point which antagonizes the charge of treason is that his heirs participated in the donation land-grants awarded by the State of Pennsylvania to its meritorious and brave officers and soldiers of the Revolution. We desire to do justice to the memory of a gallant soldier, and are delighted that the facts we have gathered will show how fallacious the charge. [HLC 1883, 273]

1 William Henry Egle, History of the County of Lebanon in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 273.

2 Lesher Families in America, Pg 69.

3 William Henry Egle, History of the County of Lebanon in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 274.