Friedrich Adolf Riedesel was born on June 3, 1738, at Lauterbach in Hesse, within the Holy Roman Empire. He belonged to the old but not exceptionally wealthy Riedesel family, hereditary barons associated with Hesse and the small German states. His father, Johann Wilhelm Riedesel, expected him to pursue a respectable professional career, and Friedrich initially received an education directed toward law. He studied at the University of Marburg, where a nobleman could acquire classical learning, legal knowledge, and the social connections useful in territorial administration. Riedesel found university life less compelling than soldiering. According to later family accounts, the sight and ceremony of troops awakened an ambition that conflicted with his father’s plans. He left legal study and entered military service in a Hessian infantry regiment. The decision did not provide immediate glamour. Junior officers learned drill, discipline, accounting, fortification, and the exacting routines required to keep eighteenth-century armies functioning. The Seven Years’ War gave Riedesel extensive experience while still a young man. He served with German forces allied to Britain and came to the attention of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, under whom he acted in increasingly responsible roles. Campaigning taught him logistics and staff work as well as battlefield command. His ability, rather than great fortune, supported his advancement. In 1762 he married Friederike Charlotte Luise von Massow, later famous in America as Baroness Riedesel. She was the daughter of a Prussian official and had known Friedrich during wartime society. Their marriage became a close partnership, and they began a growing family while his duties continued to require movement among garrisons and campaigns. Before commanding Brunswick troops in North America, Riedesel had been shaped by minor aristocratic status, legal education abandoned for the army, and hard professional experience in a major European war.