Abstract
For this, the first of two chapter-long case studies, we will examine the most widely discussed of the German auxiliaries in British service in the eighteenth century: the ‘Hessians’ in the War of American Independence. Throughout this book, we have been examining the role of preconceived ideas and stereotypes, and their effects on the perceptions of the soldiers themselves. Here we turn to a group that has some of the most enduring stereotypes of all, as the ‘Hessian mercenary’ is one of the more memorable actors in the American creation myth. However, this chapter is not designed to either narrate their services in America or to combat the many legends regarding the Hessians’, as these have been done successfully many times before. The military history of these auxiliaries is well covered by German, British and American scholars from the nineteenth century onwards, and the bibliography regarding their service has grown considerably since the last quarter of the twentieth century, especially during the Revolutionary Wars’ bicentennial.1 Yet with a few notable exceptions, particularly Rodney Atwood’s chapter on ‘Anglo-Hessian Relations’ and in the writings of Silvia Frey and Stephen Conway, an examination of the interactions and relations between British and German soldiers in the American War has received far less attention than most other aspects of their service.2
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Notes
There should be a special mention to the works of Bruce E. Burgoyne and Helga Doblin, whose translations of Hessian diaries, have been of inestimable benefit in the creation of this chapter. Other valuable, but commonly biased, works are: Joseph George Rosengarten, A Defence of the Hessians (Philadelphia, PA: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1899)
Edward J. Lowell, The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1884)
Friedrich Kapp, Der Soldenthandel deutscher Fürsten nach Amerika (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1874)
Max von Eelking, The German Allied Troops in the North American War of Independence, 1776–1783. Translated by J. G. Rosengarten (Albany, NY: Joe Munsell’s Sons, 1893).
Stephen Conway, The British Isles and the War of American Independence (Oxford: OUP, 2000), p. 16.
For attempts at getting Hessians to desert, see: Lyman Butterfield, ‘Psychological Warfare in 1776: The Jefferson-Franklin Plan to Cause Hessian Desertions’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 94 (1950), pp. 233–41.
For an example of this deference see: John Burgoyne, Orderly book of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne: From His Entry into the State of New York Until His Surrender at Saratoga, 16th Oct. 1777; From the Original Manuscript Deposited at Washington’s Head Quarters (Newburgh, NY: J. Munsell, 1860), esp. p. 17.
Johann Friedrich Specht, Specht Journal: A Military Journal of the Burgoyne Campaign. Translated by Helga Doblin, edited by Mary C. Lynn (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995), pp. 6, 12.
Atwood, Hessians, p. 82; Bruce E. Burgoyne (ed. and trans.), Georg Pausch’s Journal and Reports of the Campaign in America (Maryland: Heritage, 1996), p. 46.
William L. Stone (trans.), Letters of Brunswick and Hessian Officers During the American Revolution (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s Sons, 1891), p. 60.
August Wilhelm Du Roi, Journal of Du Roi the Elder Lieutenant and Adjutant, in the Service of the Duke of Brunswick, 1776–1778. Translated by Charlotte S. J. Epping (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1911), p. 90.
Bruce Burgoyne, The Diary of Lieutenant Johann Heinrich von Bardeleben and Other von Donop Regiment Documents (Maryland: Heritage Books, 1998), p. 54.
Bernhard A. Uhlendorf (ed. and trans), Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals 1776–1784 of Adjutant General Major Bauermeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, 1957), p. 231.
For conflict over the ‘German’ versus ‘American’ schools of thought in the British Army, see: Jeremy Black, Britain as a Military Power (London: UCL Press, 1999), p. 198.
John C. P. von Krafft, Journal of Lieutenant John Charles Philip von Krafft, 1776–1784 (New York: NY Times, 1968), p. 42.
Marvin Brown (ed.), Baroness Riedesel and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1965), p. 71.
H.W. Wilkin, Some British Soldiers in America (London: Hugh Rees, 1914), p. 240.
James M. Hadden, Hadden’s Journal and Orderly Books. A Journal Kept in Canada and upon Burgoyne’s Campaign in 1776 and 1777 (Albany, NY: Munsell’s Sons, 1884. Reprinted in Freeport, N.Y. by Books for Libraries Press 1970), pp. 132
John Peebles, John Peebles’ American War: The Diary of a Scottish Grenadier, 1776–1782 (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stockpole, 1998), p. 274
Krafft, Journal, pp. 139–40; Bruce R. Burgoyne (trans. and ed.), A Hessian Officer’s Diary of the American Revolution Translated from An Anonymous Ansbach-Bayreuth Diary… and Prechtel Diary (Maryland: Heritage Books, 1994), p. 141.
Frederick Augustus von Riedesel, Memoirs, and Letters and Journals, of Major General Riedesel, During his Residence in America. Translated from the Original German of Max von Eelking by William L. Stone, 2 vols. (Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1868), vol. I, p. 3.
Ambrose Serle, The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776–1778, edited by Edward H. Tatum, Jr. (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1940), p. 150.
Helga Doblin, Eyewitness Account of the American Revolution and New England Life: The Journal of J.F. Wasmus, German Company Surgeon, 1776–1783 (New York: Greenwood Press: 1993), p. 35.
For the Hessian view of the American colonies, see Ernst Kipping. The Hessian View of America, 1776–1783 (Monmouth Beach, NJ: Freneau, 1971)
Inge Auerbach, et al., Hessen und die Amerikanische Revolution 1776 (Marburg: das Hessische Staatsarchiv, 1976), vol. I, p. 244.
see: Stephen Conway, ‘From Fellow-Nationals to Foreigners: British Perceptions of the Americans, Circa 1739–1783’, William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 59(1) (2002), pp. 65–100.
Marion Balderston (ed.), The Lost War: Letters from British Officers during the American Revolution (New York: Horizon, 1975), p. 125.
One officer of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment bragged that during a hot summer of 1778, that their regiment had not one person sick, which is corroborated by much of the records concerning these regiments. For the data relating to active and sick soldiers among British forces in America from 1777 onwards, see C.T. Atkinson, ‘British Forces in North America, 1774–1781: Their Distribution and Strength’, JSAHR, 16 (Spring 1937), pp. 3–23
Marion Dexter Learned (ed.), Phillip Waldeck’s Diary of the Revolution (Philadelphia, PA: Americana Germanica Press, 1907).
For one such criticism, see: Johann George Forster, Briefwechsel, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1829), vol. 1 p. 244.
Jonathan Oates, ‘Hessian Forces Employed in Scotland in 1746’, JSAHR, 83(335) (2005), p. 210.
Hadden, Hadden’s Journal, pp. 118, 132; For other suspicions within the army, see: Frank Warren Coburn, A History of the Battle of Bennington Vermont (Bennington: Livingston Press, 1912), pp. 22–4.
Alfred Kroger, Geburt der USA: German Newspaper Accounts of the American Revolution, 1763–1783 (Madison, WI: State Historial Society of Wisconsin, 1962), p. 180.
Faucitt to Suffolk, CO 5/139 fol. 25; HMC, Rawdon, pp. 183–4. See also: A.W. Haarmann, ‘Contemporary Observations on the Hesse-Cassell Troops Sent to North America, 1776–1781’, JSAHR, 54 (1976), pp. 130–4.
Civilians also observed this contrast. For one example, see: Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell 1774–1777 (New York: Dial Press, 1924), pp. 220, 221.
Bernhard A. Uhlendorf (trans. and ed.), The Siege of Charleston; With an Account of the Province of South Carolina: Diaries and Letters of Hessian Officers from the Von Jungkenn Papers in the William L. Clements Library (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1938), pp. 161, 193, 265.
BL Add Ms 21680, fol. 149. Hutcheson to Haldimand, New York, 1st September 1776; Peebles, Peebles American War, pp. 129, 378. For similar comments, see: Henry Cabot Lodge (ed.), Major Andre’s Journal, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Houghton & Co., 1903), vol. I, pp. 39, 42, 78–9.
Thomas Hutchinson, the de jure governor of Massachusetts, stated rather surprisingly that the setback had ‘lessened the opinion of the abilities of the commanders of the British army’, rather than the German commanders. Ira Gruber, The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1972), p. 156
Peter Orlando (ed.), The Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson Esq, II vols. (London: Sampson Low, 1883), p. 139.
NLS MS 5375 fol. 38 Charles Cochrane to Andrew Stewart, Germantown, 7th October 1777. See also: William Digby, The British Invasion from the North. The Campaigns of Generals Carleton and Burgoyne from Canada, 1776–1777, with the Journal of Lieut. William Digby of the 53rd, or Shropshire Regiment of Foot. Illustrated with Historical Notes by James Phinney Baxter. Munsell’s Historical Series No. 16 (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s Sons, 1887), pp. 288–9.
Bruce Burgoyne (trans. and ed.), Defeat, Disaster and Dedication: The Diaries of the Hessian Officers Jakob Piel and Andreas Wiederhold (Bowle, MD: Heritage Books, 1997), p. 23.
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Wishon, M. (2013). Case Study 1 — The ‘Hessians’ in the American War. In: German Forces and the British Army. War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284013_5
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