The Hessians
by Rodney Atwood /
2002 / English / PDF
11.3 MB Download
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.
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.