I suppose that Messrs. Klein, Fearer, and
Kleinsmit (named in the resolution of Congress of 1778, and whom, from
their names, I conjecture to be Germans) offered to enlist a body of men
from among the German prisoners taken with General Burgoyne at Saratoga,
on condition that Fearer and Kleinsmit should be captains over them, and
Klein, lieutenant colonel. Three months seem to have been allowed them
for raising their corps. However, at the end of ten months it seems they
had engaged but twenty-four men, and that all of these, except five, had
deserted. Congress, therefore, put an end to the project, June the 21st,
1779, (and not in July, 1780, as Monsieur Klein says) by informing him
they had no further use for his services, and giving him a year's pay
and subsistence to bring him to Europe. He chose to stay there three and
a half longer, as he says, to solicit what was due to him. Nothing could
ever have been due to him, but pay and subsistence for the ten months
he was trying to enlist men, and the donation of a year's pay and
subsistence; and it is not probable he would wait three years and a half
to receive these.
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