Johan Joost Reeder and the Russian-English invasion of 1799
Johan Joost Reeder is my 4th great grandfather who was born in the year 1760 in the Dutch city of Alkmaar. Unfortunately I do not know much about his life, in fact I know nothing because I am still searching for his papers. The only thing I do know about his life is that he parttook in the invasion of Noord-Holland in the year 1799, he fought alongside the French, being part of the Batavian army.Now to fully understand his story, we need to know why The English and Russians tried to invade the Netherlands in 1799 in the first place.
In 1789 the French revolution swept through France, opening the path for a whole different set of ideals and ideas. No longer was power in the hands of the monarchy or rich aristocrats but it belonged to the people. Ideas about liberty and egality started to spread and not just in France, these ideas quickly spread to the Netherlands as well, then known as the Dutch republic ruled by rich merchants and the Oranje family. Stadhouder Willem V was the current 'leader' (stadhouder) of the country but he was a weak and pathetic man, kept under the thumb of his Prussian wife and her incredibly powerful brother, the king of Prussia.
The ordinary people of the Netherlands started to be inspired by these radical thoughts coming from France and the resentment towards these few rich merchants and an outdated prince van Oranje grew which led to large revolts by the public calling themselfs patriots. The revolt was initially succesfull with patriots taking over entire cities and declaring itself free from the exclusively rich aristocratic's rule. That is until Willem V's wife called upon her brother for help who sent a Prussian army in the Netherlands to put it back under the control of the Oranjes. The Prussian army ravaged through the country, which they usually did during conflicts, around 10 percent of the entire Dutch population fled the country, many of them fleeing towards post-revolutionary France. One of them was the leader of the Patriots, Willem Daendels.
Now I don't know what happened to Johan Joost Reeder during this period but he must have been one of the voluntary Patriots as well since he was already an officer during the 1799 invasion. He must have volunteered at least a few years before the invasion took place, perhaps he joined the patriotic cause at its inception and fought alongside Daendels? Who knows..I really hope I can provide more information about him in the near future through further genealogical research.
Anyway, fast forward to the year 1794 and Daendels managed to get the support of the French army to take over the Netherlands and declare it an independent republic loyal to France and her revolutionary causes. The French invaded the Netherlands in 1794 and with the help of the patriots, who started to call themselves the Batavian army after the ancient Batavian people who used to live in the Netherlands, they swiftly took control over the country without barely any resistance at all. The best moment has got to be the frozen Dutch fleet at Texel that got conquered by the French cavalry. Normally the Dutch were able to use the dykes to their advantage but since everything was frozen during a particulary harsh winter between 94-95, these measures were useless. It was also during this campaign that my other 4th great grandfather, Frederick Lichtenegger got wounded during the siege of Willemstad, he was shot in his left leg.
The Dutch royal family fled, of course, towards England abandoning the country which might be a very good deed since it disabled him from rallying the leftover Oranje fans from rebelling against the patriots. The Dutch declared their country as the Batavian republic and a new era of enlightement started. Of course this didn't feel right to the English who were greatly concerned by all this revolutionary tumolt so close to their homeland, they were indeed afraid these dangerous ideas might blow over to England which would mean the end of the English royalty. The first coalition against France crumbled in 1797 but the English soon found a new ally, Russia.
In 1799, the second coalition war against France broke out. The British prime minister, Grenville, had set its eyes on the Batavian republic as this country could present itself to be a real danger to the UK because of her fleet and close proximity to England. Meanwhile the Prins van Oranje was in exile in the UK as well so it almost seemed natural that plans for an invasion were made. The Prince however made a huge mistake, he assumed that as soon as English and Russian boots would hit the beaches, the Dutch people would be swayed to their side and welcome back Willem V while revolting against the French. This however did not happen at all.17,593 Russian soldiers and 13,000 British soldiers took part in the invasion whose plans leaked out to the Batavians and the French. Instead of the Batavians joining the coalition, they placed 20,000 soldiers on the coasts of Holland, two of those 20,000 were my 4th great grandfather Johan Joost reeder who was an officer and his son my 3rd great grandfather Christiaan Reeder. Besides the 20,000 Dutch troops, an additional 15,000 French soldiers joined in the defence of Holland.
The British and Russian troops landed on 27 August, while the allied troops initially relied upon the local population and militia to rise up and fight alongside the allies, the exact opposite happened. The already somewhat divided Dutch republicans were now united with the single purpose of kicking out these foreign invaders, resistance towards the allies only grew stronger. The invasion went initially quite well for the allies, they managed to win the first battle of Krabbendam on 10 September and captured the city of Alkmaar while enjoying naval superiority.
The allies soon however suffered their first defeat during the battle of Bergen on 19 September. The Duke of York attempted to envelop the Franco-Batavian army by dividing his forces in four columns. The furthest right column, under command of Russian Lieutenant-General Hermann was send to the village of Bergen. Another column under the command of Lieutenant-General Dundas was send to Schoorldam. The third column, under command of Lieutenant-General Pulteney, had the objective to take Langedijk together with Oudkarspel and Heerhugowaard. The last column, under command of Lieutenant-General Abercromby, was send towards Hoorn and Purmerend.Both sides suffered heavy casualties during the battle of Bergen and unfortunately this is where my 4th great grandfather Johan Joost Reeder was killed in action in Oudkarspel, fighting off the third allied column. His son, Christiaan Reeder, was wounded as well in the leg, it must have been quite a traumatic day for the Reeder family.
The 4th allied column managed to reach and capture Hoorn without barely any resistance at all but because the other three allied columns had to retreat, the 4th column retreated back as well, leaving Hoorn once again in the hands of the Batavian republicans.With the allies now having taken large parts of Noord-Holland, the invasion still looked favourable for the allies. The Dutch however had another trick up their sleeves, one they have employed numerous times in the past, use the bountiful amount of water against the invaders. Large parts of the province were now flooded which deprived the allied forces from using farmlands and its supplies. Constant rain also prevented the allies from gaining resources from the city of Den Helder.
The allies knew they had to make a move against the Franco-Batavian army quick, before the army lost all of its moral due to a lack of food and sickness. This led to the battle of Castricum.On the morning of 6 October fighting broke out near Castricum. One allied column managed to easily drive out French outposts which gave the Russians enough confidence to attack the town itself. Castricum was however tenaciously defended throughout the day with the town changing hands several times. Eventually, with the help of a Batavian hussars charge, the allied troops broke and were forced to retreat. Meanwhile the Batavian artillery inflicted heavy losses upon the British troops. At the end of the day, the allied troops were forced to retreat back to their starting positions, losing pretty much all ground they gained.
The Dutch cities of Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik were also evacuated and quickly captured by Batavian troops who managed to prevent the burning of warehouses of naval stores by the British.The allied forces had to retreat so quickly that they left behind two field hospitals full of British wounded in Alkmaar together with 400 women and children. Four days later, on 10 October, the allies and Batavians singed an armistice which allowed the allies to retreat from the Netherlands with all their gear without having to pay for damages. By 19 November, all allied forces left. Even though the Anglo-Russian invasion failed, the Batavians suffered heavy material losses and the expedition also has contributed slightly to the fall of the directoire later this year when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in his famous coup d'etat
Landing of English troops at Calantsoog by Dirk Langendijk
5th half brigade of which my two ancestors were part of
A map showing the locations of the cities and battles
