Hessians

The name Hessians was used collectively to describe the German soldiers Great Britain hired to help fight the Revolutionary War (1775-83), most coming from the principality of Hesse-Cassel. In response to the eruption of violence at the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), the British Parliament voted an army of 55,000 men to be raised to suppress the rebellion. Soldiers were needed quickly, but the British army was already below strength and recruiting and training would take time. Moreover, English subjects were not eager to take up arms against their North American brethren, nor could the government count on filling the ranks through traditional methods, such as press gangs and judicial sentencing. Parliament chose instead to hire foreign troops to augment the British regulars. Many European princes were in the soldier trade, entering into treaties in which they supplied auxiliaries in exchange for financial subsidies to benefit the princedom. This arrangement differed from hiring individual mercenaries, who received certain sums of money or special conditions for their services, and who were also among the forces sent to North America.

Though some ministers argued that the Germans might desert once in North America, Parliament granted generous sums of money in hopes of acquiring troops quickly to crush the colonial rebellion in one campaign and return the hirelings to Europe at relatively little expense. More than half of the German troops hired came from Hesse-Cassel, with princes from Hesse-Hanau, Brunswick, Waldeck, Anspach-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst also hiring soldiers to Britain. Among the units assembled for service in North America were grenadier battalions, a field hospital, three artillery companies, field regiments, garrison battalions, and two Jager companies. The men in these units had various skills and degrees of experience. The field regiments were made up of professional servicemen enrolled for 24 years, adept at keeping troops supplied in the field. Garrison battalions were similar to colonial militia or modern army reserve units. These men, mostly farmers, assembled four weeks a year between sowing and harvest times in order to drill and served as a local police force to quell disturbances. In times of war, they were used for home defense and performed garrison duties. The Jagers were skilled marksmen recruited from foresters and huntsmen, who were capable of acting independently as light troops.

The situation of the German mercenaries remained awkward throughout the war. On the one hand, anti-British propaganda promoted a fear and loathing among revolutionary Americans for hired killers, on the other hand, Congress urged the Hessians to desert. Relations between the British and Hessian were also strained. British officers were condescending to the Germans, excluding their officers from councils, giving their troops unpleasant posts to occupy, and sending them on missions without proper support. Indeed, Hessian officers were not of the same caliber as those in the British army, many being considerably older than their English counterparts and showing no particular genius for independent command. A second weakness was that their close Prussian order inhibited their attacking a more mobile enemy.

The Hessians served throughout the war with mixed results. They performed well in the Battle of Long Island (August 27-30, 1776) and with gallantry at the Battle of White Plains (October 28, 1776) and at Fort Washington (November 17, 1776), but they suffered devastating defeats at Trenton (December 26, 1776) and Redbank (October 22, 1777) (see also Battles of Trenton and Princeton; and Delaware River forts). Most of the war, however, was spent in dull garrison duty, interspersed periodically with marching and intense activity, and fighting off boredom and monotony. Approximately 18,970 Hessians were actually mustered into British service between 1776 and 1782, with only 292 returning home during the war. Hessian casualties were approximately 535 killed and 1,309 wounded, but, from all causes, the Hessian dead amounted to a staggering 4,983. Approximately 10,492 returned to Europe between 1783 and 1784, while roughly 3,014 chose to remain in the United States. About 190 went to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia.

Further reading: Rodney Atwood, The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); Edward J. Lowell, The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War (Williamstown, Mass.: Corner House, 1975).

—Rita M. Broyles