Frederick Gotthold Enslin

Lieutenant Gotthold Frederick Enslin was a Continental Army officer who was the focus of one of three possible cases of sodomy documented in the Continental Army under General George Washington.

Early life and family "Gotthold Friderich Ensslin" was christened the day after his birth in the Lutheran Church in Oberkochen, Wuerttemberg, Germany on 11 August 1755, son of Pastor Johann Friderich Ensslin and Magdalena Elisabetha Venningerin. He seems to have arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Union from Rotterdam on 30 September 1774. Military Career and Case Enslin joined the Continental Army in March 1777, in an independent company affixed first to the 6th Virginia Regiment and later to Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment.

The case began with a charge against an ensign for slander against another soldier. At Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in February 1778, Ensign Anthony Maxwell was brought before a brigade court-martial charged with "propagating a scandalous report prejudicial to the character of Lieut. Enslin." Maxwell was ultimately acquitted of the charge.

The diary of Lieutenant James McMichael records the sentence being carried out on 15 March 1778:

Later Life Enslin moved to Boston, where he married a widow named Elizabeth Geyer, née Cooler, and worked as a bookkeeper. Their home was among those affected by the fire of 1787, though it appears they were able to rebuild and return. He died in the summer of 1800, age 44 or 45.