Leopold Philip de Heister
(1716-1777)
BIRTH
April 4, 1716
Homberg, Germany
Leopold Philip de Heister
Children
Levin von Heister
(1757-1816)
Leopold Philip von Heister (1716–1777) was the senior Hessian commander sent to support Britain during the American Revolution. Arriving with two brigades in August 1776, he commanded the center at Long Island and received the surrender of American general William Alexander. He also served at White Plains. Disagreements with William Howe and the Hessian defeat at Trenton contributed to his recall in 1777; Wilhelm von Knyphausen succeeded him. He died in Kassel that year.
BORN
Leopold Philip de Heister
Homberg, Germany
Married Name
Heister, Leopold Philip de was born on Apr 4, 1716 in Homberg, Germany. The surviving biographical summary provides only limited evidence about childhood, schooling, and the daily circumstances of the household, so those details are not reconstructed here without documentation. What can be stated securely is that this person belonged to the interconnected family world from which HistoryGPS traces participants, relatives, and later descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
The available biographical record identifies Heister, Leopold Philip de with work or public activity as a soldier. Those roles provide the clearest documented basis for including this person in the database and should be read in the political, military, professional, or household context of the period. Heister, Leopold Philip de died on Nov 19, 1777 in Kassel, Germany. Additional claims about employment, public service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted source did not support them.
CAREER
DEATH
Leopold Philip von Heister was the senior Hessian commander sent to support Britain during the American Revolution. Arriving with two brigades in August 1776, he commanded the center at Long Island and received the surrender of American general William Alexander. Disagreements with William Howe and the Hessian defeat at Trenton contributed to his recall in 1777; Wilhelm von Knyphausen succeeded him. The available biographical record identifies Heister, Leopold Philip de with work or public activity as a soldier. Additional claims about employment, public service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted source did not support them. In 1776, when Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel decided to rent out troops to the British government for service against the American colonies in what would become the American Revolutionary War, Heister was chosen to command the corps. He landed on Long Island near New Utrecht with two full Hessian brigades on 25 August 1776, three days after the arrival of Gen. William Howe with the British troops. Heister also commanded the Hessians at White Plains on 28 October 1776. He was removed from command in 1777, after the Battle of Trenton and continued disagreements with General Howe. Leopold Philip de Heister died on Nov 19, 1777, in Kassel, Germany.
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