Friedrich Adolf was born in Lauterbach, Hesse, into a family of the minor German nobility (Riedesel), the second son of Johann Wilhelm Riedesel, Freiherr zu Eisenbach (1705-1782) and Sophia von Borcke (1705-1769).
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There he was cared for by the von Massow family and nursed by their daughter Charlotte.
No member of the Wittgenstein Riedesels is better known than the master builder Mannus Riedesel (1662–1726).
In 1781, Quebec governor Frederick Haldimand named Riedesel officer in charge of the Sorel District, where he and his family stayed until his departure from North America at the end of Summer 1784.