Lindenmuth, Johann Michael, The Journal of (1737-1812)
- Author: Brigitte Burkett
- SKU: 1943
- ISBN: 0897254058
- Our Price:
$19.95
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Description:
LINDENMUTH, JOHANN MICHAEL, The Journal of (1737-1812). Transcribed and translated by Brigitte Burkett. 128pp, 5½" x 8½", soft cover, 1,102 entry Every Name Index. 2000.
Johann Michael Lindenmuth (1737-1812) has left us one of the better day-to-day journals of the French & Indian War as well as a brief journal of his service in the Revolutionary War. Only 15 when his parents brought the family from the Odenwald in Germany to Pennsylvania, within a few short years Johann Michael Lindenmuth was entangled in a war even more vicious than those the family had left behind in Europe. Young Lindenmuth enlisted in 1756, barely 19, for three years to fight "die Indianer und Franzoßen". His father, also named Johann Michael Lindenmuth, enlisted only two weeks later.
When Lindenmuth was discharged in December 1759, he had fought through a multitude of the battles, skirmishes, and ambushes in western Pennsylvania. In a laconic, direct, and simple style he tells of what happened, who did it, and why. Amid the tales of scalping, looting, murder, mayhem and of boredom, fatigue, hunger, and despair, Lindenmuth also tells us of his family and friends, his ancestors, and his children and grandchildren.
Having survived the French & Indian War, Lindenmuth settled down quietly in western Pennsylvania as a prosperous, hard-working farmer. Barely fifteen years later, the American Revolution broke out. By 1778, Lindenmuth, now 51, had already had twelve children by his two wives, and was soon to have four more. Still, he rose to the occasion and was soon back in military service.
The Revolutionary War portion of his journal begins in 1778 and continues through to the end of hostilities. In keeping with his laconic manner, he does not mention his appointment 10 May 1780 as Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth Battalion of Militia in Berks County, Pennsylvania, but the actual 1780 certificate was found with the journal. This section of the journal is less detailed than that covering the French & Indian war, yet even it will be of interest to historians and genealogists.
Rounding out this unique and valuable journal is a genealogical account by Lewis Bunker Rohrbach, cg of the Lindenmuth family from about 1635 and continuing until Johann Michael Lindenmuth's death in 1812. Brigitte Burkett has done a masterful transcription and translation of the original German diary, which itself is now lost.
