An exhibit on the German soldiers
Saratoga National Historical Park visitor center
photographed 16 August 2026
This is the first blog post I've written this year about a Loyalist ancestor, for the 250th anniversary of the United States. Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman was born at Hammersleben, Magdeburg, about 1751 and came to North America with Baron de Riedesel's Brunswick Regiment in 1776. Magdeburg is on the Elbe river in Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt. He was my fourth great grandfather, and would have been about 25 years old in 1776.
In January 1776 King George of England contracted with the Duke of Brunswick to send troops to America. These soldiers left Brunswick in February under the newly promoted Major General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel. Sixteen ships traveled across the North Atlantic in six weeks, reaching Quebec City in June. The Baron de Riedesel's wife and children followed, and arrived in July. They were part of a British plan under General Burgoyne to cut off New England from the other southern colonies. The first big battle of this campaign was at Bennington, Vermont, in August, and was soon followed by the battles at Saratoga, New York in October. The British forces lost both battles, and surrendered at Saratoga on 17 October 1777. The defeated army was marched to Cambridge (outside of Boston, Massachusetts), including the de Riedesel family and all the captured prisoners of war - German and English.
Johann Daniel Bollman was the compagnie feldscher (company surgeon) under Captain Julius Poellnitz's company of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment under Major General Von Riedesel. This was all under Burgoyne's army in the Northern Campaign of 1777. He was part of the Battles of Saratoga, including the Battle of Freeman's Farm fought on 19 September 1777.
Dr. Johann Bollman was taken prisoner at Saratoga when he was wounded. As a prisoner he aided wounded British soldiers, and was part of the field hospital set up along banks of the Hudson River below the battlefields. He was part of the march to Cambridge, and was included in the prisoner exchange when some British troops were sent to Halifax. Most of the other prisoners, known as the Convention Army, were marched south to Virginia. Under the terms of the "Convention of Saratoga" it was agreed by truce that the troops would be sent back to Europe and not fight again in the conflict. It is estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers were captured at Saratoga (British, German, Canadian and other loyalists). In Cambridge about 1,300 escaped. Another 600 men escaped during the march to Charlottesville, Virginia later in 1779. They were held there for about four years.
We know that Dr. Bollman must have been part of the earlier prisoner exchange to Halifax prior to 1779, since he petitioned for compensation for providing medical services in Nova Scotia for the period of 25 November 1779 to 10 March 1780. He married, Jane Bremner, the widow of German settler Philip Augustus Knaut, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on 14 February 1782.
The Baron Von Riedesel's wife, Frederika Charlotte, kept a journal of her experiences in America. Her writing includes witnessing the Battle of Freeman's Farm on 19 September 1777 in Saratoga. She describes the battle, and caring for the wounded in the aftermath. She witnessed the surrender at Schuylerville on 17 October, and traveled with the defeated army to Boston with her children. She and her family, including the children, were prisoners for four years as part of the Convention Army. Her letters and journal were pubished in a book in 1800. Although she never names Dr. Bollman, he must have worked with the Baroness, and seen the same horrific wounds and sights. It is a valuable book for understanding the battle and the prisoners of war.
Later in Nova Scotia, Dr. Bollman became active in politics and served as a member of the House of Assembly representing Lunenburg Township from 1793 to 1809. He was appointed one of the first Health Officers in Nova Scotia on 14 May 1799. In the Nova Scotia Archives there is another petition of John Bolman to the House of Assembly requesting reimbursement for vaccinating Mi'kmaq in Mahone Bay for small pox in 1817.
Dr. Bollman also appeared before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1793. He was running for office agains Lewis Morris Wilkins. After Dr. Bollman's election was announced, Wilkins and some followers trashed Dr. Bollman's house and apothecary shop in Lunenburg. They destroyed 150 window panes as well as doors and furniture. In the medicine shop over 100 bottles were destroyed. Bollman's lawyer wrote "His said dwelling house was rendered uninhabitable, his family and himself obliged to fly from the same and his business and trade as a Druggist and Apothecary was totaly prevented, stopeped and put to an end so that the said John Bolman being obliged to ship up his said shop the windows thereof and the Drugs and Medicines as aforesaid and divers other wrongs and outrages then and there committed against the peace of our Lord." According to Dr. Bollman, Wilkins called him "that Hessian Bugger". (see the book Surgeons, Smallpox and the Poor below)
Johann Daniel Bollman and his wife, Jane, had eleven children born in Lunenburg:
1. Jane, born 1 Jan 1764, married John Pernette
2. John, born 1785, died 16 May 1811 at the Battle of Albuera in Spain
3. Henry, born 1 August 1787, married to Mary (Unknown)
4. Mary, born 25 Noember 1788, died 9 February 1865 in New Dublin, Nova Scotia (unmarried?)
5. Ann, born 22 December 1790, died 21 March 1872 (unmarried?)
6. Robert, born 1 April 1793, died 8 August 1817 drowned at sea
7. James Bethel, born 26 May 1795, died before 1833
8. Caroline, born 16 May 1797, married Roger Aitkan
9. Edward Bremner, born 23 October 1799, married Sarah Creighton
10. Bremner Frederick (my 3rd great grandfather), born 25 February 1802, married Sarah Elizabeth Lennox and had three children. I descend from from their daughter, Ann Margaret Bollman (1835 - 1923) who married Professor Caleb Rand Bill of Nictaux, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia and they removed to Salem, Massachusetts (my great, great grandparents).
11. Charles Morris, born 23 December 1805, married Clara Collins
In the records of the Anglican church in Lunenburg you can find the deaths of Johann Bollman and his wife. He died on 17 September 1833 and she preceded him on 6 March 1829. There doesn't seem to be a tombstone for either one of them in the local cemeteries. He served as a doctor in Lunenburg for 54 years.
For the truly curious:
"Surname Saturday ~ BOLLMAN, my Hessian Ancestor", posted 1 March 2014: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-bollman-my-hessian.html
"The Hessian soldier who stayed in the New World", posted 19 November 2009: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-part-4.html
Frederika Charlotte Riedesel, Letters and Journals relating to the War of the American Revolution, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, by Mrs. General Riedesel. Translated by William L. Stone, published at Albany 1867. Available to read and download at Google Books online.
The Hessians of Nova Scotia, 1994, compiled by Johannes Helmut Merz.
The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz, 1965, University of Michigan, see page 111 for references to Dr. Johann Bollman.
Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799, By Allan Everett Marble, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, pages 160- 161 for references to Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman.
A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758 - 1958, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1958.
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Loyalist Ancestors - The Hessian soldier, Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 1, 2016, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/my-loyalist-ancestors-hessian-soldier.html: accessed [access date]).
