Arnold Bitters
Myths and Facts

Myth

From Albert Bitters Family, Fulton County Folks:

John Bitters was the son of Arnold and Mary Bitters, who were born in Prussia. ‘The name was formerly Von Bitter. I think this Arnold Bitters was the one I heard spoken of as Count Von Bitter. I used to have a tin type picture of Arnold and Mary. Their children besides John were Rebecca. William and Esther. All four were born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Arnold Bitters was a Prussian soldier, hired by the King of England to fight against the Colonists in the Revolutionary War. He deserted a British warship in Boston harbor 1782, jumped overboard at midnight, swam ashore, and joined George Washington’s army. He was in the siege of Yorktown and witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, September 28,1782.

Fact

Mary Neigh Bitters was born November 11, 1772, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania the daughter of John Michael Neigh and Margriet Van Etten.

We know Mary could write her name as she signed the Estate Papers of her husband Arnold.

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1792 Arnold purchased 25 acres in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania adjoining land owned by Mary Neigh Bitter's brother Michael Neigh. Land Records

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Arnold Bitter died in 1803, Estate File - Northampton County, Pennsylvania Will # 2198 year 1803.
The American Museum of Photography tells us that "Tintypes were the invention of Prof. Hamilton Smith of Ohio. First made in 1856, millions were produced well into the twentieth century." There could not have been a tin type of Arnold and Mary. Possibly their son, John Bitter and his wife.

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While it is exciting to think of Arnold creeping across the ship's deck and silently slipping into the water to swim across Boston Harbor in the dead of night and somehow finding his way to General Washingon in a strange land, this story has several problems...

The first is that the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, occured October 19th, 1781. If Arnold had jumped ship in 1782 he would have missed the entire battle.

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Recieved from Bob Hudson
see Bob's website for More Jumper Stories

It's interesting how many of those "tales" there are about German soldiers supposedly jumping ship, swimming ashore and joining George Washington's Army. I wonder if anyone actually ever did that? I doubt it - for one thing most of the Hessians and other German troops sailed into Canada and marched to the Colonies and were never on a ship in American harbors, although the Von Lossberg regiment actually did arrive at Staten Island.

It's also interesting that your family tale had Private Bitters as "Count Von Bitter." Of course, a member of nobillity would never have served as a private in an Army of draftees (I doubt that too many of them even served as officers in the forces that fought with the British).

In September 1779, the prisoners from Trenton were reunited with their regiment and the von Lossberg and Knyphausen regiments were ordered to go to Quebec City.

The Von Lossberg Regiment was part of the forces sent from the principality of Hesse-Cassel (which is now the German state of Hesse and the origin of the name "Hessians," a named that was applied to all of the Germans serving with the British even though many of them came from other states). Lohe was in Hanover, which was completely independent of Brandenburg-Prussia until 1866, so Bitters would not have been a Prussian. Now I'm not sure how the Hanover boys ended up in the Hessian army, but it may have something to do with the fact that the King of England was a member of the House of Hanover.

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Arnd Bitters, born 1757/58, Lohe Federal Republic of Germany, Rank Private, on leave April 1775, Unit Von Lossberg Regiment.
Arnold Bitters, Rank Servant, Prisioner of War, February 1777, Unit Von Lossberg Regiment.

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Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, Inc. an association dedicated to the history of the Hessian Soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War makes available the Trenton Prisioner List where we learn that Arnold was taken prisioner at the Battle of Trenton (December 26, 1776) and was then taken to Dumfries, Virginia.

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In 1800 we find Arnold in Lower Mt. Bethel Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
Census Page 593 Males = 2 under 10, 1 26-45.
Females= 1 under 10, 1 26-45.


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