Anthony Halberstadt Chapter

Anthony Halberstadt was a Hessian soldier, one of the German mercenaries hired by the British Crown to fight the American colonists. In the early morning hours of December 26, 1776, General George Washington led his troops across the icy Delaware River and surprised the Hessian garrison at the Battle of Trenton.

Halberstadt was among those captured. But rather than await prisoner exchange, he made a fateful choice: he turned his back on the Crown and joined the American cause. He served as a teamster for a Continental Army officer, hauling supplies and equipment through the campaigns that would win a nation its freedom.

After the war, Halberstadt settled in the new republic he had helped create. His descendant, Jim Halberstadt, would go on to found the Fort Wayne chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, naming it in honor of the Hessian soldier who chose liberty.