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[[File:Hessian jager.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Two Hessian Soldiers of the Leibregiment]] |
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The '''Hessian''' ({{Pron-en|ˈhɛʃən}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hessian | title=hessian | publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] | accessdate=2009-12-26}}</ref>) soldiers were eighteenth-century [[Germans in the American Revolution|German]] regiments hired through their rulers by the [[British Empire]]. Though used in several conflicts, they are most widely associated with combat operations in the [[Revolutionary War]]. |
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==History== |
==History== |
Revision as of 16:03, 9 November 2010
jonathan is hard right now
History
During the American Revolutionary War, Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel (a principality in northern Hesse or Hessia) and other German leaders hired out thousands of conscripted subjects as auxiliaries to Great Britain to fight against the American revolutionaries. About 30,000 of these soldiers were sold into service. They were called Hessians, because 12,992 of the total 30,067 men came from Hesse-Kassel.
Some were direct subjects of King George III; he ruled them as the Elector of Hanover. Other soldiers were sent by Count William of Hesse-Hanau; Duke Charles I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel; Prince Frederick of Waldeck; Margrave Karl Alexander of Ansbach-Bayreuth; and Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst.
The troops were not mercenaries in the modern sense of military professionals who voluntarily hire out their own services for money. As in most armies of the eighteenth century, the men were mainly conscripts, debtors, or the victims of impressment; some were also petty criminals. Pay was low; some soldiers received nothing but their daily food. The officer corps usually consisted of career officers who had served in earlier European wars. The revenues paid for the men's service went back to the German royalty. Nevertheless, some Hessian units were respected for their discipline and excellent military skills.
Hessians comprised approximately one-quarter of the forces fielded by the British in the American Revolution. They included jäger, hussars, three artillery companies, and four battalions of grenadiers. Most of the infantry were chasseurs (sharpshooters), musketeers, and fusiliers. They were armed mainly with smoothbore muskets, while the Hessian artillery used 3-pounder cannon. Initially the average regiment was made up of 500–600 men. Later in the war, the regiments had only 300–400 men.[citation needed]
About 18,000 Hessian troops arrived in the Thirteen Colonies in 1776, with more coming in later. They first landed at Staten Island on August 15, 1776. Their first engagement was in the Battle of Long Island. The Hessians fought in almost every battle, although after 1777, the British used them mainly as garrison troops. An assortment of Hessians fought in the battles and campaigns in the southern states during 1778–80 (including Guilford Courthouse), and two regiments fought at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.
The British use of Hessian troops rankled American sentiment, and pushed more loyalists to be in favor of the revolution. The British use of foreign troops to put down the rebellion was seen as insulting, as it treated British subjects no differently than non-British subjects. Pro-British Tories believed that the British nature of Americans should have entitled them to something other than mercenary foes.
Hessian captives
One of the most famous incidents involving the Hessian soldiers was the Battle of Trenton, where almost all of a force of 1400 Hessians were either captured or killed. Approximately 100 were estimated killed, and 1,000 were captured as prisoners. General George Washington's Continental Army crossed the Delaware River on December 26th 1776, to carry out a highly successful surprise attack.[1]
In addition to firepower, American rebels such as Andrew Norman Martin used propaganda against Hessians.[citation needed] They enticed Hessians to desert and join the large German-American population. In addition to offering land bounties to colonial recruits, the US Congress authorized the offer of 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land to individual Hessian soldiers to encourage them to desert. They offered 50-800 acres to British soldiers, depending on rank.[2]
In August 1777 a satirical letter, "The Sale of the Hessians", was written and widely distributed. It claimed that a Hessian commander wanted more of his soldiers dead so that he could be better compensated. For many years the author of the letter was unknown. In 1874 John Bigelow translated it to English (from French) and claimed that Benjamin Franklin wrote it, including it in his biography, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, published that year. There appears to be no evidence to support this claim.[3]
When British General John Burgoyne surrendered to American General Horatio Gates during the Saratoga campaign, his surrender involved around 5,800 troops. The surrender was negotiated in the Convention of Saratoga, and Burgoyne's remnant army became known as the Convention Army. Soldiers from Brunswick-Lüneburg under General Riedesel comprised a high percentage of the Convention Army. The Americans marched the prisoners to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they were imprisoned in the Albemarle Barracks until 1781. From there they were sent to Reading, Pennsylvania until 1783.
Conclusion of the war
After the war ended in 1783, some 17,313 Hessian soldiers returned to their homelands. Of the 12,526 who did not return, about 7,700 had died. Some 1,200 were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accidents, mostly the former.[citation needed] Approximately 5,000 Hessians settled in North America, both in the United States and Canada. In some cases, their commanders refused to take them back to Germany because they were criminals or physically unfit. Most of the men married and settled amongst the population of the newly formed United States. Many became farmers or craftsmen and were able to take advantage of opportunities in the new country. The number of their direct descendants living in the U.S. and Canada today is a subject of debate.
Ireland 1798
The British rushed Hessian mercenaries to Ireland in 1798 to assist in the suppression of rebellion inspired by the Society of United Irishmen, an organization that first worked for Parliamentary reform. Influenced by the American and French revolutions, its members began by 1798 to seek independence for Ireland. Baron Hompesch's 2nd Battalion of riflemen embarked on 11 April 1798 from the Isle of Wight bound for the port of Cork. They were later joined by the Jäger (Hunter) 5th Battalion 60th regiment. They were in the action of the battles of Vinegar Hill and Foulksmills. In 1798 the Hessians were notorious in Ireland for their atrocities and brutality toward the population of Wexford.[citation needed]
Hessian units in the American Revolution
- Rauschenplatt's Princess of Anhalt's Regiment
- Nuppenau's Jäger Company
- Anhalt-Zerbst Company of Artillery
Anspach-Bayreuth
- 1st Regiment Anspach-Bayreuth (later Regiment von Volt; 1st Anspach Battalion)
- 2nd Regiment Anspach-Bayreuth (later Regiment Seybothen; 2nd Bayreuth Battalion)
- Anspach Jäger Company
- Ansbach Artillery Company
- Dragoon Regiment Prinz Ludwig
- Grenadier Battalion Breymann
- Light Infantry Battalion von Barner
- Regiment Riedesel
- Regiment Specht
- Regiment Prinz Friedrich
- Regiment von Rhetz
- Geyso's Company of Brunswick Jägers
- Hesse-Kassel Jäger Corps
- Fusilier Regiment von Ditfurth
- Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz (later Musketeer Regiment Erbprinz (1780))
- Fusilier Regiment von Knyphausen
- Fusilier Regiment von Lossburg
- Grenadier Regiment von Rall (later von Woellwarth (1777); von Trümbach (1779); d'Angelelli (1781))
- 1st Battalion Grenadiers von Linsing
- 2nd Battalion Grenadiers von Block (later von Lengerke)
- 3rd Battalion Grenadiers von Minnigerode (later von Löwenstein)
- 4th Battalion Grenadiers von Köhler (later von Graf; von Platte)
- Garrison Regiment von Bünau
- Garrison Regiment von Huyn (later von Benning)
- Garrison Regiment von Stein (later von Seitz; von Porbeck)
- Garrison Regiment von Wissenbach (later von Knoblauch)
- Leib Infantry Regiment
- Musketeer Regiment von Donop
- Musketeer Regiment von Trümbach (later von Bose (1779))
- Musketeer Regiment von Mirbach (later Jung von Lossburg (1780))
- Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl
- Musketeer Regiment von Wutgenau (later Landgraf (1777))
- Hesse-Kassel Artillery corps
- Pausch's Artillery Company
- von Creuzbourg's Jäger Corps
- Janecke's Frei Corps
- Hesse Hanau Erbprinz Regiment
- 3rd Waldeck Regiment
In popular culture
- Washington Irving's collection The Sketch Book (1819) included the story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which contained a figure now known as the "Headless Horseman". Irving described it as "the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War."
- D. W. Griffith co-wrote and directed the short film, The Hessian Renegades (1909), about the early stages of the American Revolution.
- The animated short film Bunker Hill Bunny (1950) features Bugs Bunny confronting Sam Von Schmamm (played by Yosemite Sam) who, in defeat, declares himself to be "a Hessian without aggression."
- In the computer game Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs (2006), the player plays American revolutionaries, frequently having to fight Hessians.
- The computer game Freelancer (2003) features the Red Hessians as a criminal group composed largely of unemployed miners operating out of Rheinland space.
- The computer game Empire: Total War (2009) features the Hessian Line Infantry as a unit for the Britain faction.
- In Karen White's The Girl on Legare Street (2009), one of the spirits that reside in the house that has been in Melanie Middleton's family for generations is a Hessian soldier who has protected the women of her family for generations.
Footnotes
- ^ "Battle of Trenton", British Battles.com, accessed 13 Feb 2010
- ^ R. Douglas Hurt (2002) American Agriculture: A Brief History, p. 80
- ^ Everett C. Wilkie, Jr., "Franklin and 'The Sale of the Hessians': The Growth of a Myth", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 127, No. 3 (Jun. 16, 1983), pp. 202-212
Further reading
- Fischer, David Hackett; "Washington's Crossing"; Oxford University Press, 2004.
External links
- American Revolution.org - The Hessians
- Johannes Schwalm Historical Association website
- Historical Project: Letters by a Hessian Officer, Marburg University
- Diary and letters covering the role of Hessian troops in America
- Haldimand Collection - Numerous references to the role of Hessian troops in the American war of Independence
- Edward J. Lowell (1884). The Hessians. New York: Harper & Brothers.
- Andrew D. Mellick, Jr. (1889). "Chapter XXV: The Hessians in New Jersey". The Story of an Old Farm. Somerville, New Jersey: The Unionist-Gazette. pp. 352–370.
- Albert B. Faust (1909). The German Element in the United States. Vol. I. Boston: Houghton & Mifflin. pp. 349–356.