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Hessian (soldier)

Hessians (US: /ˈhɛʃənz/ or UK: /ˈhɛsiənz/)[1] were German soldiers who served as auxiliaries to the British Army during several major wars in the 18th century including the American Revolutionary War.[2] The term is a synecdoche for all Germans who fought on the British side, since 65% came from the German states of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau. Known for their discipline and martial prowess, around 30,000 Germans fought for the British during the war, around 25% of British land forces.[3]

This article is about troops from Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau. For troops from other German states who fought in the American Revolution, see Germans in the American Revolution.

German Hessians

Attached but not incorporated into the British Army

While regarded, both contemporaneously and historiographically, as mercenaries,[4] Hessians were legally distinguished as auxiliaries: whereas mercenaries served a foreign government of their own accord, auxiliaries were soldiers hired out to a foreign party by their own government, to which they remained in service.[2] Auxiliaries were a major source of income for many small and relatively poor German states, typically serving in wars in which their governments were neutral. Like most auxiliaries of this period, Hessians served with foreign armies as entire units, fighting under their own flags, commanded by their usual officers, and wearing their existing uniforms.


Hessians played an essential role in the Revolutionary War, particularly in the northern theater.[5] They served with distinction in many battles, most notably at White Plains and Fort Washington.[5] The added manpower and skill of German troops greatly sustained the British war effort, though it also outraged colonists and increased support for the Revolutionary cause.[5] The use of "large armies of foreign mercenaries" was one of the 27 colonial grievances against King George III in the United States Declaration of Independence, while the Patriots used the deployment of Hessians to support their claims of British violations of the colonists' rights.[6]

Wilhelm von Knyphausen

Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann Freiherr (Baron) von Seitz – led the regiment in the [41]

Battle of Fort Washington

Oberst , commanding officer of the Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton

Johann Rall

Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Lossberg, as Colonel led the von Lossberg Regiment (Alt) at the and Fort Washington. He served in Newport from 1776 until 1779 and played a decisive role at the Battle of Rhode Island. In May 1782 upon the departure of Lieutenant General Knyphausen, Lossberg replaced him as the commander of the Hessian troops in North America.

Battle of White Plains

The , a significant pest of cereal crops, was named after its supposed arrival in North America in Hessian soldiers' straw bedding.

Hessian fly

's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) includes a celebrated figure known as the "Headless Horseman" who is "the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War". He has been portrayed in many dramatic adaptations of the story.

Washington Irving

co-wrote and directed the short film, The Hessian Renegades (1909), about the early stages of the American Revolution.

D. W. Griffith

In the short Bunker Hill Bunny (1950), set during the Revolutionary War, Bugs Bunny faces off against Hessian soldier Sam von Schamm. At the end, Sam resigns with the line "I'm a Hessian without no aggression."[10]

Merrie Melodies

The final episode of the cartoon series (1967) features Capt. Zammo in "The Hessians Are Coming" where, after a parody of Paul Revere's midnight ride, Captain Zammo and Private Hammo are dispatched to zip back in time to 1776 and report to General George Washington to foil the malicious machinations of the marauding invaders.

The Super 6

The 1972 novel , by Howard Fast, concerns a young Hessian drummer who is executed in reprisal for the mistaken hanging of an autistic villager by his officer.

The Hessian

In the television series , Hessians are depicted in season one as participating in the Battle of Trenton and meet Abraham Woodhull in New York.

Turn: Washington's Spies

The PBS cartoon series, , featured Hessians as members of the British Army in several episodes, with the episode, "The Hessians Are Coming" ending with several Hessian troops deserting to the American side.

Liberty's Kids

In , the player can recruit up to five regiments of Hessians in their American colonies if playing as Great Britain.

Empire: Total War

In , if Ratonhnaké:ton has maximum notoriety, Hessians will be sent after him and are notably more skilled than other types of soldiers in the game.

Assassin's Creed III

Winthrop P. Bell, ed. "A Hessian conscript's account of life in garrison at Halifax at the time of the American Revolution". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Volume 27, 1947

Johann Conrad Döhla. A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution (1993)

(1979). Tustin, Joseph P. (ed.). Diary of the American War: a Hessian Journal. Yale University Press.

Ewald, Johann

Valentine C. Hubbs, ed. Hessian journals: unpublished documents of the American Revolution (Camden House, 1981), translation of the Von Jungkenn manuscripts.

Huth, Hans, Carl Emil Curt von Donop, and C. V. Easum. "Letters from a Hessian mercenary." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62.4 (1938): 488–501.

online

American Revolution.org – The Hessians

Johannes Schwalm Historical Association website

Marburg University

Historical Project: Letters by a Hessian Officer

Diary and letters covering the role of Hessian troops in America

. University of Illinois. 15 January 1776. Retrieved 19 April 2022.

"Treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, signed January 15, 1776"

Soldatenhandel under Friedrich I of Hessen-Kassel (German Wikipedia)

Academic blog with original German sources, English translations, and commentary.

"Hessians:" German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.