Thursday, May 27, 2010

Oswald Kesselbach, Pennsylvania 1778 & 1793.

As a surname researcher I search for unusual name and the name of Kesselbach which I believe by the spelling is German?, sure fits that category. The person that I’m looking for is Oswald Kesselbach he seems to be a mystery. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and had a honorable war record. But he is not found in the Pennsylvania Archives nor on any military rosters that I could find, nor any family trees or other Surnames sites. So I have turn to you the public to help me solve this mystery.

After reading his disability claim I could tell he was a brave man and would never give up, and I wanted to know more about him. Who was his family and what did he do after the war? He seem to have been forgotten through time and I think it’s time to tell his story, so his name will not be forgotten.

This information is from his disability claim and is all I know about him. If you have any information on him no matter how small I would like to hear about it. His story should be a interesting one and I would like to tell it.

The following was recorded by the Judge of the District Court for the District of Pennsylvania.

Oswald Kesselbach.

Oswald Kesselbach, was from Pennsylvania, county of Philadelphia was a private in the Pelaski’s Legion and was at the battle of Little Egg Harbor in 1778. Where he was wounded in action with part of the British troops in which he received three bayonet wounds to his private parts, and five in his back; that he was then put in the military hospital at Trenton, and afterwards discharged by his commanding officer as unfit for duty; that he then reentered into the Corps of Artillery Artificers of Pennsylvania, in which he served four years two months and seven days, and until the end of the war, and was discharged by Brigadier General R. Hampton, on the day of October 31, 1783. His claim shows his evidence was complete and would receive a pension of half pay.

United States Pension Rolls.

He was found on the Invalid rolls of Pennsylvania as his residence could be ascertained because of the destruction of the papers of’ the War Office in 1801 and 1814.

Oswald Kesselbach also spelled Kesselback, was a private, his allowance was $30., dollars per year, the sums he received was $ 180.08, he was of the Revolutionary army, the date he was placed on the pension roll is unknown, the commencement of his pension was on March 4, 1793. There is no other information him.

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