On August 12, 1776—250 years ago today—General Horatio Gates sent Dr. Jonathan Potts a most intriguing letter. Gates, stationed at Fort Ticonderoga, had heard a rumor from Dr. Potts’ military hospital at Fort George. “I am inform’d,” he writes, “that the Baron de Woedkle some time before his Death, made a Solemn Declaration to you of matters that highly concern the Interest of the United States, you will please forthwith to Communicate to me the Substance of the Barons Declaration.”
Friedrich Wilhelm, Baron de Woedtke, was a cavalry officer who had made his name in the Prussian Army before his expulsion for marrying without the king’s permission. Woedtke traveled to America in early 1776. He made a good impression on the Continental Congress, despite knowing almost no English and little French, and was commissioned as a brigadier general. He joined the army’s invasion of and retreat from Canada, serving on the council of war that made the decision to retreat from Crown Point to Ticonderoga. Only a few weeks later, on July 28, he died at the Fort George hospital. He had earned a reputation as an inept alcoholic during his short time with the army. Many assumed that he died from the effects of alcohol consumption, although he may simply have died of disease.
Potts’ reply to this letter has not been found, so the substance of Woedtke’s deathbed declaration, if it existed, is unknown. What information could Woedtke have had that “highly concern[ed] the Interest of the United States”? His last surviving letter, written to Gates on July 20, urges the arrest of a Mr. Hare, who was falsely claiming to hold a commission as a major and pretending to have Woedtke’s approval—could the Hare situation have been weighing on his mind in the hours before his death, or did he have other information he felt the need to pass along? Unless more sources come to light, the baron’s deathbed confession will stay one of history’s mysteries.
Learn more about this letter (object ID MS.1952) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29821