16178 - Hessian Leib Infantry Regiment Officer, 1776

The Leib Regiment was one of the first Hessian battalions to arrive in British North America. Colonel Friedrich von Wurmb was the regiment’s commanding officer and, by all accounts, one of the army’s better officers. Major Mackenzie of the British 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers wrote that Wurmb was “clear headed and cool” and that his regiment was “the best disciplined in the Hessian Corps.” With the ruler of Hesse-Kassel’s son Erbprinz Wilhelm at its head, the regiment was a favored unit in the Hessian Army. Apparently it consisted of taller and fitter men than the other line regiments. It certainly seems to have performed more than adequately in the American War of Independence. The regiment participated in the battles at White Plains, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. From 1778 to 1783 it was on garrison duty in New York.