The diary follows Hessian soldier Johannes Reuber from 1776 to 1783. He describes his sea voyages in detail, the hardships involved and the weather. He saw action in New York and was captured at Trenton at the time of Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware river. He spent time as a prisoner in Philadelphia, then Lancaster,Pa. and in Winchester, Virginia. After being freed,the remainder of the war was mostly spent in Savannah,Georgia and other parts of the South. He returned to Germany in 1783.
In: Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, v.2, no.3 (1983).
Summary
Philipp Waldeck was chaplain for a group of German soldiers that was sent to the American colonies to fight for the British in the American Revolution.The diary recounts that experience.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-359) and index.
Contents
German soldiers in British service -- Subsidy treaties -- Recruitment patterns -- Social composition -- Into captivity -- Prisoners of war in western warfare -- Capture and surrender -- Prisoners of war -- The first prisoners of war in revolutionary hands, 1775-1776 -- German prisoners of war, 1776-1778 -- Provisions and exchange, 1778 -- The Convention Army, 1777-1781 -- Continuity and change, 1779-1783 -- Release and return -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Common German soldiers taken prisoner.
Summary
"Some 37,000 soldiers from six German principalities, collectively remembered as Hessians, entered service as British auxiliaries in the American War of Independence. At times, they constituted a third of the British army in North America, and thousands of them were imprisoned by the Americans. Despite the importance of Germans in the British war effort, historians have largely overlooked these men. Drawing on research in German military records and common soldiers' letters and diaries, Daniel Krebs places the prisoners on center stage in A Generous and Merciful Enemy, portraying them as individuals rather than simply as numbers in casualty lists. Setting his account in the context of British and European politics and warfare, Krebs explains the motivations of the German states that provided contract soldiers for the British army. We think of the Hessians as mercenaries, but, as he shows, many were conscripts. Some were new recruits; others, veterans. Some wanted to stay in the New World after the war. Krebs further describes how the Germans were made prisoners, either through capture or surrender, and brings to life their experiences in captivity from New England to Havana, Cuba. Krebs discusses prison conditions in detail, addressing both the American approach to war prisoners and the prisoners' responses to their experience. He assesses American efforts as a "generous and merciful enemy" to use the prisoners as economic, military, and propagandistic assets. In the process, he never loses sight of the impact of imprisonment on the POWs themselves. Adding new dimensions to an important but often neglected topic in military history, Krebs probes the origins of the modern treatment of POWs. An epilogue describes an almost-forgotten 1785 treaty between the United States and Prussia, the first in western legal history to regulate the treatment of prisoners of war."--Publisher's website.
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, v., 59 (1971).
Summary
This is a short article that provides the last names of Hessian prisoners who were being paid for work on "public buildings" in Lancaster. No other information about the prisoners or their work is given.
Introduction -- Background -- Captured at Trenton -- Imprisonment of the Hessians -- Employment of the prisoners -- Inducements to remain in America -- Location of employment sites -- Hessian prisoners associated with the Cornwall Iron Furnace -- The list of prisoners -- The list of employers -- Summary -- Prisoners belived to have stayed in America -- Endnotes -- Notes on prisoner documentation.
This essay provides contextual information concerning how the English actually hired the soldiers and why the German princes, and not other nations who were asked, were willing to sell their men to English. It also discusses how the English and German public reacted to the hiring of German soldiers.
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society ; v. 4, no. 5/6
Summary
A number of stories and details about the German soldiers used by the British in the American Revolution - including where they came from , their service , and their imprisonment as captured soldiers.