Talk:Frederick William, Baron de Woedtke

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Age

I'm confused by this sentence and I hope someone can help.

He was said to have served for several years under Frederick II of Prussia, even though he was only twenty-six years old.

I read this as: he was only 26 years old when he came to the United States (previous sentence), and therefore his claim to have served for several years under Frederick the Great is suspect. However, the lede says Woedtke was born in 1740, which would make him ≈35 years old in 1776. Neither this sentence nor his birth year are cited, so I'm really not sure what to make of it. Canute (talk) 15:09, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Canute: I take this for an error that appears in Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War by Richard M. Ketchum and was repeated in the Wikipedia bio. If he was born in 1740, he would have been 36 in 1776, so this seems like an easy mistake for the author to have made. Other sources including Washington's Revolutionary War Generals by Stephen R. Taaffe, indicate that Woedtke was 36, which is presumably correct.

If other editors agree with my assessment, maybe an update to this line in the bio would be in order.

Billmckern (talk) 15:22, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks @Billmckern:. I just found a little bit of info on his Prussian service and rank, and deleted the sentence in question because it no longer made any sense with the additional context. Feel free to revert if you think this was an error. Canute (talk) 16:02, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]