Tuesday 8 March 2016

On this day in history

1777 – Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, mutiny in the town of Ochsenfurt.
 The Ansbach and Bayreuth regiments are remembered for a mutiny that occurred in Ochsenfurt. The soldiers were loaded onto boats on the Main River, but could not cross the bridge, which the Bishop of Würzburg, Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim, refused to open. In addition, the soldiers were forced to stand through the night in the over-crowded boats.[40] In the morning, 8 March 1777 some Ansbach soldiers managed to get to the bank of the river, and pulled the other boats to land. Wine merchants from Ochsenfurt soon arrived and sold beverages to the soldiers.[40] The officers tried to address their concerns, but some men deserted. Chasseurs were posted to keep men from deserting, and fired warning shots; the mutineers returned fire. When the Margrave of Ansbach received word of the riot, he rode through the night to get to Ochsenfurt. The Margrave convinced his soldiers to reboard the boats, and provided two additional boats to alleviate crowding.[41] The Margrave sailed with them as far as Mainz, where he succeeded in getting a bridge opened in that city, without the consent of the Elector, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal.[42]

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