Woedtke, Frederick William, Baron de

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Woedtke, Frederick William, Baron de

WOEDTKE, FREDERICK WILLIAM, BARON DE. (1740?–1776). Continental general. Prussia. Born in Prussia, perhaps in 1740, Woedtke claimed to have been a major in the Prussian army. In early 1776 he appeared in Philadelphia with a strong letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin. Congress commissioned him brigadier general on 16 March 1776 and assigned him to the Northern Army. He is known to have attended the council of war at Crown Point on 5 July and to have died at Lake George on 28 July 1776. James Wilkinson characterized both Matthias Fermoy and Woedtke as worthless drunkards, one of the few subjects on which one feels historically safe in accepting Wilkinson's testimony.

SEE ALSO Canada Invasion; Fermoy, Matthias Alexis de Roche.

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