The Hessians

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Aug 15, 2002 - History - 308 pages
The Hessians are infamous in American history for their role as part of the British forces sent to crush the colonists' rebellion in 1776. Yet these German auxiliaries, or mercenaries were only one instance of a frequent military practice, approved by international jurists of the time and used by the British in all their eighteenth-century wars. This study (dealing with one of the six contingents known inaccurately as the Hessians) is the first to make extensive use of manuscript sources in Germany, Britain and America to put the Hessians in their historical context and to examine a number of the myths about them. The encounter of the Americans with the Hessian troops from a disciplined paternalistic society organized for war, with special thoroughness, was not merely the meeting of two military systems, but also of two ways of life, and is thus worthy of study in an age of conflict.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Hessians go to America
22
The victories of 1776
58
The Battle of Trenton
84
The campaigns of 177781
117
AngloHessian relations
144
The Hessian view of the American Revolution
158
Hessian plundering
171
Recruiting in Germany
207
The impact of the war on Hessen
216
Conclusion
234
A Hessians mustered into British service 177682
254
E Hessian battalions and Jägercorps serving in America
258
Bibliography
266
Index
277
Copyright

Hessian desertion
184

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Page 268 - Andre's Journal : an Authentic Record of the Movements and Engagements of the British Army in America from June, 1777 to November, 1778, as recorded from day to day, by Major John Andre.

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