I thought I would post this link to military information about the history of the 5th Infantry Regiment "Prince Albert"
I managed to translate very old letter that survived in my family dating from April 1866, written to my great-great-grandmother, Wilhelmine Ernestine Lässig geborene Härtel, from her sister-in-law, Caroline Härtel who lived in Crimmitschau, KoenigsReich Sachsen at the time. This letter talked about two of her sons, Karl Albrecht Härtel and Bernard Härtel who were ".....going to become soldiers." The letter also talked about how Karl Albrecht Härtel was going to visit America and arrive in Philadelphia on the "Schiff Hermann" in April 1866 leaving from Bremen. I later found a manifest at Castle Garden, Ellis Island, showing one Albert Hoertel arriving on the ship Hermann at Castle Garden. The manifest listed Albert as being from Crimmitschau and having departed from Bremen. On a hunch, I did a google search on "Albert Hartel" and a link to a book that was digitized by google books came up. The title of this book is "Geschichte des 5. Infantrie-Regiments, "Prinz Friedrich August" came up. Listed in this book was one "Karl Albrecht Härtel" from Crimmitschau, a sergeant who apparently served in this regiment during the Franco-Prussian ward during the 1880s. This book provided me with this relative's full name. This book also listed Bernard Härtel, but his home city was not listed as Crimmitschau. The manifest at Castle Garden also provided Karl's his age in April of 1866. With these pieces of information, I then found some old Burgerrolles for Crimmitschau from the 1880s, which I translate as either a citizen's roll or tax roll, that listed a "Carl Albrecht Härtel" as well as a Bernard Härtel. The Burgerrolle gave the dates of birth for both Karl Albrecht and Bernard, and the birthdate of Karl Albrecht matched his age from the manifest exactly. In any event, I thought that this history of the 5th Regiment may be of use to others and am posting the link to it here for your information as it was instrumental in helping me identify these relatives who were only mentioned in the old family letter as "my Albrecht" and "my Bernard" by their mother.
Link to "Geschichte des 5. Infantrie-Regiments, Prinz Friedrich August , Nr. 104, 1867-1889"
